Minato stared down the Deathstalker with a critical eye. It was larger than the one he had killed previously. He had also been fueled by his silver eyes then, or so Qrow had told him. He lacked that advantage now but had three allies this time around. Hopefully they could achieve the same result here.

"The old Signal team is back together." Yang laughed reloading Ember Celica. "Though I guess Ruby is new. Since she was two grades lower."

"Yang, now is seriously not the time." Ruby shot back readying her scythe. "Any ideas?"

"Deathstalkers have a hard shell, making it impervious to most weapons," Nazo quickly recited, his usual cheer gone. "Weak points include its eyes and joints though I'm not sure if we can get close enough to exploit them." He withdrew his own weapon, an emerald colored rifle with a blade on the underbelly of the gun. In short, a gunblade. Minato was tempted to form swords with his semblance, but this wasn't a time to test his skills. With practiced swiftness he withdrew his pair of weapons. Just like in his old life, he had a sword and a gun. The sword was a deep black that glinted menacingly in the sunlight, while the gun was a pure silver that sparkled. Thanatos and Orpheus, the two parts that made up his soul.

"Ohh, Minato is actually using his weapons?" Yang declared in mock amazement. "What's the occasion?"

"Focus Yang," Minato scolded bring both weapons at the ready. His posture tightened, and his mind quickly began to compile a plan. Being the operations leader for SEES certainly helped expedite the process. "Ruby, Nazo, I want you two to use your speed and flank it," Minato quickly ordered. "Test its defenses and see if you can find any breaches." His eyes flickered over to the named individuals to who nodded their understanding. "Yang, we will be playing decoy to buy them time. Stay as far away as you can. Got it?" The yellowed-haired girl only gave him a smirk. Minato internally sighed, that would have to do. "Go!" With that final shout, the four of them rushed the giant scorpion. Ruby burst away in a flurry of petals and Nazo followed quickly after using his semblance of wind manipulation to enhance his movements.

The Deathstalker screeched as Minato began to fire and Yang soon joined sending a flurry of her own shots. As expected the attacks did little more than annoy the behemoth and with a snap of its claws it surged forward towards the pair. The beast stopped short as it was barraged with gun fire from behind. Ruby and Nazo were aiming at the golden stinger and the monster's joints but it had minimal effect. Still they had distracted the Grimm for a precious second and Minato intended to capitalize. He sprinted forward, crossing the distance between himself and the target in record time. With a shout Minato drove his blade straight into the creature's eye. It shrieked and began to thrash wildly, its stinger striking at when Minato stood. Without notice a shadow leapt up and blocked at the attack allowing Minato time to retreat. He slid to a halt next to Yang who looked just as frustrated as he felt.

"Its armor is too thick." Yang commented as the Deathstalker continued to writhe in pain before them. "Any other ideas?"

"Nothing comes to mind," Minato responded brain already in overdrive trying to formulate another plan.

"Can't you do your little fusion trick?" Yang asked shooting Minato a glare. "That might be able to break the shell and pierce through." Minato only shook his head.

"I only have enough dust for one shot," He clarified. "I am not risking it on a maybe. If only we could find a break in the armor, then I could take the shot."

"You need me to make a hole?" Minato sent Yang and a glance and from the telltale smirk on her face, he could tell he wouldn't like the plan. "Cover me." Without waiting for his answer Yang broke out into a sprint. Minato reacted immediately sprinting after the over-eager brawler.

"Cover her!" he yelled, and his other teammates sprang into action. Ruby began another round of bullets while Nazo sent a multitude of wind sickles. The attacks served their purpose and the Deathstalker turned allowing Yang a clear shot at the base of its tail. With a shout Yang's fist impacted the Grimm's armor and an explosion quickly followed thanks to Yang's gauntlet. Yang jumped back to examine her handy work. To her horror the exoskeleton had barely cracked, a small fissure the only evidence of her attack. The Deathstalker reacted quickly to the attack and flicked its tail sending the stunned girl flying like a rag doll. Minato sent out his shadow catching the unfortunate girl before she crashed.

