Chapter 6: The Aura Release
The four of us jumped forward to take the Grimm by surprise, but they recovered quickly. Aries ran right at the Ursa's, using her semblance to increase to the size of a Huge Ram, crushing right through one of them, the other two were smarter though and dodged out of the way. Ryon ran toward the King Taijitu(Giant Grimm Snakes from before, didn't know what they were called until now) and jumped on one of their backs trying furiously to find a weak spot in its armor. Virgo charged out to the Death Stalkers and started to gracefully leap from Grimm to Grimm, fighting all three of them at once, trying to keep them at bay. I charged out, firing multiple shots from my pistol into the crowd of Beowolves, taking out a couple of them before I had gotten there. I ran forward to parry one's attack and slash it across the chest, then countering another blow before slashing that ones head off. I slashed, rolled, parried, dove, dodged, stab, and all around killed through the great amounts of Grimm. As I was fighting, I noticed Ryon finishing off the Taijitu and running to help Virgo as she struggled to fight the Death Stalkers. Pain then blasted through my shoulder. I turned to see that a Beowulf had slashed at my upper back while I was glancing at my friends. I turned to kill it, only to be knocked off my feet by another of them. I slammed to the ground, my back aching from the hit. The Grimm that were left started to surround me. One of them stepped forward to make the final blow, but I wasn't ready to die yet. I shook the dizziness away and accessed my semblance, a last resort attack. My body started to glow orange as my Aura started to expand to flow from my body. The light pushed the Beowulf's back, when I suddenly pushed outward, slamming a huge condensed Aura explosion from my body. I could feel my Aura deplete quickly, but I also saw all the Grimm around me disintegrate into ash. I tried to cut off my Semblance, but it kept flowing outward destroying the last Ursa the Aries was about to kill and the 2 Death Stalkers that were left against Ryon and Virgo. The Light ignored my friends because there was no aggression towards me from them. The light flowed upward and slowly died down around me. I looked around to see if my friends were okay, but I didn't make it very long before I collapsed. "LEO!" I looked up from my place on the ground to see Virgo running full speed at me. I tried to say something to tell her that I was okay, but I was just so drained from that last blast that I couldn't even speak. "Leo, you're going to be okay." I turned and Virgo was right next to me, fretting over my shoulder. I couldn't even move so I just grunted to let her know I was alive. "Well, looks like our loveable dumbass over here decided to use his Aura Release to take out the rest of the Grimm for us." Aries was running over to us with Ryon. "You know I could've killed that Ursa, right?" I just gave a little sigh, trying not to pass out. "Okay, Leo, I'm going to transfer some of my Aura into you, to get you back on your feet." Virgo suddenly started glowing Purple, she held her hands out over my wound. Her Aura started to leak out into my back. I cringed my back in pain, pulling at the grass around me to stop myself from screaming. It hurt intensely, but it did give me a bit more energy, and it started to heal my wound a bit. I started to sit up slowly and prop my head into Virgo's lap. "You know, Aries, it's kind of rude to insult a dying man."
"Huuph, like you're anything close to a man!"
"Okay, okay, that's enough." Ryon had spoken up. "We should head back to the cliff with the relics, Leo is going to need some medical attention soon."
"Yeah, my Aura closed up the slash a bit, but I think he is going to need surgery before it is completely healed." I started to get up, but once I was on my feet, I became just as dizzy as before. I would have fallen over again, if Ryon hadn't caught me, supporting me on his shoulder. "Okay, there's no way you're fighting on the way back! You are way too far out of shape!" Virgo had stood up and was scolding me. "Don't worry, I'll be fine, I can fight." I pulled myself off of Ryon an hobbled over to where Stars Edge was laying on the ground. I managed to pick it up, but the second I got it ready to fight. Virgo put her hand on mine. "You are too injured to fight, just take a breather and we will get you back to the cliff." she took Star from me and slid it into my scabbard. "You don't have to worry about the fighting, leave that up to us." I stared at her for a moment before I finally caved. "Okay fine, but I'm at least doing my own walking." Virgo smiled and gave me another hug. "ow,ow,ow,ow, okay, okay." Virgo quickly pulled off of me when she realized that she was hurting me. "sorry, sorry. Okay, lets just get moving." The four of us walked back into the forest, our Relics in hand, and back to the cliff.
