Chapter 3
(AN: before I start, I just wanted to let you guys know that I'm trying to release these at least once a week but I've only got so much written right now and so I'm trying to pace myself. Anyway, I'll let you read.)
Right as Ozpin told us to take our positions, I saw the guy who puked on the airship raise his hand for a question. Before I could hear him ask it though, I was already in the air.
So this is what flying feels like without an airship. I thought.
Thankfully, my uncle Pollux took me skydiving one time and I remembered how to steer yourself. I aimed myself towards a patch of grass with trees on either side and extended my blades, scraping the trees and slowing myself down as I hit the ground. I was still going pretty fast when I hit the ground and landed with an audible thud.
"Thank Oum for Aura." I said with a pained groan as I got up. "Okay, now to find a partner." And just as I looked up, I saw the Pyrrha Nikos heading running towards the western side of the forest. Holy crap, Holy crap, HOLY CRAP! I went into a fan frenzy in my head. Pyrrha Nikos as my partner? How much better could the day get? I ran behind her trying to keep pace with her but she was pretty damn fast. She suddenly made a sharp right turn and I just ended up slamming into a tree and fell backwards. Okay, so maybe Pyrrha as a partner isn't such a good idea. I thought as I got up again. I just started walking towards where the temple was supposed to be and hoped that I'd find a partner along the way. As I walked, I heard somebody clear their throat behind me.
So I turn around and who do I find but my old friend from Signal leaning against the base of a tree with a long scarred line reaching from the top of the tree to the trunk.
"Hey Andrea. Can I assume you used Dusk as your landing strategy?" I asked gesturing to the long line in the tree.
"Yup. Just hit it like a bullet and pretty much used my weight to get down." She replied.
"Well, let's get going. We should probably get to the temple quickly." She nodded at me and we headed northwards. Neither of us spoke, our ears too focused on listening out for grimm. We got to a small clearing and I held up my hand in a fist to stop.
"What is it?" Andrea asked me in a whisper.
"We've got grimm all around us, I know it. I just don't know how many or what…" I was about to say the word "type" when about half a dozen ursai emerged from the tree line. I extended the blades from my gauntlets and lunged towards the belly of one that was on its hind legs. After a few stabs, it fell over dead and began to disintegrate. I looked back to see how Andrea was doing and she was almost impossible to see due to how fast she was moving with Dusk burning red in her hand, igniting the ursa she was slashing at. She held the sheath with her left and the sword itself with her right, slashing upwards, downwards and diagonally with lightning speed.
"Yeah, she's fine." I said to myself as I turned to face the other three bear-like grimm near me. I retracted the blades and let loose a flurry of grenades from Castor and Pollux, engulfing one of the grimm in flames and explosions. I was satisfied it was dead when both its front paws flew off and it collapsed.
But like an idiot, I forgot to look behind me and one of the ursai hit me with the force of a truck, sending me flying towards the trees and skidding across the ground. When I picked myself up for the third time that day, four ursai were standing side by side.
"Alright assholes, one at a time!" I yelled at them. Then as if it actually heard me, one of them charged at me by itself and I dodged out of the way. As I extended my blades once more, I heard a blood-curdling scream that could only belong to Andrea. Adrenaline coursed through my body as I jumped on the back of the creature and stabbed multiple holes in between the white plates that served as armor. Jumping off the bleeding one, I turned to face the other three who all charged at the same time. I decided to just let the grenades do the work as I retracted the blades and let loose a torrent of yellow flame and explosions. I managed to immobilize two of them as they charged but one of them, a major, just kept coming.
Letting the effects of adrenaline take over, I got the blades out and I let out a roar as I slid underneath the charging bear-grimm, slicing open its stomach as we moved against each other. I didn't even bother to look back as I moved to where Andrea was now on the ground bleeding from a large gash in her arm with two ursai approaching her.
"Oh no you don't." I said to myself as I sprinted towards the side of one ursa.
Delving my blades deep into its front left paw, I jumped away and focused on the second one, hoping to end the skirmish and get Andrea to help as soon as possible. The other stood on its hind legs and was about to roar when I retracted one blade and launched three grenades at it, sending it stumbling backwards. I rushed forward and used the other blade to slash at its now unprotected belly and front paws. Jumping away from that one, I turned back to the previously wounded one, which only advanced on Andrea's prone figure further. In a fit of rage, I sprinted towards it and used both blades to sever its unwounded arm, leaving the ursa leaning on a weakened paw. Once again, adrenaline coursed through me as I jumped into the air high enough for me to dig my blades into its skull, cracking clean through the white plate that guarded a fleshy head.
Satisfied that everything was ok and the grimm were dead, I looked back at Andrea and knelt down to see her face down on the ground, bleeding from her left arm and as I turned her over, also the stomach where another deep gash had spawned.
