Standard Disclaimer: I don't own RWBY or anything else I may reference. I have some claim to my OCs.

Chapter 4

"AAAAHHHHOHSHIT"

*CRASH*

"Uggghh"

Well…I had a landing strategy…

It started out well. Throw the grappling hook, use it to reduce my momentum. I had to let the rope play out a bit since just using it to stop me altogether could have popped my arms from their sockets. Unfortunately I failed to take friction into account. When I was letting the rope slip through my hands the friction burns that such an action causes made me let go in shock. I lost some speed, but it was still an uncontrolled crash.

…I don't think I'll be marked well for that.

Initially I decided against gloves as I thought they could reduce my dexterity a bit. I now understand the existence of fingerless combat gloves and will acquire some as soon as possible.

I managed to get to my feet, cursing myself (and a great many other things). I sighed. "Well…That could've gone better."

Okay, Ozpin said to go to the north end of the forest. I'm pretty sure the cliffs are at the southern part. My…landing left a small trail of broken greenery so I can see where I came from. Therefore I need to head in the opposite direction. Seems simple enough.

…If one fails to take the Grimm into account.

'Well, get moving or get eaten.' I drew my rifle and headed into the forest.

…

'Why do I still feel like I've forgotten something!?'

####

I'd been trekking through the forest for several minutes now, and I've encountered a whole lot of nothing. I suppose I shouldn't expect Grimm to be lurking behind every tree, but the lack of action coupled with the feeling of missing something (I cannot begin to describe how annoying that has become) just makes me want the other shoe to drop already and get it over with.

When I heard a twig snap to my left I spun around a levelled my rifle in that direction with speed that surprised even me.

"Shit! Calm down, I'm not an enemy!"

I let out a sigh of relief and lowered my rifle. Another Beacon student. "Sorry."

"S' Okay." The guy in front of me had brown spiky hair, cut short. Brown eyes as well. He had black cargo pants, a grey t-shirt, and metal vambraces, greaves, and chest armour (no pauldrons). He was also holding a battleaxe.

He started walking forward. "So, I guess we're partners." I nodded. He held out his hand. "Arthur Wallen."

I shook his hand. "Samuel Drake."

He smiled. "Good to meet you Sammy."

The smile was replaced with surprise when I grabbed the collar of his shirt.

I could feel my eyelid twitching. "Call me 'Sammy' again." I growled out. "I dare you."

"…Don't like Sammy?"

"Correct."

"Have you had to explain this to others before?"

"Indeed."

"Did they mention that when you do you have murder eyes?"

"It may have come up before."

"Good to know. Sam it is then."

I let go. "Cool."

He smirked. "You really don't like Sammy do you."

I grimaced. "Hate it."

He chuckled and rested his axe on his shoulder. "Anyway, you can call me Art."

I grinned a bit behind my scarf. "Alright…Art." As first impressions go…it could have been worse.

"We should probably get moving huh." Art said.

'Right.' "Yeah." I started walking.

"…Not the talkative sort are you?"

I shrugged. "I don't always know what to say."

He shrugged and we walked in silence for a while. Art was the one to break it.

"Sooo, you know where you're going."

"We're going to the north end of the forest, the cliffs were to the south so we just need to go in the opposite direction to our starting point."

"Fair enough, but do you still know which way is north after wandering around for a while?"

My brow furrowed in thought at that. It was possible that I had been turned around, there weren't any real landmarks now that I'd been walking a while. So how will I know if I'm heading nor…

My eyes widened and I stopped dead as realization hit me.

"FUCK! A COMPASS! THAT'S WHAT I FORGOT!"

####

"So let me get this straight, you tried to plan things out before coming to Beacon."

I can practically hear him smiling. "Yes Art."

"You got a grappling hook because you didn't want to be in a situation where you curse not having one."

"It's proving useful right now."

"You researched Grimm types like the Beowolf and Ursa."

"Know your enemy."

"You have a combat knife and a spare pistol in addition to your rifle."

"Yep."

"I'm guessing that you have some bandages on you, just in case."

"Good guess."

"It just seems to me that with all that the scenario 'what if I get lost' should have entered the equation somewhere, and since the compass is one of the most basic navigation tools…"

"Yes, I get it, I can't think of everything, now can we please change the subject."

"Alright. Why are you climbing a tree?"

A valid question I suppose. After swearing and cursing for a few moments after my realization, I'd got out my grappling hook, headed for the nearest tree, tossed the hook into the branches and started climbing.

I looked down at him. "Well, I figured that I could see any landmarks from up high. Even if I can't see any sign of the temple, I'll definitely see the cliffs, and from there we just head in the opposite direction to the cliffs."

He nodded. "Fair enough." I turned and started heading up again. "You sound really uptight you know that?"

I froze and looked at him again, an incredulous expression on my face (okay so my scarf cover half, but I think my widened eyes and raised eyebrows got the message across). "And you aren't taking this seriously? We're in a forest populated almost exclusively with things that want to kill us."

"I am, but I don't think it's as dangerous as you seem to think it is."

"…What?"

"Sam. Have you ever faced Grimm before today?"

"Yes."

He seemed surprised by the answer. "Really?"

"I worked at a facility outside Vale for about a year."

"Huh. Well, most of our fellow initiates come from combat schools…"

"Like Signal."

