Tad later than I would have liked to get it out (24 hrs late shut up), but I think this 'at least (roughly) 2 weeks for a chapter' is gonna work. Let's find out together!
"Chess pieces?"
An odd choice for decorating ancient ruins. But there they were. An incomplete set of chess pieces, half being yellowish, and the other half being white. There was no space for an pawns, and seeing how a few pedestals were empty, Blake and Yang weren't the first to arrive.
"I guess we just take one…" Yang trailed off as she looked over the pieces. Considering how strange the Headmasters methods had been so far, she should probably consider her choice carefully. Each piece might correspond to a team, or a grade, or something else entirely.
But the yellow horse was rather pretty.
Swiftly snatching it off the podium, Yang held the knight piece up in the light, admiring it.
At least it wasn't on fire, like the rest of the forest. Seriously, Blake and Yang had to go around an entire forest fire, and the smoke was still rising into the air some distance behind them.
"How about a nice pony?" She said, her simplistic straightforwardness drawing an eye-roll from her partner. The blonde deposited the piece in a leather bag on her waist, leaving the two to begin making their way to the cliff, only stopping when they heard a faint screaming from high above them.
A tiny figure dressed in red and black was falling from the sky, with clearly no way of slowing down. Yang blinked twice, before accepting that it was her little sister falling from the heavens. This presented Yang with a few issues. The first was that she knew she couldn't baby Ruby. The second was that Ruby was clearly not in a controlled fall, and obviously had no landing strategy besides a faceplant. The third issues, and the one that got Yang to move, was that even if she did have a landing plan, they were in an open field, so she had no way to slow her fall.
Resigning herself to saving her sister, Yang positioned herself under Ruby, arms out and ready to catch her. That was the plan.
At least it was until another figure came flying from off screen and slamming into her, carrying the both of them into a tree.
"Incoming!" Jaune had shouted as he slammed into the rapidly falling figure of Ruby, diverting her would be head on collision with the ground for a head on collision with a tree. That deathstalker had one hell of a throwing arm, err...throwing tail.
However, he only had a moment to think before he had found his new home in the trees, leading to his current situation.
"Hey Ruby." Jaune said, dangling upside down from one foot.
"Hi Jaune!" She asked, before looking around and turning back to him, "Do you and Pyrrha get away from the Ursa Major?"
"Yeah we did," he said, "ran into a big scorpion though."
"Ruby!" Yangs shouting could be heard in the distance.
"Coming Yang!" Her sister shouted back, quickly dropping to the ground and speeding off.
"Hey wait!" Jaune said, "I'm a little stuck here!" He waved around, trying to get the attention of...well anyone really. He would have just cut himself free, but a headfirst drop from fifteen feet up was something he generally wanted to avoid.
The thought for a moment before he decided to take matters into his own hands. Jaune curled up, grabbing the branch his foot was stuck in, drawing his sword, and hacking it off, leaving him to hang on the branch while freeing himself. He swung and released, landing on a particularly thick tree limb.
"Hmmm?" He said to himself, hearing a faint screaming coming from the sky.
"Did your sister just fall from the sky?" Blake asked, to which Yang just nodded. A rustling from the woods disturbed their thoughts, and the pair only had to wait a moment before an Ursa burst out, followed by a pink explosion and crackle of lightning, and fell over. As it collapsed, a girl with orange hair was thrown forward, landing in a roll and spring on her feet. While she was nudging the dead bear with her foot and complaining that it 'was broken', a younger, obviously more composed individual dropped off the grimms back.
"Nora," the young man panted, his green tunic and black hair slightly ruffled, "please don't do that ever again."
But alas, Nora had already discovered the white rook piece, and had already prepared a celebratory dance and song, or so it seemed when she burst into a sing-song of "I'm queen of the castle!", dancing around and posing with the rook.
"Nora!" Came the black haired man, who had caught his breath and was making his way to the ruins. At his voice, Nora froze mid lyric, the white piece balanced on her head, and bounced over to her partner.
