RAVN
Chapter 5
Players and Pieces
"We made it back!" Vergil yelled as he and Raven arrived back to the school. The boy stopped abruptly in front of the door and turned back to his partner, who was walking forward at a more leisurely pace.
"Are you ready?" Raven asked, looking down at the wolf faunus. But the question was not directed at the boy, not truly. Raven had lived a life of isolation and silence ever since...
"Huh?" Vergil asked, his ears perking up in confusion and his tail wagging merrily.
His tail coiled about his legs under his coat and he gripped his right elbow with his left hand and squeezed.
This was it.
He had passed the initiation and was on his way to being assigned a team. But was he truly ready to become a huntsman? Huntsman were colloquially known throughout the world as heroes, and he didn't think he would ever be ready for a title like that.
He was a mercenary, he had been a freelance soldier, he had been an assassin and he had been a thief. He had been assigned tasks from wiping out hordes of grimm to hunting down dangerous fugitives and either killing them or capturing them alive.
Sad to say that the former was the case far more often than the latter.
He had assassinated key figures in both the White Fang and in human society, and he had stolen things ranging from valuable artifacts to important information.
The worst part of all of that was that he could not say, with any degree of honesty, that he did not leave any collateral damage in his wake.
Could he truly go anywhere where his past would not come back to haunt him or those around him?
But his father had asked him to come here. He wanted a better life for his son than the life of a mercenary.
Then for his father Raven would step through that door, ready or not.
Vergil, far more perceptive than he appeared, grabbed his hand and squeezed reassuringly.
"Let's go" the boy said quietly.
"Yes, let's" Raven nodded, pushing the door open.
Weiss was miserable.
For the second time in a single day, her every sense was assaulted by merciless winds rushing past her. As someone born and raised in Atlas' northern climate, she should have been able to handle the cold, but there was a difference between a cold winter's day out in a nice warm coat and being stuck in a raging storm in a short skirt and a light summer jacket.
She was freezing, plain and simple. Her fingers were going numb, her nose and ears felt like they were going to fall off any second, and she could barely see anything but a blurry haze through teary eyes. Weiss was clinging on for dear life. Being miserable was an understatement, but it wasn't the worst part of her situation. No, by far the worst part was that she had no idea how she could have let things get out of hand to this extent.
That was not entirely true, either. She knew exactly how she had gotten herself into this mess. Ruby's constant complaining had gotten to her, and in a moment of weakness, she had relinquished control over where they were headed.
What was that girl thinking anyways? Of course, Weiss had been lost. She had been brought up to become CEO of a massive, international company, not a girl scout. Ruby was supposed to try to find her way, fail just as miserably, and finally stop complaining.
Instead, her adamant refusal to admit that she was lost and heading in the wrong direction had led them into this insanity!
Weiss had barely handed over the lead when the little girl disappeared in a shower of rose petals. She had just zipped away, leaving Weiss behind for a couple of minutes with no clue as to where she had gone or when she would be back. Leave it to her hyperactive brat of a partner to be blessed with one of the most annoying semblances she could imagine.
Eventually, she had reappeared in another shower of rose petals. Instead of giving Weiss the satisfaction of being able to gloat, she had grabbed her arm and dragged her along at an inhuman speed. Any form of protest had proven futile.
Things had just gotten worse and worse from there.
The sudden change in pace had brought on a slight bout of motion sickness, though that was nothing compared to the sense of dread that had been evoked by what Weiss had found at their destination. Perched high upon a massive tree sat a black bird. It looked almost like a raven, were it not for the bone mask, the glowing red eyes, and its absolutely colossal size!
Being, as she was quickly coming to realize, the only sane person at Beacon, Weiss had inquired about their situation. The only answer forthcoming had turned out to be a smug smile. Another burst of speed later, she had found herself buried face first in between the monster's tail feathers.
The giant nevermore - as the species was called in her textbooks - had taken offense to the intruders and left its perch. Moments later, they had been soaring high up in the sky, devoid of escape routes, and very miserable.
"Ruby!"Weiss screamed at her partner, in anger and fear and to be heard over the rushing wind, "I told you this was a terrible idea!
"We're fine!" Ruby yelled back, gripping the black feathers underneath her tightly. "Stop worrying!"
"I am so far beyond worrying!" The Schnee snapped at the younger girl angrily.
"In a good way?" Ruby asked with a hopeful grimace.
"In a bad way!" she shouted in response, "in a very bad way!"
The idea was outright ludicrous. Sure, they were moving fast. Very fast. They were covering a lot more ground than they could have on foot, but they were high up in the sky, clinging to the back of a giant, winged grimm. A giant, winged grimm that they had absolutely no way of steering or landing.
"Well, why don't we just jump?"
"What? Are you insane?" Weiss asked.
She was in no need for a response from her partner to answer the question herself, but she had expected one. Ruby seemed to have an opinion on everything, and she had shown little hesitation in expressing it no matter how stupid or ridiculous it had turned out to be.
Weiss waited for a couple of seconds, hoping to avoid having to look directly into the wind.
"Ruby?"
She braced herself as well as she could and searched for her partner on the nevermore's back.
The trademark red cape was nowhere to be seen.
Weiss's grip tightened in anger. "Oh, you insufferable little red-!"
Agni and his partner Nefartem had been the first to arrive back to the school. Agni was bored and tired, using his semblance so liberally as he had took a huge chunk out of his stamina, and to make matters worse, his 'fashion' obsessed teammate was chatting his ear off. Honestly, it was getting hard to keep track of exactly what the lion faunus was saying as his words were blurring together at this point.
He took out his book to try to show him that he wasn't interested in talking, and while that did the trick of shutting the other teen up, it took him about ten minutes to do so. He would have sighed in relief, if the next pair of students had not chosen that exact moment to enter the entrance hall/waiting area.
The double doors opened and in ran a young wolf faunus in silver and grey clothes, with grey hair, canine ears and a tail, and a silver greatsword on his back.
Ears and a tail? In his experience faunus only had one outward animal trait, not two. That one was worth looking into at some point.
