Author Notes: Hey all, just wanted to apologize for taking so long to upload this chapter, it took really long to edit what with its length and my mind wanting to change things. I also wanted to say thanks for the positive feedback on my white rose fic Fallen Petals, it was just a spur of the moment thing that I wanted to write. Anyway that's all I wanted to say, enjoy!
What It Takes
Chapter 3: Comrades and Conflict
"Wake up lazy bum!"
What in the world, thought Sylvia as she sat up in her sleeping bag.
It was the morning of initiation and the students were starting to stir as they began to prepare for what lay in front of them. Some were already gone, while others still slept soundly in their sleeping bags. Sylvia was rudely awoken by some orange haired teen with a loud voice. She was addressing some black haired boy who was still asleep on the floor. The girl was annoyingly loud, to the point where Sylvia was starting to get a headache. She tried to go back to sleep, knowing she still had some time to get ready before initiation started.
However, the orange haired girl's shrill cries of, "It's morning!" made it impossible to fall back to sleep. So, resigning to her fate, Sylvia got out of her sleeping bag and walked towards the bathroom to get ready.
After her shower, Sylvia changed into her usual white sweater and blue jeans, and walked to the mirror. Her hair was down from her night of sleep and fell a little past her shoulders. She was combing her hair when the blind girl from yesterday walked in and went into one of the stalls. Sylvia would've been mad at the girl for not being polite and saying good morning but she was too excited and nervous about initiation to care too much.
I wonder what initiation will consist of, thought Sylvia, as she tied her hair back into her signature ponytail, it will clearly be a test of skill and teamwork since we have to work as a team of four people.
This lead Sylvia to a different train of thought: how are they going to put teams together?
Perhaps there will be some kind of draft for those who get picked as leaders, Sylvia speculated as she finished tying up her hair in an acceptable fashion, maybe it will be completely random, thought Sylvia nervously.
Sylvia shook her head, they wouldn't do that, she decided, it would be completely inefficient to do it randomly.
Sylvia pulled some of her hair out of the pony tail and flicked it down over the left side of her face to complete her usual look.
There's only one way find out, concluded Sylvia as she walked out of the bathroom. I want to team up with Re at least. And with that she walked out towards the locker room and initiation.
Basil was at his locker, getting ready for initiation. He grabbed his blue bracers out of his locker and placed them onto his arms. Most of the students were already suited up and talking amongst one another. He could already see Re with his sister Sylvia, whom Re had mentioned yesterday. He also saw Porphyrios sitting on one of the benches by himself and two girls, a dog Faunus with dark pink hair and a human with golden brown hair, conversing excitedly about something. Basil took out his pistols from his locker and equipped them to his belt. His pistols were shaped like an arch, with a curved, pointed extension off of the pistol's hilt. The barrel head was shaped like a right trapezoid and the magazines of the pistol stuck out past the curved extension. Overall, pistols were steel colored except for the magazines which were colored green. With his pistols at his belt Basil walked over to everyone else, ready for initiation to begin.
All the students were lined up on the cliffs overlooking the Emerald Forest. Across from them were Glynda Goodwitch and Professor Ozpin, both of which were heading the initiation in the Emerald Forest. The students were all standing on platforms that were emblazoned with the Beacon logo. Sylvia assumed that the platforms were there to launch them all into the forest due to the fact that they had to get into the forest somehow. Sylvia's attention snapped back to the front as Ozpin started speaking.
"For years you have trained to become warriors, and today your abilities will be evaluated in the Emerald Forest."
At this, Glynda continued with, "Now I'm sure many of you have heard rumors about the assignment of teams. Well allow us to put an end to your confusion. Each of you will be given teammates…today."
Sylvia was taken aback, she knew they would be given teammates soon, but Glynda made it sound like they were going to be given teammates before or during the initiation.
"These teammates will be with you for the rest of your time here at Beacon," Ozpin continued, "So, it's important to be teamed up with someone you work well with."
Ozpin paused as this statement sunk in with all the students and then finished by saying, "That being said, the first person you make eye contact with after landing will be your partner for the next four years."
Sylvia's mouth dropped, not only were teammates being determined during initiation, but they were also being decided at complete random.
"After partnering up you will proceed to the center of the forest where you will find several relics. Do not hesitate to destroy everything in your path, or you will die. Each pair must obtain one of these relics and make it to the top cliff where we will mark you and grade you appropriately."
Sylvia closed her mouth, despite the whole random partner thing the task for initiation seemed to be pretty straight forward, and she knew she would score highly.
"Now take your positions."
At this command Sylvia drew her falchion from her belt and transformed it into its bow form. She grabbed an arrow from her quiver, knocked it, and grabbed some dust powder from her belt. She formed the dust into a rope and tied it to the arrow as students to her left were being launched into the air. Once she finished, she took her position as she too was launched into the air.
Flying through the air was a very exhilarating experience for Sylvia, the wind whipping through her hair, and the sun hitting her face, warming her entire body with its morning light. But this was no time to relish in the experience. Sylvia aimed her arrow for one of the larger trees and fired. She grabbed the dust rope as the arrow sunk into the trunk of the tree. Using the rope, Sylvia swung into the forest and barrel rolled when she hit the ground to reduce the force of impact. She stood up, switched her bow back into its sword form, and sheathed it. She started to walk towards the direction of the relics that Ozpin had mentioned before, hoping that she would be able to partner up with Re.