"Coming Ren!"
Sensing that both she and her partner were getting tired of this string of chaos, Yang decided to shout for her sister, swiftly receiving response from the woods she had flown into. Shortly after, Ruby came zipping out of the treeline, and jumping into her sisters arms.
"Are you okay?"
"Jeez, I'm fine," Ruby said, feeling a little embarrassed at the motherly tone Yang was using.
Looking next to her big sister, Ruby saw Blake, looking a her with an indifferent, detached expression. She waved to her.
"Hi Blake."
Blake nodded. "Hey."
"So," Ruby said, hoping against all hope, "are two of you are partners?"
"Damm straight!" Yang answered "Partnered up and punched our way through the forest!"
Sounds like Yang so far.
"Congratulations…" Yang forced herself to ignore the heart wrenchingly dejected tone she used.
"Ruby, where's your partner? You do have a partner, don't you?"
"Of course I've got a-"
"Is it Jaune?"
"No..." She trailed off, "He's with Pyrrha."
Yang cocked her head and raised an eyebrow. "Ruby, who is your partner?"
"Weiss," Ruby mumbled, hoping no one would hear her.
"Weiss Schnee?" Blake said.
Ruby and Yang turned to Blake, and watched her face flash from angry to calm and emotionless in an instant. It was only a second, but that momentary break in character showed what she really thought about the heiress
"Well where is she? Did you manage to lose her?"
"Yes! I mean no!...well, I didn't, like, try to lose her"
"Easy there Rubes, just kidding around." There was a slight pause, "You didn't go looking for Weiss right?"
"I didn't choose her at all. I just… sort of almost crashed into her...again." Ruby almost snapped, trying to clarify. "I was running along, thinking about partners and stuff, when I jumped a bush and she was just standing there. I stopped, and she just walked away."
"She left you to make your way here all by yourself?"
"No, I caught up to her eventually, and I tried to give this whole speech about how I'd be a good partner." She said, tripping over her words a bit.
"What happened next?" Yang asked.
"Then we found Jaune and Pyrrha-well Weiss found Jaune and Pyrrha,"
She said, thinking back for a moment, "and then the forest was on fire, and there was an Ursa Major, Weiss threw it threw into a tree, and Jaune told us to leave."
"Reckless." Blake said.
"Awesome." Yang corrected.
"Worse!" Ruby corrected again.
"And that's when you ditched her."
"No, that's when we got lost. Seriously, it's like she's never even been outside before!" At this Ruby audibly huffed, "And I told her to jump a while ago."
"Jump?"
The red haired sister looked up, and pointed at the huge black shadow high in the sky, a small white blob seemingly attached to it.
"Is that a?"
"Nevermore." Ruby finished.
"And hanging off the back?
"Weiss."
Yang stared for a moment. "Well look at that…"
From high above, an anger and fear riddled voice came, "How could you leave me?"
"I said 'jump!'" Ruby yelled back, not seeming to realize she couldn't hear her.
"Aww..." Yang said with a mischievous glimmer in her eyes, "see? She misses you!"
Ruby crossed her arms in front of her and frowned. "Yang..."
"She's gonna fall." said Blake, as one of the heiresses arms came loose.
"She'll be fine," Ruby said, not even looking up.
"And, she's falling," Blake replied.
Jaune was impressed at how far the Deathstalker, as Pyrrha referred to it, had actually managed to throw him. Trying to use his head for once and fight smart, Jaune decided to try and remove its stinger, and had jumped onto its tail to cut it off. He got off one good slash before it whipped its tail. Not prepared at all for the sudden motion, Jaune went flying out of the cave, across the field, into Ruby, and into the trees on the other side.
He'd gotten himself out of a tangle of branches, and was now running through the treetops, jumping from branch to branch as he raced above the ground. He had just nearly reached the clearing when he heard a faint screaming, a panicked, piercing yell from high above. He looked, catching a glimpse of a figure dressed on white plummeting toward the ground, not showing any signs of slowing down.
