A/N: Thanks for the cool reviews folks. Hope you all have a good read, and don't forget, as long as criticism is constructive, it's always good criticism.
"Wait, it'll take us how long to get back?"
Ruby shifted nervously. "Half a day."
Ice blue eyes glared at the nervous girl. "You'd better have a good explanation for this."
Nodding vigorously, Ruby answered, "W-well, the area you came from is one of the more heavily infested areas. If we tried to go back that way, we'd have to fight through hordes of grimm, so we have to take a detour to a different area of the wall."
Weiss sighed, lightly rubbing her temples. "Alright fine, how long will it take to get ready?"
"We can leave right now."
Weiss blinked in confusion at Ruby, gesturing to the camp. "Don't you need to pack anything?"
Ruby shook her head. "Nah, the camp's made out of stuff I found from the area, only things I need are my clothes and Crescent Rose!"
"'Crescent Rose'?" Weiss asked, looking around them to see if there was a third person among them.
Ruby took out the folded form of her scythe. "Yeah, my scythe, Crescent Rose!"
Weiss only shook her head, slowly getting used to Ruby's oddness. She found her pleasantly weird. Ruby wasn't like other people, as far as Weiss could tell Ruby was always herself, never once putting on some sort of act to deceive, and for some reason Weiss' usual heiress personality never seemed to deter the young girl, who would only ignore it and continue whatever weird antics she was up to.
At first, Weiss had wished fervently that she could've found anyone else, even that young rookie, or what Yang liked to call him, 'Vomit Boy'. Looking at Ruby, they both nodded, ready to begin the journey.
When Weiss had woken up, Ruby had wasted no time in telling her just how dangerous the journey would be, and that if anything were to happen to Ruby, then she should run. Weiss didn't say anything, but her gut curled itself in displeasure at the thought of Ruby being harmed, let alone the thought of leaving her behind.
They exited the clearing, once again entering the dense forest, canopy blocking the sky from view once more. Weiss frowned at the sounds of nature, birds chirping, skittering of small critters, evidence of their homes laying about. She knew just how deceitful it made the forest, hiding the true monsters within.
Softly laying her hand on the hilt of her rapier, she casually observed the huntress leading, looking to all the world as relaxed as someone finding out they can sleep in for the day. Weiss knew though, within that girl was a force far stronger than anything she ever witnessed, besides possibly her own father and her mentor.
They continued walking for what seemed like an eternity, taking brief rests every now and then for Weiss, who was not used to the forest flooring. Weiss felt a tiny bit of annoyance every time they rested, Ruby would always look back at her, energetic as ever.
It wasn't until what Ruby deemed as the 'halfway point' where the atmosphere became darker, getting closer to grimm nests. They began walking carefully, every now and then hearing a loud thumping, coming from what Weiss assumed to be an extremely large grimm. Probably a goliath or a nevermore. Glancing over at Ruby, she wondered if she had ever fought one of them before. Weiss could only shudder at the thought of facing one, having only seen the pictures, but heard the stories of how scary they were.
Weiss froze. Ruby was a bit ahead of her, hiding behind a tree while she peeked around it, one hand lifted up signalling Weiss to stop. Had Weiss not been watching Ruby's face intently, she would've missed the millisecond of eyes widening, telling her of incoming danger.
Ruby jumped away from the tree, landing beside Weiss as the tree and the one beside it exploded, claws raking their way through. Behind the tree and settling debris the head of a grimm poked through. Ursa major. Weiss took a step back in fear the next second, the forms of two more appearing alongside it, flanked by two packs of beowolves, and a bigger, more heavily armored beowolf sat in the center.
"Remember what I said Weiss, if anything happens." Frosty eyes looked into stormy eyes. Hesitantly, Weiss nodded.
Then all hell broke loose. The beowolves rushed ahead of the ursai, attempting to rip apart the two as fast as possible. But Ruby was much faster already decapitating several beowolves at once, before disappearing in a haze of rose petals. Weiss waited, Myrtenaster in hand, for the first wave of beowolves to reach her, systematically picking them apart when they reached her proximity of attack.
Weiss couldn't help focusing a small part of her on the sounds of Ruby's scythe, occasionally accompanied by what sounded like a crossbow, a quick glance confirming not only was it a crossbow, but it was attached to Crescent Rose. A small smile made its way onto her face, still finding more surprises at the oddity known as Ruby.
The smile was lost however, when the armored beowolf suddenly sped into Weiss, sending her tumbling backwards. Quickly, Weiss got back up, ignoring the scratches and bruises caused, and searched around for the armored beowolf, but only could only see the one remaining pack of beowolves, which was exterminated in an instant by Ruby, finding them in her way while she fought the ursai.
Weiss reacted on instinct, barely hearing the noise of something sharp cutting the air, ducking underneath the claws that swept at where her head had been. Weiss spun while stepping back, readying herself to parry and counter, but the beowolf didn't follow through with its attack, instead running back into the trees, back into its camouflage.
Damn, I'll have to ask Ruby about this grimm after the fight, it's drastically more intelligent than ones I just fought. A pack leader, perhaps? Weiss had no more time to consider, sidestepping the claws that shot out from a bush beside her, impaling the shoulder that flew past her and retracted her rapier before it would get pulled with it.
The beowolf didn't seem to care though, turning around, it lunged at Weiss. Readying herself, she brought her rapier up to parry, but surprise flowed through her when the beowolf stopped, bringing out its other claw to sweep at her legs. Settling for a high risk high reward move, Weiss jumped over the entire beowolf, stabbing downwards in hope of finding her mark. Pride removed the surprise flowing through, hearing and seeing the disintegrating of the body as she landed on the other side, simultaneously pulling her rapier out of its head.
Weiss heard footsteps behind her and turned around, Myrtenaster poised to strike. She lowered it a second later, seeing Ruby looking at her with a smile. "Weiss that was awesome!"
She flinched in surprise when Ruby suddenly bolted forward, enveloping the heiress into a warm hug. The surprise didn't come just from Ruby's hug, but from Weiss finding herself by no means angry that Ruby was touching her. The hug ended, and Weiss recoiled internally at her thoughts of wanting to be hugged again.
Stop, she's not even my friend, just someone who's trying to help me. Her thoughts were interrupted by the remembrance of the armored beowolf. "Ruby, what was that beowolf I was fighting?"
"The armored one?"
Weiss nodded, "Yes."
"That was the beowolf alpha, they're pretty much better at everything compared to a normal beowolf."
Weiss grimaced, the small wounds on her evidence of Ruby's explanation. She flinched once more when Ruby was suddenly in her face, looking down at Weiss' body.
"Are you okay Weiss, did it hurt you?" Ruby asked quickly, concern laced with her voice.
Cute. Weiss shook her head furiously, dispelling the sudden thought that had entered her mind. "No no, I'm fine, just a few scratches, nothing to worry about."
Ruby, still looking concerned, nodded. "Ready to keep going?"
Weiss sighed, it was only going to get more difficult from there. "Let us proceed."
