[X] Yang should help Miltia like she was helping herself. Get stronger, feel better. Try sneaking into the Emerald Forest and get stronger by fighting Grimm for as long as they can.
The two girls looked down down at the forest, watching small black movements scattered here and there through the trees at the bottom of the cliff. The spot they had found was one where the cliff was by a large tree that you could climb up or down easily enough. It was odd, how it was placed where it was when all the other trees were rather small. Almost as if someone had predicted that people were going to sneak in and out, and intentionally left a way in where the Grimm are at their weakest, or where the teachers of Beacon cleared through frequently.
"So what's the plan, then?" Miltia asked.
"We go in." Yang said. "We head towards... The north. Find strong stuff. Punch it. Fight until we can't anymore, then leave."
"Do you have enough ammo?" She asked.
Yang shrugged. "Not as much as I'd like. Dad didn't want me taking too much, just enough to get out of a fight if I'm attacked. Don't want to use it too much anyway, I'd prefer to get my hands dirty for now."
Miltia nodded, then looked forward and jumped. Her heel lodged into the tree, and she pivoted on the spot quickly, spinning herself downwards and let herself fall down, occasionally stabbing her heel back into the tree to slow her descent. Yang watched her fall for a moment, then threw down the cane she had been carrying around and followed her, landing on a tree branch, and then jumping from that branch to the next on her way down.
Yang hit the ground a minute after Miltia, and brushed herself off as she turned towards her companion.
"Let's go, then." She said. Miltia nodded, and followed her lead.
The forest was alive, Yang noted. There was the sound of insects flying and birds chirping. A crow flew over her head, and Yang swatted away a mosquito floating near her head. She walked forward a bit, breaking a few crumpled leaves and twigs in the progress.
"Shouldn't we try to be quiet?" Miltia asked.
"Nah." Yang shrugged off. "We're looking for a fight anyway, right? Let the Grimm hear us. Let them come."
She took another step forward, then turned to the side. There was a growl in the distance, and Yang darted towards it. She pushed off against a tree to force herself to the side as she ran forward, approaching the Beowulf in a few seconds. She rushed past it before she could react, and backhanded its skull, forcing it to the ground.
The Beowulf fell, and Yang grabbed another tree, using it t spin around while keeping her momentum while she punched down through its stomach.
The Beowulf faded away, and Miltia stepped out a moment later.
"You forgot your stick." She said, throwing the cane at Yang. The yellow haired girl caught it as it came towards her, and nodded.
"Kinda forget its there when I don't need it." Yang mused. "Thanks."
Miltia didn't respond, walking north of the cliff face and tall tree.
"Stronger Grimm should be up this way." Yang nodded, walking ahead after a moment. Or at least more of them, if-"
There was a roar from above, and another Beowulf fell from a tree. Miltia flipped while keeping her pace, using its own momentum to cut it in half. She kept her pace without acknowledging it, and kept walking.
...Okay, that was pretty cool, Yang admitted.
They kept walking for a while, occasionally hitting a Beowulf, and at one point an Ursa, before they came to a dark cave.
"Spooky." Miltia noted.
"Probably something in there." Yang noted. "Come on, follow me."
She stepped towards the cave, flaring her flaming Aura, and took a moment to consider.
In hindsight, maybe lowering her Aura intentionally was a mistake. She'd let it recover while travelling with Mitlia, so she was at sixtyish percent rather than at half, but...
Well, no matter. It was fine. She needed to get better at a fight anyway, having more reason to dodge would help with that.
Throwing her cane to the side and stepping into the darkness, Yang allowed her Aura to burn up, focusing more on expanding the flames and their light than she did keeping the flames strong.
There was a glimmer of light reflecting of a white bone-like shell, and then an eruption of movement. Dozens of rocks fell from the roof of the cave and a glowing stinger-like shape became visible, and a giant scorpion swept forward, lunging at Yang.
The burning girl jumped back, flipping out of the cave and noting Miltia to the left, before changing direction and firing Ember Celica to blast herself to the right as the beast came out.
The scorpion Grimm, the Death Stalker, turned to watch Yang, chirping to itself. The girl on fire stepped forward, rushing forward to hit it, then ducked under its claws as it tried to pincer her in place.
The Grimm suddenly reared back into the air as Miltia cut at its tail, trying to cut at a gap in the bone plating on it. There was a flash of blood, but the Grimm swept its tail around, striking Miltia in the stomach.
As she flew off, Yang punched upwards, striking at the Death Stalker. Her fist stung as she hit up and failed to damage its plating, but she was able to force it even higher upwards, allowing her a moment to grab at its leg. As the Death Stalker fell, Yang ran out from under it, pulling its leg off balance. The gap in the plating showed a visible gap at the point of the leg, and Yang jumped up, quickly kicking at it. The Deathstalker screamed, but wasn't overly injured. It flailed its leg, throwing Yang off, and Yang briefly saw her flames sticking to it before she flew into the cave and struck the pile of rocks within.