'Weiss', Jaune thought, before deciding his next course of action.
'So this is it?' Weiss thought as the ground raced increasingly close to her, 'This is how I die? I get thrown off a nevermore during initiation, because my idiot of a partner decided it was a good idea to climb up on the damn thing.
Despite still screaming in abject terror, she had resigned herself to dying here somewhat, making what happened next all the more pleasing.
Something hit her, painfully, knocking the wind out of her lungs and being sure to leave a bruise, turning her vertical drop into a sharp diagonal angle to the ground, she caught a glimpse of black and gold before her movement stopped, and a pair of black metal sabatons slammed into the ground, diggin rents into the earth as they tried to stop their owner.
As jarring as the last five seconds had been, Weiss would take it over fatal impact any day of the week. Her eyes refocused, and her grip relaxed, her hands unclenching from the black and gold cloth they were clutching, instead putting one on each shoulder of whoever had caught her, propping herself up slightly.
"Good job Jaune!" Came the loud, boisterous voice of Yang, "Nice catch!"
"Hmmph…" Jaune huffed, before looking down at Weiss, "Are you alright?" He said, genuine concern in his voice, his bright, golden eyes only a few inches from hers.
"Y-yes, I'm alright," Weiss said, looking away, a pinkish tinge spreading across her face, "Thank you."
"Sorry about ramming into you like that," He said, walking back over to the students that had gathered, "Not the most gentle of catches, but I assumed you'd prefer it to...well, you know."
"No, it's fine, I'm pretty sure you saved me." Weiss said, looking around at everyone, fidgeting slightly, adjusting her positioning to one more comfortable, sinking into the situation as the knight carried her bridal style across the clearing.
"Weiss!" Came the overeager voice of Ruby, causing her to roller her eyes, "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine you dolt, no thanks to you!" Weiss snapped back, still being held by Jaune, "That was such as stupid idea Ruby, I can't believe it actually worked."
"Oh, hey Jaune!" Ruby said, trying to ignore the fact he literally had her partner in his arms, "Where's Pyrrha?"
As if on que, both the deathstalker and Pyrrha burst out of the woods, the latter having been flung out of them, and the former charging out, its massive arachnid frame toppling trees like child's toys. She landed face first a foot from the stone pedestals, and quickly picked herself up.
"Hey Pyrrha," Jaune said as she brushed some dirt off off her chest piece, "Just dropping in?"
"Hey Jaune!" She said, before glaring at Weiss, "Put her down."
Muttering an apology to the heiress, Jaune released her, the white haired Schnee taking the opportunity to pointed stand away from her partner, instead standing at Jaunes right side while Pyrrha took his left.
"Oh great the gang's all here!" Yang snarked, as the deathstalker charged "Now we can all die together!"
"Not if I can help it!" Ruby cried, raising her scythe and charging the scorpion, an adorable and childish battle cry accompanying her, much to the distress of her sister. In a flutter of rose petals, Ruby reached the grim, preparing to strike, before a large claw swiped her back.
"D-Do-Don't worry! Totally fine!" Ruby stammered, hastily firing a few times before sheathing her scythe and retreating. One her way, the nevermore she'd hitched a ride from apparently tired of circling, and let loose a loud, booming cry, before flapping its wings, sending a hail of razor feathers down to the ground. In a stroke of luck, all but one missed Ruby, the outlying feather catching the tip of her cloak, stapling it into the ground.
"Ruby!" Jaune shouted, starting a dead sprint to the red haired girl as the deathstalker closed in, "Get out of there!"
"I'm trying, I'm trying!" She yelled back, tugging on the cloak that was keeping her in place, the grimm drawing ever closer, claws snapping in anticipation, now mere feet from the girl. The claw reached toward her, as Ruby backed away, straining against her cape, as the point of the razor tipped claw suddenly snapped back with a flash of heat and the smell of smoke.
