One of the first and most quickly understood things about their current predicament was that should things go wrong, there would be no chance for any of them to run

With the behemoth of a monster coming, and with the length of its legs, the relative distance between them and the monster wasn't all that much. How much time they had before it was on top of them, Ruby couldn't guess. The eight man team had all but scattered to the trees, many of them hoping to try and find a good place to sit and wait, while Oobleck stood by the spawning pool, steady and resolute.

In Ruby's case, she sat up in one of the tallest trees that she'd been able to. She wasn't the only one there, because Weiss had decided to perch just below where she had. Ruby had the higher ground, which was better because she could snipe with Crescent Rose, but having Weiss close was a comfort of sorts in itself.

For several minutes, she and Weiss had decided to trade strategies in the hopes of finding the perfect way to combat the grimm. Ruby wished that they could have gotten those ideas to the others quickly, but it didn't feel like they had the time to do so.

No matter what, the grimm was coming. Leaving their posts was dangerous.

It was getting closer and closer. Ruby could hear the grimm crashing through the trees, stomp after stomp, after heavy stomp.

As it approached, there were the sounds of gunshots and shouting getting closer and closer which came along with the sounds of the grimm's footfalls. They were the sounds of hunters, barking orders at each other and trying to coordinate whatever attacks they could in the hopes of slowing the beast down before it could do too much damage.

There were three hunters that Ruby could see, leaving streaks of color behind them as they moved and struck. Their voices were mostly familiar.

The first two voices Ruby recognized as being her father and Qrow's. Her heart beat harder and harder and harder as they got closer because her family was out there, and they were in trouble.

The third voice was a woman's, too volatile and vicious. Wholly unfamiliar.

"Students!" Oobleck shouted, lowering himself down into position to move. "When it begins to breach the clearing, open fire!"

The grimm's face was right there, hundreds of feet in the air and staring them down. Ruby looked up at it with her eyes wide open.

In truth, Ruby had never realized just how terrifying that specific grimm was since she'd been viewing it almost exclusively from a distance. Its fur was black and hung off of its frame like tattered carpet, shaggy and dark, swaying and hanging like seaweed. The eyes, bright red with burning gold pupils, bone-white teeth raising from its mouth and its snout protruding in a permanent snarl.

Ruby swallowed hard and braced herself among the treetops that she had decided to make herself at home in. She had Crescent Rose, and she had Weiss, and their friends were still there, preparing the same way that the two of them were.

Ruby could trust Weiss, but she couldn't trust that she could only rely on Weiss in such a large battle.

"Weiss-" Ruby whispered to her partner. "Set up a glyph. I have an idea."

Weiss looked up at her, looking just as exhausted and unsure as Ruby felt. She nodded and held out her sword, still keeping herself well grounded up in the treetops. "Where do you want it?"

"In front of my rifle." Ruby said, blinking up at Weiss. "If you can get it so that when I fire the Dust will-"

"Got it." Weiss replied, her brow furrowing down into a deathly serious expression. It took only a single swing of her sword. Sure enough the glyph appeared there in front of Ruby's gun, spinning slowly in soft white auric light. Ruby swallowed and put her finger on the trigger. All that she needed was for the attack to work. If it worked, then she had absolutely no idea what was going to come next, but it would have been something.

What came next would probably depend largely upon what their teammates did. Ruby was sure that she wasn't going to be the only one getting ready to fight immediately. In fact, when she looked over to the tree where Nora was sitting and Ren was at the ground, hand pressed to both the tree and to the ground, she saw that Nora was already prepared to fire herself.

"Are you ready?" Weiss asked, sounding just as afraid.

"Yeah." Ruby whispered back, jolting slightly at the sound of a spray of bullets that went off. "I think so."

"It's here." Oobleck shouted into the clearing behind him. "Students, you may need to hit it with everything you've got."

"Right!" Ruby shouted back before pulling the trigger and watching as a bullet went through the glyph and turned into a bolt of bright icy white and blue.

Ruby watched as her and Weiss' combined work flew through the air and struck the giant grimm's right leg. It bloomed into a formation of ice that twisted into something that almost looked like a flower. The monster let out a roar, and Ruby did what she could to stay still and prepare to do more.

"Hold it!" Ruby called down to Weiss, who just nodded, still primed for something else. She fired three more shots, all of which flew out and created more blooms of ice onto the beast's leg. At the very least it was going to be able to slow it down, not that Ruby thought that it was going to last all that long. Dust created effects didn't always last as long as the real thing did.

