Hello everyone, now I know there has been a few questions from other people that I'm sure I covered over the previous chapters. One being we people can freak out just by shacking his hand. Honestly thought that obvious when they shack the hand of a literal skeleton. You have to remember that upon entering the timeline, Gaster was subject to its law and was infused with flesh that made him look human, though he isn't completely wrapped by it.
Places like his right hand have no flesh, so when people touch it, they're touching the bones of his hand.
Chapter 3
Ozpin and Glynda stood atop the cliff where the students had been launched from the empty launch pads lined behind them. A cold breeze blowed, making Glynda shiver a little. Ozpin on the other hand dressed warmly with a warm cup of coffee in hand paid it no mind.
"Most of the pairs have been formed. Nora Valkrie and Lie Ren just teamed up," Glynda stated, scrolling through live feeds of various parts of the forest. Some had students in them either fighting grimm or on the move, but most were very much empty.
She stopped at seeing a stumbling Jaune Arc fighting a beowolf alongside one Pyrrha Nikos fighting a beowolf. Well, they were fighting together, in a sense. But Jaune was doing next to nothing that could hurt the grimm while Pyrrha was going easy on it to help him improve.
She had a kind heart, even Glynda could see it, but in she couldn't help but think that the girls efforts were somewhat wasted on someone like Jaune. By the way he fought, his skill set was of that next to a novice.
"Poor Mrs Nikos. I don't care what his transcripts say, that Jaune fellow isn't ready for this level of combat," she slid through a few more video feeds, still with a number empty ones. As she kept on scrolling, her eyebrows furrowed at noticing something was amiss. "Hmmmm~. I can't seem to find that Gaster character anywhere. I'm beginning to think he's already gotten himself eaten by a grimm."
"I don't think you need to worry yourself about him too much. I'm sure we'll see him eventually," Ozpin commented, looking at his own tablet with a video feed of Ruby sitting on the ground while Weiss paced herself around trying to establish a common sense of direction.
The whole was a little bit comical to say the least.
It wasn't at all obvious, but behind them a shadow on the ground kept on swerving from one side to the other. It couldn't be a bird or something like that, it always remained behind the Schnee heiress and changed positions every time she turned around to say 'that way was the temple'.
Shame none of the nearby cameras were angled up a bit higher.
"I doubt that," Glynda said, putting away her scroll before walking away from the edge, stopping herself only to turn back to the headmaster. "Another thing, I took a look at the roster and noticed we have an odd number of students this year, so what exactly did you use as relics?"
Interlude
Gaster sat cross legged atop a summoned blaster, hovering in the air as he watched Weiss and Ruby argue below. Notebook in hand, he wrote down as many details as he could.
He was at the academy so he could gather data on human semblances, the manifestations of their souls, and right now was a great opportunity for discerning their behaviour. Well, the ones who've unlocked their semblances. Gaster already had a nightmare load of watching humans in the void.
So far, he could tell that for those who've unlocked their auras at least are more expressive than those who haven't. in a manner of speaking, they wore their emotions on their sleeves.
Still observing, Gaster had to constantly make sure he was out of both Weiss and Ruby's line of sight if he wanted pure data. When someone knows their being watched and assessed for their true nature, they subconsciously think they're under attack in some way and that can lead to them putting on a façade.
The students now were going through something similar with initiation, difference is one was for a school of their dreams. What Gaster intended on doing was purely for his work, and as easy as it sounded it annoyingly difficult.
He had to make sure he was always out of both the humans line of sight's, which was tricky considering the human known as Weiss kept pacing back and forth.
'I see, I see… Ruby Rose down there is showing great aptitude for housing a kind soul. Weiss Schnee has a proud and somewhat egocentric-!'
"Whoa!"
The blaster suddenly turned while he was in his thoughts, throwing Gaster off his balance and sliding down the front. Before getting too far he lashed out to one of the horns, grabbing it with one hand and swaying off the side with a firm grip on his note book.
He almost fell off his blaster again trying to get to another position as Weiss turned to face Ruby, which happened to be in his general direction.
As the skull swerved and neared the side of capsizing, Gaster managed to bring himself back up to its eye socket. Heart racing at the sudden precariousness, he found it amusing how it thumped away in its chest.
Normally, it's a sign of a living creatures adrenalin rushing through their veins when faced with a precarious situation. Before, Gaster wasn't in any real danger of falling since he could've just teleported away, but the primal of a beating heart just made him stay a bit longer and see it through to the end.
It was, after all, a totally new experience to him.
That was his first mistake.
Indulging in his heightened blood pressure in areas that could feel it and his accelerated breathing, despite not having lungs, he noticed a little too late his pen slide out from his loosening finger tips.
He quickly swiped at it, failing to catch it with book still in hand, hopelessly kicked it with the neatest foot and did nothing more as he watched it sail down.
Spinning through the air and clacking against some stones below, he noticed the girls attention being drawn to it before they both looked up.
'Ghaa, guess this form of observation's over,' he thought, turning back to the blaster and trying to hoist himself back onto the forehead of the blaster just as he faintly heard someone say grimm. 'Wait, Grimm?'
Bang!
A gunshot sounded and Gaster saw in time to see Ruby with her crescent rose extended in full scythe rocket up to him.
In the split second before he was cleaved in two along with his blaster, the doctor teleported to the ground beside Weiss, surprising the young heiress
The sun was behind him, she probably couldn't make him out, quickly teleporting to behind Weiss just in time to see with her Ruby cleave the shadowy make out of his gaster blaster in two.
Well, at least attempt. She packed pretty good wallop from where he stood but it wasn't enough to break the skull. He let it disappear all the same though just to give her the satisfaction. Before she hit the ground.
"You've got quick judgement calls," he commented, earning surprised jumps from the other two.
"Gaster!?"
"How long have you been there?"
"For a while now. Surprised you didn't notice me sooner, but I guess I can't blame you," he said walking over to pick up his pen before sliding it into his notebook
"Were you spying on us?" Weiss accused, sounding insulted.
"Spying is a very strong, and accurate assumption."
The two girls were a little taken back by this. Ruby shuffled away while Weiss took a whole step back.
"I never took you for that type of person, Gaster."
"How else am I supposed to collect valuable data? And while I've finished research on Ruby, I still need-," he turned to Weiss. "-More data from you and about your semblance."
Weiss paled a bit more than she already was, reaching for her rapier.
"Wait a minute. Gaster, are you saying that for this entire time, you haven't made any attempts to find a partner?" Ruby asked, coming forward, surprising them both.
"Well no. I don't really see the point in doing such a thing, simply because there are an odd number of students in this initiation. If you counted up the total and went with the fact that each huntsman team in an education is commonly comprised of four people, then that leaves either one additional or less person in one of the groups this year. Ergo I saw a great opportunity to collect some data."
"But that's-."
"You didn't spend a single moment in trying to find someone else?" Weiss snapped at Gaster's statement. "Aren't you the least bit serious about becoming a huntsman?"
"Not in the slightest, no," he flatly responded, shocking Weiss at the mere blankness of the answer.
"Then why are you here, wasting everyone's time and efforts for a no-good nobody like you?! If you've been watching us the whole time, then you haven't even lifted a single finger to fight. Hmm, makes sense I guess, the ones who spend the most just sitting back tend to be the weakest."
"Weiss, please just came down!" Ruby cried, trying to come in between them.
"No Ruby. If someone's attending a huntsman academy, then that means they're seeking to become a huntsman. Even you must see there's no merit in someone attending something as high and proud as Beacon if all they're going to do is waste everyone's time sitting around!"
"On the contrary, I'm attending this academy to return home, and let me tell you, the efforts of the tutors and staff here are something I very much respect. As for my strength," he began, crossing his arms. "That's something I'm willing to let you decide."
Weiss was fuming at this point, Ruby was barley able to hold her back anymore. Gaster could see that he wasn't doing anything to help defuse the situation.
