Having been caught by surprise, Kris and Malva had little time to react, though in the few seconds available, both came up with the same tactic. The two gunners used their weapons to maintain their altitude and control their descend, but the recoil of Malva's sniper rifle was far greater than that of Kris's. As a result, she flew further ahead, leaving her friend to figure out a way to land on his own. He wasn't the only one who faced some difficulty staying airborne; Rosanna, with no way to keep flying, was quietly but frantically searching for a safe way to get back on the ground.
Switching between his rifle's firing settings and retractable blades, Kris fired and cut through the thick branches, slowing down just enough to have better control of where he was going. His tail provided him with enough stability to maintain his balance. Even so, overtaken by the momentum, he ended up landing with a clumsy roll, but stood up quickly and scanned the area around him. His semblance allowed him to see through the lush vegetation of Emerald Forest, spotting human silhouettes between the trees ahead of him. It was too hard to distinguish between them, and nearly impossible to locate Malva amidst them.
But when a blast echoed in the woods, he identified it as her rifle's, and began running towards that sound, followed by the figure of a girl running along with him. Through his vision, the girl -outlined in pink after her aura- was seen jumping from branch to branch, using her chains to help with her leaps. It was unclear whether she'd taken notice of him or of the small pack of Ursai heading towards them. It appeared that the Grimm hadn't sensed them either, but they were certainly about to.
At the first chance he got at a clear shot, he fired a series of bullets at the four advancing Ursai, stopping them in their tracks. Aggravated, they charged at him, but were met first with powerful shots, and then with slashes from Cerberus's blades. With his semblance, Kris made sure he could avoid another attack from any Grimm lurking nearby. But right then, just as he eliminated one of the Ursai, the girl who was running away a few seconds ago jumped into the fight. The blades attached to the end of her chains pinned down one of the Grimm, allowing Kris to finish it off with one blast from Cerberus's semi-automatic mode. Rosanna pulled the blades back, reconnecting them to the pommels of her axes. They exchanged a brief glance, before going after the remaining two monsters.
Swift like the wind, the blonde girl cut through the Ursa's black fur with her two weapons, while the lion faunus fired at the last Grimm. The two fought side-by-side without ever saying a word to each other, though it seemed unnecessary, since both could deal with the monsters on their own. But just as they finished up, Kris spotted one larger Ursa hidden between the trees ready to lunge at the girl. The round of bullets he shot did nothing to stop it. "Watch out!" he yelled, ready to jump into its way, but she did not move a muscle. The Ursa jumped right through her body, its teeth biting into the air, and landed by her side. One blast from Kris's rifle was enough to disorientate it, before it was relieved of its pain by a final swing of Rosanna's weapon.
"Are... are you hurt?" Kris asked after she had sheathed her axes.
Almost immediately, her apathetic expression switched into a more flustered one. "Uh, no, no! I'm fine. That's just my semblance. But, um, thanks for the heads-up. I hadn't seen a thing," Rosanna said.
"That's... my semblance," he chuckled. "Anyway, my name's Kris. It looks like we're partners. Nice to meet you."
She nodded her head eagerly in response. "I'm Rosanna G- Um, Rosanna Alcmene. Nice to meet you too. Uh, so now we have to..." she began but trailed off. Once again, the blast from a rifle echoed through Emerald Forest.
"Let's head north, to where the relics are located. Right now the way ahead is clear, but it's possible there's more Grimm hidden around," Kris replied, examining the distance ahead with his semblance. Malva was giving him hints of her location, but she was still too far away. "Ready to go?" he added. Rosanna nodded again, and sprinted after him.
For someone who had never had to recover from being launched into the sky, Nix was very satisfied with his landing. If it weren't for his fear of heights, he might have enjoyed it more. He had yet to come in contact with anyone, and he hadn't even been unlucky enough to encounter a Grimm. Assuming that it was simply because of the fact that he'd landed farther ahead from the others, he kept on walking leisurely, until he reached a clearing, where he heard heavy footsteps. To his dismay, they belonged to a pack of Beowolves. The thunderous sound of a firing weapon he'd heard earlier was repeated, but he had no time to think about who was behind it. Switching into his weapon's spear mode, he made the first attack against the Grimm.