We had made it back to the cliff in almost no time, actually knowing where we were going really helped. As we had made it to the bottom of the cliff, we started trying to figure out how to get back up to the top. Aries just told us to shut up and used her Semblence to turn back into her giant Ram form. She was really starting to get the hang of that ability, I wonder if she has mastered her other abilities, too. She kneeled down, obviously wanting us to get on her back. We climbed on and she just took off toward the cliff. We all hung on desperately to her pelt as she jumped at the straight wall and started to run right up it! We were flung around as she galloped to the top of the cliff and over the top. She transferred back, leaving us in a tangled mess at her feet. When we had finally gotten ourselves situated we looked around to find Professor Ozpin and Professor Glynda watching us. I took both of the relics and walked over to Ozpin. "Here you go, sir. Two beautiful relics for the four of us." I handed him the relics, and a look of pride and certainty came on his face. "Good work, Leonardo, I think you four will make for very powerful Huntsman and Huntress's. As for now, you may head back to the Auditorium. Your group was the first group back and will most likely be waiting for quite a while for the others." Just as he said that, a figure had been made in the distance over the cliff. We all looked at it, until we realized it was a Nevermore! I started to load my pistol when Ozpin put his hand on my sword to lower it. I looked over to him and he gestured back at the Nevermore. I took a closer look at the Grimm when I saw the figures riding on it's tail. And the figure riding on top of the Giant Bird, driving it straight at the cliff. When it started to get closer I could see Maya more clearly as she rode on top of the Grimm. When they had gotten close to over the cliff, the three figures on the back jumped off and onto the ground, and Maya jumped down to meet them here. When the dust had settled from their fall, the Nevermore was long gone and we could clearly see Maya, Natalia, Gerret, and Trey standing before us. Maya was holding both of the Queen pieces and walked over to give them to Professor Glynda. Ozpin was the only one out of all of us that did not look completely surprised. "Well, that was quite the entrance. You four will do well at our school, and I cannot wait to see you learn in our classrooms. As I have told the others that got here before you, you may head up to the Auditorium at the school. The others will be leaking in later. I will walk the last group in myself." The eight of us started walking back to the school when Ozpin said something. "Leonardo, please wait up." My friends started to turn around, but I waved them to go on to the school. "Yes, Professor Ozpin?"
"I would Like to ask you about what happened down at the ruins when your team was fighting those Grimm? I have only seen power like that once before and that story did not end with a happily ever after." He looked completely serious about this matter.
"Well, that was my Semblance, I like to call it Aura Release, because nobody has ever really found a real name for it. I have come before a Huntsman before as well, and he had told me that he had no idea what my Semblance is. It drains a lot of my Aura when I use the power, so I only use it as a Last Resort Attack, and I have never used it against Humans, only against Grimm. You say that you have seen my Semblance before? Can you tell me what it is?" The man studied my face for a moment before answering. He was staring at me like if he was trying to tell if I was telling the truth or not.
"Did I say that I have seen your Semblance before? I don't believe I did, I have no idea what it is, but I do pray that you use it accordingly for the good of the people and not for against the Innocent. You are dismissed to go back to join your friends, and welcome to the Academy, Leonardo."
I left him behind as I headed back up the hill to the school. I would have stayed to ask him more about what my semblance was, but when he had dismissed me, it was clearly not a request."I am going to have to keep an eye on him. He definitely said that he had seen my Semblance before, and that it had not ended well….. I don't know, I guess I should probably keep this to myself though, if I do tell Aries, she'll end up blurting it out to the world, or maybe try spying on the Professor or something." I was still deep in my thoughts when I had come back to the School. My friends were waiting for me outside of the auditorium. "Well, what did Ozpin want to talk to you about?"
"Nothing Virgo, he just wanted to wish me good luck for the year to come." I hated lying to my friends, but it would probably just hurt them in the end.
"Weeeeelll, okay, let's go inside, we might as well get comfortable here."
"I would like to announce our next Team for the upcoming year!" It had been 2 hours since we had gotten back from the Emerald Forest, and Professor Ozpin had started to create the teams. "The Next Team shall consist of Hunters-in-Training, Leonardo, Virgo, Aries, and Ryon!" We all walked up to the stage together as the giant screen scrambled the first letters in our names until it lined up to say LAVR. "This Team shall be named Team LAVR or Team Lavender. This Team shall be led by Leonardo." What! I didn't think that I would lead our team! How did I show leadership in the Test! I got maimed and I was useless for half the fight! I walked over to Professor Ozpin to shake his hand. "Congradulations on your leadership role, Leonardo. I pray that you will not let me down." I then walked off the stage with my friends just as the nesxt team was being called up.
"Let's announce the next Team for the upcoming year! The Next team shall consist of Maya, Gerret, Natalia, and Trey!" The four of our new friends walked up to the stage. and stood in front of the screen as it scrambled the first letter in their names until it showed MGNT. "This Team shall be called Team MGNT or Team Magenta. This team shall be led by Maya. Wow, she looked surprised. She went up to Ozpin to shake his hand Vigorously before stepping down.
"That is all the Teams for the upcoming year! You have all been chosen in these teams very specifically, you will be with these people until you graduate, so you should better get to know each other! As the night is growing thin, you shall all need to head to the dorms we have prepared for you. They are on the west side of the campus and all of your belongings have already been sent there. Please head over to the dorms now, and Classes Start Tomorrow, so if I were you, I would get as rested as possible!"
Okay, GuffeyManipulation here! I just wanted to say Happy Thanksgiving! I accidentally combined the next two chapters I had planned and made a really long chapter, so I probably will be a couple of days before I can type up another chapter. I hope you all have been enjoying the story so far, even though it is going excruciatingly slow! Reviews are appreciated and Constructive Criticism would really help me make the story better than what it is now. Just post a review or a comment or something and I'll try to make it better!