They didn't have time to retrieve the body.
Snow had begun to fall, threatening to bury the fresh tracks. Ruby clipped her hood on to her coat, but it couldn't fully protect her from the sharp wind. The cold was biting, numbing their ears and flushing their cheeks, making Blake shiver even under her protective layers. Ice cracked under their feet as the temperature dropped, only serving to make their lives more difficult. As they walked, an eerie silence surrounded them.
"How's your aura?" Ruby asked, concerned.
"Fine, more or less. Seventy percent."
"Same. Going a bit better than I thought, to be honest."
Blake rolled her eyes. "I'm not sure that's as comforting as you mean it to be."
Silver eyes blinked up at her. "What? I wouldn't risk your safety if I didn't think we'd be fine."
"Hmm."
Ruby stopped her, grabbing onto the faunas' hand. "Blake, I mean it. I want you to be safe- and not just because we're dating. If this starts to go bad, I want you to run, okay? Even if I can't."
"Wha-? No!"
"Blake..."
"No. After saying we'll be fine, you think I'm going to just agree to you...sacrificing yourself?"
"But I would. For you, for our team- I can't lose more family."
Blake flicked the smaller girls forehead. "You know the rest of us can't either. Now, we are going to finish this hunt, go back to Beacon, and you are going to take me out on the date you promised me." She started to walk again, leaving Ruby to catch up.
"...I'm sorry. I just want to protect you."
"Did you ever think that, just maybe, I'd want to protect you?"
"Well, sure...but I'm your leader. It's my responsibility- "
"To die for us?"
Ruby flinched, but Blake was too irritated to care. "Do you really think I would let you do that? Or Weiss? Yang would already be dragging you back to Beacon if she knew you even considered that."
Ruby didn't reply.
"What's making you say this, anyways? You're usually the most confident, not the worried one."
"I guess...how everybody was acting about this mission might be getting to me. We've never really talked about it, and I want you to know that I will give the order if it means saving you."
"And that's the one order I wont follow."
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
It took another hour to reach the end of the tracks.
A cave, entrance half hidden in the deep snow, rested in the base of a small mountain. The snowfall was thick, and starting to dampen their clothes as they scouted the area. Ruby could feel her toes go numb, but it was far from her first concern.
"Plan?" Blake whispered.
"We draw it out. The snow it going to make it tough, but I don't want to be caught in a confined space without Yang. Once it's out here, I'll go for the achilles. Think you can take out the other eye when it goes down?"
She nodded.
"Great. I want you in one of the trees, whichever gives you the best angle. Leave a clone behind, it'll be the distraction while I get to a flank."
Blake moved towards a tall wood that stood a few feet away, a shadow taking her place next to Ruby. Seeing one of the clones so close up felt a bit bizarre, as it lacked any amount of movement or sense of life. It looked like Blake, of course, but in some ways it was more like a wax statue than the actual person.
The bow on top was still cute, though.
Ruby moved to the opposite side of the entrance, weight kept low as she crept through the fresh powder. From a belt pouch she pulled out a small red explosive. Mostly harmless, Yang had gotten them for pranks, but Ruby found they were much more useful for drawing attention. She tugged the cord out, tossing the device to the snow near the clone. The boom was far from significant, but it was loud enough to echo through the cavern. Sitting in dead silence, the air was tense as they waited for their target to come investigate the disturbance.
And when it emerged, it did so unaware of the predators that lurked.
It struck like a snake, launching out of the cave to crush the intruder in its jaws. Unfortunately for the Lauftef, the intruder faded, smoke flowing through sharp teeth. The crunch of boots on snow behind it, and a sharp pain that forced it to collapse.
Tendon cut, the grimm was reduced to one functioning leg.
Screeching howls struck their eardrums, the grimm glaring at the small huntress with its single eye as it screamed into the darkening sky. A creak in the tree above, and it desperately threw an arm out to protect its face. Gambol Shrould pierced through the outstretched hand, but didn't have the length to hit the blood red iris. Enraged, the Lauftef grabbed her by the throat with its unoccupied left, suspending her in the air. Its right arm moved and the embedded weapon followed suit, and teeth came down on the faunas' stomach.
