Once the Professor had processed the words just uttered by the half Grimm before him, his face lit up with an intense curiosity. "Well then miss Rose, I would be delighted if you did." The green haired man said, taking a short sip from his thermos, not sparing the surprisingly docile Grimm around them a second glance, his attention completely focused on the girl in the red cloak before him.
Deciding to better come clean after this display, Ruby took a deep breath before she spoke once more.
"You see Prof-" "Doctor, miss Rose" "Doctor Oobleck, I am part Beowolf, and that is actually part of the reason we took this mission." Rubbing the new additions to her arms warily, Ruby continued. "I could always feel, is probably the best word, all these old emotions radiating out of these Ruins when I was in Vale, but about the time the White Fang topped causing trouble in Vale, they changed," the half Grimm continued.
As she took a breath to collect herself, Oobleck interrupted her. "Ah, so that Beowolf howl we heard when we were still in the bullhead was actually you. Well at least my guess of age was close enough." Gesturing at the site of Ruby's fight with the former alpha he continued, barely noting the half Grimm nod in confirmation.
"And this I guess was a fight for dominance not unlike what we would see with a pack of wild animals." While the Grimm were slowly getting up again, Oobleck seemed to not even need to breath as he continued. "Fascinating, truly fascinating. We will need to schedule a time for a more in depth interview when we get back to Beacon miss Rose." Even though he finally took a break in speaking to take another drink and catch a short breath, none of the girls around him were able to interject anything, to stunned by how well he was taking Ruby's revelations.
"Now I trust you can keep your pack from attacking us" He continued as he finally turned back to Ruby, who turned back around to the Grimm before barking once again, "[Don't hurt these humans and the cat Faunus.]" The Grimm whined, but as they had just witnessed how strong their new alpha was, none dared to defy her.
Turning back to her teacher Ruby answered him. "Just told them not to harm any of you, they will listen if they know what's good for them. Also would leading them to Forever Fall count as 'getting rid of them' for the mission parameters?" Finishing her question, Ruby looked up at her teacher hopefully, scratching her now clawed feet over the concrete nervously.
"Well they would be out of Mountain Glenn, so technically the mission should be counted as successfully completed." The Huntsman replied as he sat down on a nearby chunk of concrete. "But with the Grimm surrounding us taken care of for now, what did you mean by saying the emotions 'changed'?"
While the Professor adjusted his glasses, Ruby took a moment to find the right words. when She finally spoke up she stepped closer to the green haired man, sitting down on a small rock. "Well normally I just felt where the ruins were like seeing a candle from the corner of your eye. But recently it feels more like a bonfire or signal flare of fear and hatred."
Stepping towards the seated apir, Blake started to explain their mission choice in greater detail. "With the sudden drop in White Fang activity in Vale, we decided to investigate, in case they were hiding away here, preparing for something big."
Leaning back, the teacher took a moment to think the girls world over before he answered. "That sounds like a valid hypothesis, well done girls." Turning from the raven haired girl to her red haired teammate. "Miss Rose can you tell us where these 'stronger' emotions are coming from? They may lead us towards who entered or what has changed in these ruins."
Nodding quickly, Ruby closed her eyes, her canine ears swiveling atop her head before she lowered her left hand, pointing at the ground with her index finger. "It seems they are coming from beneath the city." The half Grimm answered as she opened her eyes.
"That means they are using the catacombs beneath the city, but why there? All tunnels that lead to Vale have been sealed shortly after news of the cities demise had reached the Kingdom." Oobleck mused aloud as he stood up and paced between the girls.
"Well they have been stealing Dust for most of our first semester, so maybe they think they can blow the tunnels open?" Weiss suggested cautiously to Oobleck, who had his back turned towards her at the moment.
"If that is true, we need to find and stop them as soon as possible." The teacher said as he spun around to face Weiss. "Some of these tunnels lead to the very center of Vale." Turning towards the wolf eared girl, who was currently inspecting the recent changes to her body by stroking the spines growing out of ehr arms with her fingers, he asked. "Miss Rose, can these Grimm be trusted to stay our allies during a fight and not kill our enemies if we go after the White Fang ourselves?"
When the professor addressed her, Ruby jumped up and quickly replied. "I just showed them how easily I can take them out, so they shouldn't attack us." The Grimm faced girl responded, before she tilted her head to the side a bit as she thought about the other part of Ooblecks question. "But it may take some time to get them to not kill their targets. Maybe by morning I will have them broken enough for that." Finishing her reply, the wolf eared girl turned to the Grimm sitting behind her.