She groaned, and put her hand on top of a rock to prop herself upwards, boosting herself up. She looked back towards the Death Stalker, in time to watch Miltia cut at the burning bone plate on the Death Stalkers leg, slicing through it slightly and exposing more of its pitch black flesh.
The Death Stalker turned to look at Miltia and strike with its claws, and Yang rushed in while it was doing so, reeling back her fist and striking the side of the Death Stalker as hard as she could. At the moment of impact, she fired Ember Celica again, and the Death Stalker rocked to the side a moment. Even with armour plating, enough brute force would do enough blunt trauma that it'd hurt regardless. She pulled back another fist, getting ready to repeat the process, when she saw the stinging coming at her and changed track to grab it instead.
She pulled at the stinger, gripping the base of it where it met the tail proper. The tail wasn't armoured, for some reason, so it'd be the easiest place to hurt. She squeezed down, trying to rip it off, and the Death Stalker slammed her into the ground. She coughed, but forced herself to hold on.
Forget the pain. She needed to learn how to work through it. Ripping herself down as the Death Stalker lifted her up, Yang fired Ember Celica upwards while her hands were wrapped around the tail, forcing her downwards and into the ground. With the tail still rising, the stinger was ripped off, and the Death Stalker screamed.
Yang smiled, until the Death Stalker slammed its tail into her again and smashed her into the ground, she unsteadily got to her feet, only for the pincer to grab her side and start squeezing.
Yang groaned, as she struggled against the Death Stalker's grasp. She tried to pry herself out, and the Death Stalker tightened its grip, while smashing her into Miltia.
Gritting her teeth, Yang focused harder.
Damn it. She wasn't strong enough. She needed to...
She fired at the pieces of the pincer closest to her, catching herself in her blast in the process, and the Death Stalker raised its other claw, pinning her again in a way that caught her arms as well.
Miltia leaped forward, slashing near the claw, before its tail forced her down again. Nothing.
Damn it, why wasn't she strong enough!
Yang strained to pull her arms away, grinding them against the tighter parts of the claws in the process and damaging her Aura. She fired at herself with Ember Celica a few more times, and the Death Stalker slammed her into Miltia. Her Aura was taking damage, meaning her Semblance was getting stronger, making her Aura stronger.
...Time to try something.
Miltia whipped around the claw and moved to stab her heel into the Death Stalker's eye. The other claw batted her away, and the Death Stalker moved to trample her.
Yang closed her eyes and concentrated for a moment, working on building up her flames again. The fire was a consequence of her Aura. So it made sense she could burn up more as she got hurt more, right?
She let out a shout as she unleashed a burst of flames with enough burn the bone plating over the claws. The Death Stalker screeched and shook its claw, and Miltia took the moment bought for her, dashing at the Death Stalker and cutting at the weakened plating. It continued to screech, and Yang's struggle finally bore fruit, a she forced the claws open enough to slip out from it's claws.
Miltia grabbed her hand and pulled her away, dashing into the trees. The Death Stalker was shaking its claw in pain, but looked towards them after a moment.
"Let's go." Miltia panted. "My Aura's low, and you-"
"-Are gonna kill that thing." Yang concluded.
She hadn't been strong enough for it until now, and her Aura was way too low, but she was going to finish this. She wasn't going to let herself be thrown around anymore.
"What do you think we can do?" Miltia asked. "We're not strong enough to deal with-"
There was the sound of trees snapping, as the Death Stalker ran through the forest. Turning towards it for a moment, Yang saw a flicker of movement out of the corner of he eye, and saw a pack of Beowulfs stalking towards the fight.
"So many of them..." Miltia noted, gulping.
Yang looked over it. A lot of threats. The Death Stalker was a stronger type of Grimm, not enough that she could take care of it on her own. It was more like the sort of thing expected to be fought be a group of Beacon students.
But Ruby had already been threatened by someone so much stronger. How was Yang meant to protect her if she ran from this?
"Take care of the Beowulfs." Yang said, as she ran for the Death Stalker. Miltia looked back and gave a cry of shock, but Yang ignored her, jumping to a tree and bouncing off of them. She approached the Death Stalker as it derooted another tree, and Yang clung to it for a moment before jumping past it, firing at the Death Stalker in the process.
The giant scorpion turned back to her as the explosion hit her underside, and Yang landed at the small clearing in front of the cave, by the cane she had dropped in front of it. She picked it up as she regained her footing, and fired at the Death Stalker again. It raised its claw to shield its eyes, as Yang fired again behind her to boost herself towards it, and as it lowered its claw, she threw the cane.
