*Emerald forest*

The group of twelve ran as fast as they could from the two monsters behind them, for they knew that as soon as one of them tripped in this terrain it would spell death, not something any of them were really keen on before even starting their career as Hunters

Alexander and Ruby both had a very clear advantage over the others, what with their own singularities. Ruby was using her semblance to jump from tree to tree at a honestly impressive speed, a blur to all but the most trained eyes, and making sure to stay within a jumps distance from her teammates.

Alexander was manoeuvring around the trees with his wings, more often than not using the recoil from his carbine to make tighter turns than he normally could, which were already tight, if he said so himself. It also helped that he managed to get the Nevermore or the Night stalker with a bullet from time to tame, not that it did much to stop them.

Perhaps if the bird was closer and smaller he could have taken care of it, as he had the day that Ozpin accepted him as a student, but as it was, it was simply too big, and by proxy too powerful, to be taken care of by simple dust rounds that did not fit in the armour penetrating, or even the explosive category. Perhaps a direct hit from that pink haired girl's hammer could bring the thing down, but it was big enough to have developed even basic intelligence, so he doubted it would come down low enough.

Another person with a seemingly unfair advantage was the blonde, Alex was too busy dodging to actively try to remember her name, but come on, who the hell was good enough with names to remember one when only said once, and even if the face was memorable...

There it was, Yang something Long.

Anyway, she was using those gauntlets of hers to blast the trunks that suddenly popped up in front of her. Granted, a pop up tree was a thing from children books, but it was better than saying that she did not care where she was going and simply shooting things as they decided to cross paths with her.

Alex used one of his sharp turns to look at his partner. Grant looked no worse for wear than when they started running away from the creatures, which he supposed was a testament to his years as a gun for hire. It was impossible not to work as an escort to important packages and not develop stupid levels of stamina after walking alongside them, and sometimes running, for hours on end. He himself could fly for longer than he could run, but his running distance was already impressive, he could do five kilometres without panting, and it would take twenty to leave him breathless at top pace.

Another turn, this he used to get a look at Eleanor.

He would be lying if he said he did not find her attractive, but she was still too uncontrolled for him, she did not know how to properly wield her semblance, which would be a problem if they ended up in a team together, because it would take the most amount of time to train it, most of the semester. Only after that they would be able to start working on team exercises, and by then it would be by the end of the term. Of course, it appeared that she knew her trigger already, if her constant growling at the wood that Yang blasted and the pieces bouncing off of her were any indication.

It was one of those oddities of Aura, the Trigger.

Aura could be unlocked in two ways, through an experience that brought a person close to death, so close that the limiter put in place by the soul on the Aura was destroyed, allowing the person to use their Aura liberally and without limits for a short period of time, in exchange for never being able to control it as well as someone who used the second method. The advantage to this one was that people who unlocked their Aura this way were more powerful, bateries, in a way. That was, if they survived the experience long enough to wake their power.

The second was the most practised, for a good reason, as it allowed the power output of the Aura to grow much like a muscle, and by proxy allowed for much better control, as the person was better aware of what they could do with how much. Alex had had his aura unlocked since his wings were strong enough to glide him around the strong currents around his home, back when he was six, and had since then exercised it until he could reduce his output to that of a civilian. The problem with this method was that it took time for the incantation to be chanted, making it almost impossible to do in battle, and that if the initial output of the woken was higher than that of the chanter, or the other way around, it could cripple the one with the lower capacity if not done with the utmost care.

With the control Eleanor was showing, her output never being enough to attract even more Grim to them, he could safely assume that she was a Woken rather than a Battery, like most of the students at Beacon.

Another sharp turn and he locked eyes with the Cat Faunus, he wasn't entirely sure if everyone else knew that she was one, but he knew, and she knew that he knew. He smirked at her, making a show of flapping his wings again and looking in the direction they were fleeing. Cat or not, she was hiding something other than the fact that she was a Faunus, and he wasn't entirely sure what it was. Now if she was something other than a cat, which would be asking for trouble if they ended up in a team together, he could see himself dating her, what with that dark hair of hers and the mysterious feel.

