Chapter 12 (Stan Crow)
"Run!" Hope glanced behind her to verify that Everest was keeping up. Despite his short stature, the young man was gaining on her, a blur of white steel in the midst of the forest. Confident she wasn't abandoning her teammate, she looked forward again.
Just in time to be clotheslined by a low branch.
Everest was at her side in an instant, hauling her to her feet as though she were a rag doll. He released her before she was fully upright and whipped a moon glaive up between her and a charging beowulf. The force of the impact drove Everest back a full yard; Hope knew it would have buried her. Even in the midst of his slide Everest seized the beast by the throat and hurled it to the ground. In a single motion, he severed its head with another moon glaive.
Hope yanked Nash from her back, holding the axe-bladed guitar by the neck, ready to strike. A faint feeling brushed her mind and she side-stepped a breath before a pair of wolves crashed past her on her right. Nash flashed as it came around, embedding itself in the shoulder of one wolf and severing its spine. Its companion leapt over it and blasted her to the ground with a swipe to the face. Her wounds began healing almost at once, but her aura had never been particularly good at rapid regeneration. She blocked several more strikes with Nash, but was clearly getting the worse end of the fight—until she managed to stick the business end of her shotgun in the monster's chest. Two rounds, it was down.
Scrambling to her feet, she fended off two more beowolves, noticing that Everest was dealing with three. "This isn't going to work," she yelled. "We need elevation!"
Everest nodded sharply, and then leapt past Hope and into the midst of a cluster of wolves. Several landed hits, but his armor held. Then he was a whirlwind of cold steel and fury, tossing aside the Grimm like refuse. Hope saw the opening at once, and scampered to Everest, and then ran up his bowed back and leapt for the nearest tree. Nash's blade bit deep into the trunk, giving her enough leverage to flip herself atop the makeshift perch. Jerking Nash out from under her own feet, she pulled the trigger repeatedly, the shotgun blast thrusting her up into the waiting arms of outstretched branches.
Below, Everest had gone down under a dog pile of Grimm.
"No!" Hope aimed for a leap toward the group, but the mound of animal flesh exploded upward, and Everest flew free from the scrum riding a shockwave that carried flying limbs and fur. He landed a short distance away, staggered a few steps, and tottered to one knee. Hope unloaded a clip to give him cover, downing two of the beowolves and wounding another pair.
Suddenly, it was over. Without warning, the creatures turned and fled. Hope peppered them with some parting rounds, earning a few yelps, but it was clear the fight had ended. As she dropped to the ground, she caught a glimpse of a young man in angry red leathers sprinting away. By the time Hope had touched dirt and crossed to Everest, a Nevermore screamed overhead.
"Look out!" she cried. But the gargantuan raptor plummeted into the forest some distance away, only to rise again moments later, leaving them unmolested.
Confident the danger had passed, Hope knelt by her companion. "Everest, you're going to be okay. I promise."
Her swarthy teammate grimaced, but nodded. "Your decision to climb the tree was a wise one. I only wish our opponents had granted me that same courtesy." He pushed himself to his feet, but collapsed after a stumbling step.
"Don't try to move. I'm recalling Optima. We can report to Professor Ozpin later."
"Calm yourself, my friend," Everest said. "My mother trained me well in the healing arts. A few minutes, and I will be fit to travel again. Though I will not be winning any races.
"Now," he added, "Let us examine the footage we obtained."
Hope helped Everest into a comfortable position, sighing at his stubbornness, and quickly contacted Optima. Satisfied that the teams' main healer was backtracking, she removed her camera from her belt and watched the footage several times—no surprises. Just Team DSPR running around the Grimm, which did not chew them to pieces. Then, something flashed in Hope's mind.
"Wait—look at that again." They slow-reversed the video to where the boy in red was jogging in front of the Grimm's lines. There, in his belt, was a small figurine. It glinted as if with small jewels or metal inlay, but the footage was too raw to make out fine details. One more thing was for certain, however—the figurine seemed to glow ever so slightly. The glow matched the young man's manifestation of aura surrounding the hand he used to gesture at the army of beasts.
"What do you think that is?" Hope asked.
"Difficult to tell. But I suspect it is no mere trinket."
"Agreed."
Hope's thoughts were interrupted by another, more distant screech from the Nevermore. In the middle distance, she saw snatches of the thing rising through the trees again, and then turning in what seemed to be the direction of Beacon.
"That can't be good," she said, standing. "We need to assemble the team and report our findings ASAP." She uploaded the footage to her personal drive, and shot the file back to her personal computer on campus, carbon copying it to Professor Porter, the resident zoologist.
"I do believe I can stand now," Everest said, levering himself up. He looked slightly unsteady on his feet, but he waved off Hope's efforts to help. "Come. Let us meet our friend Optima halfway."
"Right," Hope said. "And… where did Patience go?"
At the question, she felt her innards turn to ice. "Oh no," she muttered. "This won't end well."