AN: Bold is for Japanese, Italics is for the Imperial Language, and regular is English/Valic for RWBY characters.

Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or Gate. Any resemblance or mention to existing properties is part of the fic, a reference, or just something that I thought would be cool to include.

Chapter 3: Dragons. It's Always Dragons.

The Beacon Huntsmen-in-training had hiked for the better part of the entire day. They had made some ground in their journey towards the smoke, but nevertheless, the forest seemed to be nearly endless. It stretched far into the distance, and the green trees all blended into each other, becoming an expanse that would have been entirely impossible to navigate themselves through, had they not had the combined wilderness survival expertise of Blake, Velvet, Pyrrha, and Yatsuhashi to rely upon.

When twilight finally came, it became necessary to set up some sort of shelter, and soon enough, they had some temporary tents and tarps set up, along with a small campfire.

Ruby Rose found the whole situation very convenient and agreeable. A little too convenient, if you asked her. Never before in her life had anything been this easy; everything had to have some sort of evil dark side lying in wait, ready to pounce on unsuspecting and complacent victims. There had been no Grimm activity, nor any sort of Grimm presence at all. As a Huntress-in-training, Ruby had taken it upon herself to learn how to precisely locate Grimm, as finding them on her and Yang's home island of Patch had sometimes proven difficult, especially due to the island's camouflage.

Despite the fact that more than a few of the group had undoubtedly been feeling some sort of negative emotion, and the fact that they were all students who regularly experienced the wonders of Murphy's Law, there wasn't even the pervasive and oily aura that seemed to follow the creatures of darkness wherever they went.

Regardless, Ruby was tired. Murphy's Law or not, she needed her shut-eye. In fact, everyone else seemed to be just as tired as she was: Yang periodically yawned in between lifting some sort of heavy object or another, Weiss paced relentlessly, and Blake's head was drooping as she tried, somewhat fruitlessly, to read a hardcover novel. Exhausted, Ruby decided to lie back in the hammock that she had constructed in the canopy in order to catch some rest, and stared at the emerging stars, when she noticed something odd...

What the heck? "Umm... Guys? That doesn't look like Remnant's moon..."

Everyone dropped what they were doing, and turned their attention to the darkened sky.

Yang was the first to speak up. "What. The. Actual. Hell."

"Yeah," that was Jaune, "The last time I checked, our moon was in pieces. You know, shattered and all that? People made, like, a billion songs because of the dang thing."

"So that begs the question," Ren said as he scratched his chin, deep in thought.

"...Why is it not?" Velvet finished, "Broken, I mean."

Sure enough, the moon was one single celestial body, and slightly waxing at that. That meant that this moon had phases, which contrasted with Remnant's, which was in geosynchronous orbit around the planet.

"Guys?" After a long period of saturated silence, Ruby spoke, "I don't think we're in Vale anymore."

"Yeah, no shit." Always the charmer, Coco. Stay classy.

"Well, if we're not in Vale, then where are we?" Nora pondered.

"Wherever we are," replied Blake, "There are dragons."

Yeah, Ruby thought, wait, what?

They looked to the sky, and found that it had been cleaved into two halves. The western half was pitch dark and cloudy, while the eastern portion was lit up brightly with an eerie orange and yellow glow. There was also a faint scent of char and smoke as something burned nearby. Yet that wasn't the strangest part of the scene that lay above.

A titanic blood-red lizard appeared to be the source of the burning, as it spouted flames from its maw while it flew on hideous, leathery wings throughout the night sky. Ruby quickly removed Crescent Rose from its holster and extended it to its rifle mode, using the small scope to observe the monster in greater detail. Its body was horned and spiky because of a multitude of sharp scales that coated its body, lending it an air of a creature from some demented person's nightmare. It soared through the sky, spitting fire upon an unseen target for quite a while.

"Can I ride it?" Nora asked.

"No," came her stoic partner's reply.

"What in God's name is it doing?" Jaune wondered aloud.

"Burning something." All heads present turned to Coco. The fashionista merely adjusted her designer sunglasses higher up onto the bridge of her nose. "I swear, if the blaze spreads to this part of the forest..."

