He'd always liked flying. Since he was little and got a taste for it it just sort of stuck with him. Although, he'd admit this much, he hadn't laughed as strongly as he had now in a long time. "Catapulting people into a forest." Gales started as he continued to soar through the air, bypassing trees like a well shot bullet. "Hands down best use of tech in the world!" The teen stated as he drew Wyrmflare and pointed it beneath him. He pulled the handle as the back of the blade popped open and released a burst of fire that launched him higher into the air. From a slightly better vantage point he took a quick moment to scan his surroundings, though even for him he was a bit tough considering the speed in which he was still flying at. "Let's see a good spot to land… eeny meeny miny - you." He angled his blade again as he fired, changing his trajectory a bit as he started his dive. He didn't do anything too fancy, didn't pull a cartwheel or fire his weapon again to slow his descent. He just twisted once, smashing into tree branches before setting his weapon on his back and punched forward with his good arm. The impact splintered a tree as he bulldozed through it. A tight roll in mid-air and he landed in a crouch; feet spread and a single fist being used to support his weight. He stood barely a moment later, looking at his shoulder and dusted himself off. Behind him the rest of the tree he smashed into hit the ground, but he ignored it and the crash that followed

"Alright hello Emerald Forest." Gales stated as he used his left hand to scratch his cheek and looked around. "Now I just need to find those relics and a teammate and I'm all set…" He paused for a moment. "I wonder how far off course I am though." Gales paused as he put the hand on his hip as he returned his weapon to its closed form. "Not only that I really should have asked Oz how long we had till initiation was done." He noted as he crossed his arms for a moment. "Hm… Really wish Jaune managed to ask before he was launched too…" The teen noted as he sighed.

"Thank you!" Speaking of Jaune, that sounded like him.

"I'm sorry!" And there was Pyrrha.

"Hi Pyrrha! Good Luck!" Gales yelled out into the air as he waited for a moment.

"Good luck Gales!" The teen just smiled as he started walking off. A loose smile on his face before he grew distracted by something.

"Hm." Walking over to a plant he crouched down as he raised an eyebrow. "This is… I know these herbs." The teen noted as he smelled the plant and frowned. "These are good for healing potions." He sat with the plant for a moment before reaching under his pelt, and digging through one of his pouches. Pulling out a small glass bottle the teen used his Carving knife and cut the plant free before bottling it away. That done he looked around for another moment before dragging his fingers along the dirt. "No blue mushrooms though… maybe there's elsewhere?" He thought before lifting some dirt and running it between his fingers. "That said~ If I want Grimm… tracks shows there this way." He turned to his weapon. "What do you say partner, ready for your First Hunt?"

Ruby

The moment Ruby hit the ground she took off running. Sprinting across the forest as she repeated a simple line in her head. 'Gotta find Yang. Gotta find Yang. Gotta find Yang. Gotta fi~ind Ya~ng! Yang!" She repeated for moment before frowning and disappearing into her thought again. 'Ugh this is bad, this is really bad! What if I can't find her? What if someone finds her first? Here's always Jaune… he's nice. He's funny! I don't think he's very good in a fight, though.' The image of Jaune getting attacked by tiny black Grimm popped into her mind for a moment. 'Oh! What about Blake? So mysterious, so calm. Plus she likes books! Well then again, I'm not sure I'd be able to hold a conversation with her.' The image of her trying to talk to Blake popped up in her head as the bow wearing girl just started stepping away from her. 'Ugh! Okay… who else do I know in this school? Oh yeah there's Gales!' She thought with a smile. 'Like Jaune he's nice, and he likes books! He's also easy to talk to and he's probably good in a fight, I mean he had to have gotten those scars from somewhere right?' Ruby thought as a topless Gales popped into her mind, and she flourished slightly. Shaking her head the girl of 16 started to focus as she pushed the thought back. 'Ok focus Ruby; there's Yang, Jaune, Blake, Gales, and…' Spotting someone a bit ahead Ruby skid to a stop as she grew closer to them. Weiss.

Said heiress just blinked for a moment as she stared at her counterpart. The next moment Ruby did the same as she slowly started to smile.

… and then Weiss started walking off. "Wat! Where are you going? … We're supposed to be teammates…" Ruby muttered as she kicked the dirt.

A bit away Weiss just dug through the foliage as she started pushing them out of her way. "Ow! Ugh."

"Ugh come on you stupid urg… come on agh." Weiss looked up as she found Jaune hanging from a tree, a spear stabbed into his hood as he tried removing it." A moment later though he stopped and looked down at the Schnee Heiress and waved awkwardly. Weiss just turned back around and walked away. Second she went back to Ruby she grabbed her by her hood and started dragging her off.

"By no means does this make us friends."