As the scorpion recoiled, screeching in pain, Jaune thrusted his sword, giving a noise of almost disappointment when the point was deflected, only carving a slight groove in the bone white carapace. Seeing his strike having little effect, Jaune followed up with that shield punch he seemed to love so much, the point of the heater shield impacting the grimm.
Across the field, Pyrrha gulped a little as the strike slammed into the titanic deathstalker, producing a spider web of lines across its face plates. The champion had just realized how powerful Jaune really was, and she found herself glad that they were partners, decreasing the chance they'd be fighting each other in class. Anyone who could punch hard enough to make a full grown deathstalker flinch was not someone she wanted to test her luck against.
Even Yang seemed to catch on, actually wincing when the sharp cracking noise reached her ears. But despite Jaunes impressive strength, the scorpion survived and attacked quickly, the whiplike tail coming down to impale Ruby, suddenly stopping just inches from her face in a flash of white.
"You are so childish!"
Ruby opened her eyes to see the stinger and lower half of the deathstalker stuck in a block of ice, and her equally frosty savior standing over her, arms crossed.
"Weiss...?"
"And dim-witted, and hyperactive, and don't even get me started on your fighting style. And I suppose I can be a bit... difficult... but if we're going to do this, we're going to have to do this together." Weiss said as she wrenched her rapier out of the ice, "So if you quit trying to show off, I'll be... nicer."
"I'm not trying to show off." She responded, "I want you to know I can do this."
"You're fine." The heiress harrumphed
Ruby stopped, and waited until she caught her breath before she continued, "Normal knees…" She stands up, her eyes snapping to the deathstalker frozen in ice, "Woah." She said, giving a short thanks to Jaune as he drew his sword and cut the upper four fifths of the feather away, letting him pull out the root easily, freeing Ruby.
"So happy you're okay!" The sisterly reunion being broken up shortly after by another loud cry from the grimm high above. As before, the grimm cry heralded another barrage of razor feathers, the treelike black projectiles bearing down towards the humans below.
Moving with conviction, Jaune grabbed Weiss by the wrist and yanked her out of the way of a feather, one that would have speared her through the waist a second later. He half pulled, half threw her behind him, and she hit the ground next to Ruby, letting Jaune protect all three of the. at once with his shield.
And a good idea that was, seeing how the single feather that hit the shield actually managed to pierce it, reaching a scarce few inches through the metal, leaving a hole about an inch in diameter.
"Motherfucker…" The knight hissed, looking at the ten foot feather stuck in his shield, an expression of relief coloring his features when Yang offered him a hand. She grabbed the feather with both of them, bracing her foot on his shield, and pulled, easily freeing the feather from the hunk of metal.
"Wow," The gold haired boxer said, looking closer at his choice of arms, "Hell of a shield." She then looked to the deathstalker frozen in ice, specifically the crater in its head where Jaune had socked it.
"Nice punch."
"Thanks." He said, grimacing at the hole in his shield, as Yang helped her sister up to the sound of a other caw.
"Hey guys?" Jaune said, glaring daggers at the nevermore who's feather put a little hole in his shield, "It's circling back!"
"Look, there's no sense in dilly-dallying. Our objective is right in front of us."Weiss motions to the relic chess pieces.
"My partner's right." Said Ruby, choosing her words very carefully, "Our mission is to grab an artifact and make it back to the Cliffs." She nodded to Weiss, "There's no point in fighting these things."
"Tactical retreat?" Jaune said, sounding almost disappointed, receiving a confused look from Ruby, "It's like running away, but less embarrassing." At that he received a smirk from Yang and an arched eyebrow from Weiss.
Ruby, Weiss, Jaune and Yang ran back over to the ruins, Ruby grabbing a golden knight piece, and Jaune grabbing a golden rook.
"Time we left!" Ren said, keeping an eye on the treeline for more grimm.
"Alright," Jaune said, sheathing his sword, "Let's move!" He shouted, everyone falling in behind him, Pyrrha taking a place next to him, giving him a nod and a smile, which he returned before facing forward.