A barrage of grenades with pink streams of smoke came out of the trees from where Nora was, falling into the shape of a giant heart that hit the beast in the chest. It roared and staggered back for a moment, and Ruby felt her heart beating harder and harder in her chest.

For the first time, the realization of just how dangerous this was going to end up being. If they made the beast fall in the wrong direction, then it was too likely that someone was going to get hurt- if it went really wrong, then it would fall in the direction of Vale itself.

"Nora!" Jaune shouted, leaping down from a tree and landing on the ground below it before sprinting to Ren's side. He reached out and placed a hand on Ren's shoulder and looked up into the tree. "Get ready to do that again!"

"Got it!" Nora shouted back, clearly already in the process of reloading.

Oobleck held his head up high like he was looking out for someone. Out in the distance, Ruby saw a flash of gold, small and strong. It struck into the beast before launching back out, and she could see a streak of red- Qrow's cape flying through the air and trying to strike into the monster's shoulder.

There was a streak of red that Ruby couldn't identify that disappeared just as quickly as it had appeared.

"What do we do?" Ruby shouted down to Oobleck, since she wasn't sure that what they were doing was working that well.

"It is hard to say." Oobleck said, swinging his weapon to send a torrent of fire towards the grimm. Weiss reacted, holding her head up high and her eyes widening.

She looked back over her shoulder at Ruby. "Can you keep doing what you're doing?"

"Not without you!" Ruby cried, gripping on tight to Crescent Rose. Weiss sighed and nodded for Ruby to come down with her before leaping down and sprinting towards Oobleck. Ruby activated her semblance and flew after.

Out of the trees came Blake and Yang as well, but the two of them didn't seem to be too sure about what they could actually do.

"I have an idea." Weiss said, her voice and her expression both deadly serious. "You have a flamethrower."

"I do." Oobleck replied, raising an eyebrow. "It would do to tell everyone else what your idea is though, Miss Schnee."

Weiss held her sword out and turned the revolving chamber until there was a cartridge of light green Dust selected. "I have Wind Dust." Weiss said, seriously. "If you can fire through my glyph-"

"What about the rest of us?" Yang asked, already nervous but not quite angry just yet. "Because I can't do anything without getting close."

"You would not be the only one with that problem, Miss Xiao Long." Doctor Oobleck said almost too calmly, like that would be able to fix all of their problems. "You may not be well suited for such high-flying feats as are happening. However, it may be beneficial to wait."

"Wait." Yang repeated, and Ruby felt a sinking feeling in her stomach. It only took a moment before Yang was looking over at Weiss directly, clearly interested in seeing what she could do. "Do you think that you could try and launch me in?"

Weiss blinked, like she wasn't sure that she actually had all that much to offer to the battle. Almost like she had a limited arsenal of Dust and only so many chances to use each type before she ran out. Or perhaps she was worried about how volatile Dust could be. Either way, Ruby didn't know what was going on in her partner's head.

"I have an idea." Ruby said, smirking. "What if we-" She turned to look back at the grimm that looming there far too close to them. "What if we do the fire first and then try to launch the rest of us in?"

Blake shrugged, and she looked down at her weapon. All at once, Ruby watched her expression change and her eyes widen in understanding. "If you can get me in there, I think that I might be able to cling on."

"You're sure?" Yang asked, locking her eyes with Blake's now. "That sounds pretty risky."

"It gets us in there, doesn't it?"

Ruby hesitated and looked over at Weiss, hopeful that Weiss would say something to her that would actually be useful to the team. There was a moment worth of hesitation before Weiss spoke up, giving what she can.

"You guys don't realize-" She started, sounding unsure of herself. "I can't use my semblance as much as you might think. I can try and get the rest of you in, but-"

"But if you do then we might not have as much to work with later?" Yang asked, her brow furrowing. "What do you think your limit would be?"

Weiss took a deep breath, looking back down at Myrtenaster. "I can maintain a few more glyphs to fire through, and maybe a few launching pads. But beyond that I'm not so sure. I want to be able to catch you if I need to."

"We'll figure it out." Ruby said, forcing on a smile and standing up tall. "I think that we should do your plan first though."

Weiss nodded before looking back to Oobleck. The professor fell into a combat stance, his weapon at his side and prepared to be used. "I would recommend that you prepare for what is to come, MIss Schnee."