"You came back!" Up in a tree Jaune just watched the pair disappear as he shouted after them.

"Hey, wait! Comeback! Who's gonna get me down from here?"

"Jaune?" As if to answer his question Jaune looked down to find a familiar redhead staring at him with a loose smile. "Do you… have any spots left on your team?"

"Very funny." Jaune smiled a moment later though.

Back with Ruby and Weiss though, things weren't exactly ending with a smile. "What's the hurry?"

"I will not let my mission be delayed because you're too slow." Weiss stated as Ruby just smiled slightly at that. Slow wasn't exactly a word that would be used to describe her. Not in the slightest. "I swear, if I get a bad grade because of your -" In an instant Ruby was right in front of her. A wide smile on her face as she made lite movements with her hands. "What the?"

"I'm not slow see? You don't have to worry about me!"

"When did…"

"Weiss, just because I don't exactly know how to deal with people doesn't mean I don't know how to deal with monsters." Ruby leaned in and grabbed Weiss's shoulder as the heiress just crossed her arms. "You're about to see a whole different side of me today Weiss! And after it's all over, your gonna be like"Wow! That Ruby Girl is really cool… and I wanna be her friend"." A quick flurry or rose petals and Ruby was gone, leaving Weiss to wipe the petals from her line of view.

"You may be fast, but you still excel at wasting time!" Weiss shouted, but Ruby didn't respond. "Ruby? … Ruby?" The response she got wasn't anything a human could produce. "Ruby!"

Yang

All she heard was the forest life. Yang realized as she walked through the forest a leisure pace and without a care in the world. Well outwardly yet. Inwardly… well Yang was still Yang so... "Hello~o?" Yeah she was still pretty carefree. "Is anyone out there? Hello~o?" Coming to a stop the blonde raised her arms as she looked around for a moment. "I'm getting bored here." She frowned slightly, turning her head as she heard rustling behind her. "Is someone there?" Seemingly without a second thought she headed towards the noise as she started to peer through the bushes "Ruby is that you? All Yang got as an answer was a beast like snarl. "Nope." From the bushes an Ursa struck, causing Yang to roll out the way. Getting some distance she activated Ember Cecilia, turning the bracelets into their gauntlet form as she started to take a stance. Although she quickly shifted out of it as a second tried to hit her and she flipped away. Wasn't sure which one it was that charged her next, though guess it didn't matter in the end. They met her fist were sent flying back. The second came after her a moment later, only for her to uppercut into the air and kick it back as well.

"You guys wouldn't happen to have seen a girl in a red hood would you?" All the Ursa did was roar at her as she smiled. "Could just say no!" She dodged another claw strike, hopping to the side and back-flipping away from the second before a light laugh left her. "Hahaha. Geez you two couldn't hit the broad side of a ba-" Yang trailed off as something floated away in her vision before falling to the floor. It was small but she noticed it, a single strand of blonde hair; her hair. For a split second the world stopped. "You…" The next half second, she saw red. "You monsters!" Throwing her hands down Yang was quickly enveloped in flames as she used her weapon to rocket forward. With a warcry she struck the first. A straight hook followed by an uppercut, right after she gave chase; a flurry of blows following her movements as she hammered into the Ursa before launching it through a number of trees. With a quick reload She turned to face the second Ursa as it stood a few feet from her. "What you want some too?!" Before the blonde could further vent her anger and frustration the Ursa dropped, revealing Blake standing behind it and retrieving her weapon. "… I could have taken him."

Forest Cliffs

Ozpin just looked at his scroll as he stared through the various cameras they had planted throughout the Emerald Forest. Most of them showed nothing, though with the right screen he was able to see what was happening to his future students. A small number of screens at the edge kept him in touch with the other teachers and though he couldn't see their faces the audio kept him informed. "Well it looks like everyone is almost paired, excellent! I was beginning to worry, seems it was for nothing!" Professor Oobleck's voice was first talking in his usual fast pace.

"Yes it certainly does look like it."

Port's voice called out as Ozpin took a sip from his coffee.

"Who do you think pair themselves next?"

"Hm~ I want to say the Young Winchester and Ms. Valkyrie."

Oobleck.

"However she seems to have eyes for Ren, perhaps the would be a better pair."

"Well are we talking together-together pairing or team pairing?"

Peach's voice called out as Ports made a noise.

"In that case I want Ren and Valkyrie together!"

"Well from what the files say they grew up together." Glynda muttered as she dug into their file for a moment and looked it over. She muttered something under her breath as she finished, flipping back to the other screens as they continued to watch the events unfold.

"I'm curious about that one boy that walked off smashing through a tree...

The rest of the teachers fell silent as Wales spoke up for a moment.

"Yes that was... something."

