A/N: Hey guys! Welcome back to another chapter! Hopefully you all still like my story and are sticking with me! Remember I am taking OC's and they're a lot of fun to work with so please please please send them to me! Without further ado, let's get this train rolling!
Chapter Three: Into the Woods
As dawn broke over the majestic mountain ranges beyond the Emerald Forest, all the first year students were lining up near the edge of a cliff. The morning mist was still quite dense in the perilous woods below the cliff face. Professor Ozpin and Professor Goodwitch stood side by side as the mass of tired and grumpy students grouped up into their respective teams, Team ZERO included. Zane yawned as he walked towards a large rectangular pad that he saw Rizu and the others standing on. His team had themselves in their normal outfits, but more decked out with equipment. Towering over the rest was Orion trying to string a massive bow. From end to end it was probably five or so feet long and the ends were what appeared to be axe blades. The blades had little notches down near the ends for the bowstring to go. Ella had several canisters of Dust surrounding her waist. Rizu stood silent and still on the metal pad, looking out towards the forest. Zane made sure his own gear was in check as Ozpin finally began to brief the students.
"Good morning to you all. I do not wish to waste any time so I will get to the point. Below this cliff here is the Emerald Forest. This time of year the fog is especially thick so I urge you all to be careful. Your task today will be a little different than past initiations. Each team will be given a select Grimm target. Every team is to eliminate and bring back proof of the kill. Since these targets are particularly rare and powerful, it may take several hours or even days to find your target, therefore we have prepared a backpack filled with supplies for every team. This will not only teach you how to work as a team, but it will also help you learn patience, awareness, and trust. The pads you and your team stand on will launch you all into forest. You must all have your own landing strategy. Professor Goodwitch and I will be sending details of your respective targets to the scroll of whom we have chosen as leaders. Oh and to add a little bit of competition...the team to bring me a vial of Doomstalker venom will be allowed to break dress code for the semester", slight evidence of a smile creeped up on his face as he finished the briefing, nodding towards Professor Goodwitch as some sort of signal.
Goodwitch simply nodded back as she pressed a button on her scroll and subsequently the launch pads started flinging the students into the sky like rag dolls. Ella squealed a little as she was thrown into the air. Her heart raced as she tried to figure out an effective landing strategy. Her heart was racing too fast to think of one. Looking around her, the rest of her team seemed just as stumped even though time was running out.
"Any of you have any bright ideas?!", the frightened young woman called out.
Orion was surprisingly the first to speak up,"I-I think I have an idea! Everyone hold on!"
"Screw that! I'll make my own la-OOF!", Zane had landed smack dab into a large tree branch, the first to land as the group kept flying.
Rizu just groaned in annoyance as he reached for the "T" shaped object from his right side. Ella and Orion was shocked as the strange black object grew a long, slender, ice-white, steel blade from one end and a small sliver of another blade on the other end. He held it like a tonfa and also drew a black break-action revolver from his holster with his left hand before diving into the sea of trees and fog, leaving Ella and Orion still soaring.
Ella clung to the large teenager as they kept falling. Orion thought quickly of a plan and used his bow to launch an roped arrow towards a large trunk slightly higher above the tree line. As the rope grew taught, the last two members swung to safety and tumbled into the soft grass with Ella ending up on top of the Faunus. As she grabbed her bearings the girl noticed the embarrassing position they found themselves in. The bulky male's face lit up a bright red with Ella's face becoming the same shade. She quickly stood up and brushed herself off.
"S-Sorry about that", Ella muttered sheepishly.
Orion stood and rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly,"No it's alright. It's c-cool"
An uncomfortable silence passed as the pair of students just avoided each other's gaze. Eventually they got back to reality.
"So I suppose we should go look for our teammates?", Orion asked in an unsure tone.
"Yeah. I guess so. I wonder where they ended up", Ella replied, taking a deep breath before looking around her surroundings.
"I-I think we have bigger problems", the Faunus said, his voice laced with fear.
Ella and Orion looked around the clearing and saw three pairs of piercing red eyes visible in the surrounding fog. Orion took a shaky battle stance and folded his longbow into a mighty battleaxe, the blade shimming softly. Out from the fog came three Beowolves, growling lowly at their prey. The teens stood side by side, unaware of what was creeping up behind them. As they prepared to attack, an echoing sound interrupted.
Clang.