A few minutes into the fight, Nix remembered that he was being monitored, and, as someone who had gotten accepted through recommendations, he felt he ought to demonstrate his best moves. A rather easy feat, considering that the Beowolves were not a difficult match for him. However, throughout the fight, he kept hearing the thunderous blast getting louder and louder, until he finally realized it was coming from the other end of the clearing. He paused just for a moment in order to catch a glimpse of the deafening weapon's owner, but was stunned at the sight of them; Pissed-off Porcelain Doll jumped out of the trees chased by a lone Beowolf, and with the most graceful leap, she delivered her pursuer's final blow mid-air. Propelled by air Dust, Malva landed right next to Nix, who had momentarily forgotten about the Grimm on his side of the clearing.
"Save it," she said strictly just as he opened his mouth to speak. "You're nowhere near done." She unloaded the remaining Dust rounds and threw them at the Grimm that Nix was keeping at bay, showering it with ice shards. She glared back at him with the most disapproving look, until Nix returned to the fight.
Malva remained in one place, shooting bullet after bullet in a kneeling position. As much as she wanted to show off her skills, she had to maintain her aura at a healthy level if she wanted to last throughout the examination. She could still fight, but even so she fell back on providing cover fire for him, just to give her aura a small break after using her semblance so much. Covering him was, as a sniper, an expertise of hers, but his jumping around only made her job harder; instead of focusing on just one, Nix attacked several Grimm simultaneously with his weapon, forcing her to aim at the ones further back. The only thing she knew about him -her partner- was his fighting style. He wasn't Kris, but she couldn't change it now. There was still time for her to find him, but she had to hurry up. Once the last of the Beowolves had dissolved into smoke, she walked over, holstering her rifle on her back.
"Hey," he began. After that morning's luggage incident, Nix had decided he'd rather be on the Porcelain Doll's good side, and so he tried to make himself sound as friendly as possible. "I'm Nix Junaid. That was quite the impressive-"
"Malva Stella DiCaeli. Call me Malva," she cut him off. Her tone was stern, borderline-angry. "We must get going. I caught a glimpse of a temple before landing in the forest; that's where we've got to go. Hurry up." Without uttering another word, she turned around and began striding deeper into the woods, leaving Nix wondering why he had been expecting things to go differently.
From the moment he began following her, neither had made an attempt to start a conversation; they trekked in complete silence, broken only by the birds flying over their heads and the occasional crunching sound of a twig breaking under their shoes. There were a lot of things he wanted to comment on, yet the thought of the trouble he'd get himself into if he spoke made Nix keep his mouth shut. Instead, he quietly blamed his fortune -or rather, his misfortune- for ending up like this, while Malva was calculating her current chances of finding Kris.
Right when Nix was beginning to think that they were both horribly lost, she proved him wrong; Malva had successfully led him to an abandoned temple that Headmaster Ozpin had mentioned in the instructions he gave them. Cautiously, the two fighters approached the half-broken building, their attention falling on the pedestals, each of which held a rectangular card. Intrigued, they walked closer to them, inspecting the designs on the cards.
"These are the relics we're supposed to take? Tarot cards? I was expecting something a bit more... relic-like?" Nix picked up one of the cards to examine its sides. "I can actually kinda read tarot. My sister's pretty good at it, so she showed me how to-" he began eagerly, but upon noticing that she was blatantly ignoring him, stopped with a grunt. "The cards say that I'm gonna have a bad time..."
"What are you even blabbering about?" she asked, one eyebrow raised. The purple-haired sniper seemed to have her eyes set on a card with flames painted intricately over it. "We're taking this one."