"Right." Weiss said, keeping her voice steady. The glyph appeared, turning slowly and she looked back over at Oobleck. "I'm ready."

"Miss Rose-" Oobleck said. "I think that it may be beneficial for you to join into this as well."

"Got it." Ruby slipped into the space beside Weiss and let Crescent Rose rest there, blade resting against the ground so that she can use it to maintain balance. She waited quietly for a sign that it was time to move, and when Oobleck sent the first ball of flames through the glyph, which launched forward much faster than Ruby had been expecting.

Maybe if she was smart about this-

When Oobleck acted again, Ruby fired, and she watched as the bullet met with flame before launching forward much faster than anything else that had been able to. Weiss stood there, solid and strong.

"Blake!" Yang shouted off to the side. "C'mon, let's go!"

The two of them began to sprint at the grimm, making sure to put some space between them and the many projectiles that were heading towards the Grimm for their own sakes.

Ruby made sure to take care to not end up shooting her teammates, and looked over at Weiss. "We should join them."

"Are you sure?" Weiss asked, sounding more than just a little bit unsure of that plan. "Because that sounds like it could seriously backfire on us."

Out of the corner of her eye, she watched as JNPR fell into formation, moving as a team with Pyrrha and Ren taking the lead. That was what they needed to do, and that was something that Ruby definitely believed. "They're going to need us."

"But what about-"

"You two should go and fight alongside your teammates." Oobleck said, with eerie calm. "I would not blame you."

Weiss nodded and looked over at Ruby, and that was all that they needed before they were up there at the front of the charge, not far behind Yang and Blake. Even with them running towards the fight, Ruby could hear Blake and Yang shouting strategies to each other, both looking for possibilities for what they were meant to do.

They caught up.

"Yang!" Ruby called to her sister, who just let their eyes lock. "Are you sure you want to do this?"

"Sure am!" Yang answered, sounding too confident and too ready. Not far off in the distance was one of the feet of the grimm. All that they had to do was get there, and then after that-

Ruby was sure that they might be able to at least manage to get something done. That didn't seem like it would have been too ambitious.

Before they could get any closer, a blur of gold crashed down in front of them, its owner landing on his feet with gritted teeth and looking a little bit banged up. He stood up tall and looked back at the rest of them over his shoulder.

"What are you doing here?"

"We're here to fight, dad." Yang responded, her eyes sparking up in bright red for a moment. "And we can't really do that unless you let us."

He seemed to hesitate a moment, looking back to the beast. Ruby had to wonder just how long he'd been facing off against the grimm himself, and she had to wonder even more whether or not she wanted to know the answer to that question. But Ruby watched him take in a deep breath.

"Alright." He muttered. "But you four better try and keep safe."

"That's the plan." Ruby smiled up at her father, hopeful that she would see some sign that he was relaxing, but instead saw nothing. He stood there more stony faced than she had ever seen him. Taiyang shook his head and braced himself against the ground, readying for a mighty leap.

"You four have to promise me one thing-" Taiyang grumbled, his head tilted down in something close to anger. "If someone tells you to get out of the way, you are going to do it. No ifs or buts about it, got it?"

"Got it." Yang muttered, and Ruby watched her take a step forward and drop into a fighting stance, similar to their fathers, hands held up in front of her and ready for a fistfight, square and low to the ground.

"That's all I can hope for." Tai muttered before throwing himself into the air, and Yang launched herself not far after him, using Ember Celica to propel herself forward, faster, and faster.

"Blake-" Ruby looked over at her teammate, an idea already going through her head. "Do you think that you could get all three of us up there?"

Blake blinked and her brow furrowed, deep in concentration. "You two will have to help me."

Weiss smiled softly. "I think we can do that."

Ruby looked down at the ground under her feet. She thought that she could do something to be useful, at the very least she could believe in her semblance. It would probably require for her to put a lot of energy into one burst of speed, but she could manage it.

Sure enough, a glyph appeared underneath the two of them, and Weiss stood back away from it.

"Weiss?" Ruby asked, looking back at her teammate.

Weiss took a breath. "I don't know how much use I can be up close like this."

"You should come with us anyways." Blake suggested, changing the form on her weapon. She weighed it in her hands before locking eyes with Weiss. "But there might be a better way to do this."

"Like?"

Ruby's eyes widened when she got the idea.

"Do you guys think we can pull off a slingshot?'