"Headmaster," Glynda said, catching Ozpin's attention, "The forest is notably more on fire than it was a few minutes ago."
"Hmm…" He replied, taking a long sip of his coffee.
"Sir?"
'This gods damned ursa major!' Jaune swore under his breath as the battered and burned grimm bear that had been plaguing him the entire initiation charged out of the woods and swiped him off course, the stump of its arm flailing about and a few initiates shouting.
But he stood his ground, even though both his sword and shield had been knocked from his grasp, opting to brawl Yang style, going toe to toe with the grimm, pitting the two in a contest of raw strength alone. While the grimm would surely win all out, Jaune was an experienced fighter, and dodged under a wild swipe, countering with a straight punch to the left knee, splintering it, before following up with a hook to the kidneys and a backflip, sending demon bear teeth everywhere with the heel of his metal boot.
Three succinct gunshots rang out, each hitting the Ursa Major in the back of the head, forcing its attention to Pyrrha, the once responsible. Using his partners distraction, Jaune took the time he'd been given to retrieve his sword and shield from the ground. He turned back around at the sound of a fourth gunshot and the roar of a grimm to see Pyrrha rolling over its shoulder, coming to a stop next to him. She turned to her partner, and nodded, smiling a little to herself when he returned the nod.
But the deathstalker, having broken out of its icy prison some time ago, had other ideas. The two barely dodged a downward strike from its pincer, diving to the left and right. Of course now the nevermore decided to get involved again, a third hail of feathers stopping the rest of the group from reaching Jaune and Pyrrha.
Now the four were eye each other, Jaune and Pyrrha backed together, the Ursa eyeing Pyrrha, and the deathstalker gazing at Jaune, clearly angry about denting its face. Jaune looked over his shoulder at Pyrrha for a moment before speaking.
"Pyrrha," He said, his voice leaving no room for questioning, "When I whistle, duck."
He then grabbed his sword with his shield hand, and gave the sharpest, loudest whistle Pyrrha had ever heard. Following his directions, she got down, and hit the deck as a black, red and orange mass soared over her, and landed on the deathstalker.
"Keep him busy Vulkahn!" Jaune instructed, as the magma drake began tearing into the grimm, molten white claws and fangs digging into its hard shell.
"What the hell is that?" Pyrrha said, turning her rifle to point at Vulkahn, before Jaune moved the barrel away, grabbing and pulling it both away from Vulkahn, and pulling her out of the way of the grimm, his shield taking the strike.
"Vulkahn'll keep it busy!" Jaune answered, taking his sword back into his sword hand, "Right now we've got to take down this Ursa Major."
"What in Monty's name is that?" Glynda whispered to herself, looking at the...thing that had jumped onto the Deathstalker. It almost looked like a fusion of a wolf and a crocodile in its form, with four reptilian legs and toothy jaws, a long, rigid and stiff tail protruding from its backside. It certainly moved like a wolf, jumping around the scorpion, clawing and biting, a line of flame running down its back.
"It's certainly no grimm," Ozpin responded, now looking through the same camera as his assistant, "or at least, no grimm I've ever seen."
"Whatever it is, we'll need to take care of it," Goodwitch replied, "it's 15 feet long and more than a match for a full grown deathstalker." She said as it's maw opened and a jet of burning magma was blasted onto the grimm, its charred and cracked shell now smoking and on fire, the molten material melting through its carapace.
"Perhaps," Her boss said, taking a sip from his mug of coffee, "but we need to wait until the initiation ends at least."
"Right now, I'm more curious about our little mystery, Jaune Arc." He said, as he motioned to Pyrrha, who used his shield like a springboard, launching her over the Ursa Major, landing in the field of spines that made up its back.
"I...I suppose." Glynda said, sighing, tearing her focus away from the fiery lizard wolf thing, "Given that talk we had with Qrow last night, we really should keep an eye on him."
