As the four students notice the giant Grimm heading straight for them, Sapphire shouts, "We need to fall back! Now!" She suddenly dashes off toward the forest, causing the three boys to quickly follow her.
"So, do ya know where you're goin' or what?", Persi quickly asks the girl as he looks to her for an answer.
She quickly looks back to him and shakes her head yes before looking down at her scroll. She sees the marker located on top of a cliff and a blue arrow representing her current location. "We're heading for the side of that cliff! I doubt that thing can climb too well, so we can evade it there!", she suggests as they rush into the forest.
"And we're just supposed to keep runnin' until then!? That thing 'll catch up to us before that!", Persi exclaims, causing Reginald to laugh.
He looks to his partner to and watches as Reginald grins while saying, "If we get it in the right spot, we could take it!"
"We should keep moving. That Grimm isn't recorded in any records I've seen, so it's either extremely rare...or...", Sapphire begins to say before Ash finishes her sentence, saying, "No hunter or huntress has ever lived to record data on this Grimm."
This causes both Persi's and Reginald's eyes to widen in disbelief as they all continue to rush toward their destination. Persi glances over to see Ash glaring at him as he grabs the hilt of his sword, which causes him to panic.
"Sapphire, ignite these.", Ash calmly suggests as he starts to draw his blade from its sheath.
"W-what are ya-", Persi nervously begins to ask before Ash slashes past him, hitting the the trees behind him.
Sapphire shouts, "I understand!", before using her blades, ignited by fire Dust, to quickly light the falling trees on fire. As the burning trees fall over, the Hydra Grimm stops before slithering around the fire and continuing to chase after them.
Persi's eyes widen in disbelief as he sees this before Reginald cheerfully exclaims, "Great, now we know it's weakness! All we have to do is burn down the entire forest and it'll fuck off!"
"We should take advantage of this and pick up the pace. Let's go!", Sapphire exclaims before using the fire dust from her Azure Drakes to launch herself forward with an explosive blast aimed toward the ground.
Reginald's grin widens as he shouts, "Alright, no more holding back!", and he sends out his wires, pulling himself forward by wrapping around the trunks of trees and pulling himself forward.
Ash suddenly gets engulfed by his grey aura before seeming to zoom by Persi who growls in frustration. "Hey, don't just ditch me, assholes!", he shouts in a rage before grabbing his axe and turning it into its shotgun form. He quickly fires multiple shots at the ground with his gun, propelling himself forward with the additional force, helping him catch up to the others.
As they zoom through the forest together, Persi looks down at his scroll to see that they're getting close to their destination at an astonishing rate, which he fullheartedly laughs at. "Looks like we're in the clear, guys! We're almost th-", he begins to say happily before he runs into a wall face first, causing him to drop his weapon and scroll before falling down on his back. He lets out a pain-filled groan while rubbing his head with his eyes closed, before saying, "Damn it all, why didn't they tell me there was a rock there!?"
"Um, Persi...", Reginald says in a worried tone, causing the bear to look over to see the three of them standing behind him, looking up at something. Persi raises an eyebrow at him before looking to see what they're looking at, seeing that the 'rock' is really a giant wall of stone!
"W-what!? This wall wasn't here before, was it!?", Persi frantically asks as he looks up at the wall, getting up on his feet after grabbing his weapon and scroll.
"No, it wasn't. Something's off.", Sapphire says with a worried look before glancing over her shoulder to see the Hydra Grimm coming.
Reginald looks to the right and says, "Let's find a way around!", before starting to run to the right, but the ground suddenly rises up, blocking his path. "W-what the hell!?", he growls to himself before turning around to see another wall rise up from the ground, trapping the group in a corner.
"A trap!?", Persi exclaims in disbelief as he looks around.
Sapphire places one of her Azure Drakes in her mouth before drawing another blade after saying, "There's no time left to complain. It's coming."
As the four of them look into the forest, they hear the thundering crashes of trees being crushed and the ground trembling. Reginald and Ash both quickly prepare themselves for battle while Persi aims his shotgun toward the coming threat. They wait patiently for the enemy to show itself with their backs to the wall, but the forest suddenly falls into silence.
The four of them slowly form a perimeter to help their formation and Persi asks, "So, anyone got a plan?"