Basil landed without a scratch. Pistols in hand, he headed further into the forest, ducking behind trees and bushes for cover whenever he thought he heard the sounds of Grimm. He knew he was able to kill most of them, but he also knew it was probably best to save his energy until later.
ROAR!
The loud noise came from his left. Basil quickly moved behind a tree to try and avoid the encounter.
BANG!
Basil heard gunshots coming from the same direction. Trying to scope out the situation, Basil peeked out from behind the tree. In a small clearing stood three Ursai surrounding one of the students from the landing pads. On closer inspection, Basil saw that the student was Porphyrios, his head scarf now covering his face. Porphyrios held his weapons in hand, two black sickles connected by a chain. The sickles, on closer inspection, were also magnum pistols. Porphyrios' scaly pangolin tail was parallel to the ground, seemingly to help keep his balance. One of the Ursai attacked, whipping its claw sideways at Porphyrios' head. He ducked quickly and wrapped the blade of the sickle around the Ursa's head. With a quick pull of the trigger on the magnum, Porphyrios shot it in the neck, causing the sickle itself to pull back from the recoil and decapitate the Grimm. A second creature attacked and Porphyrios turned to face it. He blocked the attack with both of his weapons, but was unable to fully throw the attack of the Ursa. As he held the creature in a stalemate, the third Ursa charged from behind. Realizing Porphyrios was about to be blindsided, Basil leapt from his position and fired twice at the creature. Hit by the bullets, the third Ursa turned toward Basil and charged.
Basil was ready for this though, he connected the top of both of his pistols together which caused the magazines of the pistols to snap down and connect to each other. The magazines then extended in to what was now the shaft of a trident. The Ursa had almost covered the short distance between them and was about to strike him. Quickly, Basil dodged out of the way and buried his trident into the Ursa's side. The monster yelled in pain, as Basil fired into the Grimm's insides, causing his trident to be pulled out of the Ursa. The monster crumpled to the ground dead as Basil turned toward Porphyrios and the other creature. Basil saw that while he fought the Grimm, Porphyrios had already taken care of the Ursa he had been engaged with. Porphyrios was now facing Basil, and their eyes locked. Remembering what Ozpin had said before, Basil knew that Porphyrios was going to be his partner for the rest of Beacon. Despite Basil not fully trusting Faunus, he was okay with being partnered with Porphyrios, mostly due to the fact that he had no choice, but also because he was clearly good at combat, meaning getting through initiation would be easy. Trusting would prove difficult, but battling side by side was the best fix for that.
Basil then realized that they had been just standing there in silence for a while.
Alright Basil, Basil said to himself, you just have to make a good impression.
"So…" Basil started, trailing off. Great start, Basil scolded himself.
"Yea I know we're partners," Porphyrios interrupted, "Now if you don't mind I would like to get going for the relics."
Straight to the point then, thought Basil, "I would prefer you give thanks considering I just saved you from the Ursai," Basil said, indicating the bear-like corpses.
"And I would prefer to get a move on," Porphyrios retorted, in a gruff manner, "We have a mission to complete."
"Fine then," Basil replied, raising his hand in the air, "lead the way then."
Porphyrios, his sickles at his belt, turned and walked into the woods. Basil detached his trident, reverting it back into its dual pistol form. He then clipped them back onto his belt and followed Porphyrios into the woods.
Alright I don't think I'm going the right way, Re decided as he trekked through a very dark portion of the forest. He had been walking in this direction for what seemed like hours and still hadn't found much, except for a few Beowolves, which he had dispatched easily.
Oh well, Re continued, maybe this is a shortcut to the relics.
Re smiled to himself at the thought of being the first one there and seeing the look on Sylvia's face when she found out.
Snap
Re turned around quickly, reaching for his weapons too late as he was hit by an unidentified object. Re found himself on the ground with a blade at his throat. The blade came from a blue, steel gauntlet, with a sapphire encrusted in the center of it and a gold design surrounding it. The gauntlet belonged to the blue haired boy from yesterday. The boy looked confused as he looked at Re. He retracted his blade back into his gauntlet and released Re.
"Sorry about that," apologized the blue haired boy as he looked around the woods brushing off his leather jacket, "I thought you were a Grimm."
The boy seemed very distracted by something, by what Re didn't know. The boy was still looking through the woods intently, so Re thought it would be a good idea to break the ice with his new partner.
"Well yea, 'cause I look so much like a Grimm," chuckled Re jokingly.
"Yea…" replied the boy, still distracted by the forest around him.
Re was slightly put off by this strange boy, but regardless he was Re's partner now and he would have to work well with him.
"So, what's your name?" asked Re
The blue haired boy finally turned toward him, a small smirk on his face as he realized what he was doing, the scars on his cheek and chin became more prominent on his face as he moved it.
"Wai," the boy answered, "and you?"
Re matched Wai's smirk with a grin of his own, "I'm Re," replied Re, "I have a feeling we will make good partners, heck even our names rhyme that's gotta be a good sign."
Wai let out a small laugh, "If that's how you judge things than we are already done for."
Re laughed, he definitely knew they were a good match now.
"Well Wai if you're done cracking jokes, we got a relic to find."
"Only if you're done cracking jokes," responded Wai, and with that they both continued to walk through the forest.