"You lost a bullhead?" Ironwood shouted at Qrow, who was trying to find an excuse at the bottom of his flask. He'd flown in, waking up both Ozpin and Glynda at 2:30 in the morning with 'Serious News', prompting a call to Atlas.
"It was that or I lose my head!" He shouted back, pointing at the general.
"Qrow," Ozpin sighed, "Just...start from the beginning."
"Fine fine," he grumbled, putting his flask back into his jacket, "I'll start from the beginning."
"So." He cleared his throat. "A few hours ago, I was checking up on Raven."
"You don't normally do that."
"Yes." He admitted. "But the real lack of activity from her and the White Fang was starting to get to me. So I fly up, real close, and she's talking to someone. They're discussing some new deal, with her tribe giving intelligence and information, and this other group building some sort of base."
"Any idea who this other group is?" Glynda asked, ready to take notes on her scroll.
"No," he said, whipping out his scroll and booting it up, "I've got an ID on the person there, name's Morrigan, says she's a 'Nevermore'"
"A Nevermore? Ozpin, mind sending that to me?" James said through the video screen. After sending it, Ozpin passed it over to Glynda, who looked almost...jealous.
"What the-are those wings?" James half shouted, half asked, looking at the shot of Morrigan, black raven wings spread and glowing contrails trailing from her blood red eyes glaring right into the camera as she raced after the bullhead. The only thing really unsettling was the fact there were the few holes in her left cheek and jaw, letting the photo capture the image of her white fangs.
"Yep, and she's damn fast with them too." Qrow said, standing up and stretching, "Good with a sword, and took a shot to the face and a shot to the neck like to was nothing."
"Could you beat her?" Ironwood asked, unintentionally whistling a little as he took another look at Morrigan.
"...maybe."
"Qrow you're not exactly filling us with confidence right now."
"Yeah." He said taking out his flask, "I thought I could. No aura, heavy armor, no obvious semblance, seemed like a piece of cake. Then she smacked me around a tad, but I thought I'd got her when she took a hit to the face, and right after I decided to get the hell out of dodge."
"And well," he took a hearty swig from his flask, "That was when her zombie raven grew eight times its size and started tearing the bullhead a new one."
"...I'm sorry, a what?" Ironwood repeated.
"Hell of a jump Pyrrha!" Jaune shouted, having just springboarded his partner onto the Ursa Majors back. With Vulkahn keeping the desthstalker occupied, he only had to focus on the Ursa Major Pyrrha had mounted, sending it into a frenzy, the giant grimm bear roaring and swiping madly, trying in vain to knock her off.
"Hey!" The knight shouted, drawing its attention, causing it to stop thrashing ss much, letting Pyrrha stand up on its shoulders, her spear reconfiguring into a rifle. The grimm had just opened its mouth to lunge, when everything snapped back into high gear.
"Now!" He yelled, and on command Pyrrha emptied her magazine, half a dozen dust bullets drilling into the thick bone plate on the back of its skull, forcing it to snap its head down. Then Jaune moved, caving its right knee in with a punch from his shield hand, and following it up with a stab upwards. The tip of his blade riposted straight through its skull, punching out the top of its bony head with a satisfying crunch.
Wrenching the sword free, Jaune brought it around, the edge of his steel meeting the sliver of exposed, unarmored fur between its plated head and spined back and shoulders. The bite of Aurum Mors sung true, flowing into the grimm flesh like a hot knife into butter, the head of the beast following shortly after, the dull thud of the Ursa Major head hitting the ground overshadowed by Pyrrha rolling off its back as its body dropped to the floor.
They were about to compliment each other on their competence, when Vulkahn yelped and flew in between them, the deathstalker having gotten lucky and grabbed then thrown the magma drake.
"Shit," Jaune hissed, as Vulkahn picked himself back up and shook like a dog, sending bits of dirt and molten slag flying off him, "any ideas?"
"Not right now," Pyrrha said, her rifle transforming back into a spear, "It's armor is to tough for us, and we don't have anything that can punch through it."