Ozpin looked to the teen, watching him trace his fingers long the edge of a tree and put a hand to his lips. Next moment he reached under his pelt and pulled out a notebook and started to write something in it.

"He hasn't ran into any Grimm yet, all he'd been doing is collecting plants."

"He's examining the terrain! Scanning for any irregularities, seeing whatever might be out of place. Wonderful work."

"That's not all he's doing."

A certain teacher made a noise.

"The way he's moving… the way he drags his fingers on the ground and the time in which he makes his notes."

"That's an old style of hunting…" Ozpin admitted. "He's tracking the Grimm's previous movements." 'I hadn't seen movements like that in a long time.'

"Professor Ozpin, where exactly did you say this boy was from?"

"Offland." though exactly where was up for debate. The boy hadn't heard of the Four Kingdoms until they had spoken months ago.

"It looks like he finally found a pack of Grimm."

"Let's see what he's capable off."

"Lets."

Gales

The first hunt was also the most important. It was like a baptism, a rite of passage to show one was ready. The first hunt, it showed the potential of a soon to be hunter - either made or it broke them. The same could be said for their armaments. Showed that a weapon was properly crafted - if they were ready to sink their fangs into the hides of great beasts or if they would snap and crumble under the pressure. A lot rode on the first hunt. Maybe that was why he loved it so much.

Or maybe it was because everything made sense during the hunt.

During a hunt there were no tribe or clan politics involved, there were no borders between nations. No boundaries between upper and lower class. Fresh blood or living legend; all that joined the hunt were seen as equals. You were a Hunter, and you were among your kind, unabated by whatever weight your life had put on your shoulders. It didn't even matter that he was currently on another continent. All that mattered was the hunt.

That made sense to him.

For Gales, hunting wasn't a hobby, it wasn't just some form of past time like the Old World nobility made it out to be. Hunting was a part of him, it was in his blood. "And a hunter must hunt." The teen muttered as he stared ahead, his attention focused on the pack of Beowolves that were patrolling their own made territory. He played this right though, things wouldn't be that way for long though. One of the black wolves noticed him, and with a growl it signaled the rest of the pack. Gales did a quick count, smiling to himself as he reached for his weapon. "30, not a bad number." He noted as the beowolves broke into a chorus of roars before charging him.

'Slow.' That was the only thought that went through Gales head as the things charged him. Slow, slower, than most Pelagus - let alone a Fanged Wyvern. Anything they were, maybe as fast as some packs of bird wyverns. He dodged a claw swipe, stepping in as he spun. Blade flying off of his back as it was brought into an overhead arc and bisected one of the creatures in one swift movement. He turned moving as the rest of the pack started to press their attack. He dodged another Beowolf, moving to the side before blocking another. He countered, smashing the weapon into one's face before taking a few steps back. Another block and twist knocked them off balance before he rolled to get behind it and stepped over to the side before rolling out the way of another claw.

"Hm…" For a while… that was all he did; he dodged, weaved, and blocked an assortment of claws that were aimed at him. A step to the left, a full block to the right, roll to avoid a mass of Beowolves, repeat.

Seeing another attack, Gales snapped his free arm out as he grabbed Grimm by the claw and tightened his grip on it. He turned, bringing the Grimm over his head as he slammed the into the dirt. He twirled his blade like a knife, holding it in a reverse grip before stabbing downward as the Grimm screamed. With a twist the Beowolf fell silent and he pulled the weapon from its body. "That should do." Gales noted as he turned back to the pack. "Let's go partner." And like that Gales went on the offensive. One Grimm swung at him only to hit air and in turn lost its head. He stepped to the side sliding his leg along the ground as he made an upward swing, and took another's arm seconds before they strike at. It staggered back, only to lose it's head with a quick swing of the blade. Gales He turned, readjusting the massive blade as he pulled the trigger; the back of his blade popping out as the fire returned, this time the flames heating the blade up till it turned a bright red-yellow.

One Grimm came lunged at him, coming from behind as he turned, the flame clad blade ripping its hand off before doing the same with the rest of its body. He drew the handgun that had been given to him from Junior and opened fire, dropping round after round into the pack as he stepped forward. He made a turn, producing a rising strike with his flame-clad blade as he knocked another into the air before going after the others with this wide swing that was followed by a series of overhead swings that pounded the beasts into the ground. With a turn he fired his handgun at the grim that he had previously knocked into the air and tore a small hole into its back.