BANG, BANG, BOOM, CRASH
All Sylvia could hear were the sounds of other battles throughout the forest, as other students engaged the creatures of Grimm. Whether it was a miracle or a curse, Sylvia had not run into anything since she had landed in the forest. While this meant that she had not encountered Grimm of any kind, it also meant she had not been partnered up at this point. She sighed in anger as she continued throughout the woods, trudging towards where the relic lay.
Honestly, Sylvia thought angrily, I would even go for a pack of Bewolves to fight if it meant some sort of interaction with something.
Sylvia sighed again; I just want something to happen right now, anything.
As soon as the thought crossed her mind, a girl came flying through the trees on her left, crashed into a tree on her right and fell at Sylvia's feet in a heap.
Stunned for a good five seconds, Sylvia now recognized her as the blind girl she had yelled at yesterday.
Great, thought Sylvia, she's my partner.
A rustling came from the trees that the blind girl had flown from and Sylvia turned and drew her falchion as she prepared to face the beast that had just sent a student flying through the trees.
The monster has to be something powerful, maybe an Ursa or Death Stalker, thought Sylvia, it could even be a pack of Ursai
She was excited to finally fight something today and finally got her opportunity as the Grimm jumped out of the cluster of trees and landed a few feet from Sylvia. It was a lone Beowolf.
Really, thought Sylvia groaning at the weak monster that stood before her
Not only is my partner blind, continued Sylvia, but apparently she can't handle a single Beowolf.
The Beowolf charged at her and Sylvia sidestepped with ease and sliced her falchion straight through the creature, cleaving it in half. The Grimm lay there dead as Sylvia walked over to the blind girl. She held out her hand and quickly realized that was a mistake. But the blind girl grabbed Sylvia's hand immediately as if she knew where it was.
Sylvia shook her head, that was impossible, she thought, oh well better introduce myself.
"Hello, my name is Sylvia," said Sylvia, with forced politeness, she was still ticked off a bit about how rude the blind girl had been and at how weak she was.
"Namra," replied the blind girl, more politely than Sylvia thought the girl would have been considering what happened yesterday.
Still, Sylvia had to address Namra's battle skills, to show that this was not acceptable.
"Well Namra," Sylvia started with an edge to her voice, "you have a long way to go if you can't handle a lone Beowolf by yourself."
Namra, who was brushing herself off, replied in a stiff irritated voice, "It wasn't the Beowolf who attacked me."
Sylvia could feel the irritation in Namra's voice and was about to reprimand her for it but then realized what Namra had said.
"Wait, then what did?" asked Sylvia
That was when the creature in question appeared. A King Taijitu, a two headed snake Grimm, appeared in between them, one head immediately lunged at Sylvia. She dodged to the right, only barely avoiding the fangs of the snake, and then sliced at the head with her blade. The head dodged the blow as the second head came in for an attack against her. That's when Namra attacked; she drew her weapons, twin short swords attached to each other by a long chain. One of these blades Namra threw at the head of the snake that was attacking Sylvia. Unfortunately, the snake was able to dodge the blade aimed for its head, but this gave ample opportunity for Sylvia to attack. She changed her falchion into its bow form, knocked an arrow and quickly fired at the snake's head. The arrow hit the snake in the neck and it hissed in rage. The monster once again charged at the duo. Namra raised her weapon to fight, but Sylvia knew they were just wasting time with this monster. She reached for her dust containers at her belt and threw a handful of red dust towards a nearby tree. Namra, however, did not notice her throw the dust and started running toward the monster as the tree caught fire and fell. Sylvia reached out and yanked Namra back.
"We gotta get out of here!" she commanded.
Namra followed her, begrudgingly, further into the woods.
After about 15 minutes of running through the woods they stopped to catch their breath.
"Why did we run?" Namra asked, "We could have taken it easily."
Sylvia sighed, why did she have to put up with this?
"Because," Sylvia responded, "The objective of the mission was to obtain a relic in the forest, not to destroy every monster in the forest."
"But he also told us to destroy every monster in our path or we would die."
"Yes, but it is much faster and more efficient to avoid a monster that is avoidable than to fight it."
That was only part of her reasoning. Sylvia didn't fully trust a blind girl to be able to take down a King Taijitu with her. However, Sylvia would never admit that, because if she did, she would risk causing a bigger rift between them. And at this point, they needed as much team work as possible.
"Look let's just keep moving," suggested Sylvia as she walked off toward where the relics were supposed to be.
Namra, irritated at being told what to do, followed behind her into the forest.
BOOM!
RATATATATAT
Celestia and Aurelia had finally found the clearing where the relics were and had immediately been ambushed by a pack of five Ursai. They had already killed three of them, but the sounds of the conflict caused four more to emerge from the woods.
Maybe using a submachine gun and a rocket launcher was not the stealthiest option, thought Celestia.
She looked at Aurelia and met her gaze. They both nodded in agreement, as if reading each other's minds, and switched their weapons into melee form.
Celestia's submachine gun extended out back into its katana form, as Aurelia's rocket launcher also extended into its double bladed battle ax form. Both weapons back in their melee forms, the two girls stood back to back against the six Ursai surrounding them.
"You got the three behind me Aurelia?" asked Celestia
Aurelia grinned, "Of course, what do you take me for? An amateur?"