'If I'm hated this much by the other students here, then it's going to be hard to maintain a neutral relationship with them.'
"Huh, alright. I see you're a little distressed by my response-."
"Really, and how do figure that? Did you watch in silence for too?"
"-so I'll help you find the temple," he finished, ignoring Weiss's insulative question.
"Don't bother. We'll find it on our own, come on Ruby," she spat marching off and leaving her team mate wide-eyed in worry, turning between them both.
Still feeling somewhat responsible for Weiss's mood, Gaster pointed in a direction a little way off to where Weiss was going.
She gave a smile before running off after he fuming partner trying to slow her down and leaving Gaster alone in the forest.
"I hope they find their way to the temple, for their own sake at least," he mused, making his way in another direction in hopes of finding another set of unsuspecting students he could gleam more aura and semblance data off of.
Or as the girls called it, spying. But as a scientist, such a mediocre term held no meaning for.
Of course, he wasn't planning to base his entire research on simple field observations. At some point he'll need to consider a more direct and thorough examination.
Maybe he could consider approaching Atlas at least. He'd stand to gain a better chance gathering information from a proud institute such as that than apposed to starting from scratch here.
A shadow flew by in the nearby trees, Gaster on reflex summoned all seven of his hands before teleporting to the nearby base of one of the trees.
Had he found another student, and so soon? If they were alone, he wouldn't appreciate having to team up with them.
Peaking around the corner to where he assumed the figure had moved to, Gaster was both surprised and intrigued by what he saw. The figure wasn't human or faunus, but grimm, and by the way how it floated through the air without any legs and was as taller that he was with a bone mask on its face with a singular eye in the middle, he deduced it to be a phantom class grimm. A geist.
Or at least one close to it.
'Interesting. Now that I think about it, I've been researching through so many books and are now just beginning to look into this timeline's souls, I've never once considered to look into a grimm before,' he tried to read the spectres soul, quickly finding nothing there to begin with. 'A living creature without a soul to speak of. This is getting even more interesting, normally everything needs a soul in order to be considered 'living', or even have a conscious to think for itself, to an extent.'
As the grimm was about to disappear into the thick undergrowth, Gaster took the moment, teleported straight up to behind the creature with hands at the ready and using kindness to encase it into a clear glowing green ball.
Startled in its new prison, the geist glanced around before bashing away at the inside walls, swirling around inside like blood in water.
"You are feisty, aren't you?" the doctor mused aloud, pocking the sphere barrier before shrinking its size, compressing and restricting the grimm until it got the point where it could hardly move any more. "Understanding souls and delving into the research of it is my speciality, but how does one live without one?"
It glared back at the doctor with its singular eye.
"Even restricted by the materials as I am now, I'm sure we came gleam something from you~."
It made a sound like snarl before the grimm's eye glowed a dull yellow before letting out a piercing screech that threatened to make Gaster cover his ears from the high pitch.
"Drghh, shut it!" he snapped, forcing the bubble barrier to slam against the ground and giving the grimm a good jar before bringing it up to eye level, glaring at the phantom. "Whether that was a threat or an attack, I'm not letting you go until I get something good out of you."
The two continued glaring at each other as the trees around them groaned in the wind, expecting the grimm's situation to sink in.
Suddenly, something sunk into him. Looking around, Gaster realized the trees were groaning as if in the wind, but there wasn't any.
The forest stood tall and firm without swaying, nothing alarming at first, but then he noticed it. One of the closest trees was beginning to blacken like ink, branches, leaves, everything about it was blackening. The rest of the trees in the area followed, blackening in just the same manner.
Just as soon as a tree was engulfed by the blackness, the centre at its trunk bulged out, protruding and wriggling out with the inky substance sucking away from the tree. Bone thin arms with claws split out followed by the ironical bone white mask with one eye developing at the end of it right before the thin detached itself with a squelching plop.
The same thing happened with all the darkened trees, returning to their original colour once the gerists left their trunks.
"So, you were calling for help," Gaster deduced as the loose grimm flew through the air, whispers on the wind in sharp hisses, easily number to the hundreds. The lone captive wasn't glaring at the doctor anymore, but now following the others as they begun encircling the both of them in a dome of shadows. "And they actually seem coordinated."
They all flooded in at once, closing in barley giving Gaster enough time to teleport himself with his captive to the other side. The the mass of phantoms closing in spilled out like a fountain, spiralling up before contorting in the air and coming right at the scientist.
He teleported again, to the place where he first started observing Ruby and Weiss, an empty part of the forest. It didn't take long for the rustling of trees and wailing in the wind to grow from simple silence and the hundreds of geist's swirling from the depths of the forest.
"So, they can follow me. This is going to be more trouble than I thought."
This went on longer than Gaster would like, teleporting from one part of the forest to another, only for the swarm of called grimm to find him no one time.
It was annoying, but Gaster quickly found they were tracking him from his captive.
He considered jumping out the forest and into a more secure location, but if he ended up in an inhabited area and they chased him, he'd have more trouble to deal with. Hundreds of grimm striking a city at once might not go well in the long run.
Just think of all the mechanical and dust shops that could be lost in all the chaos. There was a nagging feeling in Gaster's head, was there something else that could be lost? The people?
Nah~.
Despite his teleporting, Gaster wasn't getting anywhere by just evading the problem. He had to put a stop this, he had to get rid of these nuisances before anymore magic was wasted on teleporting.
"Alright then, these things act as one, meaning in the woods I'm at a disadvantage to deal with them efficiently," he mulled over, teleporting again to perch in the branches of a tree to think before the grimm found him again. "I do believe there was a wide-open space surrounding the relics, and since only paired children will be there, I won't have to worry about being forced to team up with them. Then again, not all the first years are skilled enough to deal with this many."
The screaming cries of the oncoming phantoms were growing louder, making the doctor cringe in annoyance and give a death glare at his captive. The lone eye in the centre of the bone mask glared back at him.
"Keeping you with me is more trouble than I expected," he spat, letting his hold go on the barrier and the geist instantly shooting away at the opportunity, darting between the trees with a trail of black smoke close behind. "I have more important things than to catch now what I can later."
A couple of moments, but the screaming and wailing of the grimm continued like before, still growing louder.
Gaster was a little taken back as the swarm blasted through the trees towards him, catching a glimpse of the one he released in the lead.
He teleported from his perch to the skies above, getting a clear view of the forest with the ground between the trees, pulsating with dark grimm like an infected blood system.
Easily numbering to the hundreds, they surged from below the tree branches like rising pillars towards Gaster. This was becoming a bother, and he'd had just about enough of this little play.
He intended using this initiation to collect field samples from semblance users, like hell he was going to let a distraction like this keep him from it. If he was going to take care of this problem, he was going to do it with extreme prejudice.
Focusing, he brought up the magic within his soul, leaving just enough for his pieces of flesh to remain alive. His eyes flashed purple as he summoned a platform of kindness below him, landing on it with light feet.
Keeping the rest of his hands by his side he snapped his bone fingers and three gaster blaster skulls with rid eyes manifested themselves around him angled down. No time was waisted as their jaws snapped back and red energy blasted out to the incoming grimm.
They swerved to avoid but a good number of them immediately vaporised leaving flakes of ash behind. Gaster wasn't going to let up, firing shots after shots at the grimm as the pillars broke away and their moves became erratic.
Keeping the blasters trained on the larger bodies of grimm, Gaster pulled up his hands determination, justice, courage and integrity, hurling blue rings trailing loose phantoms, bombs around the area and barrages of red and yellow blasts.
This was actually getting a little serious, and for the doctor, he was finding a hint of joy in it. Adrenaline coursing through what little veins he had, he was finding it fun to be kept on his toes like this, to be in battle.
He wasn't a heartened battle warrior like Undine, nor was he a pacifist like Alphys. All the same, he couldn't help but feel alive again in this moment, after a tedious week of nothing before a lifetime in hell.
In his reminisces, a small horde came at him from behind only to be vaporized completely by a fourth summoned blaster skull.