"Did it work?!" Ruby shouted appearing next to Minato accompanied with rose petals.

"I made a crack, but I need more speed," Yang reported as she recovered. "That armor is a lot tougher than I thought."

"Fine, get to Nazo. He can give you the speed you need." Minato ordered. "I will be setting up. Ruby do what you can to help your sister." The pair nodded and rushed off leaving Minato alone. He allowed himself a calming breath before he began. He ejected his clip from Orpheus and replaced it with a clip containing only lightning dust and a single metal pellet. The cost to this attack was high but the damage output was unrivaled. Minato hit the switch on the hilt of his sword causing the blade portion of the sword to split. Using the gap, he slipped his gun between it locking it into place. When the gun was secure, the separated blades began to spin. A sharp whirring filled the air as the blades spun faster and faster. With a gentle squeeze of the trigger, the lighting dust began to flow latching onto the spinning blades. Finally, the two halves glowed blue, the metal saturated with electricity. There Minato waited for the perfect moment to fire his weapon, a miniature railgun.

As Ruby kept the Dealthstalker distracted Yang relayed the plan to Nazo who only shoot his head.

"This plan sounds beyond stupid and downright suicidal," He smirked giving his signature smile. "I love it, how can I help?" Yang internally laughed, leave it to Nazo to go along with any plan regardless of how crazy it sounded.

"I will be attacking the same place as last time, use your semblance to give me the best boost you got." Nazo's only response was a sharp salute and a smile. Yang quickly positioned herself and began running. It started like a light breeze then a gust and finally the force of a typhoon was pushing on her back, hurtling her at the target. Yang took it in stride and with a shout impacted the target with much more force than her previous attempt. She clicked the trigger in her gauntlet and the shell practically exploded, flakes scattering from the point if impact.

"Get out of the way!" Minato shouted as he aimed the buzzing gun. The sound was near deafening, but Minato held firm lining up the attack. With a flash of rose petals Ruby appeared beside Yang and dragged her away, Nazo quickly following suit. As soon as his teammates were a safe distance away he fired. The attack was over in an instant. The metal ball reaching the target in the blink of an eye. The bullet drilled through the Deathstalker's weak point and quickly shredded its way to the head. The Deathstalker gave a single shutter before dissolving. Minato lowered his weapon careful to avoid the immense heat it was giving off. He could distantly see Yang and Ruby celebrating their victory and Nazo was laughing. He sighed and refocused his attention to the others. Hopefully their battles were easier than his.

-Ω-

Weiss was overjoyed. She may have a degenerate Faunas as a partner and have been placed in the same group as the blond-haired dork Jaune, but that didn't matter in the slightest. She was in the same group as Pyrrha, THE Pyrrha Nikos. Their group was invincible!

"Umm, how are we going to hit that thing?" Jaune questioned as he looked to the soaring bird.

"With your weapons, of course," Weiss answered as if she was stating the obvious. It was only after she gave her other members a cursory glance did she realize the problem. While Pyrrha had a rifle, the other two had no long-range weapons. Jaune only had a simple sword and shield and the faunus had a Souba, a double-bladed katana. Both equally worthless against their airborne foe. Knowing those two they probably didn't have any long range capability.

"Pyrrha, what do you think?" Weiss called out as she watched the Nevermore circle overhead. "We have only half the firepower."

"We will have to try," the red-hair champion responded lifting her rifle. Weiss quickly complied and two send up a volley of magic and bullets. However, the effect was lackluster and the Nevermore reacted by sending down a hailstorm of feathers. The four leapt for cover as the sharp feathers impacted the ground. Jaune found him himself next to Weiss hiding for his life. Pyrrha and Daryl must have found cover elsewhere a the Nevermore ceased its volley.

"This isn't going to work." Jaune yelled. "All of us need to attack if we want to win this. We need that thing to be grounded."