Celestia let out a small chuckle, "Of course not, let's get 'em."
The first Ursa attacked Celestia from her right, swinging its vicious claws. She rapidly rolled under its arm as Aurelia spun her body in place, swinging her battle ax straight into the Ursa, cutting it clean in half. As Aurelia spun, Celestia moved to the creature on Aurelia's left, her exposed side, and sliced at its head. The Ursa somehow dodged her first slice, but couldn't avoid the follow up slice to the chest. The creature roared as steel met flesh, leaving a gash in its chest. Celestia decided to end the fight with a clean stroke to the neck, decapitating it.
Aurelia was still fighting off the other four, using her body's momentum to add force to the blows of her ax. Her plan was working as she had already finished off another beast in a similar manner to the first. However, the Ursai were starting to keep their distance from the deadly weapon, waiting for a way to attack without feeling the sting of its steel.
"Come at me Ursa," taunted Aurelia, "You can't touch me without first getting hit by my ax!"
Unfortunately, Aurelia spoke too soon as she moved too close to one of the Ursai, leaving her left side open for another Ursa to strike her in the side. The blow sent Aurelia backward and to the ground. Thankfully, her aura protected her from most of the attack, but she was quite dazed from the sudden blow. The Ursai started to close in on Aurelia as she was starting to regain her composure.
Celestia saw what had happened, and leapt into action, literally. She changed her katana into its submachine gun form and jumped off of Aurelia's back, spraying ammo rounds at the three Ursai. Confused by the sudden hailstorm of bullets, the Ursai stopped in their tracks, just as Celestia thought they would. As she fell toward the ground, she rolled and switched her weapon back to the katana and stabbed right into the center Ursa's throat. The creature to her left swiped at her, but was too slow as Celestia had already nimbly rolled away and ran back to Aurelia.
"Finish them off!" yelled Celestia.
"No need to tell me twice," responded Aurelia, as she transformed her ax back into the rocket launcher and fired.
The blast destroyed the remaining Ursai, and left Celestia and Aurelia to catch their breath.
"Well," panted Celestia, "I guess you could say that was an EXPLOSIVE encounter."
Aurelia groaned audibly, "Must you?"
Celestia grinned, "Of course!" she said cheerily. She knew Aurelia did not like her puns at all, but that didn't stop her from making them.
Besides, Celestia thought while scratching her dog ears, we got to partner up for the four years at Beacon, I deserve to make a few puns every now and then.
They both turned around and headed toward the site of the ruins. The ruins had a stone circle floor with five pillars standing on the edges of the circle. Two more pillars had apparently been destroyed already, leaving broken pieces of stone scattered around the clearing. The pillars supported a washer shaped ceiling, a third of which had collapsed already. Twenty-four pedestals stood within the pillars, each of which had one chess piece upon it. As Celestia approached the pedestals she noticed that some of them were missing.
"These must be the relics that Ozpin had been talking about," stated Celestia.
"I guess so," replied Aurelia, "I'm surprised we weren't the first ones to get here, I mean it's not a very hard place to find."
"Well I guess I'll just pick one," suggested Celestia
Aurelia laughed, "If we let you pick one we would be here for twice as long. I'll pick, you guard, you're weapon is better equipped to guard anyway."
Celestia conceded both points and went to stand guard. After less than a minute, Aurelia came back with the white bishop piece.
"Was there no white knight?" asked Celestia
"No someone must have taken it already," replied Aurelia, "there's actually another white bishop as well."
"That must be how they determine the teams," speculated Celestia, "Once again: completely random."
Aurelia's face fell at the mention of team forming. Celestia knew that Aurelia was just as nervous as she herself was about the formation of teams. They both had had problems with trust in the past and learned not to trust new people too quickly. Yet until now, Aurelia had kept her nervousness hidden for Celestia's sake. That was what Aurelia had done ever since they had known each other; she would protect Celestia from everything, even her own feelings of doubt. But now that they were in Beacon they had to learn to let go of their nervousness about meeting and trusting other people. Celestia knew this and she was sure that deep down Aurelia knew this too.
"Hey," Celestia spoke in a soothing tone as she addressed Aurelia.
Aurelia looked up at her taller companion.
"We're going to be fine," Celestia continued, "We're going to get some great teammates and we're going to have an amazing first year."
Aurelia smiled, "I know that Celeste, it's just, I can't help but be a bit nervous about forming teams this year. Especially considering the fact that it's our first time in a while that we will have to deal with people we don't know."
"Well let's worry about it later," suggested Celestia, "we should leave before-"
BOOM!
Celestia and Aurelia turn towards the cliff in time to see two boys being hurled through the air and off the cliff.
So far their partnership was going quite well, thought Wai as he and Re walked through the Emerald forest. The conversation was minimal as they were constantly fighting off creatures of Grimm that were trying to ambush them, which was fine considering Wai was mostly concentrating on getting the mission done.
He is pretty funny, Wai had to admit, he could be a pretty good friend later on.
Wai shook his head. No, he reasoned, best not get too attached.
His thought was put on hold when three Boarbatusks, boar-like Grimm, rolled out at a high speed from the bushes. Wai, frustrated that he didn't notice in time, was hit by one of them and hurled into a tree. Re was able to dodge the other two by rolling over to the side as he drew his two scimitars. Wai stood up and extended the blades on his gauntlet. The Boarbatusks changed direction and charged at them again, two at Re and one at Wai. Using their blades, they were able to deflect the attacks of the Grimm, only to be attacked again.