Walking at a more leisurely pace behind the giggling boy was the young man who had been called out by Miss Goodwitch back at the cliff.
Agni set his book down and rose to greet the new arrivals, praying that they would be better company than his partner. Not that that lion faunus was bad company, he was just... kind of insane.
Not in a terribly bad way, but...
"Hello there" he said to the young wolf faunus, who stopped and looked up at the taller boy. "My name is Agni Vermillion, and this" he pointed to his side where his partner, who had quieted down for the first time since he had met him, stood with his hands on his hips, "is my partner Nefartem Gild."
The boy looked back and forth between them for a moment before his face split into a blinding smile "hi! I'm Virgil Argento, nice to meet you" he replied enthusiastically, bending forward at the waist in a polite bow.
"Raven Lenoreah" the other teen said in a surprisingly deep voice considering his feminine looking face, resting a metal hand on Vergil's shoulder. Agni looked at the aforementioned hand with an appraising eye, before raising his gaze up to take in the rest of the arm and shoulder before meeting Raven's eyes. Raven's eyes were narrowed at him, having noticed his glance at his arm.
Agni was perceptive enough to know when something was off, but so was Raven who took notice when the other teen's gaze lingered a bit too long.
Agni closed his eyes and smiled at Raven, silently signalling that he did not intend to cause a ruckus over such a small issue. Raven, having received the silent message as intended, closed his eyes and sighed in in resignation and relief.
"Hey," said an impatient Nefartem, "care to tell me what that was about?" The lion faunus had noticed the wordless discourse between his teammate and the reptile faunus, but didn't have a clue as to what it was about.
But if the boy in red noticed if something was off about the other faunus, then he sure as hell wanted to be clued in.
"Oh nothing much" Agni said to his partner.
"I don't get it," Vergil said, having not noticed anything out of the ordinary until Nefartem had spoken up. "What's going on?"
"I'll tell you later Vergil" Raven said, turning away from Nefartem and Agni, "come on."
The wolf boy looked at the retreating faunus' back with a raised eyebrow for a moment before saying "'kay" and running after him.
Things had calmed down since then, and they had taken their seats at opposite ends of the gymnasium.
Agni picked up his book once more and continued to read while his partner tinkered with his weapon.
He would have been content to pass the time reading his... romance novel until this phase of the initiation was over and they were called for the next part, but the next pair of student hopefuls chose that moment to come into the gymnasium.
The next entered soon after that, and another pair came in just minutes after them.
There were a few hundred applicants, but only thirty-two chess pieces, or relics. So out of hundreds of student hopefuls, only the first thirty-two pairs of two, or sixty-four students who arrived at the relics managed to pass the test.
Students would attend Beacon for six years, so that meant that there were six grade levels, each with sixty-two students if this process was repeated each year, with a similar entrance exam.
But then, why was Beacon an enormous castle if it only housed three hundred and eighty-four students and perhaps a dozen teachers and a couple dozen staff members? This place was equipped to handle thousands of occupants.
Perhaps there was, at one point, over a thousand students present. Perhaps the standards for who could enter needed to be narrowed at some point to reduce the death toll of hunters?
"Blake, did you hear that?" Yang said to the other girl, "what should we do?" she asked, but the other girl simply pointed up, her bow twitching.
"Heads up!" a panicking Ruby yelled as she fell towards the two. Yang's eyes widened, but before she could do anything to catch her, that blond boy from earlier came flying out of the treeline crashed into the girl, sending them both crashing into a tree on the far end of the clearing.
For a whole minute Ruby didn't say anything, simply lying on top of Jaune and making this dazed sound with her throat.
Yang's eye twitched as she glared at the boy laying under her sister. She knew that it wasn't his fault that they were in such a compromising position, but she couldn't bring herself to care. Her eyes turned red and she started to stomp toward them with a growl, but her partner grabbed her shoulder and held her back.
Ruby shook the last traces of her dizziness from her head and said "what was that?"
She heard someone clearing his throat under her, and she looked down to see Jaune looking up at her with a nonplussed look on his face "hey Ruby..."
"Did your sister just fall from the sky?" Blake asked in what sounded like forced incredulity.
Yang scratched the back of her head and shrugged. They had been launched off of a cliff just moments prior, so falling from the sky should be kind of par for the course in this kind of situation, shouldn't it?
"I-" Yang tried to respond, but before she could continue they head crashing noises coming from the treeline on the opposite end of the clearing as just seconds later an Ursa rushed out, claws swiping back and forth wildly, but before any of them could react a blast of pink energy exploded just behind the grimm before it fell down to the ground, an orange haired girl rolling off of its back, yelling enthusiastically.
"Aww..." she said, looking down at the ursa, "it's broken."
An exhausted looking boy in green came up behind her and fell forwards with his hands on his knees and said through his panting "Nora! Please, don't ever do that again." He looked up only to find her gone, and he looked around frantically for his friend only to see her in the stone rotunda.
"Oooohh..." Nora gazed at a gold rook piece before she suddenly grabbed it and balancing it on top of her head and started dancing while saying in a sing-song tone "I'm queen of the castle! I'm queen of the castle!"
"Nora!" Her friend called in an exasperated and exhausted voice.
Nora stopped dancing and straightened up, the rook piece fell from her head and she caught it absentmindedly, showing the onlookers that she was more coordinated than she let on. She saluted and called back to her friend "coming, Ren!" and skipped toward him giggling.
"Did that girl just... ride in on an Ursa?" Blake questioned again, but this time her incredulity sounded in no way forced. A sentiment Yang could very much agree to upon seeing the utter spaz known to the world as Nora.
"I..." she was interrupted once more by a deafening screech from the treeline. 'Oh come on, again?'
The shrill roar that had echoed through the forest was different from the snarling growls of a beowolf, the full-bodied roars of an ursa, or the shriek of the nevermore. It was something none of those present in the clearing had ever heard before.
The sound of falling trees and rustling leaves was interspersed with hissing and clacking noises. Whatever was causing so much ruckus had to be big.
A red-and-bronze colored figure burst out of the underbrush in a dead run.