"Wait, w-what if it's burning someone?" Velvet stuttered out. No one uttered a single word.

"No point in worrying about it," replied Weiss, "Whatever's burning right now is too hot to approach." She pinched her nose, unwilling to let any tears fall. "We need to be rested if we want to go investigate."

"We've got to sleep in shifts, then," Blake suggested, "That way, we'll be prepared for that eventuality. We'll investigate in the morning, as much as I had to say it. She paused before adding, "Yang's got the first shift."

"What?! That's unfair!" Yang demanded, indignant. "Why do I have to do it?"

"'Cause you haven't done anything productive at all today. Plus, consider it a thanks for the puns you told all day today."

"If you ask me, that's pretty shifty."

"And that's why you have first shift, sis," Ruby drowsily replied as everyone in earshot groaned in annoyance.


Later -

It was the afternoon when Ruby and the others had finally awoken from their slumber. The dragon was long gone, and all that remained of whatever had burned was ashes, mixing with the clouds and creating a grey horizon. The group packed up their supplies and hit the road once more, heading in the direction of the blaze from the night before. The trek was shrouded in gloom, and no one spoke. The Huntsmen knew not what lay ahead of them, but they knew nonetheless.

After what felt like an eternity, they reached the site that they were looking for.

It was a village. Well, at least it was a village. The structures were all burned husks and char, but they had once been treehouses, huts, and homes built into the very trees of the forest themselves. The only thing left untouched by the flames was a small stone well in the very center of the village. The ground was muddy, evidence that a rain had extinguished the relentless fire that destroyed the village, and stopped it from spreading to the rest of the area.

But what was the most disturbing part of the former habitation was the bodies. Or really, the lack of them. What had once been the inhabitants of the settlement were now foul-smelling, complete, charred black, human skeletons scattered about the place. Sometimes, one of the warriors would trample a femur, creating a sickening crunch as the delicate calcium structure shattered.

There was even a pile of bones next to the well, as if someone had been trying to seek asylum from the wrath of the dragon's combustion, but they were just too late to survive.

Jaune, predictably, ran off to throw up in a nearby ditch. Pyrrha stood stock-still, one gloved hand covering her mouth in horror as tears welled up pin her eyes. Nora leaned on Ren's shoulder, softly sobbing, while the stoic boy stood stock still; the only indication of his true emotions being the subtle aura of seething rage surrounding the young man.

Coco sharply glanced somewhere - anywhere - else from the exhibit of suffering that lay before her, pinching the bridge of her nose and grimacing in disgust. Fox calmly crossed his arms, unwilling to share his true vehemence and rage for the monster that committed such an atrocity. Yatsuhashi sat cross-legged and gave a prayer for the dead. Velvet let her head and rabbit ears fall, letting her own tears for the fallen descend as she stood, trembling, with her hands folded into a tight ball in front of her body.

Blake hissed in a cat-like show of disdain for the fire-breathing dragon. Weiss turned up her nose in distaste, and reached into her pack for a pair of small whetstones. Without a word, the heiress and Faunus both sat down on a particularly flat, large boulder and set to work sharpening their weapons, already confident about what their next course of action would entail.

Yang had the most... energetic reaction out of all the present Huntsmen. shaking in anger, with eyes a bright crimson, she stormed off. The rest of the group soon heard a pair of loud muzzle reports and the crashing of two large objects emanating from the forest nearby.

Her sister, Ruby, turned her gaze to the ground, unwilling to face the horror that lay before her. It reminded her of someone that she had lost many years ago.

Summer Rose was truly someone special, not just to her immediate family, or even just to her friends and teammates. No, she had a lasting impression on nearly everyone she met. From the smallest shopkeeper, to the biggest crime bosses she helped to take down in Vale, her memory stood out in people's minds. For the former, it was her compassion, capacity to help others, and her drive for that which was right. For the latter, it was her combat prowess, her persistence, and her determination to see her missions through.

Ruby was young when her mother died nearly a decade before, but every memory with Summer had once filled the young girl's soul with warmth. But every recollection turned bitter and sorrowful when that source of love and care was forcibly confiscated from her life. For a few whole weeks after her mother's unfortunate disappearance and demise, Ruby shut herself off from the world while her sister lashed out and their father completely emotionally shut down.