"A slingshot?" Weiss responded, her brow furrowing. "You can't be serious."

"It could work!"

"It would be easier with a fourth person here." Blake stated with a sigh, testing the strength of her ribbon. "But I think Ruby might be onto something."

"And us?"

"We can figure it out."

Ruby looked between the two of them and watched as Weiss relented. She flicked her fingers, and the glyph moved so that it was lying vertically as opposed to horizontally.

Blake passed the ribbon off to her, and Ruby wrapped it around her waist, but not all the way. Blake took a breath and walked forward, as far as she could manage while putting the space between the two of them.

Weiss thought and Ruby saw a second glyph appear on the ribbon, tugging it away from her while still being behind her back. It was pulled taut, and with that, Ruby knew that it was going to be time. Blake and Weiss were going to be able to get involved for themselves, but for the moment, this was going to be about her.

In one motion, Ruby swang her weapon behind her. She could use the recoil to help push her along, that was all that needed to happen. "I'm ready."

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Weiss answered, and Ruby felt herself get pulled back against the glyph, further and further back as the ribbon pulled tighter and tighter. When she saw Blake beginning to slide against the ground just slightly, that was when she was going to be able to do this.

"I am."

"Alright." Weiss breathed.

"Now!"

The glyph released, and Ruby realized for the first time just how much she had thrown herself into in that one motion. She hadn't thought about just how strong Weiss' Dust manipulation could actually be, and so when she was up in the air, Ruby threw herself into her semblance and felt the whirl of rose petals beginning to fly and cyclone around her as she moved towards the grimm.

In the air, Ruby flew higher, higher, higher.

She could feel her heart pounding hard in her chest, and the sound of her own blood was rushing in her ears.

For just a moment, Ruby could have sworn that she'd locked eyes with the grimm, and she had thought that she had seen something that was not truly there. Something terrifying and unimaginable.

It was a feeling that didn't last. Just as soon as it had been there it was gone, but it left Ruby with a strange throbbing feeling behind her eyes that she didn't know she was going to be able to ignore that easily. Not when she was meant to be in combat. She fired Crescent Rose twice to change her direction and flew towards the grimm's shoulder.

When Ruby landed there, she wasn't surprised at all to find that it felt unsteady, as large and wide as the space was. She ended up stabbing the sharpened tip of Crescent Rose into it so that she could at least hold onto herself there. It was something that could at least stop her from falling.

Whatever her teammates were doing down below, Ruby didn't know.

At the very least, she had a vantage point that she could use. It was a little bit higher up than she had realized, but it wasn't as though Ruby couldn't deal with it. Getting down was going to be a problem soon, but not for now.

A bird flew by followed quickly by a second one, both flying off in different directions.

Ruby watched for a second before thinking that she needed to come up with some sort of plan now that she was so high up in the air. She could try to hit it with bullets, since that was about the only thing she could really risk without running the possibility that she would fall and-

If she fell, Ruby couldn't be sure that her aura would be able to hold up through all of it.

As carefully as Ruby possibly could, she lowered herself down until she had three points of contact with the grimm's shoulder. The fur underneath her was a little bit looser than Ruby had thought, and slick almost like algae had formed there. Like the grimm had been wandering for eternities.

Even though Ruby knew that wasn't the case, it still seemed as such.

"Ruby!" Her uncle's voice broke through the buzzing in her head. "What do you think you're-"

"Fighting!" Ruby replied, angling herself and Crescent Rose. She aimed at the grimm's eye, wide and red and angry as it was. She didn't know that this was something that she would actually be able to pull off, but-

Ruby pulled the trigger, and felt the entire grimm's body lurch below her. She didn't know what that had come from, but on the other side, she could see Qrow resting on the Grimm's left shoulder. He was trying to catch his breath, but at least seemed to have the same idea as she did about what they were doing.

"That isn't going to do anything!" Qrow shouted to her, maintaining his balance with a bit more ease before shooting a torrent of shotgun shells at the Grimm's face. "All you're doing is annoying it!"

"Then what can I do?" Ruby shouted back. Qrow shook his head before launching himself up into the air so that he landed on the Grimm's head. He grabbed onto its fur with one hand before flinging himself over so that he was next to Ruby.

Qrow was a lot more beaten up than Ruby had thought.

"You need to keep a cool head." Qrow instructed through gritted teeth. "You get too risky up here, you hurt everyone else down there."