"Dodge to the right.", Ash replies, earning a confused glance from the bear. Suddenly, two of the Hydra's heads lunges at the group and Sapphire, Reginald and Ash all dodge to the right and Reginald and Ash pull Persi with them, helping him out of the way of harm. As they're dodging, however, three more heads lunge out of the forest at the group.
Ash and Reginald dodge to the left, carrying Persi with them, who's shooting at the heads. The shots don't seem to do anything other than irritate the beast before three heads team up to attack the boys. Ash forms a few aura blades before launching them at the Grimm heads, but they only shatter off of the beast's hard scales and bones.
Before the heads can attack them, Sapphire launches a powerful gust of wind at them with her wind Dust, sending them up into the air and out of danger. Reginald looks around and sees a few choice trees before shouting to Persi, "Chuck him, Persi!"
Persi looks to Ash, who nods to him, causing the bear to grin. "Payback's a bitch!", Persi shouts as he launches Ash up in the air with a powerful throw.
As Ash goes flying up into the air, half of the Hydra's heads go straight for him! Reginald and Sapphire quickly use the fire Dust in their weapons to create a giant explosion that engulfs four of the Hydra's remaining heads. "Now Persi, do it!", Reginald shouts as the last free head rushes toward Persi.
With a courageous roar, he uses his axe to slash down at the last free head. Boosted by the power of his semblance, he manages to cut the beast, decapitating it in one go.
As his blade slices through the beast's neck, it crashes into the ground and causes a giant explosion, sending dirt, grass, and dust flying into the air from the raw force behind his attack. As Reginald and Sapphire look on in disbelief of the raw power Persi just displayed, Ash dodges the heads trying to attack him before landing on top of one and running along its neck toward the main body.
"If this Grimm has multiple heads, then either one of the heads is the main one, or...", he begins to think before finally reaching the main body where the multiple King Taijitu bodies are fused together. As he sees the mask of a Grimm hiding between the bodies, he thinks to himself, "There it is." He goes to attack the Grimm right in its mask, but he's quickly forced to retreat when two of the beast's heads lunge at him with their mouths wide open.
As he retreats back to the others, who are fighting off the other eight heads attacking them. "What was that? You looked like you found something.", Sapphire notes, though it's a bit muffled due to the sword in her mouth.
Ash quickly slashes at an oncoming head while replying with, "It seems like there's some kind of Grimm keeping this thing together. It's not one that I've ever read about, so it must be rare."
"So we destroy that annoying Grimm and this giant Grimm just becomes some basic King Taijitus! Sounds like a plan!", Reginald adds as he manages to block an attack from four of the heads by igniting his wires with fire Dust, forcing them to retreat back to their main body. As he does this,
Persi blasts back a couple of the blood thirsty heads before turning to ask, "So we found a weak point, what now?"
Ash turns to Sapphire, who closes her eye for a moment before quickly opening it, and as she does, it begins to glow with a strong blue aura. She looks to the boys before sternly ordering, "Persi, Reginald, you two distract the heads. Keep together and work as a team. Ash, you're gonna cover me as I go for the killing blow. Got it?"
They all nod before Persi and Reginald start causing havoc, earning the giant Grimm's attention easily and Ash and Sapphire go the opposite way, trying to avoid the battle. As they rush around the large Grimm, one of the heads that stayed back to protect its weak spot. Ash quickly gets in front of Sapphire before just as quickly saying, "I'll deal with this, go for the weak spot!" He quickly forms multiple aura blades which knock the head back as he rushes toward it to push it further back.
Thanks to this, she's able to rush past the and head straight for the Grimm's weak point. "According to my vision, that Grimm Ash mentioned should be right-", she begins to think before finding the Grimm Ash found earlier and saying, "Here!" She goes for a quick stab, but one of the Grimm's slimy tentacles manages to push the blade, saving it from certain death. Sapphire simply grins before activating the Dust in her three Azure Drakes and launching a full-on onslaught on the Grimm while shouting, "Take this!"
This causes a giant explosion that nearly engulfs the Grimm's entire main body before the Hydra falls apart, reverting to five separate King Taijitus. The explosion sends dust and dirt flying into the air, nearly blinding everyone in its radius.
"She did it!", Persi exclaims as the snake like Grimm lose their thicker scales and bone-like armor.