Ruby knew what it was like to lose a loved one that you cared for a whole lot. After all, how different would things have been if Mom was still here...

These people, she thought, were just going throughout their everyday lives when they were killed without a second thought. Whoever's waiting for them elsewhere won't ever see the likes of them again. They would be just like me, left without the dearest people in their lives...

As Huntsmen, it was their solemn duty to serve the people through being their defenders. But what good would the Huntsmen-in-training of Beacon Academy be if they couldn't even compete in the echelon of danger and cruelty that befell these people?

Ruby tried to hang her head in shame, until a few strange grooves in the mud caught her attention. She abruptly crouched down to the ground, inspecting them.

Could it be? Ruby thought, You're kidding. Maybe...

"Ruby?" Jaune, who had finished expelling his stomach's contents and had returned to the group, wondered. "What are you doing?"

"These tracks..."

"So?" Coco coldly interjected.

"They're not from animals or boots, like we've seen before. These look like they're from some sort of tire treads."

"What, like a car?" Yang scratched her head. She abruptly stopped, however, when the implications hit her like a truck. "Wait, does that mean...?"

"Maybe someone has the resources to get us home," Weiss concluded, "These tracks look like they were made by heavy-duty machines, if the shape and depth of the treads are anything to go by." She turned to the rest of the group. "I say we follow them."

"We'll have to pick up the pace to do so." Yatsuhashi spoke up, uttering the first words that he had spoken since becoming stranded with the rest of the students. "They could be in danger. The monster could have followed them back to wherever they had gone to."

"Alright then, let's go, double-time!" Ruby commanded, determined to stop any further bloodshed and pain before it was too late. We can't afford to let this trail go dark. We don't even know where the hell we are, she thought.

The others were more-or-less like-minded, and quickly mobilized themselves. Soon, they rushed onwards, following the trail before them as quickly as they could, and prayed that they would not be too late.


Imperial Trade Route, en route to Alnus Hill -

Lieutenant Itami Youji was not having a fun day. Contrary to what he might have thought in the past, being caught in a fantasy world didn't exactly have all the charms that he once imagined it possessed.

There was, first and foremost, a language barrier that had to be remedied between the Japanese and Special Region inhabitants. The Japanese Self-Defense Force was still unable to properly communicate with the locals, but that was to be expected this early into the occupation of the region.

Then there was the matter of the Fire Dragon beast that threatened the tightly-knit existence of Coda Village. Apparently, the existence of that giant lizard monster had been enough to drive the villagers out of their homes without a second thought. It probably would fall to a couple of fighter jets, but then again, what if it wouldn't? What if it became a real problem, instead of a mere nuisance?

Now, the Third Recon Team was stuck pulling escort duty for Coda Village, bringing them to an area that would hopefully be free from giant, fire-breathing dragon attacks.

And finally, there was the matter of the Recon Team's new "passenger". The group of soldiers had somehow managed to attract the attention of someone from the local religion, if the reverence put out by the accompanying Coda Villagers was anything to go by.

Itami was... uncomfortable around Rory Mercury, Apostle of Emloy. And that wasn't just because she decided to make the soldier a cushion the moment she came into contact with the JSDF. Sure, she looked like a cute little girl, with her adorable gothic lolita fashion taste, but she carried a monstrously titanic halberd, for crying out loud! Why would an innocent little girl carry a weapon that large in such a dangerous place without knowing how to use it? Plus, from what he could gather from the nearby village children, she was an apostle of their god of Death and Destruction. Surely that was an omen, right?

At least she wasn't trying to get her hands on anything dangerous like she had been a moment ago, which was a relief. Now she sat in the back of the Humvee, sweetly and innocently smirking as if she was the model of good behavior.

"Man, I wish this evacuation was over, already," Itami complained, way beyond tired of the day's events.

"No kidding," replied Sergeant Kurata, the driver of the Humvee.

Damn, why's he so cheery about this? Itami thought, I'm sweltering, and it's tiring work. This sucks...