From where they were, everyone else and everything else looked like nothing more than slight blurs of color. They were too small, and too fragile. Ruby felt her eyes go wide at the realization because somehow she hadn't thought about that so much once she'd gotten up there. "I understand."

"You're better off down there with them." Qrow grunted, looking up to the skies again, his eyes tracking something. "But since you're already up here we might as well use it."

"So we should-"

"Try and land a hit in the eye, and work your way down. I know you can use recoil to move, so do that."

Ruby nodded and allowed herself to lift up Crescent Rose so that she could actually move. If she was going to have to move, then it was better that she didn't say grounded like she was. "You're sure this will work?"

"Sure am, kid."

Ruby dug her heels into the loose fur of the grimm and launched herself upwards, letting her semblance carry her higher and faster than she would have gone otherwise. Ruby aimed herself at the grimm's face, holding Crescent Rose behind her and pulling the trigger that would be enough to start the transformation sequence between the regular scythe and a war scythe.

With the blade straightened, Ruby knew that the weapon was going to be much more unwieldy, but it would be better for stabbing.

Ruby brought herself in dangerously close to the monster's face and aimed at the grimm, giving herself one final push to launch into it's right eye, stabbing into it.

Around her weapon, it began to smoke and the grimm let out a loud roar that was close to deafening.

She didn't have time. The grimm's mouth was wide and open, and the danger was clear. Ruby fired a gunshot and let the recoil carry her, changing the weapon back into a normal scythe was she fell down, down down, towards the ground.

As Ruby got closer and closer to the ground, she began to use Crescent Rose to control her decent before using her semblance to get her down to the ground in a flurry of red petals.

Where she landed, Ruby couldn't catch sight of her teammates. Blake, Weiss, and Yang had to be somewhere-

Her thoughts were quickly interrupted by the sounds of the various members of team JNPR shouting. Ruby looked to the grimm and sprinted to them because if she didn't know where her teammates were, going out rogue to try and find them would probably only cause trouble.

Ruby skidded to a stop beside Jaune.

"Ruby!" He shouted, sounding a little bit panicked. "You're okay."

"Yeah." She stood a little bit shakily, wishing that she knew where everyone else was for the moment. "Where are my teammates?"

"They're on the other side." Jaune explained, blinking. "Going after the legs."

"Got it."

Out of the corner of her eye, Ruby caught the sight of Pyrrha and Nora setting up for something big. Ren was with them, placing his hands on the two of them. Whatever he was saying, he was managing to keep his voice down.

"C'mon." Jaune smiled at her and nodded towards his teammates. "We could probably use you."

Ruby nodded and trotted after Jaune until she met with the others.

Pyrrha looked over at her and smiled. "You're here."

"Yeah," Ruby confirmed, feeling rather awkward. "What are you doing?"

"Setting up for a big hit." Nora explained, grinning too wide.

"You should get involved." Pyrrha said, looking over at Nora. "I think that between the two of you-"

"Got it!" Ruby fell into place beside Nora and smiled when Ren gave her a gentle pat on the shoulder the same way that he had everyone else. She felt the calm that rushed over her, and looked up at the grimm. There was still smoke rushing out of its eye, from the damage that she had done.

It wasn't enough. It wasn't going to be enough.

"You two should work together." Jaune said, looking from Nora to Ruby. "If you can get you two there, then you'll get the big hit on the leg, and Pyrrha will reel you back in."

Pyrrha nodded, her eyes widening for a second as she threw her shield up into the air, trying to knock away a bit of rubble that had been going their way. When it came back she positioned herself at their front, with Jaune coming up on her side to do the same.

"You two need to hold onto your weapons tight." Pyrrha said, her voice eerily calm. "When you're back, we'll make more plans, but for now this is the best idea we have."

"What about everyone else?" Ruby asked, remembering what her uncle had just told her. "Because-"

"It shouldn't be enough to make it go down." Nora said. "I mean, I'm not charged up all the way, and you seem like you've done a lot too."

"Nora is right." Pyrrha said calmly. "But for now we all need to keep our heads together, and we need to be ready to do this."

"Got it."

Ruby dug her heels into the ground, and she and Nora wrapped their arms around each other. She just needed to get them moving. Nora seemed ready to help, if the way that she was angling Magnhild was any indication. With one strong push, Ruby launched the two of them into the air and held onto Nora as hard as she could.

They just needed to get to the kneecap. That was all that they needed.