Back to work though, he focused on the leader of the running formation, the blond boy with the chest plate. His output implied that he had his Aura awoken not that long ago, perhaps even not two hours ago. The poor boy had little control over it, the spikes were all over the place, reacting to all energy around him. But the boy definitely had something going for him, and that was the fact that even without Aura he had made it this far, something someone with no skill or talent could achieve, and he was leaning towards the boy having talent.

Next to the blond was that annoying one, Leon. That boy had a mouth on him, but the skill to back up what he said, so he doubted he would be a liability in any team, but he would not be able to lead either, there simply was too little strategic mind in that head to do that, not that he could say otherwise about himself, he made strategies on the fly rather than preparing traps, and he honestly didn't care about managing teammates. The semblance of the boy however, was something to think on, as well as that weapon he carried. A tonfa, whether alone or as a set, was already dangerous with the kinetic energy it could deliver, and when explosions were added at the right time, then Leon would be a very big help against the Stalker.

Behind them was Pyrrha, a battle goddess if he ever saw one. Trained from young age to fight, she was the very example of what a Huntress should be. Composed in battle, able to lead but not afraid to step back an let someone else do the talking, good looking, and most important of all, able to wield her weapon of choice with incredible ease and to great effect, even when surrounded. He had seen her battles, he knew what she was capable of. Undefeated Champion for three years.

Weiss Schnee was alternating between staring at Pyrrha with admiration and glaring at his wings. He couldn't care less about that, haters gonna hate and all that, and he would be dammed if he allowed himself to be ashamed of what he was by a spoiled princess. Besides, she was probably jealous of his awesome wings.

And last but not least, the pink bomber and the oriental warrior. He hadn't seen them in action yet, and the were not doing anything impressive other than keeping pace with everyone else, but they looked to be calmer than everyone else, hell the girl even looked excited at what they were doing, so if anything, it was probably not anything out of ordinary for them, which was odd.

Oh, would you look at that, the trees were thinning.

He wrapped his wings around himself to pass through the last of the trees spinning, and landed with his carbine ready to fire.

Ruby stopped next to him and took aim at the Nevermore, but as great as her weapon was, from his distance and angle, it would barely hurt the thing. Nevertheless, he let her.

The rest of the group broke through the trees moments later.

Eleanor immediately started looking at what was around them, and if she was honest to herself, it did not look good if they did not get rid of the Nightstalker first.

A fifty meter cliff on the way up, making a ravine as it reached their level, a temple that should have been impossible to build if it was the age it appeared to be was the only way across, and the steps carved onto the cliff face were their only way up if Ozpin didn't show up with an extraction, which was very unlikely, since this was a test, and she very much doubted that Alex would be keen on giving them a ride, one by one until they were all at the top.

The floor started to rumble, reminding her that the 'Stalker wasn't that far away.

What would be a relatively non dangerous way of taking it down? The obvious answer was having a very high calibre weapon start shooting it, but they would need at least a fifty millimetre to start penetrating that thick armour, and it was no doubt agile enough to tank through Nora's grenades.

"HEADS DOWN" she complied as Alexander yelled, thankful that the feathers did not hit her or any of the others.

That brought another problem to light though, they were sitting ducks out here in the open, and the stupid Nevermore had them zeroed in, all it needed was a lucky shot and they would be done for. Fuck.

"ACROSS THE BRIDGE, HURRY," She thought they would be able to get across, and leave the Nightstalker behind, since the bridge did not look sturdy enough to hold the tons of Grimm monster that would try to follow them. They weren't that lucky.

The Nevermore chose that moment to start another feather barrage, hitting the bridge throughout the middle, and no doubt striking important support stones, since it started to collapse around them.

Ruby, Yang, Blake and Schnee managed to get across to the temple, while everyone else was forced to retreat to the other side of the ravine, where the Nightstalker was waiting for them, the stupid thing had probably communicated with the Nevermore somehow. Shit

They needed to get rid of it now.

"The stinger and the pincers are both the thinnest articulations of the thing, I suggest we go for the former," Grant said, taking aim at the point where the golden stinger joined with the black body of the scorpion Grimm.