Itami sighed and poked his head out of the passenger-side window. He covered his eyes, veiling them from the blistering Special Region sun. "Isn't the sun hotter here than in Japan?" he muttered, mostly to himself. He gave a cursory glance towards the tail of the convoy...

Just in time to see a dragon fly past...

Only to be devoured in one bite by a titanic lizard, which touched down on a nearby hill, silhouetted by the sun, shaking the ground ever so slightly upon impact.

Holy shit!

Reacting quickly, Itami turned away from the passenger window, ordering, "Battlestations!"

Kurata quickly relayed the order over the radio. The soldiers were, however, powerless to help the villagers in the opening moments of the battle as the dragon mercilessly wrought destruction upon the hapless village-folk, burning and smashing dozens of horse-drawn carriages and people in a matter of seconds. Children attempted to run from the beast, but for some it was too little, too late.

The JSDF sprang into action, speeding towards the monster in their Humvees and APCs, firing their automatic weapons madly in an effort to do something - anything - to help combat the nightmare beast they called their foe.


Nearby the Imperial Trade Route, within sight of the convoy -

"Oh. (huff) My. (huff) God." Ruby finally said. "Let's never do that again."

"Yeah."

"Agreed."

"Seriously."

"I swear to God."

It had taken quite a lot of running, but the group managed to catch up to the vehicles that left the tracks. Thankfully, they appeared to have been moving very slowly, allowing the Huntsmen to catch up to the convoy, even if they were on foot, even while their objective had the innovation of the wheel (and internal combustion engines) to rely on.

Halfway to their current location, they'd discovered an abandoned settlement, devoid of all life. There was no lack of possessions, however, as evidenced by various articles of clothing, valuables, and chaotic houses that were scattered about the town. There was even a broken-down wooden carriage in the middle of the town square with a shattered axle. All of the signs pointed to the fact that everyone who had lived in the town had got up and left. They'd probably heard of what happened to the other village and evacuated, hoping to escape the dragon's wrath and bloodlust.

But given the fact that they had been escaping with horse-drawn carts and beasts of burden, as evidenced by the hoofprints in the dirt and the corpse of a horse that remained, they may have been too slow to avoid the destruction that befell their neighboring village. In response, the Beacon teams had picked up the pace even more than they were already. They were relieved, however, when they had arrived, a fair distance away, and the convoy was still intact, allowing the weary Huntsmen a respite from their marathon trek across the countryside.

Now, they were all bone-tired, and lounged around in various places, in various positions, trying to catch their breaths. No one was really in a state of being able to converse, and stayed silent, only uttering sounds of panting and wheezing. Most of them had even closed their eyes, content with maybe taking a nap for their troubles.

But that pleasant reality was stripped from their minds the moment the screaming started.

At the sound of frightened shrieks, Ruby jolted herself awake. Her eyes quickly scanned the environment for any and all threats and causes, looking for the source of the disturbance.

She didn't have to look very far.

Razing the caravan of wooden carts with a veritable torrent of flame was the very beast that they'd come all this way for. The gigantic dragon, covered with titanic, spiked scales, hovered over the group of primitive vehicles via the flapping of its massive filmy, reptilian wings. Each beat of its wings threatened to flatten even the unburned wild grasses of the clearing, and would probably make it harder to maintain mobility up close. It crushed with its gargantuan, three-pronged feet and claws, and killed without abandon, spitting flame at any moving target within its reach.

"Blake! Yang! Weiss! We gotta go! Double-time it!" Ruby was quick to jump into action, withdrawing Crescent Rose and firing a shot behind her to help her accelerate, before activating her semblance, rushing off to the nearest, highest vantage point in a flurry of crimson rose petals.

"Come on, ladies, let's move!" Yang quickly fired both of her gauntlets, Ember Celica, at the ground and at an angle, quickly propelling her towards the direction that Ruby had sped off in. Blake wordlessly drew Gambol Shroud, shifted it into its kusarigama form, and chucked it to the blonde boxer with all of her might, as it trailed her trademark black ribbon behind it. Yang caught it with one hand, shooting off another blast with her off hand, simultaneously pulling on Blake's weapon, pulling the Faunus along just with the force of her gauntlets and her strength.