"Right, okay," Nix responded, flinging the card he was holding carelessly back onto the pedestal. "Let's leave, then. We've got a cliff to climb."
Malva glared at him with the same disapproval as earlier. "We're not going anywhere yet." She turned around and proceeded to fire a round into the air, which echoed throughout the area.
"You're gonna attract Grimm that way," Nix remarked, but received no reply from Malva, who kept her gaze fixed on the forest behind them. "Okay, you know what? I know you're pissed off because you didn't get your faunus boyfriend as your partner, but could you at least try to hide it?"
"My what?" she retorted, shooting him a vicious glare. "Are you completely dumb?"
"See? You are mad as hell."
"Tsk." She rolled her eyes, pulled a stray strand of purple hair away from her face and looked back at Nix. "I will be if I don't get Kris in my team. And do not call him my 'boyfriend'. Now, as far as you're concerned, well... Your attitude will determine whether I can come to terms with this turn of events. So far, I believe I may be able to tolerate it." She averted her glare before adding in a whisper, "At least you're not the guy I argued with this morning..."
"Tolerate it?" he repeated. "Hah! What an honor!" But their argument was cut off by a loud 'bang' from the woods behind them. Instantly, Malva's eyes widened with surprise as two figures leapt out of the forest; Kris, who was still too far away for them to hear what he was shouting, led the way, followed by a blonde girl. "Well, would you look at that! There's your friend! Happy now? Will that make 'tolerating me' a little easier?"
"Behind you!" Kris's voice finally became audible, but his warning came a little too late. If it hadn't been for Nix's quick reflexes, who shielded himself and Malva with Nymphaea, the two would have been crushed under the body of the Ursa Major that leaped suddenly out of the trees.
Rosanna's chains coiled around its neck while she jumped over its head, her weight pulling the enormous Grimm back, giving Kris a clear shot at its chin and throat. It staggered on its hind legs in pain, eventually falling over. This short break before the Major could attack again was the perfect chance for Nix and Malva to recover from the event and fully grasp the situation. Her dark-blue eyes, filled with shock and traces of concern, shifted between Kris and Nix, who was occupied with making sure the Grimm hadn't scratched his shield's paint job. In spite of what had just happened, he seemed strangely calm. After a reassuring nod from Kris, the sniper was combat-ready once again; Rosanna regrouped with them just as the Ursa got back on its feet.
"Hey, the girl with the coffee!" Nix quickly recognized the girl in the distinctive black-and-pink outfit. "Rosanna, wasn't it? Don't look so scared!" he told the blonde. "Their bone plates are tough as nails but their underside isn't armored. As long as you hit that, it'll be over in no time."
The girl looked back at him with wide pink eyes. "That's not what I'm worried about," she said softly. "Just that..."
"Ursai hunt in packs," Malva completed the girl's sentence.
"There's two more coming this way, but it looks like the others are normal," Kris said, his eyes glowing yellow upon activating his semblance. "Let's take this one down and get out of here, before its buddies arrive."
"You got a plan?" Nix asked, taking a defensive stance against the Grimm. Next to him, Rosanna prepared her next swing.
"Sort of. Malva, find a safe spot! The rest, scatter around! We'll attack whenever it focuses its attention on just one of us!"
Following Kris's directions, Malva run away from the temple and kept close behind him, making sure she was within her semblance's range. While she got herself into position, Kris, Rosanna and Nix fended off the Ursa's swipes and swings and attacked from every direction whenever they got a chance. The lion faunus's idea seemed to be working, but the Ursa quickly got frustrated by the small swarm of close-range fighters surrounding it, and began flailing its huge arms around violently. Rosanna's semblance allowed her to evade with ease, but Kris and Nix fell victim to those attacks more than once.