"Don't think you can catch me off guard," he sneered with gleaming purple eyes to the surrounding grimm and a widening grin on his face. "I may be old, a little rusty at times. But if you think I'm going to stand by and let you impede me, then you had better be ready for the consequences!"
Eight more blaster were summoned in a ring around him, hands withdrawn and an explosive blast from the surrounding skulls shot out to all the grimm surrounding him.
When it was over, the hundred or so grimm that remained retreated back to the forest below, disappearing into the soil, leaving Gaster alone in the sky in silence.
Normally it's at moments like this that would cause for a celebration, and three hundred years ago he probably would've, but Gaster knew better. Deep below in his metaphorical gut, he felt that things were just about to get worse.
Interlude
Back at the cliff's edge, Ozpin watched from a monitor in hand as the geist's slipped into the earth, concern mildly etched onto his face.
Glynda, on the other hand, was still staring wide eyed at the miniscule dot in the distance that was supposedly Gaster just floating in the air after pushing back the grimm.
When the self-proclaimed human was teleporting around the forest, they'd been able to find him a few times, and just in time to see him capture the grimm and release it. They still didn't have cameras angled to the sky, so they couldn't get a clear image of what had happened, but even from this distance it was easy to get an impression.
Especially if a rogue laser shot were to strike the cliff face where they stood and nearly fry them both in its wake.
"He's very powerful, I can see now why he'd want to keep some things secret," Ozpin noted with a nod.
Glynda snapped to him with shock.
"Is that all you can say? I'm more concerned about the geist's suddenly appearing in the forest than I am a student flying in the air on green light. I thought we noted their numbers to be less than a couple dozen or so. Having well near a thousand of them all grouped together like this is too dangerous, even in an initiation. How'd they get here without us knowing it?"
"This forest was here before the construction of Beacon," the headmaster deduced, still watching the screen before taking a sip from his mug in hand. "A few might've slipped in to the trees and gone dormant for a time, and with new students going in, being afraid, over time could've attracted new grimm, or even spawned others near it that also fell dormant in trees."
"If that's it, I find it hard to believe this many grimm never reacted," Glynda replied with a somewhat doubtful tone.
"It's just a theory after all," Ozpin noted, as he looked down to his monitored to see the soil in the screens begin to blacken with a thin dark mist rising from it.
Soon the trees began shacking violently with a couple threatening to uproot themselves. Even from where the two stood they could feel the rising tremors from the Emerald forest.
"But the real danger of these phantom class grimm aren't their ability to go into a dormant state, if anything, it's their ability to possess objects."
At his words, the ground in the distance erupted like a volcano, kicking up dust and sending a multitude of their camera feeds offline. A three fingered hand broke through the cloud, slamming into the earth followed by another as though something was trying to pick itself up.
A pure blade of granite rose as well attached to an arm, accompanied by a mace life object with trees all over it as more of the giant became clear. A round boulderer body stepped forwards on a torso with cylindrical legs stepped forward.
Two arms with hands mounted on top of it with weaponized limbs on its lower half. Three gleaming eyes as slits shone on the face of it above a mouth cracked around the front side into a smile.
A piercing bellow echoed out like an earthquake amplified by the sharp scraping of rusted steel against steel from the beast.
Despite the winds and the giant in the forest standing well above the cliff they stood upon, Glynda was somewhat composed compared to a few minutes ago.
"Do you believe the new students can handle this on their own without all dying?" Glynda question, reaching for her crop at her side while still looking to the earth giant made of the hundreds of geists inside.
"It's our job as teachers to believe that our students can do something like that," Ozpin replied as the granite sword cleaved into the forest, picking up trees and flinging them up at the spec that was Gaster as he flew through the air, multicoloured lasers firing and gouging into the giant. "So let us believe that they can. All of them, after all, someone alone can only do so much until they realize they need a little help."
Interlude
Pushing through leaves and snapping twigs, Yang broke through from the forest's edge to a clearing where the ruins stood with Blake closely behind her. The two had managed to find each other a little earlier on, so naturally they became the first half of their team.
"So I'm guessing this is where we need to be," Blake said.
"Looks like it," Yang chirped before the two paced to the centre of the ruins where waist high pillars encircled. "How many ruins could there possibly be here?"
As the two looked around, taking in everything around them, they noticed the small pieces mounted on a number of the pillars. Most of which one of two colours, black or gold.
"Chess pieces?" Blake queried.
"Some of them are missing. Looks like we weren't the first ones here."
"Well I guess we should pick one."
A few moments passed till Yang snatched a piece. "How about a cute little pony?"
Before Blake could even respond, a crying shriek pierced through the air.
"Gya-Arrrrggghhhh-ha-haaa~!"
"Did you hear that? Some girls in trouble," Yang said, looking to where the echoing voice might've come from. "What should we do?"
Instead of answering, Blake was looking up to the sky and pointed to a flailing girl who turned out to be a Ruby screaming "Heads uuuuuuuup!" at the top of her lungs.
In the next instant before either could do anything, a hurtling screaming Jaune came flying out of nowhere and slammed right into Ruby and knocking them both into a nearby tree.
"Did your sister just fall from the sky?" Blake asked, glancing from a dizzying Ruby perched in a tree to Yang who was also looking to the tree.
"I think she-."
Yang was interrupted by the thundering of trees breaking apart followed by roars of hatred mixed with pain. An Ursa on its hind legs trampled out the forest nearby with an orange haired girl in pink riding its back.
"Yeeeee-Haaaa~," she whooped as another explosion sounded, the grimm crashing to the ground with a thud. Its rider less than pleased. "Awww, it's broken~."
As she wined, another person came out from behind her panting and clearly exhausted, begging Nora not to go through that again. But before he could get any form of intelligent response, Nora had sped over to the ruins and was eyeing a golden rook piece.
Snatching it up she started celebrating, singing a children's king of the castle song, only interpreted as being the queen. She was cut short by her partner calling her back who she called Ren with a childish giggle.
"Did that girl just ride in on an Ursa?"
Before even forming a sentence, a thundering earthquake interruptedly shook them.
Looking to the horizon above the trees, they managed to see a lumbering giant made of earth with trees sticking out of it in various places with three red eyes and black aura hazily lingering off it.
A distant figure flew around it with colourful projectiles flying at it, even managing to blast a chunk off its arm.
"Is, that a, grimm?"
"I think that's a geist possession."
"That's a pretty big geist."
They were again interrupted by the shacking and crashing of trees getting closer until Pyrrha came rushing with a giant scorpion like grimm came rushing after her.
"Did she just come running all the way here with a deathstalker on her tail?"
Another thunderous clap in the distance and something blurred green came hurtling from the skies before slamming into the deathstalker's back. Ricocheting off it and crashing into the ruins stone work, kicking up dust and sending the grimm crashing back into the trees itself.
As it cleared, a figure covered in a green aura pulled himself out as it faded quickly.
"Gargh, now that, didn't see coming," Gaster groaned rubbing his head. His coat and trousers had scuff marks all over with a couple of tears in places.
"W-where'd you come from," Yang called out.
The monster in human skin looked back to the human with duo coloured eyes with a hint of annoyance in them.
"That's not exactly something I'd like to answer about after getting hit by a mountain."
"A what?"
Another thunderous earthquake shook the ground as everyone noticed the behemoth in the distance slowly walking towards them with each step as slow as a beach wave but with enough power to feel all the way to the ruins.
"It's coming this way," Blake said, sounding a little worried.
"Wow, what did you do to get on that things bad side?" Nora called to Gaster as he dusted himself off.
"The fact you think I got on its bad side means you think I incurred its wrath, but that would mean it'd have a soul to experience emotions. Do you think grimm have emotions?" he asked, crossing his arms with a raised eyebrow.
Nora just pouted at the question she got out of her question. "Jeez, someone doesn't know how to take a joke~."
From where she was sent flying by Jaune, Ruby leaped from the trees before landing with a roll up to Yang before popping up with her arms spread wide for her sister.