"We need to get out of here," cried Wai as he deflected yet another blow.
"Got it," responded Re, and he attached his scimitars together forming one blade. The blade then transformed to form a double barrel shotgun. Re fired off two shots into the armor of one of the Grimm, stunning it in its place.
"This way," Re called out.
Wai dove out of the way of the other two beasts, as Re finished off the boar with a point blank shotgun blast. Both started running off into the woods, away from the other beasts. Wai retracted his blades and prepared the grenade launcher part of his gauntlets. The blades in his gauntlet moved half way out of the back of his gauntlet diagonally upward to make room for the grenades to fire.
Suddenly the forest ended off in a cliff for which both teens quickly stopped before they ran off the cliff. They turned ready to fight the two Grimm charging at them. Re reformed his two scimitars and charged at the charging Grimm. The first one was upon him when Re sliced at the rolling Grimm, making it swerve off course and into a tree. The second one bowled towards him quickly, noticing that Re had his guard down. However, he was ready for that and he guarded against the blow with both swords, stopping the Grimm in its tracks. The force of the blow caused Re to skid closer to the edge of the cliff before Re flipped the Grimm into the air. Switching his scimitars into its shotgun form and fired at the boar's stomach, killing it before it hit the ground. The boar that swerved off before now came at the two of them. Wanting to finish the battle quickly, Wai raised his grenade launcher gauntlet at the enemy.
Re, realizing what was about to happen, cried out, "Wait we-" but it was too late.
BOOM!
The resulting explosion sent the two off the cliff and down to the area down below. They landed hard on the ground, their aura absorbing most of the impact causing them to just be a bit winded.
"-are too close to the cliff," Re finished breathless from the explosion and the fall.
"Yea, definitely not my best idea of the day," conceded Wai
Wai stood up shakily after he had recovered from his initial shock and saw two girls, a girl with gold hair and a Faunus with pink hair. Re, noticing where Wai was looking, glanced in the direction of his teammate and smiled.
"Well it looks like it wasn't a total loss," he said flirtatiously, "so do you two come here often?"
The two girls stood in stunned silence, completely at a loss for words by the surprise entrance.
Wai rolled his eyes at the antics of his teammate, "Yea, they come here on a regular basis to fight Grimm and watch fools like you fall from the sky due to tactical mistakes."
Re laughed out loud, "That's true," he agreed, "and here I was thinking you had no wit."
Wai smirked, "I'm full of surprises aren't I?"
"We'll see," Re replied, "Let's go grab a relic."
Wai walked up to the podiums and grabbed the black knight relic. He turned to see Re up and ready to go. With relic in hand they headed back to the cliff starting point.
Aurelia and Celestia watched as the two teens left the area, still somewhat shocked at seeing them fall from the cliff. When they finally recovered, Aurelia turned to her Faunus friend.
"What on Remnant was that about?" she asked, very confused as to what happened.
"I think those two exploded off the cliff, fell where the relics were and then the blond one tried to flirt with us," replied Celestia.
"Well that was interesting I guess," responded Aurelia, "anyway we should get back to the cliff with our relic."
However, they were interrupted by something else. Two more teens jumped out of the forest, running from some form of Grimm. One of the teens was a Faunus boy with a scaly, pangolin tail, the other was a brown haired boy with a black bomber jacket.
"I told you that was a bad idea Basil!" shouted the Faunus boy to the brown haired boy.
"Sorry Porph," replied Basil, "I didn't think it would come after us like that."
"It's a Grimm! Of course it's gonna come after us!" the Faunus yelled, "and my name is Porphyrios not Porph!"
"Well unfortunately for you, Porph is shorter and easier to say!" Basil shouted back at him.
Then the source of their trouble appeared. A giant Nevermore, a bird-like Grimm, flew from above the treetops, shrieking at its prey that had tried to run. Basil raised his pistols and fired at the Grimm while Porphyrios attached the tips of both his sickles to the corresponding sickles' base, to form a rifle with a circular hole in the middle and a chain across the middle. He fired his rifle at the Nevermore as well hitting it a couple of times, but not enough to deter the bird Grimm. The Nevermore then let lose a rain of feathers down at them. Porphyrios ducked out of the way back into the forest, while Basil seemed to dodge the feathers almost effortlessly, still firing at the Nevermore. Aurelia also noticed that Basil had some sort of green aura surrounding him as he dodged the feathers.
"We have to help them," Celestia concluded, voicing what Aurelia was already thinking.
"Right," Aurelia replied arming her rocket launcher, "Let's go."