"Rosanna, can you keep it down with your chains?" Kris asked, having just barely escaped getting slashed. Rosanna nodded positively and a few seconds later she'd managed to pull off the trick she'd done earlier. It balanced on its hind legs while she rode on its back, standing on its spikes. "Malva!" There was no need for him to say more. Knelt a few feet behind him, the sniper shot two powerful blasts, which burst and trapped the Ursa Major into sharp ice shards. Rosanna used all her might to pull the Grimm further back, eventually bending its back to expose its pitch-black belly.
"You don't have to tell me!" Nix shouted before the lion faunus could speak. Kris shot at the Ursa's head and Nix managed his strongest blow, successfully cutting the Grimm in two. Rosanna jumped away right before it dissolved. "You said there's more?" Nix asked once he'd caught his breath.
"There were. I can't find them now," Kris replied, some faint panting in his voice. "I doubt they decided to leave, so maybe they run into other students. But our mission is to grab a relic and make it back to the cliff, right? It's no problem if we can avoid fighting those Ursai."
"I agree. We should get outta here before they come to avenge their friend," Nix said, earning a nod of approval from Rosanna. "You two need to go grab a card."
"This one's twin is on the third pedestal from the left," Malva informed them, showing the tarot card she'd already taken. Once both of the flame cards were under their possession, the four aspiring Huntsmen run towards the cliff.
Halfway through the sprint towards the ancient stone bridge ahead, the two Ursai Kris had seen earlier eventually emerged out of the forest, blocking the teenagers' path. "Malva?" Kris muttered, but she had already taken her firing position.
One Ursa was immediately immobilized by ground Dust, making it easy prey for Rosanna's blades. Malva quickly moved on to the one that Kris and Nix were fighting, but a sudden rumble of the earth underneath her caused her shot to miss its original mark. Instead of the head, the Dust bullet hit the Ursa's shoulder, and the small boulder that was produced came apart, stones falling on Nix's head.
"Hey! That was on purpose, wasn't it?!" he yelled upon killing the wounded Grimm, but everything in his expression changed when he looked at the threatening shadow looming above the petite sniper.
"Get away from there!" Kris yelled at Malva, who managed to ungainly evade the monster's claws before it could pin her on the ground. The lion faunus rushed to her aid immediately, distracting the enormous newcomer long enough for Malva to trap with ground Dust. One wrong move on Kris's behalf, however, and he was thrown towards the others with a violent swing from the Grimm's arms.
"Dammit... There's no end to them, is there?" he grunted. In front of the four teenagers, a massive Ursa Major, bigger than the previous one, struggled intensely to free itself from Malva's trap. Though it had two arrows sticking out of its back, it shook and turned lively, as if in an adrenaline-induced rage. Just as Kris got back on his feet, the Grimm yanked its hinder leg out of the stones, and it was a matter of time before it could move freely again.
"Let's finish it off! It's half-dead already!" Nix shouted, preparing to counter-attack.
"Are you blind? What part of it is half-dead?" Malva cried back, visibly startled by her partner's idea. "The bridge is right there, let's just go!"
"You certainly don't look like someone who could outrun a raging Ursa..."
"And you certainly look like someone who'd think he could kill a raging Ursa Major!" Malva shouted annoyed, loading her rifle.
"I actually ha-"
"You guys!" Kris interrupted, the moment the Ursa Major broke free. "Run to the bridge!"
They all headed for the stone structure in an attempt to outrun the injured but not particularly tired Grimm. The monster, however, caught up with long leaps and brought its body down on the bridge, the impact shaking the stones hard enough to the point of cracking. A second lunge and a part of the pavement underneath their legs gave in, causing Nix, who had accidentally lagged behind, to lose his footing.
His fall into the cliff below was prevented by the lion faunus, who caught him in the last moment. "Again, what part of it is half-dead?" Kris smiled. "I'm Kris."
"Nix. Ugh, do you two operate on the same frequency or something?" Nix grunted, but grabbed onto him as tightly as he could, avoiding to look down at all costs, while Kris pulled him back onto the bridge.