Reginald quickly cuts down two of the King Taijitus while happily saying, "Now these things are just child's play!"
Persi quickly decapitates both heads of a King Taijitu with a single swing of his axe before saying, "To think these things would get so strong from working together."
"It doesn't matter anymore. We should continue toward our objective.", Ash suggests after speeding by one of the last King Taijitu, sheathing his blade as the beast falling to pieces.
As the last King Taijitu tries to escape, two blades fall from the sky, and as they pierce through the Grimm's two heads, they see they're Sapphire's Azure Drakes. "I agree, we should keep moving.", Sapphire adds as she steps out of the dying dust cloud while sheathing the Azure Drake she had in her mouth.
The four students look up at the giant cliff face without any plausible way to climb its flat face. "So, how the hell do we get up there?", Persi asks as he puts away his axe and looks up at the cliff face in confusion.
"Persi.", Sapphire says sternly, earning a glance from the giant bear. She glances over to Reginald and says, "Chuck Reginald up there."
"W-what!? Isn't that dangerous!?", Persi asks in a panic as he reels back.
"You just did the same thing with Ash, so it should be simple enough, right?", Reginald asks with a smug grin on his face.
Sapphire lets out a slight laugh before saying, "But first, wrap your wires around the three of us."
In response, he quickly wraps the three of them in a thick amount of his wire before saying, "Alright, that should hold. I even added a few extra layers for you, Persi."
"Is that some sort of joke, Reg-", Persi begins to ask with a growl before Ash cuts him off by saying, "Focus. We need to get up there before more Grimm find our location."
"If you're that pissed at me, then you have a reason to chuck me, right? Then get to it then.", Reginald replies smugly before Persi quickly grabs him by the collar of his shirt with one hand and lifts him off the ground.
With a powerful chuck, Persi sends Reginald flying up into the air as he shouts, "You asked for it, you little bastard!"
As Reginald lands on top of the cliffside, he gets a call on his scroll from an unknown number.
He reluctantly answers it to hear it's Sapphire, saying, "Now, reel Ash and I up. Once you do that, we'll help pull Persi up."
"When exactly did you become the boss of me, Cyclops?", Reginald sarcastically asks with a smug tone before feeling something tug on his threads.
He's quickly pulled to the very edge of the cliff before hearing Sapphire say, through his scroll's speaker, "If you call me that one more time, I'll toss you off that cliff."
Both fearlessly and ignorantly, he jokingly asks, "Promise?", before almost falling off the cliff as she tugs on the threads oncemore. This causes the boy to let out a cackle before starting to reel his two comrades in, bringing them to the top of the cliff within minutes.
When they land at the top of the cliff, Sapphire is glaring at him with her one eye as she hangs up her scroll and Ash has his usual plain expression on his face. She sees his grin and simply rolls her eye before looking down at Persi.
"Alright, let's pull him up and get out of here.", Sapphire suggests as she grabs onto one side of the wires. Ash grabs the other side, preparing to help her and as they start to pull, Reginald starts to reel him up with them. With their aid, Persi climbs up the face of the cliff before almost reaching the top. As he grabs the edge of the cliff, the other three use the last of their combined strength to pull him over and up to them, all falling down as Persi joins them.
Exhausted from their hard work, they all pant and gasp for air. "Damn, Persi! You're just as heavy as you look!", Reginald jokingly notes as he sits up to look to his partner, but Persi just glares at him.
With a growl, Persi grumbles, "Do ya want me to chuck ya off this cliff?"
Reginald simply chuckles at his threat before falling flat on his back and mocking him again, saying, "You wouldn't do that~ You'd miss me too much~"
As Sapphire sighs at their petty squabble, she glances across the sky to see a Nevermore flying sporadically around a temple like area in the distance. When she squints to get a better look at what's going on, she sees a hint of golden hair in the beast's mouth! "Yang?", she mutters under her breath as she tries to figure out who or what is in the Nevermore's mouth.
Ash lifts his head to see what she's mumbling over and notices the Nevermore with Yang in its mouth, blasting round after round of shotgun ammo down its throat. "Should we do something about that? She might be in trouble.", Ash asks as he looks to Sapphire for her response, but before she can answer, they all hear a giant crash.