The pair looked behind them and were shocked to see Rizu standing there with his blade and revolver lowered. The black-clad boy had tapped his thin blade against his metallic knee guards, making a soft but audible echo throughout the clearing like a tuning fork. Rizu walked past the pair and took a stance. His blade was held backhanded like a tonfa while his revolver was aimed down at the floor.
"We need to take these three out quickly. More Beowolves will be here shortly. They're chasing Zane in our direction", he explained blandly.
Ella barely had time to react to him before a Beowolf made the first move. In a fit of panic she simply cracked open one of her canisters of fire-based Dust in front of her, making a loud snap with her fingers to make the Dust form into a substantial flame, using it to singe a hole right though the monster, causing it to crumble on the floor. The second Grimm howled before charging at Orion, only for the Faunus to effortlessly cleave the beast in two right down the middle.
At last, the final Beowolf leaped at Rizu. Ella gasped as she noticed that he was not reacting. Time seemed to slow down for them as the dark beast opened its jaws to take a bite at him. As the monster's fangs inched closer and closer to his face, all seemed lost. Ella covered her eyes and turned away, shielding herself from the incoming gore as some deafening sounds filled the atmosphere.
POP!
POP!
SHICK!
...thud-thud-thud.
As the unexpected sounds finally dissipated, the brunette opened her eyes to see a dumbfounded Faunus with eyes like dinner plates. With a confused look she turned around towards her would-be-dead teammate, only for something entirely different to be seen. Rizu stood over a punctured, chopped up corpse of a Beowolf, reloading his gun and wiping his blade on the grass. Ella finally found the will to speak.
"Rizu! That was ama-"
"Thanks a lot for coming back to help me. What a team you guys ended up to be", a snooty, prideful voice groaned from behind the group.
Zane was walking towards the trio with his chest puffed out, trying to be the alpha male, but earned not one notable reaction. Rizu was the first to reply.
"Good of you to finally show up. What happened to the other five Beowolves tailing you?", he asked dryly.
"I already killed th-...wait. How did you know-", he was cut off.
"Whatever I guess you worked it out. So then did anyone here receive the target on their scroll? I didn't", the black-clad boy asked to his team.
DING!
Orion and Ella were about to check their scrolls, when Zane just let out a hearty laugh.
"Looks like Ozpin chose me as the team leader! Seems you guys gotta listen to me now", the snide heir spat, holding up his scroll for proof.
Ella, Orion and Rizu all just looked towards him, then at each other and all thought the same thing: 'we're doomed'. Seeing as there was nothing to be done about it, group just signed and accepted their fate, as much as it may have screwed them. The young woman of the group walked towards her new leader and reached for his scroll.
"Okay then what's the target?", she asked, trying to get a look.
He pulled his scroll away from her,"Look here toots. I'm the leader and you will wait for me to tell you what to do got it?!"
At this point, Rizu had enough. With a huff and a tap of his blade against his knee guard, he stormed over to his leader and slammed the flat part of his blade against Zane's arm with all his might, then used his foot to hook his leg and drop him to the floor, stabbing his blade deep into the grass mere centimeters from his neck.
"Look here asshole. Ozpin may have decided for you to lead us, but if you expect us to follow you, you BETTER start acting like a leader and not like a worthless, prissy, entitled piece of trash", Rizu toxically warned,"Are we clear?"
The earthen haired boy just sighed in defeat and nodded, getting up after he was let up. After brushing himself off, Zane took another look at the message from Ozpin.
"Alright. So our target appears to be a Red Masque Nevermore. It's a massive Nevermore with white feathers and the bone mask part on its face is red", he explained dryly.
"Okay so where do we start? I think we are still deep in the woods", Ella added, wondering what to do.
Orion stepped up,"Well an avian of that size wouldn't be anywhere near the middle of the woods. They would normally be in a nest somewhere higher. If there is a large tree somewhere around here that stands out among the rest of them, then that's probably where we will find it"
Without any valid points to make to come up with a better suggestion, the other three just nodded and started walking in a random direction. Zane had Orion lead the way since he was the most experienced with this out of the group. The tall Faunus just trudged ahead, looking around at the trees to see if any were exceptionally tall. So began Team ZERO's first task: hunting a Red Masque Nevermore.
A/N: Alright guys that's it for Chapter 3! Hopefully you guys liked it I know it was kinda short, but if it was any longer I wouldn't have any exciting content for Chapter 4! So I'll be working on that basically all day tomorrow so stay tuned!