"Punch through it…" Jaune muttered to himself, inwardly gigling when Pyrrha huffed at his admittedly straightforward and blunt thinking.
"I've got a plan," He said, as the deathstalker slammed its claws down and hissed, approaching slowly, "when I say so, I need you to hit my shield as hard as you can, got it?"
"I-um, sure," The mistralian said, bringing her focus back to the task at hand, "tell me when."
"Nice. Vulkahn, go for the tail!" He shouted, grabbing the drake by the horns as he leapt back toward the grimm. Vulkahn's jump carried him above the grimm, right toward its tail, which the drake grabbed onto, clawed, scaly paws wrapped around the scorpion's tail, white hot talons digging into the bone.
It was then that Jaune dropped, let go of Vulkahn, and reared his shield hand back for a punch. It connected, the force and momentum putting his shield arm through the charred bone plating up to the wrist.
"Now!" He shouted at Pyrrha, who used the understandable distraction to jump onto its back. Continuing in the same motion, she vaulted high into the air again, and brought both her feet down in a kick, driving the shield arm further into the grimm, now up to Jaunes elbow.
Acting swiftly, Jaune used his pyromancy, his arm and hand heating up, smoke wafting from the grimms armor, until it released, folding its body with raging flames, incinerating its organs and blackening its armor, fire blazing out of its eyes, its mouth, the scars in its back and even the joints in its tail, an ear piercing shriek of terror, pain and mindless fear reaching the ears of the remaining initiates, who had been forced to engage both another horde of grimm and the nevermore.
Eventually the roaring flames died down, and smoke began pouring from its corpse when Jaune removed his arm, dust and charr falling off his body. He paused, catching his breath, waiting for his gauntlet to cool down, Pyrrha watching as the metal when from white hot to orange, then red, and finally dark greyish black. He looked to his partner, and motioned for a high five, which she reciprocated, looking happy with herself and him, at least until she looked at her hand, specifically the fine layer of soot coating it.
"Oh crap, sorry about that Pyrrha," He apologized, "I'm gonna have to clean that later…" He muttered as he unceremoniously wiped a good amount of it off on his waistcloth.
"Don't worry about it Jaune," she laughed, putting a smile back on his face, "everything's on fire, I'm sure this won't be the end of me."
Jaune looked around. The trees were ablaze, the sky clouded with ash, grimm all around them, the forest fire he'd accidentally started had obviously grown out of control. In the distance he could see a couple bullheads spraying liberal amounts of water, trying to combat the blaze as best they could.
"I really need to work on getting that under control…" Jaune said, as Pyrrha laughed again.
A growl sounded, and a beowulf received a flash of steel and complimentary decapitation for approaching. The second one found its demise in the jaws of Vulkahn, who shook it like a dog with a toy, the force sending a limb or two flying off.
"We need to get back to the group," Pyrrha said, as more grimm crawled out of the treeline, "We're not in a good position."
"Yeah, I was thinking that too," Of course, the Darkrusader in Jaune wanted to stand his ground and let them come, to 'Fall by my sword heathens, and taste thine steel of vengeance!', as his brothers would say, "we should go. How do you feel about fire?"
"What do you mean...uhhh…" She trailed off, as Jaune climbed atop Vulkahn, and offered a hand to her, the magma drake eyeing her with a reasonable amount of suspicion, then rumbling in contentment when she took his hand.
"Lets go!"
"Thank you, Sir Taurus," Zalthar said as he began to wrap up his conversation with the White Fang leader, "That would be a suitable location for our portal."
"Appreciated." The bull faunus said, trying to act natural, something which was becoming increasingly difficult with the increasing amounts of walking skeletons and rotting corpses milling about. While Adam couldn't deny the astounding and robotic efficiency of Acereraks workers, he still couldn't deny the fact that they, to put it mildly, 'creeped him the fuck out.'
And judging by the expressions of the grunts in the warehouses, he was not alone in that sentiment.