All four of them watch as the Nevermore slides down the cliffside and is frozen in place by its tail. "Ice?", Persi asks in confusion as they watch the Grimm struggle, trying to escape its fate. Suddenly, a red blur goes flying through the sky and the Nevermore's head goes flying back, crashing into the cliffside.
"Ruby? She's fighting that thing too?", Sapphire nervously asks with a raised eyebrow, confused by the coincidence of the two sisters working together. Right where the red blur landed on the cliffside, they can all just barely make out the figure of a small girl in a red hood before seeing a line of white glyphs heading up the side of the cliff appear.
"She's there too? I'm surprised she hasn't broken a nail and given up yet.", Reginald sarcastically notes with a slight chuckle as he watches the fight go on. The boys all stand up, shocked at what they're witnessing as they watch the young Ruby Rose speed up the cliffside with the Nevermore's neck wedged under the blade of her scythe, pulling the bird along for the ride.
"What the-", Persi begins to say before she reaches the top of the cliff and the beast's head comes flying off with one powerful slice! As Ruby lands heroically at the top of the cliff, Persi's jaw drops in disbelief as Sapphire simply grins up at them.
"What is it Persi? Cat got your tongue?", Reginald mocks before the boy shakes his head to bring himself back into his senses.
Persi quickly points to Ruby and, still left in disbelief of what he just witnessed, shouts, "That girl couldn't- She's, like, ten! There's no way she could physically do that!"
Sapphire chuckles at Persi's confusion before suggesting, "She's more than able to do that. I've known Ruby all her life, and she's as determined as they come. You'd do well not to underestimate her, Persi."
They all suddenly get messages on their scrolls saying, "Congratulations! Head to the last point marked on your map for extraction."
"We should get moving. The evacuation point is to the North of here.", Ash suggests as he starts heading to the extraction point on his map.
Persi and Sapphire follow close behind him while Reginald grumbles, "Like I'm going to let some mummy lead me around.", before crossing his arms, not wanting to be told what to do.
"Come on, there'll probably be a few Grimm to deal with on the way there.", Persi says back to him as he looks to him over his shoulder, causing Reginald to grin.
Reginald quickly turns around and follows them, saying, "Well, it'd be rude to let the three of you have all the fun, right? I'll take the lead and deal with whatever comes my way."
With that, the team heads off to the extraction point and when they get there, they're met with multiple airships waiting for them. On one of them are Professor Ozpin and Glynda, who are more than happy to see the four of them. "Looks like we're the last group to arrive.", Ash points out as they look around to see the all the other students have already arrived in their groups.
Persi glares over at Reginald and shouts, "Well, if someone didn't insist on eliminating every Grimm they came across, then maybe we would've gotten here a bit quicker!"
Reginald just laughs at his rage before suggesting, "And maybe if someone didn't have us stop to take a potty break then maybe we wouldn't be in last place, hm?"
As the two partners glare at each other, they get right in each other's faces before Persi exclaims, "What did ya say, ya little brat!?"
"You might be big, but your bladder is the size of a peanut!", Reginald mocks the bear with a grin on his face, causing his partner to growl at him.
Their argument is interrupted when Glynda smacks her riding crop against the side of the airship, earning everyone's attention. With everyone's silence earned, Ozpin coughs into his left hand before looking to his students and saying, "Well, now that you've all finally arrived here at your final objective, let's return to Beacon. The Team Assignment ceremony will be held as soon as we get back, and after that, you'll go back to your dorms for the rest of the night."
"All students, please board the airships and once we've returned to Beacon, head to the Amphitheater and be ready for the ceremony to come.", Glynda explains before she and Ozpin board their airship and leave.
The students all do as Glynda instructed and as the last student boards their airship, they all take off in unison for Beacon Academy. When they all gather in the Amphitheater, they see that there's a large stage setup under an equally big screen. As the ceremony goes on, Ozpin calls students up to the stage by name one at a time before four people are on the stage together.
He explains which pieces the two teams picked up when they reached the ruins and assign them to a team together, naming the team after something that is or references a color.