"Very well, in that case have them follow after us, while we search for a suitable campsite." The Professor said as he moved to the front of their small group, stepping away from Ruby who was currently comparing her new 'feet' to Zwei's paws. "There the non-Grimm among us can rest, or do you require sleep as well miss Rose?" When the girl looked up from her and the corgi's paws to shake her head he continued. "Good then during the night you can instruct your Grimm in ways to take out a target without killing."
Once all the girls had agreed, Ruby stood up from where she was sitting, still getting used to walking on her paws, she staggered over towards her pack. Raising her voice the wolf tailed girl barked at her pack. "[follow us]" Waving her claw tipped hand towards her four companions she growled. "[And don't harm these four]"
With that done she moved to take the rear position behind her teammates and Oobleck, her little corgi walking at her side.
As they made their way through the ruins, the girls kept a lookout for any hostile Grimm they might encounter while their teacher searched for a any building s, or remains of one, that could serve them as an adequate campsite. Luckily for them, the only Grimm they encountered were a few more Beowolves, who quickly joined Ruby's pack as its size became evident to them. While they were walking Ruby felt the strange sensation continue along the fur covering her spine. Over the course of their travels, she noticed the same spikes she had on her arms growing out of her spine as well and when Professor Oobleck finally found a suitable site in the late afternoon, they had broken through the back of Ruby's dress, but barely noticeable under her cloak.
While Ruby had been busy with getting used to her changes and watching the last new ones happen, Oobleck had been asking the rest of her team why they choose to become Huntresses. So when the three girls sat own around the campfire they had started, they looked towards the teacher sitting on the other side of it when Weiss spoke up.
"Pro- Doctor Oobleck, may I ask why you did not ask Ruby why she wanted to become a Huntress?"
Setting down his thermos, the green haired Huntsman leaned forward as he answered. "Yes you may miss Schnee. You see I have been studying history many years to keep others from repeating it's mistakes and help my students to learn from it." After picking up his thermos for a quick sip, the teacher continued. "During these I noticed that in each generation there was at least one very prominent Huntsman or Huntress, or whatever the closest equivalent of the time was, always with silver eyes and the ability to repel Grimm by their mere presence, wielding weapons with red and black tinted blades. As miss Rose's mother was among my most outstanding students during my early time teaching at Beacon and was wielding a weapon that fit the description of what past generations of these Silver eyed Warriors used, I am assuming the two of them are the latest two in this long line of near mythical protectors of humanity."
Hitting her flat hand with her other Fist as she remembered, Yang spoke up. "Oh, yeah Ruby showed me a legend about their origin a short while after we started at Beacon. And one that claimed the second to last king of Vale took one of them as his wife."
Nodding along with Yangs words Oobleck spoke up the moment she had finished. "Ah, yes Knight Lilie Argentum, later Valorious was indeed the mother of Vale's last King, a fearsome warrior himself." Looking out of the window, Oobleck noticed that night had already fallen. "But now get to sleep, all of you need to rest."
Outside the other girls shelter, Ruby was standing before her pack, drilling them in non lethal ways to take out their prey. By demonstrating a few techniques on the more rebellious members of ehr pack, she also solidified her position as alpha. Even so, with her gaze wandering across the Beowolves before her, she was pleased with how they managed to mimic the movements she was demonstrating. But even so as she leaned down to scratch the Corgi sleeping at her side behind the ears, she just hoped whomever they found tomorrow would have Aura, otherwise the claws of the Grimm might remove limbs even when being careful. Between teaching her new Beowolves, Ruby also managed to take a few hours to herself to adjust to all the physical changes she had gone through in the last 24 hours.
As her ears picked up stepps coming from behind her, Ruby saw her blonde half-sister step out of the building they had found shelter in, rubbing the last vestiges of sleep out of her eyes. "Morning Sis." Yang began before she interrupted herself with a yawn. "How did breaking in the Grimm go?"
"Morning Yang, it went well enough I hope." the redhead replied a small grin spreading over the movable parts of her face at the sight of her sister. After a few minutes of waiting the rest of their team had stepped outside as well, followed by Oobleck who was drinking out of his seemingly bottomless thermos. "So let us go and find this underground criminal base." The professor proclaimed proudly.
"Yes Prof- Doctor, should I send out the Grimm as scouts?" Ruby asked as she woke up Zwei.
"Excellent idea miss Rose, please do so."
"[Go find a way down.]" The half Grimm howled at her pack, which quickly dispersed and began to move through the nearby allies, keeping each other aware of their positions by short howls.
So, Thank you all for reading once again, I hope you enjoyed the newest chapter.