"Of all the things that could happen..." Weiss grumbled, but nonetheless cast a time-manipulation glyph on herself and sped along after her team with a long string of both dark and white attraction and repulsion glyphs.


Nearby vantage point - Tall, nearby hill -

Ruby Rose felt the wind rush by her face at a million miles an hour. To say that she didn't enjoy the rush of feeling everything move by at a snail's pace when she let loose with her semblance would be like saying a begger needn't money. It would be just plain wrong.

Ruby's semblance, besides accelerating her physical acceleration, also increased how quickly her mind could process her surroundings, as without it she would run into more walls than an anthropomorphic pitcher of soft drink. Noticing that she was nearing her destination, she hopped up and slammed her boots forward, skidding for a good five whole seconds, producing a sound not unlike shredding rubber.

Ruby pinwheeled her slender arms for an instant, avoiding losing her balance and falling off of the steep hill. She unhooked Crescent Rose and, with a couple flicks of the wrist, unfurled it into its sniper rifle form. She brought the firearm into a shooting position, its crimson stock folded into the crook of her shoulder, and peered through its powerful compact scope. Through its magnifying glass, she could clearly see that the monster was being engaged by a trio of military-style vehicles. Which military, she couldn't say. It had been decades since any modern Remnan military had even considered using camouflage paint on anything, a sentiment expressed soon after the long, arduous civil war over individuality fought some 40 years ago.

The vehicles' occupants were using rifles and various small arms against the beast, to virtually no avail. The beast traded lead for flame, and tried to douse the metal transports with combustive death, but thankfully the soldiers avoided the hungry blaze with skillful maneuvers. It was apparent, however, that they weren't going to stand a chance for very longn if they couldn't pull out their trump card very soon. They were going all in, but the deck was stacked against them from the beginning.

Those guys need help, Ruby thought. Hmm... If Weiss uses her glyphs, and we use Blake's chain-scythe as a sling, we could probably get me close enough to hack at it... I did spy a few sturdy trees when I ran here... Hmm...

"Really, Ruby? You couldn't wait like two seconds for us to follow you?"

"Sorry, Yang," Ruby replied unflinchingly, her eye still fixed upon the unknown soldiers through her scope. "You're just too slow."

"That hurts, Sis,"said Yang, a mischievous glint in her eye, "We did run all this way after you. It hurt my sole for you to say that about me."

Yang sensed something coming from behind her, and turned to catch the lightly tossed over form of Gambol Shroud with her hand, as it flew towards her head in its kusarigama form.

Blake flew through the air behind her, propelled by the sheer force of Yang's propulsory throws, and had tucked into a roll before stopping and quipping, "That was bad, Yang. Even for you."

"Getting catty with me, now, pardner?" Yang joshed back.

"Those... (huff) are terrible..." Weiss had finally, on her last legs, made it to the hill. She wheezed and groaned for oxygen, and her bolero jacket's armpits were soaked with sweat. How she managed to keep her hair from bunching up, was however, something that Ruby never knew.

"You're here!" Ruby excitedly proclaimed, "Now, we can get to work! You guys remember what we did for Beacon Initiation, right?"

"Duh, you dunce," Weiss snarked. "Still a stupid idea, if you ask me."


Imperial Trade Route, Battle Zone -

Itami felt himself being jostled around in the military humvee, and his teeth rattled in the mattress of his gums to no end. He felt as if his canines might actually start Olympic high-diving right out of his mouth if this kept going for a picosecond longer.

But yet, he still had to try. The Fire Dragon was going to be a big problem if it was allowed to keep eating and pillaging things. An invincible monster that only attacks when confronted? Not a big threat. But a mobile aggressor? Shit, that was going to need to be taken care of, and disposed of before it could massacre more innocents (than it had already).

Itami's aim was thrown a little off as he tried to fire his Type 64 Rifle, but he managed to at least hit his intended target, more or less. However, it proved to be mildly useless. The thing's scales were as hard as diamond. Every bullet just ricocheted off of the hardened skin and plates or just shattered upon impact.

"Pay it no mind!" Itami shouted over the noise of muzzle reports, "Keep firing! Fire! Fire! Fire!"