"Yeah. Now, how many of those students do you think have any real world experience with Grimm?"

That question really made me think, and then I remember something from the show.

'What was it Weiss said, 'This isn't you ordinary combat school, it's not just sparring and practise. We're here to fight monsters.' 'The implication being…' "None?"

"Most likely. There's might be some who have experience, maybe some from outside the kingdoms, but they would be the minority. For many here it's their first time facing actual Grimm. So tell me, do you really think the rookies would be sent to fight the really dangerous stuff on their first time fighting Grimm for real? We were told to cut down everything in our path or we'd die, but they don't actually want us to die. No. The purpose of this is to get the teams together and get us first blood against Grimm, if we haven't before today. In fact it wouldn't surprise me if the instructors went through the forest before and got rid of everything beyond a certain level of danger."

'Not everything Art.'

"Point is Beowolves and Ursa are likely the worst we'll face. Dangerous? Yes. As bad as you seem to think? No."

On the one hand, I know a Deathstalker and a Nevermore will be around, and even if he's right about the instructors going through they can't be expected to get everything. On the other, his points make a lot of sense, you don't expect rookies to kill Deathstalkers on their first time out. Teams RWBY and JNPR are probably the exception rather than the rule.

"I find it difficult to fault your logic."

He got a cocky grin on his face. "Exactly. Now you should probably get back to climbing."

I sighed and turned my attention up.

####

I soon reached the top of the tree.

"What do you see!?" Art called.

"No glimpse of the temple. I know which way is opposite to the cliffs, but there's a hill over that way," I pointed. "We could get a better view from there."

"Great. That all?"

"Just trees, the occasional clearing." 'Wait' "…and a column of smoke."

"Smoke? Heh, did someone set fire to the forest?"

'Ruby and Weiss must be over there.' "Looks like."

"What? Really? Shit, that's bad."

I made my way back to the ground and we started moving, quickly.

"You think the fire could catch up to us." I said.

"Maybe, maybe not. I'm more concerned with the local wildlife running from the fire and coming our way."

Oh.

A few moments later his worries were confirmed as we heard the sound of howls behind us.

'Beowolves.'

Art took a combat stance and I raised my rifle. A moment later a Beowolf burst out from the bushes, another followed soon after.

Art swung his axe as he dodged to the side, hitting the first Beowolf in the shoulder. It fell to the ground, tumbling forward from its own momentum. Meanwhile I sighted on the second. It had paused when its fellow was hit, it looked at me and roared.

*BANG*

As a ranged specialist I hope to one day be good enough to put a shot through a Grimms eye. I'm not that good yet, but putting a bullet through its open mouth is something I can do. The Beowolf collapsed. Even if the bullet missed its spine it almost certainly tore up its throat enough to make it choke on its own blood.

More the damn wolves were appearing. I switched to burst fire and sighted on another one as Art finished off his with a cop to the head before it could get up.

I started firing at its head, hoping to get a hit on its throat or eyes. No such luck. It covered its face with a paw and took a wild swing at me. I was just a fraction too slow and it knocked me backwards off my feet.

I scrambled to one knee. I saw Art was busy fighting another Beowolf. The one I was fighting was heading for me, drawing its arm back to take another swing at me.

I switched to full-auto. When it swung I ducked, rose to my feet and stabbed the bayonet into its chest. Then I pulled the trigger. Point blank full-auto can do some serious damage, and a second later a few bullets burst out of its back.

I pulled out the blade as the Beowolf collapsed and turned to find another target…

Then a howl rang out and the rest of them ran off.

Art and I stood there panting for a moment.

I broke the silence. "Ow." I clutched at the side the Grimm hit me. Even though our Aura protects us from serious injury we still feel some impact. It likely wouldn't last long, but it still stung.

"Heh, I think that went pretty well." Art said.

"I guess."

"I don't quite get why they left though. I thought Grimm were pretty single minded in wanting to kill people."

"That howl was probably the Alpha. They tend to be a bit smarter than the average. Also I think they were surprised to see us. Probably more focused on running from the fire."

"Hmmm. I did see a bigger Beowolf before I fought the second one, which I would have killed if it hadn't run off, anyway the bigger one had a big gash on it, I think it was in a fight recently."

'What? Was that the pack Weiss and Ruby fought?' "Okay, so they're in a fight, the fire starts, they run from the fire, and while running they run into us and we take down three. They're probably confused with everything that's been happening to them and the Alpha called a retreat when they lost those three."

"Okay." He walked over to the one I shot earlier. "You took down two?"

"Yeah." I looked around to try and get my bearings.

*Thuk*

I turned around to see that Art had chopped of the Beowolfs head.

He shrugged. "It was twitching."

"…I but a bullet down its throat, it was choking on its own blood…It counts as mine."

He shrugged again, a smile on his face. "Sorry."

I sighed. "We should get moving."

We walked off.

After a minute or two Art spoke.

"Sam?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you still remember the way to the hill?"

"…Fuck."

I got out my grappling hook.

I was right. This did come easier.

So, here I've introduced Arthur Wallen. I got his surname from a random name generator. Anyway, his axe looks like the Steel Battleaxe from Skyrim. Except, you know, more modern looking, with the hilt being metal rather than wood.

This is my first attempt writing a fight scene so I hope it came out alright.