"Oh, brilliant deduction genius," Weiss spat. "And how do you plan to do that?" Jaune didn't answer immediately, he closed his eyes for a moment. They were outmatched as long as the Nevermore was in the air, as both he and Daryl were useless. But why didn't Daryl have a long-range option? Jaune had taken the weapons passed down through the family but Daryl wasn't limited by that. That should mean he would have some sort of option to augment his abilities for a long-range fight. His eyes flickered open focusing on the other person hiding with him.

"Weiss, what is your partner's semblance?" Jaune asked suddenly. She opened her mouth to respond but stopped short when she realized she had never asked. She hadn't even cared. She was saved from embarrassment when Daryl answered.

"I have Gravity manipulation." He called from his source of cover, a rocky outcropping. "I can pull and push things, but I don't have close to enough strength to pluck that thing from the sky." That made sense. He could pull his targets to him and not have to worry about range, explaining his choice of weaponry. As he thought deeper an idea began to form in Jaune's head.

"Weiss, you have gravity dust, right?"

"Of course I do, but it's not going to be strong enough to drop that bird." She shot back looking at the levitating monster. "If it was closer then maybe, but right now-" She was cut off as Jaune retreated from cover.

"Jaune what are you doing?!" Pyrrha screamed watching the man run to his imminent death.

"I'll grab its attention! Weiss and Daryl, use gravity to ground it when it gets close enough!" Jaune shouted back making his way through the forest of feathers. With that last statement he turned his attention to the flying threat. "Hey, I'm talking to you! You think you're so tough come and get me!"

"That idiot is going to get himself killed!" Weiss shouted, but Daryl silenced her.

"He is giving us the chance we need," the cheetah Faunus reasoned. "When it divebombs him, it's be our job to drag it down." The screech from the sky gathered their attention as the Nevermore dove. As it gained speed it extended its razor claws intent on shredding Jaune to ribbons. Thankfully for the frightened boy Weiss was ready.

"NOW!" Weiss yelled activating her semblance forming a black glyph below the descending bird. Daryl followed suit causing the air to tremble from the amount of distortion. The bird crumpled to the ground screeching as it tried to fight the effects.

"Freeze it!" Jaune yelled and Weiss complied infusing ice dust into her glyph. Giant ice formation began to encase the bird and soon it was unable to move from the sheer force of the glacier on top of it.

"Charge!" Jaune gave the final command and the four huntsmen in training made their way to their fallen foe. Jaune stabbed his sword into the creature again and again trying to kill it. Daryl split his weapon into two katanas and slashed at the wings of the Nevermore looking for a weakness. It was Pyrrha that finally got the kill using her spear to drive the point deep through the monster's skull. With a final cry is dissolved into black mist and the group heaved a huge sigh of relief.

"Let's agree to never do something like that again." Jaune panted.

"What are you talking about?" Daryl countered. "This is what being a huntsman is about. We are going to have to do this a lot more." Jaune elected not to answer instead deciding to collapse on the ground and groaning in exhaustion.

"We all did a great job," Pyrrha congratulated. "I wouldn't be surprised if we all passed due to our efforts." Weiss gave a small huff in agreement. For the amount of effort she put in she deserved extra credit.

-Ω-

Blake was relatively sure that she had gotten the short end of the stick. Not only did she have Kira on her makeshift team, but she also had Nora. Kira was energetic enough to make her feel exhausted, Nora took that feeling and multiplied it by one hundred.

"We should squash it like a bug!" Nora cheered looking at the Arcamantula a dangerous gleam in her eye.

"No, we should burn it to a crisp!" Kira quickly added her opinion which only seemed to fuel the metaphorical fire.

"I like the way you think!" Nora cackled gripping her war hammer tighter. "What are we waiting for? Let's do this!" Thankfully for the risk-taking duo, and Blake's sanity, a third voice entered the fray.

"Before either of you do anything we need a plan." Ren stated with a note of finality. Nora froze in place sending Ren a disappointed pout but relented nevertheless. Without someone egging her on, Kira also came to halt. Blake could have cried tears of joy. "Arcamantula are not well armored but they have a myriad of abilities to make up for that." Ren informed looking at each member. "Like actual spiders they have poisonous fangs as well as the ability to spin webs. Any ideas how to approach it?"