In response to the renewed volume of fire, the dragon reared its great maw back, its teeth aglow with a backlight of orange.

Itami gasped, "Breath incoming!" he warned, just in time for the beast to whip its head forward, spewing a renewed blast of flame at the JSDF vehicles, who managed to dodge it, just barely. Itami himself could feel his eyebrows and stubble become singed slightly, as a result of the incredible heat.

"We don't stand a chance against that flame!" yelled Kurata.

"Our .50-Cals aren't even cutting it, either!" responded Itami.

This fight is thoroughly unfair, Itami thought, We can't do anything to it! What do we do?

Suddenly, Itami heard the pitter-patter of flesh against steel. He glanced into the rear of the vehicle, just in time to see the blonde elf from the well emerge from her resting position in the back. She... wasn't wearing anything.

"Uhh... Since when are you...?" Itami started, but the girl cut him off. She said something in the native language, and frantically pointed at...

Her eye?

The eye...

God, how could I be so stupid? Itami mentally berated himself. He leaned his head out of the window, taking one last look at the creature.

"All units, aim for the-"

Itami was interrupted by a sudden and large explosion nearby. He swiveled his head in the relative direction of the noise, and saw a blur fly towards the dragon, trailing some sort of series of red objects, which floated down to the ground lazily. The blur sped towards the monster, and finally collided with the beast's long neck. Even from here, Itami could see dark, crimson blood spurt from the wound the blur made.

But it still wasn't done. The shape pinwheeled and rotated as if it was a windmill, opening up more and more incisions along the dragon's body to the tempo of more explosions, though muffled this time.

The dragon wasn't having any of that, however, as it soon moved one of its great claws to swipe at the offending blur-

Only to be forced to use it as a shield as more bullets impacted its body. Itami heard another muzzle report, this time a sustained racket. He craned his neck towards the source, and found not one of those under his command firing, but-

A female civilian, wearing a black beret and sunglasses, bearing bandoliers of cartridges as scarves, and wielding a golden... chain gun? Where in the world did someone like her get something like that around here?

"Boss!" came the cry of Kuribayashi, wrought with urgency, over the radio. "What do we aim for?"

Itami shook his head to clear his mind of the distractions. He couldn't afford to lose his head during a situation like this, of all times. He swiftly snatched up the radio receiver and practically screamed into it. "Eyes! Go for the eyes! No time to waste!" Itami huffed out.

"Roger!" came his squad's affirmation, just as swiftly as he had ordered it.


A few moments earlier -

Ruby Rose could feel the thrum of Gambol Shroud's ribbon propelling her through the air, contracting back into its resting shape with as much elasticity as ever, maximizing the force of not only Weiss' attraction glyphs, but also Crescent Rose's heavy recoil. Ruby once again flew at break-neck speeds, and once again relished the feel of air rushing past her face, as if she was an addict getting a fix. Not that she would know anything about that, of course.

As she neared her destination, she flipped a hidden lever on her weapon, further unraveling it into its extended form, with the long, curved blade sticking out of the shaft at an angle nearly parallel to the rest of the weapon. It was perfectly prepared to hook into and cleave through her target: the dragon's neck. With a scrape and a sickening squelch of blade digging into flesh, the crimson blade of Crescent Rose pierced the rough skin of the beast.

Ruby followed it up with a pull of her beloved weapon's trigger, unleashing a powerful round upwards. She twisted her hips and pulled on her scythe with all of her might, and the disproportionately large gun-blade hybrid complied by slicing into the flesh of the monster in a circular arc. An iron and copper stench filled Ruby's nostrils as the young reaper's deadly weapon forced open the skin and muscle under the rock-hard scales and caused a dull, red fluid to come spurting out of the wounds she inflicted. Blood. Ruby found the creature's life's essence truly disgusting. She gritted her teeth and focused on her task at hand.

Ruby quickly flared up her semblance and cycled Crescent Rose's bolt-action, chambering a new round to fire. At the critical angle of her rotation down the dragon's flesh, she fired again, this time lodging a bullet in the middle of the wound as well as propelling her to her next arc. She repeated the process of her crescendo of pain as a robot, mechanically ejecting and chambering spent and fresh Dust bullets and pulling her body along, spiraling down the solid armor and body of the beast.