"Cardin Winchester, Russel Thrush, Dove Bronzewing, Sky Lark. The four of you retrieved the black bishop pieces. And from this day forward, you shall work together as: Team CRDL(Cardinal), lead by, Cardin Winchester!", Ozpin announces as the four stand together proudly with their hands behind their backs. Cardin looks smugly out to the crowd of students and his gaze falls on Persi, who's glaring at him. He rolls his eyes at the Faunus before Ozpin congratulates his team and they walk off the stage proudly.
Once they're off the stage, Ozpin continues on with the next group of students. "Jaune Arc, Pyrrha Nikos, Nora Valkyrie, Lie Ren. The four of you retrieved the white rook pieces. And from this day forth, you shall be known as Team JNPR(Juniper)!", he announces as the four come onto the stage as their names are called, causing Nora to leap at Ren with a hug. He continues on, saying, "Lead by...Jaune Arc!", which catches both Pyrrha and Jaune completely off guard.
"Lead by, me?", Jaune asks in confusion and Ozpin gives him a proud nod before saying, "Congratulations young man."
Pyrrha gently places her hand on the boy's shoulder, earning a concerned look from him, but it quickly disappears when he sees her confident smile, causing him to smile back in turn. Team JNPR walks off the stage together and the next team is announced.
Ozpin continues announcing, saying, "Blake Belladonna, Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, and Yang Xiao Long. The four of you retrieved the white knight pieces. So, from this day forth, you will go by, Team RWBY.", as the girls walk onto the stage as their names are called. Weiss grins as she waits for him to announce her name as leader, but is beyond shocked when he says, "Lead by, Ruby Rose."
She isn't the only one shocked by this outcome however, as Yang gives her sister a concerned glance and Blake reacts with a raised eyebrow aimed at Ozpin. With Ozpin congratulating the four on their success, they step off the stage for the final team to be formed.
Sapphire, Ash, Persi and Reginald all walk onto the stage, the last of the students who haven't been put on a team yet.
"And finally, Sapphire Cobolt, Ash Ghent, Persi Pumpkin, and Reginald Wolfe. The four of you retrieved the black knight pieces. And from this day forward, you shall be known as, Team SAPR(Sapphire).", Ozpin announces with a smile. He stops for a moment to build up suspense before saying, "Lead by, Sapphire Cobolt. You've earned it young lady." This earns her a quick thumbs up from both Yang and Ruby, who're watching from the crowd, while Reginald simply rolls his eyes as hard as he can. Persi and Ash aren't shocked in the slightest and as the team comes off of the stage, Sapphire's quickly tackled into one of Yang's bear-hugs.
"I'm so proud of you!", Yang says to her as she lifts her off her feet.
As Sapphire gasps for air, she manages to say, "Yang! Need! Air!"
Ozpin watches on as his students start leaving for their dorms, before muttering to himself, "It seems this is going to be an interesting year."
Elsewhere in the kingdom, in a warehouse near the docks, Roman is standing in front of a map of Vale. It has multiple Dust stores marked on them with different symbols distinguishing their threat levels and the amounts of Lien and Dust he'd be able to get from them. He grumbles to himself before saying, "Doesn't matter how much Dust I get if I can't get it in time.
I need to find it." With that, he turns to the nearby table and picks up the newspaper laying on it, which has its front line story circled in red marker. It's a story about a convention for medicine coming to Vale and how important it is for the Kingdoms to work together, but that isn't the information he's looking for. As he skims through the article, he sees a picture of a large machine sitting next to a Doctor, Doctor Ceplers. Next to the picture is a miniature article about a disease called, Ceplers' Disease. It states that this disease is a bizarre brain disease that mainly effects those who've exposed to the phenomenon of the Vacuo desert triangle. This disease causes those who have it to slowly forget their past, starting from the start of their life until they eventually they can't remember anything at all. And though many do not understand the exact scientific reasoning behind the disease, they are able cure it with this machine that Doctor Ceplers invented after studying many women who showed signs of the disease he helped discover and name. This is all Roman needs to read before skipping down to the last part of the entire article that says that the event will be held in a month and the medical equipment will be protected by Vacuo's finest huntsmen.
Finished with the paper, he goes to put the paper down, but stops when he sees another interesting article. It's an article about the White Fang's recent thieving and how they've been seeming to hit all kinds of shipments from all over Remnant. As he finishes reading it, an evil grin come across his face as he puts the paper down and says, "We're gonna need more men."