Blake's aura held strong, but it was getting drained quickly.
She could feel it strain, and the pressure around her neck made dread pool in her gut. A shot rang out, the grimm jerked away and slammed her to the ground. Out of its grip, she rolled away and pushed up to her feet. Crescent Rose had put a hole in the Lauftef's gut, and black oozed out into the snow. The grimm got onto its hands, Gambol still buried in its palm. Low to ground, it let out a growl.
And pounced.
Ruby's speed should have gotten her out of the way in time, but the grimm was far faster than she could have anticipated. Claws slashed across her torso, spinning her around. A second strike tossed her a few feet away, and her aura cracked and failed. Blake's heart pounded- Ruby's aura should not have been that low.
Ruby stood and used her semblance to get some distance, firing shots when she could. It turned quickly, keeping on all fours to chase after her. Without a weapon, Blake wasn't about to throw herself into that fight, and had to hope that Ruby could stay ahead of it. Of course, Ruby outclassed the grimm in speed by a very significant amount- but the fact that it could move so well on two damaged limbs was worrying.
Then it turned to Blake, accepting the the smaller girl was too fast for it.
She managed to keep out if its reach, clones being crushed when it struck the ground where she had been. There were more holes littering its body, but it didn't seem to care, keeping on Blake's tail without a moment of hesitation. Then, as she stepped backwards, her boot slipped on the ice. It was on her in a second, arm thrown out to the side so it could attempt to gut her.
It never landed. Instead, she was thrown to the side and a scream rang out. Ruby had tackled her out of the way, the claws tearing across her back and through her red coat. The younger girls aura had already shattered, and her blood was now staining the snow beneath her.
"RuuUuuUuUuuuu..." Passed the girmms lips as it hunched over the huntress, teeth bared.
Quickly, Blake moved. She jumped onto its back, digging fingers into an ear and using it to hold on while she reached for Gambol Shroud. It howled again, head pulled back. Blake yanked her blade from the damaged hand, and stabbed it into the grimms neck repeatedly. The gooey blackness that runs through grimm veins was starting to cover her face, the violent stabbing making a mess of the Lauftef.
It writhed and struggled, trying to shake her off to no avail. In trying to stand it was now flailing around in a circle, pushing up and collapsing again and again. After a full forty seconds of struggle, it finally fell on last time, slumping into the snow as it slowly began to turn to dust. Blake stood on shaking legs, and rushed to Ruby's side.
Her girlfriend was in bad shape, the jagged claw marks were almost hard to see under the blood.
Damnit, Ruby. I just told you not to do this.
There was a technique, not taught until their second year due to possible side effects. Aura, even when broken, was never really gone- it was a part of their soul, after all. So, in emergencies, it is possible to force it into regeneration. Not dissimilar from a defibrillator, pushing some of your own aura into theirs could stabilize it long enough for it to start regenerating. Unfortunately, it wasn't always possible; aura was individual, and not everybody was compatible. Incompatibility would not only mean a wasted effort, but the rejection would leave Blake exhausted and possibly unconscious.
But with Ruby so injured, she wasn't going to be stopped so easily.
Rubbing her hands together, she channeled the warmth into them. After a moment, she placed a hand on either of Ruby's shoulders, and focused to feel the younger girls aura. It was damaged, heavily so, but Blake was right to think that it broke too easily. Instead of feeling lacking, it felt like it was simply wrong, like a heart off rhythm. Blake began to funnel her aura into Ruby, and it began to mend the damage. Ruby's aura would have to take it from there, but Blake's had been accepted without difficulty.
Soulmates, a romantic part of her cooed. The rest was just happy it worked, eyes starting to prickle with tears.
She was breathing heavily, fatigue setting in. Remembering the grimm, she took out her scroll to take a photo of the nearly dissipated remains. Turning back, her eyes scanned over the lines of Ruby's back that were now exposed by the tears in her coat. Much of the blood flow had stopped, and was slowly drying. The wounds were starting to close, but it was going to be a long process. Blake would have to carry her to the hospital once her aura was back in order, but she knew the jagged lines weren't going to fully heal.
Ruby would live, but she'd have scars worse than any of them.