The two girls charged in once the Nevermore's feather storm had stopped. Celestia fired her submachine gun up at the Nevermore, striking it with great accuracy, while Aurelia prepared to fire her rocket. Basil and Porphyrios provided extra cover as well, seeing what Aurelia was doing. Before Aurelia could fire her shot however, the Nevermore dove at the four students. Aurelia saw Porphyrios get clipped by the edge of the wing before she dodged out of the way and into the trees. When she got back to the clearing she saw Basil still standing, the green aura from before dissipating, Porphyrios was getting up after being hit by the wing. Aurelia then noticed that Celestia was not there. In a panic, she ran into the clearing and looked around trying to spot her but to no avail. Fear rising into her chest, she heard the Nevermore shriek again and she looked up. The Nevermore was rising into the sky with Celestia hanging onto the wing. She heard machine gun fire as Celestia continued to fire at the bird until the Grimm shrugged her off and she was sent flying to the ground. In the air, Celestia tried to position herself to land correctly. When she hit the ground there was a sickening snapping sound and she slumped over onto the ground. Overcome by rage, Aurelia turned her rocket onto the Nevermore and fired. The rocket landed with perfect accuracy, knocking the bird out of the sky and toward Aurelia. The bird fell to the ground where Basil finished it off with a quick stab to the head. Porphyrios ran towards Celestia. Aurelia followed him as well as Basil. When they reached her, Porphyrios looked her over to see what the damage was.
"Is she okay?" cried Aurelia, the distress evident in her voice.
"Her aura absorbed most of the impact from the fall, but she still suffered a broken ankle from it," diagnosed Porphyrios.
Aurelia sighed in relief at the news, but it was short lived as a Death Stalker, a scorpion-like Grimm, appeared from the woods due to the commotion. Everyone quickly raised their weapons including Celestia. Celestia fired at the Grimm while Aurelia and Porpyrios charged with their melee weapons, hoping to break through the Death Stalker's armor. Aurelia slammed her ax into the Grimm's left claw, but to no avail as the scorpion caught the weapon. Basil then moved forward, transforming his pistols into his trident and stabbed at the Grimm's face. The scorpion cried out and slashed at Basil but missed.
"Basil! Ax girl!" yelled Porphyrios, "get him to use his tail!"
Basil obliged, continuing to stab at the Grimm's face, trying to provoke it. Aurelia slammed her ax into the beast's right claw as Porphyrios did the same to the left claw, keeping the Grimm's claws at bay. Annoyed by the three way attack, the Death Stalker shrieked again and plunged its tail at Basil.
"Dodge!" yelled Porphyrios, as the stinger neared Basil.
Basil acknowledged the command and quickly moved to the side at the last minute. The scorpion's tail impacted the ground and got stuck from the force of the attack. Quickly the three attacked the body of the scorpion, trying to find some weak point. However, this just made the monster angrier and he smacked Aurelia to the ground. Basil and Porphyrios charged the Grimm and started attacking again. They barely made a dent in the armor when the Death Stalker hit them into a tree. The Grimm then moved toward Celestia.
Oh no you don't, thought Aurelia as she switched her ax to rocket form and fired. The rocket hit the scorpion's side and made it turn toward her instead. She fired again, hitting the scorpion square in the face. The beast cried out in pain, but the only damage that the scorpion sustained was a slight crack in the monster's armor.
If I can just hit that spot I can finish it off, thought Aurelia and she charged forward as the Grimm charged as well. Aurelia swung her ax at the Death Stalker as it swung its claws at her. Aurelia's left shoulder was hit by the beast's claw, causing her ax swing to miss the crack in the armor and just glance off another part of the body. The second claw blindsided her right side, slamming her into the ground and lose her weapon. She stood up off the ground and saw the monster a few feet in front of her while her weapon was on the other side of the Grimm. Aurelia didn't have time to figure out how to get to her weapon as the scorpion charged at her.
"Hey!"
The shout confused both Aurelia and the Death Stalker as they turned toward it. There was Celestia, struggling to stand on two feet, staring down the monster. She pointed her submachine gun at the beast and let loose a stream of bullets. The bullets hit the monster's armor, a mere annoyance. But it did the trick as the Death Stalker charged at Celestia instead. Fear entered Aurelia's heart as she saw the scorpion closing in on her injured friend.
"No! Celestia!" cried Aurelia.
Her screams did nothing however, as the scorpion continued the charge. Celestia switched her weapon back into its katana form, readying for the fight. Aurelia watched in horror as the Death Stalker went in to crush Celestia. However, something entirely different happened, Celestia was able to duck underneath the claws of the scorpion, lunge and stab the monster straight through the crack in its armor that Aurelia had created. No noise came from the monster as it fell limp to the ground, dead. Aurelia, Basil and Porphyrios all ran towards Celestia. Basil and Porphyrios got to her first and Porphyrios immediately barked out orders.
"Ax, keep watch, Basil carry Celestia, I'm gonna grab a relic."
Aurelia was a bit ticked that Porphyrios would just try to take control like that, "Hey I have a name," she called out angrily, "and it's Aurelia."
Porphyrios turned towards her, "What you want a medal? Stop wasting time and keep watch, I'd prefer to come out of this alive, thank you."
Aurelia was angrier at that comment but decided it was not worth it and turned her eyes towards the forest, but then she saw that Basil had not picked up Celestia yet. In fact he wasn't even doing anything. Basil seemed hesitant and wouldn't meet Celestia's eyes.
Oh great, thought Aurelia angrily, another person who fears the Faunus without understanding them.
"Come on Basil!" yelled Porphyrios, the other white bishop piece in his hand, "just pick her the hell up!"
Basil, embarrassed that he didn't do it already, picked Celestia up "bridal style" and followed Porphyrios.
Shoot, realized Aurelia looking at the white bishop piece in her hand, I have to deal with both of them for four years! Sighing, Aurelia followed them through the woods as well.