The monster was, however, not happy at all to see this series of event unfold. It raised a great claw to halt the crimson reaper's assault...

Only to be stopped by a steady stream of fresh Dust-based projectiles. The monster was utterly forced to yield its claw, not for offense, but for defense in order to block the small, irritating, stinging bullets coming its way.

Ruby spared the briefest of glimpses in the direction of the incoming volume of fire, and witnessed Coco Adel firing away at the demonic dragon with her chain-gun. Her short, auburn hair was tousled and untidy, and her carefully picked out clothes were torn and dirtied in a few spots. She didn't seem to care, though, as she fired away at the monster with everything she had.

Ruby silently thanked her, and finally finished up the last two rotations of her pinwheel of pain for the dragon, finally landing on her feet on the cracked and pulverized dirt below.

The dragon's smart, I'll give it that, she thought to herself as she noticed that it had ceased to try to claw at Ruby and now began the motions of stamping its feet in order to squash the human Huntress. Ruby fired a quick shot of Crescent Rose's titanic ammunition behind her. With a quick followed-through burst of her semblance, she accelerated past the stomping range of the monster. Now, she stood about twenty meters to the left of Coco.

Ruby performed an about-face, turning herself to stare her adversary straight in the eye. She anchored her scythe in the ground to destroy any leftover velocity and attempted to gain her bearings-

Just in time to glimpse Blake speeding downwards from the hillside, twirling a bright yellow flame at the end of her elongated elastic ribbon. Yang. Like a wrecking machine, the dark-haired girl brought her meteor of a partner in a counterclockwise circle. Yang finally punched into the monster, both literally and figuratively, letting loose a blow that even managed to stagger the beast. Both girls hit the ground running, and quickly caught up to their leader in the dragon's moment of vulnerability.

Ruby gave a cursory glance around her. Where was Weiss?

A small, but explosive dust blast answered her question. It burst against the dragon's hide, further stumbling it and distracting it from its real enemy, who floated daintily down to the side of her partner, her fall dampened by one of her signature glyphs.

"What do you plan to do now?" Weiss asked, reloading Myrtenaster, her rapier, with more vials of dust. She preferred to travel light, and would doubtless have only so much of a supply of the stuff for the battle ahead. Not ideal, but Ruby could work with it.

"Yeah, what's the plan?" Yang's gauntlets as of yet needed no replenishment, but that might be something soon to change, especially with a foe the likes of which Team RWBY had never laid eyes upon till now.

"Well, it's definitely tougher than the Nevermore," Blake hadn't fired more than a handful of bullets yet, so she was sitting pretty, unlike the rest of her team. Gambol Shroud had a spacious magazine, and Ruby felt that it was going to be necessary to make every shot count if they were going to make it out alive.

"We can't stop now," finally replied Ruby. She hammered Crescent Rose's box magazine out of its housing and stowed it away for now. The less reloads she would need to take, the better. The reaper reached a hand to her hip, withdrew her secondary Dust ammunition magazine, and slammed it into Crescent Rose's magwell. "We'll probably have to wing it. But! I do have something resembling a plan. Weiss! Blake! Checkmate on its legs!"


AN: And that's another chapter up! Damn, finals month was crazy. Couldn't get any shit done. Also, trying to lengthen my work as of late. Harder than it looks, though. Hope you enjoy, see ya.

Guest: English and Valic are the same, just one came from Remnant, and the other Earth.

AllenFierte: Oh, they're definitely not ready for war. Sure, they can kick ass, but as for how they'll react? Well that all depends on circumstance, really. Most stories kinda work that way. For example, if you desensitized, say, Ruby Rose to the violence, she could react with a poker face to any and all conflict, but if you had her straight from Signal Academy, something in there is gonna snap like a freaking twig.

BUND3SW3HR: Funny, I don't remember any German guy...

edboy4926: Well you'll have to wait to see. Someone will be boned though. Figuratively, not literally.

yesboss21: Dude. I totally didn't think about how Rory and Ruby would interact until you posted your review. I am totally going to have a moment with them. Thanks.