"Ruby?"
"Yang!"
The two went to high five but were interrupted by Nora popping up between them excitedly.
"Nora!"
A shadow loomed over them for the briefest moment, drawing everyone to look up and see the nevermore flying overhead with Weiss clinging to one of its talons while flailing in the wind.
Very faintly, her yells of frustration at being left alone could be heard in the wind. She was very high up, and it was very faint.
"I said jump," Ruby called, sounding a little worried.
"Not everyone has the same jumping habits you apparently do, Ruby," Gaster commented before sticking a thumbs up to her. "Nice job getting here so quickly though. I never would've thought you'd ride a nevermore."
"Gaster? How'd you get here so quickly?"
"I was sent flying, in a manner of speaking."
Still with a questioning look, everyone turned back to Weiss, who'd now let go of her unpaid ride.
"She's falling," Ren commented.
"She'll be fine," Ruby tried reassuring.
'Well of course she'd be fine, the girl did manage to survive a launch from a cliff by catapult, what's a little fall from the clouds going to do?' Gaster thought, silently considering if he should catch her with one of his hands.
It'd be a waste to lose a potential specimen on the first day, but after his own troubles with the geist horde he'd consumed nearly a full quarter of his existing magic, and with his flesh needing some of it to be maintained, he had to use it sparingly and recover as much as he could.
Still deciding, Jaune, who'd been hanging in the trees tree leapt out.
Instantly making the decision, Gaster summoned his hands and watched Jaune surprisingly catch Weiss in the air with grace. It even made him look a bit knightly.
For the briefest of moments, it looked like everything was okay, but no. No, the two kept falling hard.
Whipping out tendrils from his patience and snaring them around a tree opposite him, Gaster quickly made a makeshift safety net below them. Weiss and Jaune landed right into it, dipping down before the both started rolling down it and falling right off with light thuds.
Weiss was able to pick herself up quickly, a little dizzy while Jaune laid on the ground looking like he might end up losing his lunch.
"Th-thanks man~," Jaune managed to stutter as Gaster swore he saw a flare of aura go across the human's body.
Curious, he focused passed the flesh in his sockets and looked into Jaune's soul.
He almost lost his composure at what he saw, the boy had managed to unlock his aura and project his soul. Granted, it wasn't his semblance that'd been unlocked, but this was still a major development for his research, and he missed it!
Best he could tell, it happened sometime around when he and Pyrrha were alone together and she managed to help Jaune unlock it.
'Dammit, I'll have to find some way to make up for this later,' he inwardly cursed, letting his focus relax and couldn't see Jaunes soul anymore.
"What the hell was that?" Weiss suddenly accused, drawing the doctor's attention as she struggled to find her footing before marching right up to him and standing just under his chin.
"A little safety net," Gaster bluntly answered, letting his hands dematerialize as a roar sounded from the deathstalker emerging from the trees after Gaster hit into it and started chasing after Pyrrha again.
"I didn't need your help."
"Strictly speaking, it was more for him than you," he motioned to a dizzy Jaune staggering to his feet. "His spine wouldn't have survived you landing on him."
"Are you implying that I'm heavy?" Weiss huffed.
"Am I not?"
Before Weiss could even press the issue further, gunshots drew their attention to Pyrrha facing off against the recovered deathstalker with her spear collapsed to a rifle form before leaping over a swipe by one of its pincers and countered by the second. She narrowly managed to block a stick from the glowing yellow stinger but was caught by one of the pincers and sent flying over to the ruins, stumbling over herself and unable to right herself before sliding up in front of the grouping students
"Great, now we can die together," Yang sarcastically declared as Pyrrha picked herself up.
"Not if I have anything to say about it."
Ruby pulled out her scythe and fired a shot backwards, propelling her straight for the deathstalker and striking at its head before getting knocked back by a counter pincer.
"Ah-Don't worry, totally fine," she reassured yards away in a shacking voice until turning around coming face to face with the coal burning eyes on the clearly bigger monster.
Whatever levels the others had of being convinced by her argument plummeted. So nothing really changed.
Ruby shot off a round at the grimms head and jumping back a bit at the force, which really just pissed it off before she broke out into a run back to the others. The deathstalker giving chase with the nevermore that been circling above coming in as well at the possible panic everyone was emitting.
Even the behemoth was closing in on them.
"Ruby!" Yang yelled, dashing towards her sister.
'Run, run, run little Yang,' Gaster thought to himself, still hanging back to recover the magic he spent as the scene unfolded before him. 'I'd hate to see you lose your sister on the first day of school.'
As little red kept sprinting back to them with the deathstalker charging after her, the nevermore flying overhead banked in the air before sharply flapping its wings in Ruby's direction. The little girl barley had time to react as a hail of feathers three times as big as Gaster came raining down on her.
Quills piercing the ground in a fine line, one caught Ruby by the hoody yanking her back in place.
"Ruby, get out of there!" Yang cried as she tried to manoeuvre around the standing quills.
"I'm trying!"
Struggling to get her hood free, the deathstalker easily walked up to Ruby, towering over her with a sharp hiss and stinger waving above its head.
Gaster was just about to consider stepping in till Weiss who'd been standing with the others a moment ago shot forward like a lightning bolt with white glyphs appearing just before and after her. Racing past Yang and managing to make it in time to freeze the stinger in its tracks by a huge block of ice.
"Hoh~, impressive," the doctor mused as the two talked to each other. Funnily enough, it wasn't as hostile this time. "The ice is dust created, but that speed is something else, with those glyphs. That little girls' semblance might be more interesting to look into than I originally thought~."
Quickly taking out his book and jolting down the note, he tried to ignore the looming shadow and increasingly heavy footsteps of the geist cluster behemoth.
"Guys, that thing's circling back, and that big one's almost on top of us," Jaune called worried. "What are we going to do?"
"Look, there's no sense in dily-dalling. Our objective is right in front of us," Weiss exclaimed
"She's right," Ruby agreed. "Our mission is to grab an artefact and make it back to the cliffs. There's no point in fighting these things."
"Run and live, that is an idea I can get behind."
As Ruby and Jaune went to collect their pieces, Gaster snapped his book shut before coming up and blocking their wake.
"You might be able to, I can't," Gaster declared looking to the students. "To simply run away from the grimm would be a complete violation of what you're all wanting to achieve. To let one live, could mean a life lost."
Gaster wasn't one to play the 'guilt trip' card, but he wasn't simply going to let this end without him gaining more information from these kids. There may be more in the forest, but he had no intention wasting more magic trying to find them.
"Are you out of your mind?" Weiss declared in her stubborn tone. "We can't waste time in a fight with these things, and chances are we might get hurt."
A crashing pillar of stone destroyed the edge of the clearing and nearly shacking everyone off their feet. Everyone looked up in time to see the behemoth bringing down a blade of granite upon them.
Most of the eight were quick to get ready but a green barrier stretching well over them blocked the strike with a deafening crackle, cracking the barrier ever so slightly.
Blake looked to Gaster holding up an arm with one of his skeletal hands glowing green beside it before two other came flying from behind him, red and dark blue.
A red beam blasted from one, striking the base joint while the other fired a pair of dark blue rings from the other whizzing straight for the joints. One struck the weakened spot, severing off the sword arm while the other went for the knee, gorging between the thin rock joints and severing it.
Tripping the giant off balance without its leg, geists spewed out from the loose limbs before flying to the mass as it fell to the ground with a crash.
"Are you huntsman, or children?" Gaster asked, letting the barrier disappear and his hands float by his sides in clenched fists. "Cuz the way I see it, you're certainly sullying my expectations."
The eight of them stood shocked by what they saw, but Ruby was one of the first to collect herself before standing before him.
"We're not huntsman yet, but that's why we're here and we don't care what you think," she stated with conviction in her silver eyes. "I understand what you mean, but it won't mean much if we take on something that can easily be avoided with nothing to gain from it."