They had been walking for about ten minutes and Namra realized something: She could not stand Sylvia. She constantly was telling her what to do, trying to make sure Namra knew of the obstacles in the way, and most of the Grimm they encountered was taken care of by Sylvia. For some people this may not be bad but Namra was starting to think that Sylvia was babying her due to her blindness.
Nobody understands, thought Namra, just because I'm blind doesn't mean I can't handle things that normal people can.
They emerged into a clearing where the circular ruins that held the relics were. As they approached, Sylvia held up a hand.
"You stay here and cover us," commanded Sylvia, "I'll get the relic."
Before Namra could protest, Sylvia was off to grab a relic. She came back holding the black knight piece.
"Alright let's get out of here."
Realizing there was no point in trying to argue right now, Namra followed Sylvia back to the starting cliff, still fuming.
They walked for about ten minutes longer, with Sylvia still pointing out everything for Namra to avoid, when Namra had enough.
"Low branch ahead," Sylvia alerted.
"Stop," Namra spoke.
Sylvia turned toward Namra, "What?" she asked; she almost seemed annoyed that Namra was slowing them down.
"Why do you keep doing that?" Namra requested
"Doing what?" Sylvia inquired
"You keep treating me like I can't handle myself," expressed Namra
"I'm just trying to look out for my partner," explained Sylvia.
"Back at the ruins you didn't trust me to get a simple relic from the ruins," Namra pointed out.
"You have the longer range weapon," Sylvia clarified, anger in her eyes, "it was strategic thinking! Nothing more."
"Well then, Miss Strategy," Namra continued, "tell me, is it strategic thinking to point out every single obstacle in my way."
Sylvia looked outraged, "Excuse me for wanting to make sure that my blind teammate is able to get through the forest without injuring herself!" she exclaimed in a loud voice.
"Making sure I'm okay is one thing," Namra replied in a calm, but angry, voice, "babying me like I can't handle myself is another thing."
"But you can't handle yourself," Sylvia yelled, "look at you, you're blind! You can't see a damned thing!"
Namra was about to retort, when a Beowolf jumped out of the bushes toward Sylvia. Namra drew her twin short swords as Sylvia cut down the Grimm in the blink of an eye. However, another Beowolf appeared behind Sylvia. Namra threw one of her blades right at it, hitting it right between the eyes. The Grimm fell as she pulled the blade out by the chain without moving at all. Sylvia looked at the Grimm Namra had slain and then looked at her in shock. Before Namra could make a snide comment, two more Grimm appeared out of the woods. Once again they were swiftly taken down as three more showed up. Sylvia and Namra took positions to fight as four more showed up, surrounding them.
"Duck!" yelled Namra.
Not knowing what Namra was going to do, Sylvia ducked as Namra grabbed the middle part of the long chain connecting her weapons with both hands. She raised it above her head and spun it in a circle, causing her blades to swing in a wide circle, slicing through each the Beowolves surrounding them.
Namra stopped spinning her weapons when the last Beowolf fell and reeled in her swords. Sylvia got up and took in all the carnage that had taken place.
"Still think I can't handle myself?"
Before Sylvia could answer, even more Beowolves showed up. It was hard to tell how many there were, but Namra assumed there were too many for the two of them to fight.
"I'll answer that later, first let's get out of here," replied Sylvia.
"Good idea," agreed Namra.
As the Beowolves charged, Namra flung both swords at two Beowolves taking them out and, hopefully, slowing down the rest of them. With Grimm in pursuit, the two teens ran through the woods toward the cliff, avoiding as many branches, roots and rocks as they could. As they ran, Sylvia tried slowing down the Grimm by throwing ice and fire dust behind her, creating ice barriers and burning trees down to fall in the way. Eventually they reached a clearing with the cliff right in front of them.
"We…..made…it," Sylvia gasped in between breaths.
"Yes…..we did," replied Namra, nearly as tired as Sylvia.
However, before they could celebrate any further, the Beowolves showed up out of the trees. Drawing their weapons, they prepared to fight, even though they knew they wouldn't be able to take on so many at once. Suddenly two grenades came flying out of the woods to the right, blasting four Grimm off their feet. Turning towards where the blast came from, they spotted two boys running out of the woods towards them.
"Re!" called out Sylvia, recognizing one of them.
They approached the two girls and Sylvia ran over to hug Re, happy to see him.
"Fancy seeing you here Sylvia," joked Re.
"Shut up," said Sylvia, playfully punching him on the arm.
As they greeted each other, the Beowolves had gotten closer and now had surrounded them. Re drew his scimitars as the other boy extended two blades out of his gauntlets.
"Man sis, I can't leave you alone for two seconds without you getting attacked by seas of Grimm," stated Re with a smile.
"Well I wanted to leave some for you and your friend," replied Sylvia with a smile as well.
Re chuckled, "Well don't worry Sylvia; Wai and I are here to take care of it."
Wai looked around at the Grimm, "There appear to be twenty Beowolves surrounding us," analyzed Wai.
"Think you can take that many?" inquired Namra.
Wai smirked, "Piece of cake."
"Well how's about we leave some for the rest of us," voiced Sylvia, "five each, everyone pick a side."
One of the Beowolves lunged at Wai. Wai side stepped and kicked the Beowolf in the jaw, before slicing its head clean off.
"Guess I've got this side," remarked Wai
The rest of the Grimm charged at the four students.