That was... Pyrrha, right? Any hope of finding the time to have a quick bout with the famous champion away from prying eyes and heavy-handed rulebooks was lost when the edge of the forest exploded outwards. In a single swipe, the two massive pincers sent trees, bushes, grass and mounds of dirt flying from the forest floor before eight armored legs trampled the remaining greenery into splinters.
Yang's eyes widened, it was a giant deathstalker! Yang had heard about those, but never gotten anywhere near one in the flesh. Those things were extremely powerful, enough even to challenge a seasoned huntsman in combat. A grin spread of the blonde's face as the hairs on the back of her neck stood up in excitement.
Pyrrha on the other hand seemed less happy about her discovery. The deathstalker was hot on her heels, swiping pincers left and right in hopes of catching her.
Yang watched with interest. Someone with Pyrrha's reputation shouldn't be in too much of a danger despite the size of the scorpion, and the situation provided her with an interesting glimpse into the champion's abilities, which would become relevant soon enough if Yang got her way.
Pyrrha was good. Nimble, fast, and... terrified?
She was running away from the deathstalker with a panicked look on her face, her chest heaving with fast, heavy breaths. She leapt forward with a gasp as a pincer the size of a small car swiped at her, and dived out of the way again when the follow-up blow graced her hair as she rolled under it.
The girl might more than deserve her reputation judging by how fast she was moving, but if the look on her face was any indication then she really needed some help, and soon!
"Did that girl just run all the way here with a deathstalker on her tail?" Blake asked, not seeing the panicked look on the champion's face and, going off reputation alone, assumed that the girl was more than a match for the beast and was thus in no danger.
Yang tore herself away from the spectacle in the clearing and looked at Blake from the corner of her eyes. Perfectly straight face, not a hint of emotion betrayed by her voice. Spoken, not like someone who might be next on the menu, but like a distant onlooker in perfect safety.
"Jaune!"Pyrrha yelled in relief. She had feared the worst when the deathstalker flung him through the forest.
"Pyrrha!" Jaune yelled after his partner upon seeing her, dropping down from the tree branch and trying to make his way toward her.
So Pyrrha got paired up with Jaune, huh? Well at least he seems like a decent enough sort, Yang thought to herself. After speaking to her, the champion seemed somewhat naive and a little... straight laced. She would hate for her to end up with some pervy dude-bro who would try to peep on her every chance he got.
"Ruby!" Jaune groaned as the aforementioned girl dropped down from the tree branch and landed on his back, causing the poor boy to fall crashing to the ground.
"Ruby!" Yang yelled in happiness at seeing her sister again, she started to run toward the girl so she could embrace her.
"Yang!" Ruby yelled, equally happy to see her sister, she threw her arms out to the side to accept the hug.
"Nora!" Yelled the pink-haired girl as she jumped in between the sisters causing them to stumble. She had recognized the bit from her favorite comedy movies that was playing out, whether the 'actors' involved were aware of it or not, so she brought about the final part, where someone yelled out their own name to feel included.
"We need to get down there now Ozpin! Those kids are in way over their heads!" Glynda yelled at her employer, bending down to retrieve her crop from her boot and moving to stand on the nearest launch pad, preparing to launch herself into the forest with her scroll.
"Wait Glynda, let us wait and see what happens. We won't know what they are capable of if we involve ourselves now." Ozpin said, lazily sipping from his coffee and gazing at his scroll.
"But sir," Glynda argued "those kids are not ready to face a deathstalker or a nevermore. Let alone both at the same time!"
Smaller and more common species of grimm such as beowolves, ursai and boarbatusks were only moderately difficult for junior hunters fresh out of combat school to kill. Because of this, many young huntsman and huntresses-to-be underestimated the threat that Grimm presented.
There was a very good reason that people normally flocked to the walls of the kingdoms for protection. The creatures of grimm were far more dangerous than most people realized.
Deathstalkers and nevermores were two species of grimm that grew larger and stronger than the more common species and subspecies, but were by no means the strongest ones out there. That did not mean to say that they were weak, as indeed they were strong enough to give trained huntsman a challenge in combat.
Ozpin knew it even better than she did, surely he could understand her need for caution. These were children! Not soldiers signing on to the job even knowing that they might not come home.
Ozpin spoke up before she could open her mouth. "Do not worry Glynda, they may be children, but they are all trained in combat. I'm sure that between the eight of them, they can equal two trained huntsman." He turned his head to look at her over his shoulder "don't you think?"
Glynda closed her eyes and sighed in frustration. She couldn't argue against him when he got like this.
Out of the eight kids down in that forest , only five of them had actually graduated from combat school.
Mister Arc had been tutored by his family, allegedly, though from what she had seen from him so far, she wasn't sure she believed that.
Miss Rose had been invited to Beacon two years too early in a decision that even she didn't entirely understand. In the past similarly gifted fighters had to wait until they graduated from their primary schooling before being invited to Beacon, and while she did have an idea why the exception had been made for her, she by no means liked it.
Lastly, miss Nikos had never seen a day of formal education at a combat school in her life, rather she had earned a scholarship through her fantastic record as a tournament fighter. While that may have seemed impressive to anyone, for a teacher like her, it was evident that the girl was in no way prepared to face the creatures of grimm.
"Umm, excuse me." She almost jumped when she heard a voice behind her. She and Ozpin turned to see mister Lenoreah standing a fair distance from the launch pads.
She noted that mister Argento was not at his side. From what she had seen the boy seemed to have latched onto the older teen, so he must have talked him into staying behind while he came to talk to them for him to be here alone like this.
"Can we help you mister Lenoreah?" Raven looked down at his feet at her question, as if asking himself why he was even out here. "It's just... It's getting late, and we're wondering how much longer this test is going to go on for."
"There are still students in the forest," Glynda said, making sure to keep the worry out of her voice, "this test will end when they manage to get back to the cliff."
Raven's face adopted a worried expression as he tried to think of anyone he hadn't seen in the entrance hall. Reaching into his coat pocket, he pulled out a pair of opera glasses and, unfolding them, looked through them out into the forest.
"There is no need to worry mister Lenoreah," Raven lowered his binoculars when Ozpin spoke, "everything is well in hand."