"Hit it till it dies?" Nora's suggestion sounded more like a question and an exasperated look from Ren quickly caused her to give him a wide smile.

"Let's try to immobilize it first," Blake suggested. "Aim at destroying its legs, eyes or head. If we can do that than it really isn't going to be much of a threat."

"The let's try that," Ren agreed. "Nora, you're with me. You two can handle yourselves, right?" Blake and Kira nodded their conformation. "All right, don't get overconfident. Break!" The group scattered all headed for the target. The Arcamantula screeched and immediately arced it back and spewed forth hundreds of strings of webbing.

"Kira!" Blake yelled but the girl was already in motion. Fire ignited in both of Kira's hands and she quickly launched them into the air. The incoming attack collided with the onslaught of fireballs. Kira focused on the crucial strands ignoring the shots that missed their mark. The flames ate the webs leaving a clear path to the spider. Explosions and gunfire erupted as Ren and Nora began their assault, injuring the Grimm. In response, it shrieked again and charged. Kira drew her weapon a medium length sword and Blake reacted in kind, readying Gambol Shroud for the assault. The four members attacked as one. Kira dug her blade deep into one of the monster's legs and Nora jumped atop slamming her hammer into the monster's head. Ren unloaded both clips into the spider's eyes and Blake took the chance stab it in another one of it spindly legs. The creature writhed in pain from the assault but did not fall. It began to flail, spreading webs in every direction.

"We need to retreat!" Ren yelled leaping back. "Don't get caught!" The other three reacted immediately abandoning their attack to ensure their safety. However, Blake's retreat was stopped short. As she tried to leap away she found herself ensnared in one of the previous webs strewn about. Noticing this, the Grimm made its move crawling towards the ensnared foe.

"Blake!" Kira realized her friend plight and began to move but Blake motioned for her to stop.

"I'll be fine, now go!" She shouted back to her distressed partner. There was nothing to worry about. With a single use of her semblance she was out of the webbing, leaving a fragile clone behind. Seconds later the Arcamantula's leg smashed into the clone. It shrieked in frustration at the loss of a kill and came to a stop allowing Blake to rejoined with the others.

"We're going to need a better plan. It more resilient than we thought." Kira muttered.

"I could try and smash it from up high, but it will probably move out of the way." Nora responded with a pout. "It moves pretty fast for its size. I would see me long before I could hit it."

"Then we just need to trap it." Ren realized. His gaze raked across the barren field and locked onto the still flaming threads. "Kira, Blake, and I will act as targets for the Arcamantula's silk. We need to run in circles to surround it. Once we have enough Kira will set it on fire. That should trap it for long enough for Nora to get in the final hit." Nora's grin was feral.

"Let's squash this thing like the bug it is!" With that the trio ran forward while Nora stayed back watching for her signal. Once the three had reached their destination, they began to sprint in a clockwise fashion. The Grimm began to spray more webbing trying to keep its opponents still. The piles of webs went from a few inches high to nearly a foot as the monster's attacks created more and more. Finally, Ren shouted his order.

"Light it!" Without hesitation Kira began throwing fireballs. The fire landed on the webs and quickly used it for fuel. The flames leapt high and they quickly surrounded the unfortunate creature. It squealed unable to escape the cage of flames. Before the trio could tear their eyes from the flames, an explosion sounded to their rear. Nora was flying high, laughing all the way. As she reoriented herself she took careful aim and with the final pull of the trigger slammed her Magnhild into the Arcamantula head. The creature exploded into black smoke quenching the fire as it dispersed. Blake gave a sigh of relief. After that entire ordeal she was exhausted.

"That was awesome! Who's ready for round two!?" Nora laughed, and Blake winced as Kira eagerly raised her hand. It seemed not everyone in her group shared her sentiment.