Gaster just looked back at her, still unyielding in his statement.
"And besides," Yang spoke up, taking the initiative and moving up next to her sister with a smile. "It's not like we're letting these things go to destroy a town or something. This place is basically the backyard of Beacon Academy, there's no way they'd let anything in here just waltz out."
The doctor let out a sigh, closing his eyes and pinching the bridge of his nose.
'That's it, these kids are way too stubborn to convince, and with reasons like those, the others will probably be think the same….These children~.'
"Fine," he said, opening his eyes and looking to the others. "Fine, if that's what you're set on then I guess there really isn't much else I can do."
Most nodded and Yang shot him a thumbs up with a wide grin.
Jaune and Ruby went over to two of the pillars taking their own pieces. Gaster also went over, skimming over the pedestals. It was interesting, they were all different but a few times double ups of pieces come up.
'Pick one and come back to the cliff's,' Ozpin's words recited in Gasters head before giving a smirk. 'You have an interesting approach at discerning teams, Ozpin.'
Gaster's gaze came to rest on a grey bishop looking piece. It had the same build as one with a cloth like design wrapped around it, and instead of a single piece clipped out of the head, carved in cracks ran half-way from the top down on the left side and half-way from the bottom up on the right.
The implications made the doctor laugh.
"Alright, let's go," Ruby announced before turning and running towards the direction of the cliffs with the others close behind.
Gaster was about to follow them, but the grinding of stone and hissing made him turn to see the geist cluster behemoth getting back up newly constructed leg and lower left arm. Only instead of wielding granite sword, it was a giant double headed granite axe.
The deathstalker had also broken out its ice and now coming after with the nevermore close behind.
"It's a good thing these kids are fast on their feet," Gaster mused, teleporting just in time to avoid a strike from the deathstalker to just behind the students before forming a hovering circular disk with kindness under his feet.
He easily kept pace with behind them surfing on the disk with his other six hands at the ready for a pre-emptive strike.
"Or else they'd really be in trouble."
He wasn't keen using his magic like this, but if he wasn't willing then there was no way he'd properly be able to observe the potential fight about to occur. After all, if one wasn't going to occur on its own, he was damn certain he'd trigger it.
It didn't take long until the cliffs came into view, and aside from the pursuing grimm from behind, there wasn't any real trouble.
The nevermore swooped a fair way ahead at the peak of the ruins, almost like the crumbling castle was its nest.
"Looks like we'll have to fight that thing after all," Jaune panted with a hint of remorse.
Gaster couldn't help but let out a 'told you so' under his breath. He didn't intend on anyone hearing it, but the way how Blake's ribbon twitched against wind vectors and looking over her shoulder to him. He wasn't holding his breath.
Suddenly Blake's eyes shot straight to the skies behind him.
"Incoming!" she yelled at the top of her lungs as a boulder as big as a freight train came flying overhead, crashing into the bridge and causing everyone to skid to a stop just before the crumbling stone work. The ancient bridge crumbled under the weight of the boulder and collapsed into the foggy ravine below.
"Well that's helpful," Weiss said in drawn out in sarcasm.
Dropping his barrier pad and himself, Gaster looked to the behemoth where it held in one hand mounted on top its body a boulder roughly the same size as hurled at them before.
'Throwing rocks to compensate for lack of speed, these grimm are smart.'
The giant pulled back before hurling the boulder in a shot-put throw right at them. Gaster turned to the side expecting another notice from Blake but met with a Weiss rushing past him to stand in front before stabbing her rapier into the ground, creating a large white glyph under the approaching deathstalker.
The flying boulder changed course ever so slightly, arching from heading towards them to falling down onto the deathstalker.
But it wasn't enough, the boulder was too big for Weiss's glyph to handle and instead sailed into the forest by them, barrelling through trees before breaking out the other end and falling into the ravine.
Some pitched hissing drew everyone to the deathstalker almost on top of on them.
"Nora!"
"Right~."
The humans Gaster identified as Nora and Ren charged right the deathstalker with warhammer and sickle guns in hand.
"Still think fighting's avoidable at this point?"
"Shut up~," Yang droned to the doctor as Ruby looked from the nevermore ahead then to the grimm behind and back again.
"What'cha thinking, sis?"
Ruby hummed a little longer, turning from one direction to the other like she was watching a game of tennis. It was starting to get a bit irritating.
"I think we can take em," she said abruptly to her sister.
"Hey, um, I'm not one to be a downer or anything," Jaune started. "But are you sure we can?"
"Well of course we can, with the right planning and coordination, we can take these things down easily," Weiss boasted. There was a slight hint that the whole planning and coordination part might just be her telling people what to do an expecting them to follow it.
"She's right, and I think splitting up is the best way to deal with it," Pyrrha spoke up.
There were nods around, her words even giving Jaune a little boost of courafe before Ruby spoke up.
"Okay, Pyrrha, Jaune, you've got the deathstalker. Yang, Blake, you take care of the nevermore. The rest of us will take on that behemoth."
"Excuse me, but why are we getting the biggest of the lot?" Weiss called to the girl in red, clearly not having it with the decision made, even taking Ruby back.
"Ah-w-well," she stuttered, trying to word the reason she had in her head. It wasn't easy to be suddenly put on the spot like this for her.
"Because I know how the geist cluster was made, and considering I've already severed a limb off it before, the firepower I can muster is sufficient enough to break it," Gaster began, standing before the heiress and easily reaching over her height with a scolding expression. He looked like a parent explaining to their child why they shouldn't break the antique vase after they've just trashed the whole set. "But going in it alone can be seen as conventional suicide for most. So it'd make sense to include others who can deal with large attacks and possess sufficient agility. Was it something like that you trying to say?"
Turning to Ruby for conformation, she was a little bit bare for words before gathering herself together to give a quick series of nods.
"Alright, looks like we have a battle plan," Jaune declared, suddenly looking like he was filling with new determination and resolve.
The idea of there being a plan at all was probably all he needed to go into battle. The sudden turn from startled and cautious human to looking like a hardened soldier even made Gaster blink a few times to check his eyes were working.
You could never be too sure when you have eyes are on loan.
"Alright, let's go Pyrrha," Jaune motioned, drawing his sword and brining his shield out in front of him before charging after Ren and Nora on the deathstalker with the red-haired amazoness closely following behind with a smile on her face and her own shield the spear in hand.
"Let's go."
"Right!"
As Blake and Yang charged towards the nevermore, leaving Weiss, Ruby and Gaster with each other, the three of them began running towards their target with Gaster back on his kindness pad.
"Don't slow me down just because you're not running right now," Weiss huffed back at him.
"Ahh~, come on Weiss, don't be like that," Ruby chirped ahead, seeing how the heiress hadn't yet forgiven what Gaster said earlier.
The behemoth lifted its tree mace arm before bringing it down to the ground in a thunderous explosion sending a shockwave traveling straight for them.
Before the two could even react, Weiss and Ruby found their waist's bound in light blue tendrils leading to a hole in a floating skeleton hand.
"Oh, I wouldn't dream of it~," Gaster smirked, still getting glared at by Weiss before effectively snatching them off their feet with the threads, spinning both around a couple of times before effectively sling-shotting the two right into the sky above the ground shockwave.
Ruby cried out in joy as they soared with Weiss glaring back as collapsing trees and bellowing dust swallowing everything behind them out of sight, including their shooter.
"Such inappropriate behaviour!"
"He's just trying to help, Weiss."
"That is not the issue here!"
She wasn't worried about him though. More annoyed by the fact that a good for nothing like him had the audacity to suddenly embrace her without her consent and proceed to throw her like it was a game of baseball!
Even the fact her supposed partner wasn't taking this seriously enough was just unbelievable.
The next time she got her hands on him he was so getting an earful.
Their travels were short lived as Weiss and Ruby noticed their destination rapidly approaching. The behemoth's head.