"Umm..." Ruby said impatiently, tugging at her sister's sleeve, "Yang?" The older girl looked down towards her and she pointed upwards.
Up above, Weiss was still clinging for dear life to a talon the size of her entire body.
"How could you leave me?!" They heard her yell, her voice muffled by the wind. Ruby cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted up at her partner "I said 'jump'!"
Blake looked at the hooded girl with a raised eyebrow.
"She's gonna fall" Blake commented in a deadpanned tone.
"She'll be fine" Ruby said, dismissing her comment with a wave of her hand.
"She's falling" the boy in green, Lie Ren, spoke in the same deadpanned tone as Blake, making Ruby slump her shoulders as her face fell.
"How could you leave me!"
Jaune perked up. It was faint, but he was sure that the voice belonged to his counterpart in the starring role. He peeked through the foliage and, much to his surprise, found his Snow Angel high up in the sky clinging to… something really big and decidedly grimm looking.
He was about to curse his luck when the monster passed by over the trees when he realized that Weiss had lost her grip and was coming down within his reach.
His moment of glory had finally arrived. Jaune was perched on his branch, ready to jump. The fall still scared him, but heroes had to take chances. And thanks to Pyrrha, he knew how to use his aura now, which should protect him.
He could see it already: Jaune Jr. and the little Snowflake sitting around a roaring fire in the Arc family castle, listening on the edge of their seats, to the story of how he rescued their mother from falling to her death by a heroic leap of faith.
It was now or never! Jaune dived off his branch and met his falling Snow Angel with his arms spread wide. Time seemed to slow down and, almost like a hint from the universe itself, she landed in his arms in a perfect bridal carry.
Weiss was stunned in confusion, but Jaune was not deterred. He put on his best charming (although he didn't know how to do 'charming' yet, so it just came off as smarmy) smile. "Just dropping in?
The moment was perfect. The hero had come to save the day and did so in a dashing way that would make every adventure story proud.
He kept his confident smile and was waiting for Weiss to show any reaction. She looked down. Jaune's eyes followed, and he realized what he had done. Time hadn't slowed down, and they were plunging fast towards the ground with no plan in mind to save the day.
"Oh god," he mumbled as his bridal carry broke up and they tumbled downwards, two distinctive entities once again.
Jaune belly-flopped into the grass with a loud thud. At least now he knew that aura did not stop one from feeling the pain of impacts. He was alive, but he was hurting all over. There might be some broken bones if he was unlucky. Bruises were a guarantee.
Still, being alive beat the alternative, or so he thought. A moment later, he wished he could take it back. Something heavy plunged right into the small of his back with unbelievable force. A pained yelp escaped him and, had it been for his aura preventing him from being injured by the impact, he might have sworn that his spine had been snapped in half.
It would be just his luck, after all, to get paralyzed out in a monster-infested wilderness devoid of modern medicine.
"My hero," the heavy object he could now identify as Weiss said in a heartbreakingly sarcastic tone.
"My back," Jaune groaned.
The tale of their adventures would need a lot of embellishing before it was ready for the little ones…
Pyrrha finally managed to put some distance between herself and the deathstalker, but in her haste she forgot to watch where she was going and ended up tripping on a rock.
She made a pained noise when she hit the ground. Her aura protected her from getting injured by the impact of the fall and skid, but falling on the hard ground after building up so much speed really hurt.
"Great, the gang's all here" the blonde girl, Yang, said with a wide smile on her face. "Now we can die together!"
Unfortunately Ruby wasn't in the right mood to get the joke.
"Not if I can help it!" Ruby shouted, cocking her weapon and rushing toward the deathstalker, Yang tried to grab on to her, but all she got was a hand full of dissolving rose petals left in Ruby's wake.
"Ruby, wait!"
Ruby ran at the giant scorpion, bellowing her war cry (which, in the eyes of her comrades was more cute than scary because of her high pitched voice) and charged at the gimm while firing dust-filled slugs from Crescent Rose at the oncoming deathstalker, unfortunately to little-to-no effect.
Ruby's 'war cry' (affectionately known as her 'little roar') died down in her throat when she entered the grimm's range. Here eyes widened when she saw a giant claw swinging at her and brought up Crescent Rose to try to block it, but failed to get it up in time and was knocked back.
Ruby managed to get up, but slower than normal because of the pain she was in. "Do-" she tried to speak through her stutter, "don't worry! Totally fine!"
Yang's world narrowed as she saw her baby sister in danger. "Ruby!" she yelled in worry and ran toward her sister who was fleeing from the deathstalker as she realized she was biting off more than she could chew.
Ruby ran towards Yang, but the almost forgotten nevermore cried out high above them, firing man-sized sharpened feathers with a flap of its wings, the points catching Ruby's cape, choking the girl as she fell back to the ground and preventing Yang from reaching her.
"Ruby!" Yang shouted in a panic as sh tried to get to her sister through the barricade of hard-as-steel giant feathers. "Get out of there!"
"I'm trying!" she shouted back while trying to pull her cape free, but then she heard a hiss coming up behind her, causing her heart to skip a beat.
The death stalker approached the girl, raising its golden stinger above a scared Ruby as it prepared to end the helpless girl as it had ended so many other wannabe hunters.
"Ruby!" Yang yelled with wet eyes, doubling her efforts at trying to get through the barricade as her heart thudded in her ears.
Ruby closed her eyes in fear as the giant golden stinger bore down on her, entire life flashing before her eyes.
'Daddy!'
She heard a crunching noise that she thought for a second was the stinger entering her body, but then... why wasn't she feeling any pain?
"You are so childish!" She heard the muffled yell of her partner through her hands covering her ears.
Ruby, half convinced that she was dead, opened her eyes slowly to the sight of the stinger encased in ice. Tears began to pour freely from her eyes as she lowered her arms from their futile position over her head as she stared at her savior.
"Weiss...?" she asked, almost not believing it. They had spent the entire time they knew each other arguing like cats and dogs, and now the white clad girl risks her own life to save her from certain doom?