The cane impaled itself on the Grimm's eye, and the Death Stalker screamed as it reached for the cane and pulled it out. It's grip slipped on the small cane, and Yang reached it before the Grimm could remove it, pushing it further in.
Jerking in pain, the Grimm knocked the cane upwards, ripping it out while ripping out its eye and damaging the flesh beneath it. It threw Yang and the cane away, and she gasped as her Aura fell even further.
She heard the giant scorpion scuttling towards her, and punched the ground while firing to propel herself upwards. She flew over the Grimm and dodged the tail slamming into her, while keeping the cane in hand. She landed behind it, just out of reach of its tail, and turned to see how Miltia was doing.
She stood over the vanishing body of another Beowulf, but then kicked her boot up to jump around an Ursa.
When did the Ursa get here?
Miltia quickly decapitated the bear, before jumping over a Boarbatusk and kicking it downwards. More Grimm converged on her, and Yang rushed over to her, firing around her to buy some room.
"There's so many." Yang noted. "You okay?"
"We should run." Miltia replied. "I've got, like, one hit left in me-"
The Death Stalker ran through the trees again, striking its claws upwards to knock the trees forward, into Yang and Miltia. Yang pushed her aside, and punched the tree while firing Ember Celica, forcing the tree up and knocking it upwards, allowing her more time to flip and kick it to the side.
Another Ursa converged on the pair, and Yang smashed its skull before turning back to the Death Stalker. It stumbled for a moment, reaching for its injured eye, and Yang glared.
"I'm finishing this." She declared.
She grabbed the nearby unrooted tree, and lifted it up. Bringing it down again quickly, she smashed a log out of the rest of the tree, and flared up her Aura again, setting both it and her cane on fire. She threw the log at the Death Stalker, which batted it away, as she again ran at it.
The claws reached out to catch her, but as it closed down on her, she stabbed it in the hole where one of its eyes used to be, twisting in and snapping off the end of the burning cane to get it stuck in their. The Death Stalker screeched, threw Yang to the ground, and ran. Yang stood as it fled, chasing after it, but it returned to its cave and struck the roof of it, causing a cave in.
...She hadn't killed it. She'd...
...She'd forced it to flee. She won. She won. She didn't fail to kill it. She won.
Repeating her lack of failure to herself, Yang turned back to Militia, who was fighting even more Ursa's and Beowulf's at this point. Yang rushed to help her, but the girl dropped to the floor and spun on her elbow, flipping her legs around like a blender for a moment as scattered, dissolving Grimm parts scattered in every direction.
She stood up, looked around, and confirmed a lack of Grimm presence.
"...Heh." She said to herself. "I killed them all. S-So many..."
She laughed to herself, apparently caught in the adrenaline rush.
Well at least she seemed happy.
"Let's head back." Yang suggested. "I'm kinda low on Aura, and-"
She took a step forward, and cried out as her leg was suddenly in pain. Miltia looked over at her, and Yang clutched at the source of the pain. The scar on her leg where Dito stabbed her.
...Oh no. She used too much, the wounds were acting up again. Why were those still hurting? It's been weeks since she got the wounds, they should have healed by now. Why did the pain flare up whenever she used too much Aura?
She clutched at her stomach as she suddenly re-felt the pain of being stabbed in the chest, and she groaned.
"Hey?" Miltia asked. "You okay?"
"Just peachy." Yang spat, cursing herself. She was stronger than this. She needed to be stronger than this.
Standing up and ignoring the pain, she forced herself to walk, stumbling forward. Miltia looked at her for a moment, unsure of what to think.
"...Hey." Yang pointed out. "We both got in fights and did cool things. But I'm all messed up and you're just fine."
Miltia blinked, and then smiled.
"Cool." She mused. "I did better than you, did I? Certainly beat more than you."
"I drove off the Death Stalker!" Yang objected.
"How many Death Stalkers were there?" Miltia asked, giggling slightly.
"You suck." Yang muttered. "Anyway, let's get back to..."
She trailed off for a bit.
"...Can I hang out at your place for a bit?" Yang asked. "Just until my Aura comes back a bit and I don't need to explain myself."
Miltia nodded. "Do you need a-"
"I'm fine." Yang brushed her off. "...I'll need to find a new cane, but I'm fine."
Miltia nodded, and the two walked back, for a time.
"...Yang?" Miltia asked. "I just... Thanks. For trying to make me feel better."
"No problem." Yang groaned. "It's easy to let people bask in my glow, and its usually all I need to do."
Miltia giggled.
Two weeks later, and the Intoner group would be leaving for Atlas. Naturally, during this period, in addition to her work in other areas, Yang would visit Two to see her again. During one of these visits-
[X] The orphan girl and the Undine act up a bit.
[X] Coco and Velvet drop by for their hit of the song.
[X] Roman and Neo were there, discussing possible ways to not have to go to Atlas.