Taking the initiative, Weiss spun her rapier revolver to fire dust while Ruby unslung her scythe as a box before both let loose a barrage of shots to the grimm, each exploding on the surface and effect doubling as a cushioning fall for Weiss before skidding across the surface of its top.
Ruby on the other hand lost some velocity, veering straight for one of its upper arms before extending crescent rose into its scythe, hooking around the armpit and slinging herself up to the head by her partner. Landing easily with gleeful giggle on her face.
"Seriously, can you not take this more seriously?"
"I am taking this seriously, but how often is it that you get thrown at a giant grimm over a wave of desolation with your very own team mate~?" Ruby chirped with sparkles in her eyes, still too hyper for the heiress's liking. The girls smile quickly died as what she'd just said dawned on her. "Do you think Gaster would be alright from that."
The flames around them died, exposing that the two hadn't made any real damage prior to their landing shots to the stone surface. Just a couple of cracks and crumbling pieces.
Hardly the achievement in Weiss's eyes.
"I wouldn't worry about him," Weiss spoke up as the black haze blanketing over the surface suddenly thickened, and a giest suddenly shot from it before elongating themselves straight for them.
Bucking and weaving, Weiss managed to evade the arms and get into a position for a counter strike, thrusting and piecing through the arms, effectively dismembering the limbs before Ruby shot herself forward with her scythe carving right into its singular eye on the mask and splitting it in two.
"We have bigger problems of our own," she finished, glancing back to the grimm to see it flake away.
At its disappearance, the whole head they stood upon began shacking, bobbing up and down in rhythm. Ruby rushed to the edge, glancing over to see the behemoth was on the move again.
It looked like it was marching towards the deathstalker against Jaune and the others.
"I think it's moving to back up the other grimm," Ruby deduced as Weiss came up beside her who looked like the news was beginning to irritate her. "We have to deal with it before it makes trouble for the others."
"Well then let's give this big oaf something else to focus on," dashing to the centre of the head and spinning her revolver again till it landed on ice dust, Weiss plunged her rapier square into the dirt. A freezing explosion of frost burst out, chilling Ruby in its breeze and reaching all the way to bases of the upper arms and effectively freezing them in place.
A cold head if there ever was one.
The ice wasn't holding up, crack lines were already beginning to snake across the ice.
The behemoth let out a low bearing growl before stomping a foot onto the ground, shattering the weakened ice like glass in a full-blown tremor up itself that threatened to through the two off their feet. Ruby had to bury the head of her own weapon into the ice to avoid slipping off the top.
The sound of cracking stone amongst the ice drew their attention to see various points on the head crack and break. Had Weiss's ice weakened them?
The dark haze above the points thickened, and even more geist's burst up from them, numbering to a dozen or so.
These numbers might a bit of problem for them as the two yanked their weapons free of the stone and ice. Moving back-to-back as the geist encircled them, keeping their distance with clawed hands on long bony arms at the ready.
In their focus on the geist, grinding stone made the two of them spare a glance to see the free stone arms move to squash them from above.
Ruby opened her mouth to speak, and the grimm suddenly all rushed them in the moment of distraction as hands were coming at them the same time.
Ruby managed to parry a swipe followed up by an upward leap to avoid another as Weiss stabbed the back of a hand followed by a strike to the masked face before also jumping to avoid a slash.
The two midair mistimed and managed to run right into each other and effectively throwing the other off their balance.
"Watch it!" Weiss berefted, managing to stick her landing on the melting ice as Ruby upturned her crescent rose and fired a shot through the chest of geist and effectively launching her into the air above the oncoming hands.
"Sorry~," she called before disappearing over them.
This was going to be tricky. Gathering herself up, Weiss summoned a glyph at her feet before turning it black and effectively creating a pushing force throwing her skyward into the air and narrowly missing the remaining geist's rushing her before leaping from one oncoming massive hand and weaving through the rapidly closing stone fingers of the other the size of four trees strapped together.
Flying up into the air as the hands slammed onto the head, shattering whatever ice remained, the skies were clear, with the exception of a kid in red as company. Annoyingly.
A shadow loomed over the both of them, glancing around, a geist much bigger than the ones below was coming right at them. Somehow managing to appear without them noticing with the cover of the possessed appendages.
It struck out, with claws more vicious than the others carving right at them.
Weiss's rapier was built for stabbing attacks, not for blocking heavy strikes, so when the claws landed, she took the full brunt of it leaving her aura to flare up and take most of the damage, landing with a thump on the back of one of the stone hands.
But it wasn't over, the geist went straight for Ruby this time who managed to bloke one of the strikes, weave by the second in a flourish of petals behind it before being caught by hand snapping backwards and grabbing her from behind and slamming her right on the hand with Weiss.
With what assumed to be a snarl sounding like a husked cry of agony from the geist, Weiss noticed a small orange sphere, floating behind its head. It looked like a ping-pong ball. How long had that been there?
It flashed bright orange before exploding and effectively blasting the geist in the back of the head making bow in a jolt like it'd been punched with a cry that sounded more of agony than a snarl.
The next moment, familiar tendrils whipped from behind the grimm snaking around its head, wrists and neck before snapping backwards and making its back bend a full ninety degrees with its spine. Maybe even a bit more with cracking bones sounding like trees splintering.
It got to the point that even for a phantom class grimm like this, it looked excruciatingly painful and ending with a snap of its spine and neck followed with a red beam punching through it and striking the hand the girls were both on.
The explosive force sent them flying back without so much as a brace to latch onto.
They began falling, but it didn't last when Weiss got caught in the stomach by an open arm. Ruby who flapped through the air was caught by her hoody and dangled with crescent rose still in hand.
"Try to be more careful the next time you two go leaping off the head of a monster like that," Gaster sighed, still standing atop the light green barrier platform before flying the pair away from the behemoth. "Or you both'll be more of a handful than even I can manage."
"I'm not that hard to deal with," Ruby called as the geist cluster gave chase, slashing with its axe before switching and swiping with its mace.
"Where have you been?" Weiss yelled, struggling a bit to get out of her current position. The nerve of this commoner was profound, to clutch her waist again without so much as a notion of warning!
"No need to be like that," he said easily maneuverering past the axe, and with a flick of his fingers, two skeletal hands coloured orange and dark blue moved from behind him and flashed their own colours.
Down below to the base of the behemoth's mace appendage, a hoop of the same orange balls appeared around it before a pair of night blue energy rings fired out the hand of the same colour. The balls flashed and exploded before the rings came right in, the first striking and immediately breaking in a shattering explosion with the second slipping through the weakened point and effectively severing the entire appendage from the base of the body.
"I was around, helping in any way I could."
"Really? And what is it you found?"
"That your semblance is definitely one that I'd like to take a look into."
This just infuriated the young heiress while Ruby tried to crank her head to get a better view of what she was missing. "I meant about defeating that thing!"
As the behemoth let out a loud groan in possible pain or annoyance shacking the air, geist grimm began leaking out from the pieces and vacant spot where the arm was. Swirling through the air like a maelstrom of shadows before plunging into the forest floor.
"As a matter of fact, I have," he began, bringing his hovering hands back before increasing the footing area of the barrier he stood on, letting Weiss go from his arm and hoisting Ruby so she got her footing also. "The grimm cluster possessing this mound of dirt are quite coordinated. Most moving the limbs, potentially by the commands of maybe one or two grimm, with a portion acting as an antibody to any, unwelcome guests."
"Let me guess, we're the unwelcome guests when we went to stand on its head?"
"Precisely, and with a body as big and thick as this housing all that manifestation negativity, the only real way we can take it down is by taking out all the grimm in side byyy~," he trailed off, looking from one girl to the other as though expecting either of them to come up with the answer.
But of course, Gaster was just egging them on to the solution to the situation they were in.
Crushing earth signalled the return of the behemoth's missing appendage. At the end of its arm with trees and dirt falling away was what looked like a glorified merry-go-round spinning on its axis with four razor sharp granite blades protruding out the sides.
"That's a big weapon," Ruby found it in herself to marvel.