Weiss removed Myrtenaster from where it was stabbed into the ice she had erected to imprison the creature's stinger as she continued to berate her partner, "and dim-witted, and hyperactive, and don't even get me started on your fighting style."
Ruby looked to the side and pouted, well there went wanting to give Weiss a hug for saving her.
"And I suppose I can be a bit... difficult..." Ruby squeaked in surprise at the admission from the older girl, "but if we're going to do this, we're going to have to do this together. So if you quit trying to show off, I'll be... nicer."
"I'm not trying to show off," Ruby said, wiping the tears from her eyes. "I just want you to know I can do this."
Weiss sighed, saying "you're fine."
Ruby breathed a sigh of relief, closing her eyes as Weiss stood up and walked back to the others. She clasped her hands as she gratefully whispered "Normal knees..."
She got up and stared at the deatstalker as it struggles to escape with its tail trapped in the ice. "Whoa!" she stared in wonder.
Ruby yelped as Yang suddenly ran up to her and yanked her into a bone-crushing hug.
Ruby grunted in slight pain at her sister's too tight embrace, but then she registered Yang's trembling body.
Yang was crying and trembling, she must have been really worried about her. Ruby bit her lip, suddenly feeling very guilty that she rushed ahead like that and made her sister worry.
"I'm so happy you're okay!" Yang said, simply staring at her with happy, tearful eyes. The two stared at each other in happiness for a moment, but then look up look up when they remembered that the nevermore was still flying overhead and cawing.
"Guys?" Ruby jumped, she had almost forgotten that anyone else was here. "That thing's circling back! What are we gonna do?" Jaune asked fearfully, and where before she might have judged him for being scared of grimm, having witnessed her own inadequacy at these large and powerful grimm species in a none too graceful fashion, she now was empathizing with him completely.
Even her usual murder boner for the creatures of grimm was gone.
For now. She would need to slaughter some beowolves or something later as catha... cathar... cathasi... to make herself feel better.
"Look, there's no sense in dilly-dallying about here," Weiss was the first to respond, her legs held straight and close together with her hand high on her hip, her sword held parallel to her right leg, "our objective is right in front of us." With that, she swept her left leg out slightly so that her legs were forming a right angle triangle with the ground, and she rose her sword arm in front of her with the tip pointed toward the ground, before she pointed it toward the relics with an audible swish.
Those gathered, aside from Nora who was grinning madly, stared oddly at her dramatic posing posing before following after the tip of her sword toward the relics.
Ruby nodded and chirped "She's right, our mission is to grab an artifact and make it back to the Cliffs." She smiled and nodded to the white haired girl, "there's no point in fighting these things."
"Run and live" Jaune for one agreed. While he didn't have that much faith in himself, he knew even hunters in training could mow down the weaker grimm variants like grass, so he came to Beacon safe in the knowledge that he'd be safe so long as he was in a team, and then he could steadily close the gap in skill by simply training among them.
But then these two more powerful species came along, just two of them, and had them entirely outgunned. "That's an idea I can get behind!"
Those gathered that hadn't already grabbed pieces of their own walked as one toward the crumbling temple. Ruby grabbed a gold knight piece, looking it over for anything out of the ordinary. Standing a little to her left, Jaune took hold of a gold rook, and noticing each other's glances, the two smiled at each other.
A smile scrutinized by the judgmental narrowed eyes of an overly protective Yang.
Everyone jumped a little when they heard a crack shoot through the temporary sense of calm that had settled over them, and as they looked at the source they looked in trepidation as the death stalker continued to fight its bonds, cracking the ice imprisoning it.
"Time we left!" Ren, echoing their thoughts, shouted.
"Right, let's go!" Ruby spoke, slightly depressed that she was actually running away from a grimm. The girl ran toward the general direction of the cliff with a wave to everyone.
Yang stood in place, a smile on her face as she watched her sister with pride. She was actively talking with people and even participating in a group environment like this. Just this morning the girl was talking about not socializing with anyone, as she said she wanted to become a huntress all on her own.
She really was growing up. 'I want to cry!'
"What is it?" Blake asked, sidling up to her grinning partner.
"Nothing..." She shook her head dismissively as she started to run back to the group. Blake, once more by herself, smiled to herself in realization before following the group as well.
It dawned upon the group to late that they did not know the forest well enough to realize that they were going the wrong way, allowing their pursuers to catch up with them.
The group left the forest behind, heading into a larger set of multi-tiered bridges and columns built into an even larger cliff that gave the afraid of heights Jaune the willies. A loud screech rending the air reminded them that the giant nevermore was still following them from the air. The group spread out when it passed above, hiding themselves behind some of the stone blocks with their allies as it perches on a high column and screeched again.
"Well, that's just perfect!" Yang spat with gritted teeth.
Jaune yelped and looked behind them at the death stalker as it burst through the treeline.
"Ah man," he said, wanting to cry at their misfortune, "run!" The group emerges from their hiding spots at his command, and at witnessing its quarry, the nevermore took to the air once again.
The group of eight looked back and fourth between the two grim, realization hitting them that they had gone the wrong way and were now trapped, with no way out except to fight and hope that their numbers gave them the advantage.
"Nora, distract it!" Lie Ren commanded his friend, and Nora obliged with a smile and a nod, removing her grenade launcher from her back and running toward the flying grimm, jumping and dodging her way through the feather projectiles it launched at her before launching several heart-tipped shells from her grenade launcher, the dust grenades burst into pink electricity when they hit the nevermore, disrupting its flight as the lightning sent its body into spasms, causing it to retreat.
So focused on the nevermore was she, that she was entirely unaware of the death stalker rushing up behind her until Blake and Ren rushed it, alerting Nora to its presence with their shouts of exertion, performing a cross-slash with their Gambol Shroud and Storm Flower against its hard shell, the impact of the combined attack forcing it back slightly, but was otherwise unable to leave so much as a scratch on its armor. Weiss landed next to Nora after climbing a column so she could create a propulsion glyph beneath them and leap to safety, leaving Blake and Ren to be chased.