Oddly enough, the White Fang R&D people had not only become either desensitized or comfortable with them, but had actually gotten along incredibly well, acting as friends and close comrades during their research together.
Most notably Rufus Hog, an impressively competent mechanical engineer, who had become very close friends with Vilfred, a six foot skeleton tinkerer from a subterranean city called 'Carthus', apparently located beneath a great desert. The two were reportedly inseparable, with Vilfred even being invited to Hog's wedding a week or two ago, the two taking a boat to Menagerie for the ceremony and party.
While thankfully all of the people in attendance were either in or supported the White Fang (allowing Acererak and his people to remain hidden for the time), Adam would have payed to see the looks on the crowds faces when a bleach white skeleton in a well tailored suit took a seat with the groomsmen. Aside from scaring the ever loving hell out of all in attendance, it was actually the final nail in the coffin for their alliance, the gesture of real friendship and camaraderie represented by a skeleton at a wedding being enough to convince Sienna Kahn to fully commit to their alliance.
"Hate to break up the goodwill flowing here," Roman said, breaking up the goodwill flowing there, "but I'm kinda curious, what now?"
"Could you elaborate Sir Torchwick?" The vampire asked, black robes shifting with him.
"Well," Roman thought about his question for a moment, "what do we do now? You guys have gotten bases in three continents and two major kingdoms. You've gotten yourselves set up, so what are you going to do next?"
"I suppose there's no harm in telling you a tad early," Zalthar admitted, as the two reached the 'main' room in the warehouse, "the next phase of the plan-"
"Is to save Menagerie." Came the booming voice of Acererak, his ten foot form appearing from the swirling green vortex in the center of the room, which howled and slowly dissipated into thin air.
"If I didn't know you better I'd say you're planning a genocide." Adam said, unintentionally letting some steel into his voice. And why wouldn't he? Unintentional as it may have been, what he said could be taken as an insult with minimal effort.
"I am." He said, chuckling and striding to the window, placing his massive gauntleted hands on the sill, "As beautiful as your continent is, it is in danger."
"How so?" Adam asked, already able to predict the lichs answer.
"Your root problem is lack of recognition." Acererak began, still gazing out the window. "None of the kingdoms officially recognize Menageries as one of them, meaning our people don't exist in the eyes of politics."
"...our…" Adam whispered to himself, emotion creeping into his voice. Just as Vilfred attending Rufus Hog's wedding fully convinced Sienna, this unintentional wording of Acererak was what finally fully convinced Adam.
"This lack of recognition is what stops aid programs from assisting, what stops official and profession huntsmen and women from helping with grimm." The lich said, Adam growling at the truth behind his words. "The grimm that are consistently and unceasingly taking the continent back. The kingdoms do not help you, in some cases because they cannot help you without writing it off as foreign aid, because you don't technically exist."
"You know I never actually thought of it that way," Torchwick said, Neo walking up to him and nodding in agreement, "I just sorta wrote it off as racism."
"That is certainly a factor, I will admit that Roman," The ten foot behemoth replied, "but the primary reason the Kingdoms refuse to recognize Menagerie is money. Foreign aid is expensive, but setting up the infrastructure and political installations to create a new kingdom is even more so."
"Simply put, the Kingdoms don't provide aid and supplies to Menagerie because the leaders would have to mark it as a personal business venture," Zalthar cut in at his unvocalized cue, "They would have to take money out of their own pockets to assist.
"Something they'd never do…" Adam finished, resolve hardening.
"Yes. But back to the topic of genocide," Acererak said, his words causing Roman to involuntarily gulp and send a shiver down Adams spine, "that is my next plan for Menagerie."
"They will fall by the sword, and taste the steel bite of vengeance." Said Morrigan, striding out of the dark and standing next to her Lord.
"A genocide of Grimm."
And there we are! A nice sized chapter, roughly two weeks, more action, drama, bad writing and stalling. Odds are I'll be wrapping up the initiation next chapter, so keep your eyes out for that.