"Andrea, Andrea! Please, don't do this to me, please wake up!" I screamed at her unconscious figure. I took her pulse and found nothing. This can't be happening. I thought to myself, tears now pouring down my face. I attempted CPR for what seemed like an hour but still got nothing. Not a breath, not a pulse, nothing.
My best friend since starting Signal was dead on the first day of initiation at Beacon.
She must've been waiting at that tree to recover her aura. I thought to myself. That's the only explanation. Then I had to come along and interrupt her rest. I'm the one responsible. This is my fault. I sat beside her corpse for about half an hour before I found the strength to get up, the adrenaline now replaced with grief. Looking down at Andrea, I noticed Dusk still in its sheath just beside her left hand. I gingerly picked it up with both hands, closed my eyes and swore an oath.
"Andrea, on my word as a huntsman-in-training and a friend, I swear that I will protect others from the same horrible fate you received." I opened my eyes bid Andrea one final silent farewell before leaving.
The next few minutes were the longest of my life until I finally got to the forest temple. It was close to nightfall as I approached a stand with a white bishop piece on it, the only one remaining. With Dusk still in my grasp, I picked up the relic with my free hand and was about to head back when I saw a lone figure sprinting towards me. I immediately assumed the worst and took a stance to get ready to fight until I recognized the face as it got closer.
It was Denara by herself. She must've recognized me as she didn't say anything as she ran up to me and threw her arms around me. It took me a few seconds to get past my own grief before I realized she was crying. Her shield was stained with the familiar black blood of grimm as was her axe at her waist. I hugged her back and gently began caressing her hair. I didn't care whether she thought it was weird or not. It just felt nice to be around another female I knew.
"Dee, what's wrong?" I asked calmly after a solid minute of her crying.
"It-it's Elias." She cried out in between choking sobs.
"What is it? What's wrong?" I asked seriously, remembering my oath I recently swore.
"He's dead, Joe!" She practically screamed over my shoulder. "We were fighting some beowolves on our way here and we were ambushed by a king taijitu. He took care of the beowolves and told me to run. But I didn't and we both tried taking on the taijitu, but he was so worried about me when I got knocked away that he exhausted the rest of his aura taking hits that were meant for me and it just bit right through his armor and killed him outright!" Her crying escalated at the retelling of her brother's demise.
"So did you outrun the taijitu?" I asked, my tone still serious.
"Yes, there's no way it could've followed me." She said, pulling herself out of the embrace. She looked around, as if she was expecting someone to be there. "Where's Andrea?"
I merely let go of her shoulders and pulled out Dusk from the makeshift holster at my waist.
"Mauled by ursai. She told me back in Signal that this sword was her pride and joy, that even after she passed, she wanted it to serve a purpose." I stated.
Denara looked at me with sympathetic eyes and pulled me in for another hug. In any other setting, it would've been romantic but with the deaths of a student weighing on both our shoulders, any room for romance was flooded by grief and sorrow. She pulled back from the embrace and looked me in the eyes as I put Dusk back in the holster I made for it.
"You should grab a relic. That way we can head back to the cliffs and be assessed by the professors." I looked back in her eyes. She nodded and grabbed the other white bishop piece.
We walked back towards the cliffs in relative silence, neither of us in the mood for talking.
"How are you doing on aura?" I asked.
She looked at her scroll resting on her shield arm. "Not good. Maybe ten percent left."
I felt the presence of more grimm nearby and stopped in my tracks and Denara did the same.
As if from nowhere, five beowolves appeared in front of us and one jumped on Denara from behind us. It only took quick two slashes of its claws to exhaust her aura and leave multiple deep scratch marks on the back of her skull. The second I saw the beowolf jump on Denara I extended the blades from my gauntlets and stabbed the grimm multiple times, killing it immediately, but the damage was already done. I retracted the blade from my left gauntlet and fired four grenades at the group of five beowolves in front of me, which were now charging. Only one made it out alive and its remaining time of its life was extremely short as the blade from my right gauntlet slashed across its left front paw and it howled it pain. After stabbing it twice in the chest, I fired another grenade into one of the small holes I made and the beast's back exploded outwards. I looked back to see Denara face down on the ground just like Andrea had been, bleeding profusely from the back of her head.
Approaching her, I noticed that she was also unconscious and I felt my knees begin to buckle. No. Not again. Not twice in the same day. I prayed to Oum that she was still alive. I turned her over on her back and felt for a pulse. I kept two fingers to her wrist for a solid minute before I realized that in the time that I was fighting the beowolves, Denara had bled out. I sighed and removed my finger from her wrist, sitting down beside her body as I did so. Three friends lost in the same day. Great fucking start. I thought. First it's Andrea, then Elias and now Denara. I decided to stop wallowing in my grief and headed back to the cliffs with the white bishop piece in my right hand and Dusk in my left.