"Go!" Pyrhha shouted at Jaune, urging him to get behind her as she drew Miló and switched it to its rifle configuration, firing red dust bullets alongside Ren's green ones ineffectually for all of a second until it reached them and swiped its claw at them, sending the group running away once again.
The eight would be students raced over the ancient stone bridge, not noticing the nevermore closing in on them until it shattered the path with its wings, forcing Ruby, Weiss, Yang, Nora, and Jaune closer to the central collection of columns and Blake, Ren, and Pyrrha on the other side with the death stalker.
Ruby fired at the retreating nevermore while Blake was beaten back by the scorpion.
Jaune ran up to to the edge of the break in the bridge and clenched his fists in frustration. How did pro hunters survive if two moderately powerful grimm sent them all to scrambling like this. "We have to get over there, they need help!"
Nora ran to his side and said confidently with a nod of agreement, "let's do this!
Jaune looked down into the misty abyss beneath them in wariness before saying with a scared stutter "but, uh... I can't make that jump."
Nora smiles diabolically at him, laughing as she knocks him back with her grenade launcher, switching its configuration into a war hammer and jumped to the edge of the bridge.
Jaune figured out what she was planning by reading her posture and shouted with widened panicked eyes "no, wait!" But it was to late, as she slamed the hammer into the bridge, turning it into a lever and throwing Jaune to the other side, screaming in fright the whole way as nothing but his own momentum prevented him from falling to his death.
Back in the rubble of the broken bridge, Nora placed one foot on her hammer and squeezed the trigger, propelling her off the collapsing section of bridge, and when she saw the death stalker just ahead, she grinned madly and brought her hammer behind her, using her momentum to slam its face right in the center of the death stalker's skull mask.
The scorpion grimm was staggered by the impact and brought its tail forward to attack the annoying girl. Nora glanced up and saw the gold stinger rushing at her, so she fired her weapon again just as the stinger came within range, blasting herself back again and staggering the grimm further, accidentally knocking into Blake and making her fall from the edge. "Whoops!"
Blake gritted her teeth in annoyance at having her attack interrupted by Nora, and looking for something to grab with her weapon and saw the nevermore above her. Getting an idea, switched her sword into pistol configuration and fired it, launching it up toward the bridge, she grabbed the whip as her weapon sank blade first into the masonry.
The whip went taut and for a moment she was afraid the ancient bridge wouldn't hold her weight, but these fears were put to bed as her impromptu grappling hook swung her around, and as she reached the top of the arc, she yanked on the whip, pulling it from the stone and circling around and leaping onto the aerial Grimm's back.
She switched her pistol back into sword configuration and dashed all over its body, slashing at its vital points but was unable to cut its tough skin, before jumping off and landing on the ruined platform at the top of the columns next to Ruby, then moving to stand with Yang and Weiss.
"It's tougher than it looks!" Blake admitted, gritting her teeth. Her ex-boyfriend always made this look so easy.
In response Yang unfolded her gauntlets, the force of it sending a shock through her body and making her boobs jiggle, making Blake want to hit her for purposefully designing her weapons to do that every time they were deployed. "Then let's hit it with everything we got!"
The nevermore flew toward the girls with an aggressive screech as Ruby, Blake, Weiss, and Yang set their weapons to fire a barrage of blasts at the bird, which it either dodged or tanked until it crashed through the columns and platform, further destroying the ancient structure that had until now withstood the test of time remarkably well.
The girls leapt from one section of falling masonry to the next until they reach the higher bridge on top, just below the cliffs.
Weiss stomped in frustration, "none of this is working!"
Ruby watched Blake whip over to another section of the area and Yang firing round after flaming round at the Grimm before she came up with an idea. "I have a plan, Cover me!" She twirled her scythe so that the bladed end was facing toward the ground, before she squeezed the trigger and blasted herself away.
Weiss couldn't believe that girl! "What plan? I don't know what you want me to do!"
Ruby apparently didn't hear her over the rush of the wind in her ears, so the white haired girl just growled and rushed into the fray. If that stupid girl wouldn't tell her what the plan was, the she would just improvise.
Down below, back on more stable ground, the death stalker was still battling Jaune, Ren, Nora, and Pyrrha.
Or rather, it was swatting them away as they tried to use their numbers to overwhelm it.
"We gotta move!" Jaune ordered, knowing that they couldn't get close enough to attack, but couldn't stay still for too long or the surprisingly agile grimm would attack them. Following his order, they circled it, figuring out for themselves the same thing.
The death stalker swiped a claw at claw at Pyrrha, but she deflected it with Akouo and slashed it with Milo, knocking the claw away but not doing any damage otherwise. The scorpion recovered and swiped at her with its other claw, but Jaune came in beside her and deflected it with his shield, knocking it back so Pyrrha could leap over and attack its face. Ren rushed towards it, firing Storm Flower to distract it and jumped up on its back when it tried to hit him.
"Ren! What are you-" Jaune asked in shock when the black haired boy dropped his weapons and reared back his left arm before bringing it forward and firing a blast of pink light from his open palm, the powerful aura attack hitting the joint between tail and stinger, for the first time actually hurting it, while Nora fires more grenades at the attacking claws, not hurting them but keeping them away from her and her new friends with the force of the explosions.
Pyrrha saw that the grimm was reeling back, and her fear of it became much less than what it was before, and with a deep breath she reeled her arm back and hurled her javelin straight into one of the monster's ten eyes, the pain making it spasm and throw Ren to the side.
"Ren!" Nora yelled in worry as her friend's back hit a column, before he slid off and fell on his face, not getting back up. Jaune, having been knocked back when the others weren't paying attention, managed to stand and notice the stinger was hanging limply.
"Pyrrha!" The girls followed his gaze, and with a nod of affirmation, she raised her shield and hurled it like a discus, the thin, blunt edge of the shield was enough to slice the stinger off with the force of Pyrrha's throw, causing it to fall into the death stalker's head as Pyrrha retrieved her rebounding shield.
"Nora, nail it!" Jaune ordered, and Nora giggled at his joke, not that he intended it as a joke. Though he would laugh at it later when he looked back on this.