"Good idea, we use it's venom against it," Eleanor nodded, "Okay, here's the plan, Nora, stay with Grant and wait for the stinger to drop on the Stalker, then you smash it in, Jaune, you and Pyrrha keep the pincers occupied, I don't care how, Alex, you, Leon, Ren, and I are going for the stinger, we got to be quick about this, GO!"

She charged, not waiting to see if the rest was following, she knew that they would follow her plan, as little as a couple of guidelines could count as a plan. A shadow flew above her, Alex would likely try to shot the stinger articulation in order to weaken it, which was exactly what they required. A grunt made her want to look back, she supposed that Pyrrha had already engaged the pincers, Jaune would follow soon.

She was more than a bit surprised when a shot went past her, meaning that Grant had a good enough eye to shoot the Stalker before she could reach the middle of it. A great support type, but the Stalker had moved its tail and the shot instead bounced off of the golden stinger. Great, they really had their job cut out for them. She smashed one of her axes into one of the legs of the scorpion creature, intending to get onto it's back in order to use her newly discovered control over her Aura to force it to smash into the ground, but just as easily as its armour deflected the shots, it made her weapon bounce off as if it was just a rubber axe, rather than the high density alloy she used to build the blades.

She had no time to try again as she had to roll to avoid the legs of the thing trying to smash her, clearly it was focusing on her, even with the blond and red head trying their best at keeping it from turning, she knew it was too strong for the two of them to take care of the pincers by themselves. She jumped away from the monster and watched as Grant used his sniper to daze the thing long enough for Leon to land three good hits with that tonfa of his, the thing was spinning harder than she could keep up with from that distance, but she was pretty sure that it would hit hard.

She took a running start and slid under the Nightstalker, emptying her magazines, which were fairly big at twelve rounds per shotgun, on the underbelly of the scorpion, not that it did much, seeing as the thing was as heavily armoured from under as it was from over, but hey, as long as it did not collapse in her it was alright. It would be a really painful way to die. The good part about her guns though, was that they used a revolving style clip, rather than a chamber one, and so they were way faster to reload.

Coming out from under the Stalker by the point where Leon had been beating the crap put of its leg, she once again emptied her shotguns on the point where its armour had been weakened enough that it showed a crack. This resulted on the thing stumbling as it felt the pain of the tiny dust pellets striking against its fleshy innards hiding underneath the tons of armour.

Alexander used that stumble to take a dive at the stinger, damaging the articulation badly enough that it was hanging off by only the half of the flesh inside it, darkened as it was. Next to do damage to the stinger was Ren, who used Jaune as a springing board to jump on the over side of the scorpion, and then used his reinforced weapons. This left the stinger hanging from a thread, which Grant, showing how great a marksman he was, shot right through, making the golden part of the Stalker come down on it.

"NORA, NOW!" She shouted at the pink haired girl, who first flew up by smashing and detonating her hammer on the head of the beast and then, after doing a pirouette while seating on the handle of her weapon, smashed it down on the fallen stinger, driving it deep into the body of the beast, the poison that could kill many humans in seconds with but a drop granting the Nightstalker a slow and painful death.

Not a nice way to go, even for a soulless abomination made of fear and nightmares.

"Is everybody still okay?" Jaune asked, "Pyrrha, still have both arms? Do I still have both arms?"

"Yes Jaune," The red-head rolled her eyes and giggled, "I think all of us are still complete."

"HEY, UP HERE!" all of them turned to look at the Red Killing Hood.

"HOW ARE WE GONNA GET UP THERE NOW?!" Jaune asked her for them, noticing that all members of Ruby's team were still stranded on the barely standing temple, castle, or whatever the hell it was.

"I could throw you up one by one using my semblance," Alexander offered, "But I don't know how many I could get there before I tired myself out."

Other possibilities included a plank on a rock that stuck out a long ways on both sides, which Nora would smash to propel them into the air, and jumping towards the cliff face, using their weapons to cling to it and then go upwards.

In the end, Alex's offer won out, and after a lot of touch and go moments where he wasn't sure how much everyone weighted and how to compensate for it, but after two hours, they were all on the top of the cliff, Grant and Eleanor helping an exhausted Alexander towards where Ozzpin and Goodwitch were waitng.