"You want to destroy the entire body in one go to drag out all the geists and pick them all off then?" in conformation, Gaster gave her a raised eyebrow with a tugging grin. Weiss just felt the need to roll her eyes at the notion. "Alright, but don't think this makes up for anything, and unless you've got a hidden trick up your sleeve, none of us have the fire power to do that."
The giant pulled back its arm before bringing it round in a side swipe towards them just as Ruby's eyes lit up at an idea.
"The ravine!" she exclaimed in joy. "We can trip it down there and destroy the shell while it's immobilised, or better yet, let the fall break it."
The merry-go-blades disconnected from the arm, stretching out before snapping taught by a lone chain of black smoking stones still spinning its blades.
Just before it hit, the barrier at their feet disappeared and the three of them free fell straight towards the ground.
"Nice to know at least one of you can think up more than insults," the doctor called above the wind, earning another snapping glare from the heiress before the platform came back, scooping them along and gliding the trio to the ground and giving the girls the chance to hope off. "That thing seems to be fixated on me. So, while I draw it from above, I want you both to do what you can down here, and when the time comes, help me trip it into the ravine."
Weiss didn't like being told what to do but gave a nod with Ruby before the two rushed away, leaving Gaster to his own devices.
'This is troublesome,' he thought, teleporting to right in front of the giant that'd been trying to get at him this whole time.
"You grimm are supposed to be emotionless. Yet, you've come all this way, trampling past so many other negative emotions just to get me," he called to its three coal burning eyes glaring back before rearing to swat him out of the sky like a fly again. Gaster couldn't help but smile at the whole thing. "This timeline is indeed most interesting!"
It didn't take long for Gaster to steer the behemoth close to the ravine. The constant evasions and counter strikes against it helped blind the grimm cluster to their approaching destination and the doctors grounded accomplices.
But it wasn't completely oblivious to the sheer drop, making sure to keep its distance from the edge when it got close while still trying to get at the doctor with those overly qualified fly swatters.
It was at this moment when it got close enough that Ruby and Weiss acted, rushing to the towering feetless legs of the behemoth before the heiress spun her rapier in hand and stabbing it into the ground. Ice burst force, encasing the front of the legs in ice before a pair of large glyphs appeared under its stumps, holding it in place even more.
"You've got this Weiss," Ruby cheered as the behemoth tried moving its feet.
"Can you please not talk right now, I'm a little busy here," Weiss called back under the strain, fighting to keep the legs in place.
Harsh wisps in the wind made Ruby look to the legs encased in ice and saw the smog above them blackening and the geists coming out right for them to act as the anti-body Gaster had said.
"Well I better focus on that then," she said, pulling back crescent rose and firing a shot, striking at some of the first who appeared to be easy than the ones before spinning through the air in a flourish of roses and hacking at the next while using them as leverage to strike against the rest.
"Come on Gaster, where are you?" Ruby murmured under her breath as the last of the grimm was dealt with. It wouldn't be long till more came out to get at Weiss to free its legs, but at least she bought some time.
As though to answer her question, a tugging feeling pulled at the back of Ruby's head. Turning to the sky to satiate the feeling, she saw Gaster standing atop….a huge dragon like skull with cracks on its face with eyes glowing red! The mere sight of it left Ruby speechless.
She was so going to pester him into talking about it the next time she got the chance. This was too juicy.
Gaster's eyes had gone purple as his seven multi-coloured skeleton hands floated in the air before him, melding into one to form two giant versions of the same. They were over three times the teens size!
The new hands outstretched, touched together at the base of the palms before the pair started spinning in tangent with each other clockwise before they became a blurring cone. A flash of red in the hole of the palms made it look like a blurring red ring was thrown into the mix.
A low bearing howl sounded from the behemoth, and using its low bearing axe, went to swipe at the floating doctor. Flash of light and a joint thunderous blast from the spinning hands shot out in a powerful red beam that even from where Ruby stood could feel the heat, striking square in the face of the giant, gouging away deep into the stone.
The cluster actually cried out in pain before raising its arms to defend itself.
The light was blinding to say the least, making the two turn away.
'What's going on? Was he really this strong this whole?' Weiss contemplated, feeling the load strain on her glyphs lighten a bit with the behemoth no longer focusing on moving around as defending.
Pretty soon, the grinding of stone at joints led to the behemoth beginning to buckle, falling back at the waist and then the knees finding lack of support thereof.
"Yes, yes it's working," Ruby cheered out just as another geist came rushing out from the leg. "Oh no you don't!"
With quick slashes, the geist was killed almost instantly. Weiss behind her held on tighter with her glyphs, focusing as much as she could in keeping the giant in place.
As though to retaliate against her efforts, just as the behemoth was falling past the edge of the cliff ahead of them and Gaster ceased his blast, which looked to take a lot out of him, it shot out its arms to catch itself, digging its fingers into the cliff face and halting its fall.
This was just infuriating her at this point.
"Oh, you have got to be joking!"
"We're going to have to sever its fingers," Ruby called as more geists began seeping out from the legs.
"Well don't just stand there, take care of it!" Weiss yelled as chunks of ice began falling away from the legs. At this point, her glyphs were the only thing keeping the behemoth from walking away, and even that was taxing.
Ruby was distorted, glancing from the grimm to Weiss and back again. "But I….."
An energy ring came flying from the sky, dark blue in colour and slicing through a dug out ditch in the joint from the blast between an arm and the main body, jolting the behemoth down a peg.
It was quickly followed by a second, then a third and a full volley of them hailing down on the geist cluster, severing through all the limb joints that'd been weakened by the blast before dropping it into the foggy ravine with a howling cry.
Up above, Gaster stood with his larger hands still outstretched, but the colour in the palm holes had gone from red to dark blue. He was wobbling a little and losing altitude at a precarious rate.
"So he really does have his limits," Ruby breathed. "His semblance is probably running on empty."
Watching as well, Weiss turned to the severed legs she still held in place. The geists inside were still coming out but this time they weren't coming for her rather heading down into the ravine below.
With a grimace of disgust, she held aloft a free hand before pointing up. At her motion, the white glyph turned black and created a pushing force practically throwing the legs out of the weakened ice and down into the ravine with the rest of the rubble.
Ruby paced carefully over to the side with Weiss close behind after hoisting out her rapier and allowing her glyphs to dissipate. Within the foggy banks below, the dark outline of the stone husk of the behemoth was barely visible, with the cries of the geist in a maelstrom calling from the depths.
Movement could just be made surrounding the outline with a gleaming light shining through.
"Any problems?"
The sudden question jumped them both in surprise, Ruby more than Weiss who just barley avoided falling over herself as they turned to see Gaster now at ground level. His hands and dragon skull no were to be seen with his eyes back to their usual duo colour.
"D-don't do that," Weiss hissed in a little fit. She wasn't one who liked surprises, especially when they were played on her.
Gaster on the other hand only laughed a little at how his simple question spooked her before also going to the edge and looking over.
"Seems we've achieved our objective. The shell is broken and I'd give it a few minutes before they've managed to regroup and possess a new vessel."
"Then let's finish the job," Ruby exclaimed with excitement, hoisting her scythe aloft as though she were about to harvest a field of wheat for the fun of it before dashing to leap off the edge.
Just before she got too far, a hand gripped her shoulder which effectively yanked her back from her dash with a "huurk".
"As helpful as you'd both be, I can take it from here. I believe they need more your help than I do," the doctor motioned, letting Ruby go and pointing towards the castle ruins standing in the middle of the ravine of fog a fair way off.
There against the nevermore, Yang and Blake were clearly having bit of difficulty dealing with it.
Solid shots were landed, even some up close and personal, but ultimately brushed off by the winged grimm only for it to counter strike back at them and do some real damage to them both and the ruins they stood on.
The crumbling stone work was even beginning to creak and crack at this point.
Even so, Weiss wasn't having it. The way he said it was like he was someone who wasn't exhausted after pushing down a mountain of stone possessed by grimm with sheer aura alone while flying.