"Heads up!" Nora yelled and jumped on Akouo, Pyrrha jumped up just as Nora blasted down to give herself maximum lift, and she smiled and laughed the entire way up before twirling down until her hammer slammed its head into the stinger, driving the point through the death stalker's head and crushing the bridge beneath it.
Jaune and Pyrrha bound over the monster to the safe non-crumbling land behind it, and Nora fired up and away behind them as the monster fell to its doom at the cliff bottom. Jaune, exhausted, hit the ground on his back, Nora landed on her bottom, Pyrrha fell but managed to maintain a crouched pose, and Ren simply walked over to them, panting and groaning until he just collapsed face first on the ground. The four of them, minus the now asleep Ren, chuckled while thinking how lucky they were that the fight ended when it did.
All of their aura's had been whittled down to next to nothing, and if the fight had gone on longer, their aura's would have ran out, and with it their aura enhanced strength and defense would have dissapeared, and if that happened the death stalker would have been able to kill them all in a single hit of its claws or tail.
The three still awake stood up and watched as the nevermore was peppered with firepower by the girls.
Yang was burning through her ammo on the beast, managing to keep herself airborne by firing at the bird and by firing wildly into the empty air, doing her best to keep her downward momentum to a minimum, landing a blow at its face and causing it to head right towards her. When it was close enough she grabbed at its beak and leapt into the beasts open maw, using one arm and her legs to keep its jaws open.
Yang fired bursts of fiery energy from her free gauntlet into its unprotected throat as she yelled "I-" bang "-hope-" bang "-you're-" bang "-hung-" bang "-gry!" Her gauntlet clicked empty, and she looked behind her and jumped back from its mouth onto a ruin, causing the creature to crash into the cliffs, staggered by the burning pain in its neck.
Despite Yang's attempts however, the nevermore recovered quickly, and Yang smiled as she spotted Ruby and Blake on the broken columns with Weiss rushing to the battle. Yang passed her while the nevermore started to fly back up, but Weiss hopped over to the ruin it was lifting off of and froze the tip of its feathery tail to the ground, leaving it stuck to the ground as it wildly flapped its wings to get away. Weiss back-flipped onto a snowflake-shaped glyph and jumped off of it and landed at the other side, running to the group.
Blake fired her Gambol Shroud pistol over to Yang while holding the end of the attached whip, and the two tightened it between the columns so Ruby could jump on the center with Crescent Rose and bent it back into Weiss' black sigil, right next to the caster.
"Of course you would come up with this idea" the white haired girl said sardonically.
"I didn't!"
"Well you didn't tell any of us your plan, so we were forced to improvise!"
Ruby puffed out her cheeks indignantly, but relented with a puff of air from her lips.
"Think you can make the shot?"
Weiss harrumphed confidently, "can I!"
A second passed in silence before Ruby asked "can you?"
"Of course I can!" Weiss yelled indignantly, turning the glyph from black to red and propelling Ruby forward.
Ruby looks forward and pumps Crescent Rose as Weiss turned the circle from black to red and released Ruby at such a speed that the ground behind her launch cracked, her semblance sending rose petals flying from her ascent. With each new shot, she got closer and closer to the trapped Grimm until her scythe caught the nevermore's neck in its blade and caused them both to fall to the cliff wall from her momentum. Weiss raised her sword and created a series of white attraction glyphs up the cliff, which Ruby used in conjunction with her own semblance to dash upward, firing her sniper scythe rapidly to add to her upward momentum.
Exhausted, Weiss fell to her knees as the three watched her climb up the cliff with the bird in her grasp until, both warrior and monster crying out, Ruby reached the top of the cliff, circled up, fired one last shot and rent the nevermore's head from its shoulders in a shower of petals and blood.
Normally, the bird grimm's skin was too tough for any blade to cut through, but combined with the massive momentum of Ruby's semblance, the powerful gunshots of her sniper rifle and the twin razor sharp blades of her scythe, the grimm's tough skin soft muscles gave way. The nevermore's spine, even tougher than its skin, might have stopped the blade and possibly might have shattered it, but by simple matter of luck, her scythe blade slid neatly between the spinal links.
She landed beside the severed head as the body of the giant nevermore fell lifelessly to the crevice below while the girls and, farther away, Jaune, Pyrrha, Nora, and the still sleeping Ren watch in amazement.
"Wow..." Jaune uttered, captivated by the red hooded girl. Though nothing would come of that for years to come.
Ruby, her cape and petals flowing with the wind, looks down to her friends as they peer up at her.
"Well... That was a pretty grimm situation!"
Weiss and Blake, weakened by the fight, fell face first to the ground at Yang's bad pun while Ruby, not having herd her, kept smiling on her perch.
Muffled laughing was heard as Raven heard Yang's pun through Glynda's scroll, and was laughing into his hand.
"You see," Ozpin said, "everything is well in hand."
"Ozpin" Glynda spoke up, her voice and eyes serious while her hand was clenched around her riding crop at her side. "I am not going to go easy on them. Those kids have no idea how lucky they are." With that said, she closed her scroll with an aggrieved sigh.
If those kids, especially those four girls, were going to keep scaring her like this, then she would put them through the ringer and drill them until they were strong enough to defeat grimm like that in their sleep.
She opened one eye and stared oddly at mister Lenoreah, still giggling into his fist at miss Xiao Long's pun.
"Raven Lenoreah," Raven stood at attention and walked forward, his helmet held in one clawed hand. "Agni Vermillion," at the headmaster's call Agni smiled and walked forward with his halberd held at his side. "Vergil Argento," Vergil perked up and skipped forward to stand next to Raven and grabbed the white haired boy's sleeve, a sight that had the unflappable professor Goodwitch fighting back a smile. "Nefartem Gild," Goodwitch's smile fell as she watched the gaudily dressed boy saunter forward arrogantly.
"The four of you retrieved the black king pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team RAVN (Raven), led by... Raven Lenoreah!" At these words, Raven blinked in surprise, having thought that the position of leader would go to the calm and collected Agni. Vergil gasped and smiled at his new leader proudly, Agni clasped his hand on Raven's shoulder reassuringly and Nefartem growled dissapointedly with sagged shoulders.