After its lunge, the Ursa had landed in a narrowing of the stone path, and was stuck between the two girls from one side, and Nix and Kris on the other. With each of the Ursa's stomping steps, the bridge shook more and more dangerously. But with minimum space to move around in, they couldn't fight the Grimm openly. The bridge, rather than the Ursa, was taking most of the damage.
"What now?" the white-haired teen asked, rubbing the back of his head. "It's gonna break the bridge and take us down with it."
"It's too risky to fight all-out like earlier. There's not enough space, and the more that thing moves around, the faster it's gonna destroy the bridge," Kris remarked with furrowed eyebrows. "The structure might give in before we can even take the Grimm down..."
"Darned thing won't die either. Just why is it struggling?" Nix groaned. "It's stopped jumping around too... I was kinda hoping it'd miscalculate and fall down on its own..." At the sound of that, he noticed Kris's face light up with an idea. "Please don't tell me..."
"We make it fall over," Kris said in all seriousness, to Nix's dismay. "Malva and I had attempted this another time, but it was just over a small cliff. It's gonna be trickier this time, but it'll work with the four of us. As long as we're lucky, and you're not too afraid of heights, it's gonna be fine."
"W-who, me? Pfft! N-no!" Nix tried to shrug it off, breaking into an uneasy grin. "And, tell me... did it work, back then? Eh? Hey..." The fact that the lion faunus didn't reply only augmented Nix's nervousness.
"Malva, let's tip it over!" Kris cried out at her, to which the girl replied with her eyes widening as if remembering something.
The sniper glanced around quickly, until she finally found a nice spot atop a half-broken stone tower, just a Dust-boosted jump away from her. "Understood. Cover me!" She got up and sprinted towards the ledge of the bridge, dropping a single gravity Dust crystal next to her feet right before she jumped. The destabilized Dust gave her the momentum to make the jump, and she landed gracefully on top of the tower, from where she had a clear view of the target in front of her.
"Nix, can you piss it off a bit more?" Kris asked, readying his weapon. The white-haired boy exhaled deeply, gestured positively, and proceeded to pester the Ursa with quick but visibly more cautious attacks. He managed to balance on the ledges, evade most of the Ursa's attacks and -most importantly for him- avoid falling over.
"Rosanna, spread your chains near its legs the moment it tries to counter-attack." Kris took a few shots at the Grimm, diverting its attention towards him.
"Like, to trip it?" the blonde inquired, joining Nix in his task to annoy the Grimm.
"Yes, exactly! Let's just make sure the bridge doesn't fall before the Ursa does," Kris responded, running into the fight as well. "It'll lose its balance, and the moment Malva's blast pushes it back, we attack."
Rosanna and Nix exchanged a quick glance, and then a nod with Kris. The idea was plausible, though difficult, since the aggravated Grimm gave them little space to dodge its hits, which were becoming more desperate by the seconds. Between delivering and evading blows, Kris managed to explain to the other two the details of the plan: The three of them would attempt to 'corner' it towards the ledge. Once it stood up to deal a more serious blow, Malva's shot would force it to stagger back; Rosanna's chains would cause it to trip and hopefully fall over the ledge. And if that wasn't enough, another round of shots and attacks definitely would be.
"You still haven't told me whether it succeeded the last time you did that!" Nix insisted, earning a little smirk from Kris as his only reply.
Luckily for Nix, Kris's plan came along nicely. The Ursa Major, fed up with the irritating attacks, stood up on its hinder legs to lunge itself at its first target, who happened to be the lion faunus. But before it could raise its claws into the air, Malva's rifle blasted like rolling thunder, the sound echoing throughout the area. The shot found its mark, scraping the Grimm's head bone plate clean off. The monster let out a loud roar and tried to recover, before another shot pierced through its belly. Right then, Rosanna's opportunity came around.