"Go!" yelled Sylvia and she stabbed at the first Grimm she could reach.
The clearing was overcome by teeth, claws, weapons and bodies, as the students fought through the Grimm attacking them. Re sliced up two Grimm quickly and then blocked a third Grimm, quickly spinning and giving the Beowolf a new hole in its back. Namra kept her distance from her five, throwing, reeling and spinning her swords around, killing most of her Grimm fairly quickly. Wai stabbed and swung at his Grimm as they tried to keep away from his blades. Getting no where, Wai quickly switched one gauntlet to grenade launcher form and fired at his group killing three of them. Sylvia blocked a blow with her falchion and twisted the blade around, pushing her final Grimm off balance and then stabbing him in the throat. More Grimm showed up and they started adapting to the fighting style of each warrior.
"They are starting to fight better," noticed Wai as he was thrown to the ground.
"Noted," replied Sylvia, "Switch!" she yelled and turned around, jumping over Namra who charged at Sylvia's previous Grimm, throwing her blade and hitting one right between the eyes. Sylvia landed on one of the beasts and stabbed it right in the head with her blade. Wai back flipped off the ground as Re ran at Wai's Grimm, shooting one in the chest with his shotgun. Wai fired a grenade at Re's previous cluster of Grimm, eliminating two of them. They continued to fight the Grimm in this fashion, finally finishing off the last Grimm with an arrow in its chest from Sylvia's bow.
Cut, battered and bruised, the four approached the cliff, ready to finally start their first year at Beacon academy.
The initiation was not as bad as I thought it would be, thought Basil as he helped his teammate Celestia sit down with her ankle cast. Thankfully her aura would have it healed by the next day; after all it wasn't too serious of a break. He looked around at his other teammates; Aurelia was certainly protective of Celestia considering her reaction when she landed wrong. Apparently they had been friends since their days at Sanctum; at least, that's what Celestia had told him when he was helping to bandage her up. Both girls seemed fairly open for small talk but overall seemed nervous around Basil.
It's understandable though, thought Basil, we are all pretty nervous about starting a new semester in this academy.
Then there was his own partner, Porphyrios. He was silent as the grave; he only talked when he had some order or suggestion. He didn't like small talk or trying to get to know people. Basil assumed that would all go away later as they all got to hang around each other more.
Basil turned his head toward the stage in the amphitheater and listened as Ozpin announced the next team.
"Sylvia Challis, Namra Rahal, Re Challis, Wai Siril," the headmaster called each student by name as they all approached the stage, "The four of you retrieved the black knight pieces, from this day forward you will work together as Team Sunrise."
On the screen above the letters SNRS appeared underneath the students' portraits.
"Lead by, Sylvia Challis," finished Ozpin.
Sylvia was shocked, she knew she was amazing at combat but she never knew she would be picked as the leader of a team. She looked over at Re as they left the stage and Re gave her a big grin, showing that he was proud of her. Namra was uncertain about Sylvia's leadership, as she had seen how hot tempered she could be. Wai was very put-off that he was not picked as leader, considering he thought he was the most analytical of the group, but decided that the headmaster probably knew better than he did and would give her a chance.
Basil stood up as he had a feeling they would be called up soon. He went to help Celestia up, but Aurelia was already there to give her support.
Well I'm sure she still doesn't quite trust us too much, thought Basil, after all we might as well be strangers to them.
"Porphyrios Chroma, Celestia Glenister, Aurelia Pietro, Basil Kriegal." The four students walked up to the stage as Ozpin called them up. Standing at attention, the four of them stood side by side, while Aurelia helped Celestia not fall over.
"The four of you retrieved the white bishop pieces, from this day forward you will work together as Team Peacock."
The letters PCAK appeared under their portrait as Ozpin continued, "Lead by, Porphyrios Chroma."
Basil smiled, glad that his partner had become the leader of their team, but Porphyrios didn't show any emotion as he moved off stage. Basil followed as well as Aurelia and Celestia. They all sat down and were given a room number for their dorm.
"Well, the year has officially started," said Basil trying to make some conversation.
"Yup," replied Celestia, "should be a good time."
"Whatever," stated Porphyrios, in a gruff manner.
"What's the matter, stone face?" mocked Aurelia, "Not excited about a new experience?"
"You guys can get excited all you want," assured Porphyrios, "doesn't change the fact that this is a school designed to train the most lethal of fighters." He got up off of the bench, "I'm going to the dorm. Join me when you're done 'celebrating'," he said scathingly. And with that he walked off.
"What's with him?" asked Aurelia
"I don't know," replied Basil, "He's just like that I guess," but Basil wasn't sure that that was the case.
Either way, thought Basil, no use worrying about it right now. He turned toward the stage in time to see the final team announced. The screen showed four girls, one with black hair and red highlights, one with white hair, one with black hair and another with yellow. Below their portraits were the letters of their team, RWBY. Basil realized he recognized the yellow haired girl and the red highlighted girl. According to what Ozpin was saying, apparently the red highlighted girl was the leader of this team.
Ozpin certainly has an interesting way of picking leaders, thought Basil, after all she is certainly younger than the other three.
"It looks like this is going to be an interesting year," remarked Ozpin as he ended the initiation of the teams. And with that, the screen was turned off and the students were all sent to their dorms to prepare for classes tomorrow.