Turning to another Grimm he leaned to the side as its claw almost cut into him. He shot the Beowolf in the leg as it went down before pistol whipping it in the head. A roundhouse met the next as it was pushed back a bit, and with the momentum he swung his blade and removed its neck. Tossing Wyrmsflare only to catch it, Gales brought it back and pulled the trigger as he revived the flames on the blade. The swing that followed ripped off a Grimms arm, causing it to stagger for a moment before it resumed charging head on. Gales met it head on, before he jumped into the air, and came crashing down on the Grimm with his sword in its skull. Jumping again he flipped over his blade and brought it in an overhead arc and let it take another Grimm. One caught his attention as he rolled, getting out of the way of its claws before twisting his sword behind him as he blocked another set of claws. He was actually a bit surprised when it grabbed his weapon and wretched it free from his grip causing him to look at his empty hand. The next time it swung at him Gales just moved, letting it hit air as he slipped behind and hugged. With little effort he lifted it into the air and suplexed the Grimm before rolling to his feet and grabbed one of its legs. He smashed it into the next one that tried to attack him.

Forest Cliffs

"Did he just suplex a Beowolf?"

"I'm more concerned by the fact he's literally beating Beowolves… with another Beowolf."

"I feel like that's a thing. Is that a thing?"

"Not normally." Ozpin admitted. "It takes considerable strength to lift something the way he is, and he's making it look natural."

"I wonder what he benches."

"Still I'm curious, if he could fight this well… why did he stay on the defense as long as he did?"

Gales

Gales threw a Beowolf at the crowd as he lifted his weapon again. "Alright first upcoming mod, something to better my grip on you, guards aren't just doing it it seems." Gales examined his weapon before making a noise. "Well that's what the First Hunt's for right? To see what works and what doesn't." Without warning he swung the weapon behind him as another Beowolf dropped. When the rest were on him he sent one flying, a thrown blade stabbed into their body as he struck a second one with his fists. The third threw stones at him, only for him to dodge and roll. He punched it in the stomach, causing white bile to be launched for a second as it skid back. Turning back to the others he kicked one away before throwing a another over his shoulders and started to smash another into the ground. Ripping his weapon from the body of a Beowolf he did a full turn, dragging it from one body to the next before stopping. With a quick hop he jumped over another Beowolve's claw and let it launch him into the air. A few good feet and the teen flipped, landing in a crouch as the pack turned to him and gave chase.

"I think we've had enough partner." The Hunter stated as he lowered his head, closed his eye and inhaled. Throughout the forest a loud beastial roar sounded. One that didn't belong to any Grimm that neither student or teacher were accustomed to.

"GGRAAAGGGHHHHH!"

Team: Jaune and Pyrrha

"W - What was that?"

"I'm not sure."

Team: Ruby and Weiss

"Sounds like a really big Grimm." Ruby muttered as she watched a selection of birds fly off.

Team: Yang and Blank

"I've never heard of a Grimm like that before." Blake admitted as Yang just looked in the direction of fleeing birds.

"Should we check it out?

Team: Ren and Nora

"I wanna see what that was!"

"Not happening Nora."

Forest Cliffs

"He has a strong pair of lungs." Ozpin commented as he looked at the screen watching Gales place his sword on his back before looking around. A pile of shredded Grimm parts rested around him as he crossed his arms. "Still I'm impressed."

"Did anyone get a good look at that last move he did?"

"No, I'm afraid all I saw was a charge and flashes of red."

"I'm afraid not I've just tried replaying the camera feed at half its speed and still nothing."

Oobleck's words caused a brief silence.

"Are you saying that whatever he just did… our cameras couldn't pick it up?"

"Not all together no."

"Do you think it was his Semblance?"

"No…" Ozpin stated as he thought back. "He doesn't know what a Semblance is." Then again that hadn't been one of the topics they discussed when they first met the boy. 'Although…' Ozpin gave Glynda a look. If he thought about it; it might have been a Semblance just under a different name. "Regardless, we have another interesting student this year."

Gales

"Huh… you guys really do disappear when you die." Gales noted as he raised the head of a Beowolf for a moment, watching the black smoke start to leave it. A moment later the head disappeared as Gales frowned. "What are you guys?" The teen questioned before wiping his hand and looked in a random direction. "Are these things really wicked spirits?" The teen questioned as he smelled the air before starting off. "Guess I got something to look into while I'm here." Gale muttered as he crossed his arms.

From the woods something moved, scarlet eyes resting on the lone teen as they moved forward, uncurling veined fingers as they reached forward.

"Interesting."

Gales punched air as he turned, and with his free hand he grabbed his weapon and looked around. "What the-" No one. Just a boy alone in the woods. 'No not alone…' The teen thought as he stared at the woods for a moment and smelled the air. "Can't smell anything near… but that feeling… it's just like yesterday…" No, that wasn't exactly right. The teen bit his sleeve and pulled it upward, taking a look at the hairs on his arm. "Yesterday was light… this though, I haven't had my instincts flare like that since…" A scream pulled Gales out of his thoughts as he turned. Without a second thought he ran, taking off into the forest as he followed then a brief yet obviously feminine scream.