The audience, a few hundred failed student applicants, the other Beacon professors and staff workers clapped good naturedly.
"Cardin Winchester," the ginger haired knight sauntered forward with his flanged mace held over one shoulder at the sound of his name. "Russel Thrush" at the call a punkish looking boy wish his blond hair in a mohawk walked forward with his shoulders slumped forwards and his hands in his pockets. "Dove Bronzewing" A straight backed looking boy with a 'butler' sort of vibe about him and armor similar to Cardin's walked forward next to his teammates with his hands clasped behind his back. "Sky Lark" at his call, a boy with blue swept back shoulder length hair walked forward to stand in line with a calm gait.
All of them, save for Russel, seemed to have an aristocratic bearing and matching armor, implying that the three may have known each other, and being part of the same team may have been planned. But the odd one out, Russel, had his shoulders slumped forwards, as if in depression. So he may have taken their fourth friend's place, being the monkey wrench in their plan and had a sound verbal tearing down by the other three.
The screen of the auditorium showed each of their profiles as the boys were lined up for the applauding audience to see as Ozpin continued. "The four of you retrieved the black bishop pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team CRDL (Cardinal), led by... Cardin Winchester!"
Cardin put his fist on his hip and grinned arrogantly while his friends verbally rewarded the boy, save for Russel who looked down and away from Cardin, all but confirming Raven's thoughts about him.
The audience gave one more wave of ovation, while the four students walked up to the stage to take their places in front of the headmaster and beside RAVN and the others who had already been called up.
"Jaune Arc" the boy sighed in relief, having half believed he wouldn't get called, even after everything that has happened so far. He straightened his back and walked forward with a noble gait, surprising most of those who know him, but the again as an Arc he actually was an aristocrat after all. "Lie Ren" Ozpin called, and the boy walked forward calmly, almost blushing in embarrassment at Nora's exuberant cheering. "Pyrrha Nikos" the red haired champion smiled and clenched her fists in front of her chest, 'this is it', and just as she started walking forward she yelped and blushed as she looked back at Nora who had slapped her ass. Her head down in embarrassment, she quietly and hastily walked forward to stand in line. "Nora Valkyrie" Ozpin called, and with just as booming a voice she responded with "Ozpin...! What's your last name again?"
Professor Goodwitch gritted her teeth as her eye twtched in annoyance as Ozpn simply chuckled amusedly in response as the girl in the mismatched clothes stood in line with the others. "The four of you retrieved the white rook pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team JNPR (Juniper)."
Amid the clapping, Nora laughed gleefully and gave Ren a backbreaking hug.
"Led by... Jaune Arc!" Ozpin said, surprising nearly the entire hall, but none more so that Weiss who looked on bamboozled by the turn, and Jaune himself.
"Huh? L-Led by...?" Jaune stuttered at the world shaking announcement.
"Congratulations, young man." Ozpin said quietly with a smile.
A grinning Pyrrha offered the boy a friendly shoulder bump to Jaune, but her "fine leader" was knocked over and fell on his butt in front of the laughing audience. Pyrrha gasped in horror and hurried to help him up.
"And finally: Ruby Rose," Ruby smiled widely and squealed in joy as she ran forward to stand in front of Ozpin. Glynda sighed at the girl's behavior and Ozpin smiled endearingly. "Weiss Schnee" Weiss livened up at the sound of her name as she walked forward in an aristocratic, graceful dance-like manner, trying with every inch of her to impress all of her onlookers. "Blake Belladonna," Blake smiled faintly and walked forward with the greatest sense of accomplishment that she had ever felt, she had worked and fought and almost died for this, so to have her name called felt damned good. "Yang Xiao Long." Yang smiled widely as she walked forward to stand next to her sister.
"The four of you retrieved the white knight pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team RWBY (Ruby). Led by... Ruby Rose!"
Weiss looked for the second time bamboozled as she was passed up for the hyperactive speed freak with the murder boner, where Ruby was obviously in shock as Yang gave her baby sister a backbreaking hug.
"I'm so proud of you!"
Ozpin put his scroll away and looked on at the celebrating youngsters, "it looks like things are shaping up to be an...-" his gaze rose to the overhead dome window, through which the shattered moon could clearly be seen, "-interesting year."
Glynda sighed, what Ozpin read as 'interesting', she read as 'troublesome'.
Elsewhere, a set of double doors opened as two suited men carried a heavy box inside of a shadowy room filled with shelves and a desk in the back, where world renowned master thief Roman Torchwick was getting a call on his phone. The muffled conversation ended on an obvious bad note, as Roman angrily slams the phone down with an aggrieved sigh. He holds a cigar to his mouth and puts his ornamental lighter to the end, just as a man in a white fang recruit uniform gray in with comes toward his desk with the heavy box on a trolley.
Roman stretches out his arm and slaps a stack of lien down on a table with a dramatic flourish.
"Open it" he said around his cigar.
The masked man does so with a crowbar (leaving Roman to wonder why he didn't bring an easier to open box), revealing a large amount of Dust crystals of varying colors, orange, blue, white, red, green, cyan, gold, yellow, and more. Roman picks up a blue orb shaped gem in his hand and looks over the loot.
"We're gonna need more men..." He said, removing the cigar from his mouth to tap the shes into a tray.
The others in the room followed his gaze to the map above the desk, showing Vale and various districts and areas of crossed-out locations, arrows all leading into a circled location, Beacon.
As I said, Jaune is my favorite character from canon RWBY. So while it pains me, I have to write him (for now) as a bit of a weakling who is too much in love with old fairy tales about knights and princesses and living happily ever after.
As for Weiss' posing... this is actually in character for her. Weiss is a ballet dancer, and I can say I had friends who did dramatic poses like this all the time. Also I might have been watching too much Code Geass and JoJo lately. Several characters are going to make dramatic poses like this, including Raven, Nefartem, Cardin, Roman, Cinder, Winter and Qrow to name a few.
Lastly, opera glasses are those awesome folding binoculars that we all thought were so cool when we were kids. Because these binoculars are meant to be used in opera halls, their magnification is limited.