The girl whipped her chains on the bridge, lodging the axe blades into the stones, and pulled them back, creating an extended line that successfully tripped the Grimm over. "Watch your step," she whispered, her eyes fixed onto the monster.
The bridge shook once more, but they had almost pulled their plan off. "Let's finish it off," Nix nudged Kris on the shoulder, and the lion faunus nodded his head. With the final blows delivered, the Ursa Major was pushed off the bridge, falling with a deafening deep roar. Small parts of the bridge came apart when Rosanna recovered her blades, yet for the most part it could still hold them, as long as they were quick to move further ahead.
Once the tension of the fight began to fade away, small bursts of soft laughter broke out. Nix couldn't stop joking about Kris's idea, while the lion faunus and Rosanna were quickly engaged in a somewhat comical dialogue, consisting of Kris profusely apologizing for making her "the bait", and Rosanna, all flustered, insisting that "It was okay! I have my semblance". Even Malva broke into a relieved smile, though she'd never admit how much of a scare she got when she turned around only to come face-to-snout with an enraged Ursa Major.
The finish line of the Initiation Exam -the cliff- was now just above them, and without losing any time they headed back to the Academy grounds. As much of a surprise as it was to find the Ursa already wounded from a previous battle, none could say why it'd come after them and not its previous offenders. However, with no one who could recognize the arrows and no one eager to look into the matter any further, the four new friends quickly forgot about it. But, when Rosanna looked behind her before Nix pulled her up on the cliff, she could swear there was a blue-haired girl down below, waving at them.
"Altan Belmont, Vivian Blackbourne, Yuina Mori, Nila Thalatta. The four of you retrieved the Sun cards. From this day forward, you will be working together as team NAVY." Nila seemed hyper while Professor Ozpin announced her team, often looking back at Rosanna in the audience to give her her brightest grin. The blonde would smile back every time, while Nix next to her tried to make Altan laugh on stage, but with no success. "Led by... Nila Thalatta. Congratulations."
At the sound of that, the blue-haired girl couldn't contain her enthusiasm and got off the stage with a skip in her step, heeding no attention to Vivian, a black-haired faunus, who tried to calm her down. The wolf faunus exchanged a subtle but friendly greeting with Kris and Malva, and rushed her overenthusiastic partner to the back of the room. Yuina and Altan, who had managed to pair up during Initiation, seemed very content with their results, even though Yuina's and Nix's teases to the red-haired teenager for being the only male in his team wouldn't stop. After the applause, it was time for the next team.
"Nix Junaid, Kris Leontis, Malva Stella DiCaeli, Rosanna Alcmene," Ozpin announced. Once on stage, Rosanna's fingers began to tremble, while even Kris, whom she thought was confident, appeared nervous and impatient. Before the headmaster spoke again, Malva yanked Nix's hand out of his pocket, forcing him to stand more formally and earning an annoyed, quiet groan. "The four of you retrieved the Flames card. From this day forward, you will be working together as team KRMN [Carmine], led by... Kris Leontis. Congratulations."
"Thank you, sir!" he responded immediately, a bit louder than his usual tone of voice. Even though he wasn't jumping around like Nila, his beaming face was the same nonetheless. Malva displayed her habitual confident smirk, while Nix and Rosanna, who couldn't help but smile at their team leader's jolly expression, clapped along with the other teams watching.
"Carmine sounds like a nice team name," Rosanna said quietly, following the others down the stage.
"Hmph. You must be quite happy everything turned out how you wanted..." Nix teased Malva, one eyebrow raised in a taunting manner. "The cards were in your favor?"
"Not exactly everything..." she sassed back, looking him over with a derogatory glance. Kris popped in between them, separating the two before their little argument could escalate.
"Come on, you two! We're a team now!" he exclaimed, more quietly now as the next team was announced. "We're team KRMN! We should get along, right?"
He said that with a face of utmost pride and joy, and in the merry atmosphere that surrounded everyone in the ballroom, Malva and Nix found it hard to deny him the favor.