He was just trying to show off.
"Not happening. We take care of the remains down there and then we go help them, together."
All he did was smile back. To say it was caring would be a little bit of an understatement. There wasn't even a hint of selfishness behind it. Disarming.
"A no-good person like me has to pull his weight every now and again," Gaster said, repeating Weiss's insult. "You help take care of them, and I'll take care of this."
The girls contemplated their choices, but given time was of the essence they had to decide quickly.
"Alright, but I expect you to be careful. Without a partner you won't have anyone to watch your back," Ruby pestered and turning to Weiss. "Let's get going."
"I think I can help with your travels a bit," Gaster spoke up, summoning his hands again and before either of them could say anything, the girls found their waists bound again by light blue tendrils again before hoisted off their feet and effectively sling shotting them over the ravine.
"You insolent commonerrr~!" Weiss cried out in annoyance as Ruby gave a "whoopy" in her flight.
As he watched them soar before landing, striking back against the nevermore and rallying with the others, Gaster's face dropped, giving a heavy sigh rubbing his eyes. He wasn't used to putting on façades and making himself think he was talking to someone from the underground was not something he enjoyed.
Especially when he had to imagine a human as a monster.
Yesterday, when they met and he smiled, he felt like Jaune might've seen through his forced smile. If he wanted to fool someone even more perceptive as him, then he was going to have to step up his game.
"For goodness sake, and I'm going to have to keep this up until the right moment," he groaned, pulling down on his face. "Keep it together, keep it together. Remember it's to get back home, save everyone from Chara, who for some reason has come back as a vengeful spirit and free them from the underground. How hard can it be?"
Truth was, he wasn't running on empty or exhausted. Not even close. But after everything, he was finally at a point where he could just sit back and observe a real right without any distractions.
Behind him, grinding stone rose from the edges of the ravine with wisps of anguish and torment, shadowing him as it towered above the doctor.
Not so much as a split second, the entire thing was surrounded in orange orbs before exploding, shattering the limb to dust and releasing the grimm before they were all severely picked clean apart by a pair of whizzing rings of energy.
"I said, no distractions, can remain silent," Gaster monotoned, not even turning around as the rings arched through the air before flying into the ravine below.
Gaster didn't turn, in fact he didn't need to look as the remaining geist's below were hacked away.
As he watched the fight at the ruins, a sting shot into his side. He gasped in pain, clutching his waist, starting to feel a little queasy. It was like it was moving, sliding off his bones.
The pain didn't last, subsiding quicker than it'd come.
Still, that didn't leave Gaster a little worried by the feeling. This was getting serious. These occurring tangs had never been this server before.
"I'll have to look into this later."
Turning back to the fight at the ruins, it wasn't long till the nevermore was literally dragged up the face of the towering cliff by a galivanting Ruby with her scythe hooked around it before cleanly hacking the head off. _
Later
"Jaune Arc, Lie Ren, Pyrrha Nikos and Nora Valkyrie," Ozpin announced on top the stage with the four others opposite him in front of a crowd of the entire academy. "The four of you retrieved the white rook pieces. From this day forward you will work together as team JNPR, led by Jaune Arc."
The boy in question gave a shocked look at his name being called as the crowd applauded. Pyrrha next to him smiled as Ozpin continued.
"Congratulations young man," he commended, stifling a laugh.
As they made their way off the stage they were replaced by a new group of people.
"Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake belladonna and Yang Xiao-long. You four retrieved the white knight pieces. From now on you will work together as a team RWBY, led by Ruby Rose."
Another applause thundered as Yang tackled her younger sister into a hug with a wide grin on her face. Weiss on the other hand, looked more than a shocked. Wonder why.
As they left, Gaster alone came onto the stage after them.
"Wing Ding Gaster. You collected the grey sage piece. Because you have, you have the authority to either join an already existing team, or form one of your own."
There was a quite sharp "psssst" from behind that Gaster almost missed. Turning around he saw Ruby sticking her thumbs up with a wide grin on her face. Jaune was also next to her and was smiling sheepishly while rubbing the back of her head.
Letting out a light smile in sigh, he gripped his arm in contempt before turning back.
"I'd like to form a team on my own."
Someone suddenly yelled "what!" behind him followed by a series of "shush"'s. Wonder who.
Ozpin raised an eyebrow at the declaration. "Are you sure? This would mean you'd be taking on all missions alone and increase the difficulty in each of them."
"I am indeed. Things would only get more complicated if I were a part of a team."
'And the progress for my work would be hindered.'
"Hmph, very well, so long as you're sure. Then from this day on you will be part of a one-man team, team G. I wish you the best of luck."
As Gaster left the stage, the audience gave their thunderous applause yet again. Though to Gaster, it felt spiteful. None of them had ill intent as far as he knew, it's just that for why he was here wasn't for the same reason the others were, or even close to it.
'Don't think of that now, Gaster. Not when you know there's a human child killing everyone in the underground, erasing timelines and moving on to the next.'
His cheeks at the edges of his mouth split minutely as his scars got deeper and the whites of his eyes darkened. "Tha❄ ✋s j🕆st unforivabl ~."
Suddenly his left arm began burning. Wincing and gritting his teeth amongst the crowds of as the applause died down for Ozpins speech, he rolled up his sleeve carefully to take a look, making sure no one else was looking.
Arm exposed, his eyes widened in shock at what he saw before slipping it back down and quickly glancing around to make sure no one else had seen. They all seemed oblivious at least, too fixated on what else the headmaster had to say, though it seemed that he wasn't saying anything important with just the usual school into talks.
The doctor took this moment to move to the back of the crowds before teleporting to his room. Upon arrival, the sudden use of magic intensified the burning he was feeling, even making him weak in the knees.
Stumbling to his desk and slumping into the chair, he fumbled to turn the desk lamp on before bringing his arm to light. The flesh halfway up his forearm was peeling back with strands of mucus and exposing the bones underneath.
He wasn't bleeding, and he still could move his fingers, so it was unlikely it was an attack on his system.
Focusing, Gaster tried pooling his internal magic into the peeling flesh in hopes of seeing some results.
"…."
Time ticked by, and still it kept peeling. Gasters was really getting worried now.
"T-this isn't good. If I don't find out why this is happening or if I can stop it, I'll more than likely lose all the flesh I have remaining, and my cover will be blown amongst these humans."
"Alright, alright~," Gaster panted, picking himself up from his chair then pacing back and forth before his bedroom wall covered by notes while tapping his bone fingers together. "Let's see if I understand this~."
The evening had soon gone and night took its place, yet things weren't any better for Gaster than before. He'd stopped losing anymore flesh, but that was only after his whole left forearm fell right off along with his hand cover.
"Hmm~. When I first fell into this timeline, I had flesh infused in various parts of my body. Though they acted more like clothing than actual body functions, yet my own mana kept it from rigor mortis. Now, after extensive time I appear to be losing it."
Thinking on those words for a moment, Gasters eyes soon widened as he looked to his hands, flexing them and turning them over.
"Or what if, I'm not losing. What if I'm reverting back to my original form as a result of the imbalance I afflicted in this time line. Before I came here, grimm were the closest to monsters by nature, yet my species is further away from them as I am from humans. But when I did arrive here, the timeline couldn't process my existence and altered me to become more, processable. Now that I've spent time here, I've been processed and am now reverting to my original form."
At the thought of returning to a monster, Gaster couldn't help but crack a smile. True, he'd eventually lose his disguise, but when that happens, he could look into the mirror and finally see a familiar face looking back at him.
But that didn't mean he could rest on his morals. If he couldn't find a way to replace his flesh, his stay at the academy would be short-lived.
That night, Gaster didn't sleep so much as a wink. Good thing too, otherwise he'd mentally end up in the void again with a guest for one of his recent experiments who found a timeline where everything was mechanical. Unlike Jaune's visit, Yang's was a bit more exciting.