-Ω-

"Everyone survive?" Minato called out as the battles came to a close. Several cheers and a few groans were given as answers. He did a quick head count just to be sure and was relieved to find twelve. Some looked worse for wear but a majority look fine if not a little tired. Minato decided to take temporary control of their small coalition. After such intense battles he doubted anyone would argue. Thus, he led the way back through the woods towards the academy. It wasn't until halfway to the starting cliff did talk begin to pick up.

"Do you think we all passed?" Jaune asked in a hesitant voice. Weiss gave a huff of annoyance.

"We better have passed. It's not every day you take down a Nevermore."

"Technically none of us have passed yet," Nazo pointed out with a laugh. "The objective was to retrieve a relic and make it back to the top of the cliff."

"I'm sure we all did fine," Pyrrha soothed placing a comforting hand on Jaune's shoulder. "As long as we all make it back in one piece I think we will all pass." Jaune gave a small smile, but still looked nervous.

"What I want to know is what team I'm on," Nora announced excitedly. "I can't wait to get to know them!"

"Well, why don't we ask Minato?" Yang suggested. "I'm sure he has a guess about how the system works." This drew him a myriad of look ranging from interest to suspicion.

"How would he know?" Daryl asked eyes narrowed. "He's not working for the school, is he?" Minato held up his hands in a placating gesture.

"I am the headmaster's adoptive son, his apprentice of sorts," he explained. "I have lived here for several years and I have been able to see the examinations from year to year, so I know the general thought process that goes into these tests."

"So what team are we on?" Kira asked excitably, eyes sparkling with interest.

"Well, to start off," Minato began tapping his chin. "The partner, you met in the forest is definitely on your team. As Ozpin said before we began 'the next person you make eye contact with will be your partner for the next four years.'" Ruby let out a cheer and gave him a high five while others gave their teammates nods. Weiss seemed to be glaring at her teammate and Nora actually tackled Ren to the ground. Once Ren had calmed Nora, Minato then held out his chess piece. "Next is the relics we all collected. From the cursory glance, there were about sixteen statues each with their own pair. Ruby and I have the black king piece, so we would probably be paired with the team that has the same relic." There was a shriek of joy and Minato stumbled back as Kira leapt into his arms.

"We're on the same team!" Kira gushed crushing him in her grip. Minato allowed himself a small smile as he removed himself from her embrace. He gave Blake a sidelong glance, but the girl gave no indication about her thoughts.

"So that means we could potentially find out our teammates now?" Weiss asked quickly. She whirled around facing Pyrrha in an instant. "What statue did you pick up?" She held out her own white knight figure hoping for a match. Pyrrha gave a nervous smile.

"Umm Jaune, which piece did you pick?" She was answered as Jaune pull out a white rook causing Weiss to deflate. Nora on the let out a laugh.

"Welcome aboard, we're more than happy to have you!" She shouted. Weiss looked dejectedly at her piece before another voice called to her.

"Over here princess," Nazo called, holding the other knight piece. "Looking forward to working with you." He finished with a friendly smile but only got a scowl in returned.

"Hey Nora…," Weiss began but Minato quickly cut her off.

"Don't even think about changing pieces." He informed her. "Students have been punished and even eliminated for trying to change teams. The point of pairing students this way is to get future huntsman and huntresses used to the idea of working with people they don't know. If we could just change teams then we wouldn't be able to function the same as most professionals." Weiss gave a pout but decided to stay silent.

"What about team leaders?" Ren asked. "Is that also something you know?"

"That's up to how well you performed during the test," Minato admitted. "The teachers watched us for the majority of the test and rank us accordingly among your teammates." He gave a defeated shrug. "Thus my guess is as good as any of yours about who will become team leader."

"Let's just focus on getting back first." Blake said finally adding to the conversation. "The test isn't even done yet." With that solemn reminded the party return to scanning the forest for potential threats. There would be plenty of time to celebrate later.

-Ω-

Minato tried to hold back a yawn as Ozpin gave his usual pre-team assignment speech. He had attended these enough that he had become sick of them. Sure, Ozpin didn't always use the same words, but the base message was still the same. He tuned the headmaster out as his eyes traveled to the newest four teams entering Beacon. Now that he was out of the Emerald Forest, he could actually examine the other students. In the front of the line, stood four boys Minato didn't know. They were a ways ahead of him so he could get a good look at any of the members. The next group was Jaune, Pyrrha, Ren and Nora. He hadn't had the chance to fight alongside any of them, but they seemed like a solid team. Nora was whispering something to Ren who in turn was resolutely focusing on the stage. Jaune looked ready to puke from nerves and Pyrrha was doing he best to calm him down.

The team in front of his group consisted of Nazo, Yang, Weiss and Daryl. While he had known Yang and Nazo through his time at Signal, he was clueless on Weiss and Daryl. He hoped for his former teammates that they handled themselves professionally on the battle field. However, from the way Weiss was glaring at her partner, he was could make a few assumptions about her. To be fair to the Ice Queen, the cheetah Faunus was glaring dagger back, which probably didn't help the mood.

Finally, that left his team. There was his partner Ruby as well as Blake and Kira. He didn't see any major faults his team may potentially get snagged on, but it was always prudent to check. Ruby was like an open book to him, having lived with her for several years. Kira, on the other hand he had known only as a child. He was sure that that she had changed in that time. However, Kira was an honest girl and he was sure he wouldn't have any trouble getting back into the normal rhythm with her. His eyes finally landed on Blake, the member he knew least. To him, she was an enigma. She rarely talked and when she did it was to get straight to the point. He made a mental note to ask Kira about her later. At that moment Blake caught his gaze and raised an eyebrow in question. Minato gave her a smile to which she just rolled her eyes and ignored him. He sighed to himself, not the best start but they would work through it. He looked back to the stage just as Ozpin began introducing the newest teams.

"Russel Thrush, Cardin Winchester, Dove Bronzewing, Sky Lark. The four of your retrieved the black bishop pieces." The letter appeared above the team as Ozpin spoke. "From this day forward, you will work together as team Cardinal. Led by… Cardin Winchester." The crowd applauded as the team made their way off the stage. Once all of them had left Ozpin invited up the next team.

"Jaune Arc, Pyrrha Nikos, Lie Ren, Nora Valkyrie. The four of you retrieved the white rook pieces." On the screen the letter appeared. "From this day forward, you will work together as team Juniper. Led by … Juane Arc." The room once again cheered and Jaune looked shocked at the responsibility placed on him. Pyrrha attempted to punch him lightly on the arm but he toppled over instead. Once that have been cleared up, they were dismissed, and the next tam was called forward.

"Nazo Gwynt, Weiss Schnee, Yang Xiao Long, and Daryl Tutul. The four of you retrieved the white knight pieces." The letter formed on the screen above the members. "From this day forward, you will work together as team Wind. Led by … Weiss Schnee." The same cheers rose, and Weiss seemed to positively glow on stage. Finally, it was his team's turn and they were called up onto the stage.

"Ruby Rose, Minato Arisato, Blake Belladonna, and Kira Ryusei. The four of you retrieved the Black King pieces." Ozpin said with a smile. The letter appeared on the screen above the members. "From this day forward, you will work together as team Embark. Led by … Minato Arisato." The crowded clapped and Ozpin gave Minato a private smile. "Do me proud. I have great expectation for you." He winked, and Minato gave him a smile back. This was his first official step to becoming a huntsman. And despite the slight nerves in his stomach he knew he was ready.

-Ω-

Been 9 months since I updated but it is what it is. Writing certainly isn't my first first priority anymore. Still with the new release of RWBY season 5, I felt inspired enough to get a chapter out, maybe a few more if I can scrap together enough free time. Regardless I hope you all enjoyed the chapter.

As always a huge thank you to my beta Mingyu. He was able to look this over with no prior warning, not sure how he finds the time.

As always thank you to everyone who favorited followed and reviewed. If you have any questions or comments feel free to leave a review or send me a private message. I will answer them as soon as I can.