Golden Thorns: Chapter Eighteen

The story travelled fast. Word got out in a school full of teens. Coran thought the story seemed vastly over exaggerated but everyone insisted that the strange girl had shot a plane out of the sky with a giant laser beam. Ludicrous, but apparently true. Every time something interesting happened at this school team RWBY seemed to be right in the middle of it. He had asked Weiss if she had talked to Blake but she had not had the time. His team knew about this. It had been the first thing that he had talked about when he got back that night. The next morning all that was talked about was the fight down by the docks and the one people were calling "the laser girl." It was all very immature.

During the day Coran was pleased to hear that they were going on a field trip to Foreverfall. He had enjoyed it last time when they had to collect some red tree sap. It had been peaceful and he had fancied that if he was to become a hermit then that would be where he built his hut. He was glad to be returning to that beautiful place. Marie had missed out last time due to illness so was very excited to be going. However the objective of the expedition was niggling at Coran. Professor Port had challenged each team to kill a creature of Grimm. It was to be a competition between the teams to see who could get the biggest kill. The psycho had even constructed a points table to establish a clear winner at the end of the day. The whole thing was a recipe for disaster desert in Coran's mind. Some idiot was bound to get too cocky and was going to get owned by a deathstalker, yet the trip was going ahead anyway. Then again, Ozpin's methods did tend towards the unorthodox. Maybe this was just a test. Yeah, it would be alright, his team would trap and kill something simple, take it back to Port and get a middling grade. Better that than overdoing it and getting mauled by an Ursa.

The night before the trip SOUL had a team meeting in their dorm. Marie and Jo had gone to find a catalogue of all the Grimm that could be found in Foreverfall, and Coran and Devlyn had been running through various scenarios on how to deal with each one. They had immediately ruled out Nevermore, Deathstalker and Taijitu, Ursa would be a challenge, they briefly considered a Beowolf but shot this down when Devlyn reminded them that they often travelled in large packs so it would be hard to pin one down without getting flanked. Eventually they decided on a Boarbatusk. Not too big, generally solitary and easy to get the jump on if they did it right. At this point they called it a night and went to sleep. They were going to need to be well rested for the day ahead.

The next morning they awoke early, packed their weapons and what they would need for the trap and ran it through one more time. They would find a clearing with some overhanging branches, bait the centre of it with red sap that they could collect once they got there, hide in the treetops and wait for a Boarbatusk to show up. Once it did they would drop a weighted net onto it, Coran and Marie, who had longer weapons, would use them to pin the net to the ground to stop the beast from running off and Devlyn would secure its tusks using a rope. At this point Jo would use the static function in her baton to stun the creature. Objective completed with bonus points for capturing it alive. Another demonstration piece for Port and another decent grade for team SOUL. They could then spend the rest of the weekend relaxing in the soft sun and enjoying the beauty of the forest. All they had to hope was that an Ursa didn't stumble across the bait first. "The perfect plan…" joked Jo, wearing an evil grin.

"Not quite as secure as I would want but it will do." Replied Coran

"We just need to be careful and everything will go according to the plan." Said Marie with a small smile. Dev didn't look so convinced.

"Remind me why I get the gougers?" he asked.

"Because if the 'gougers' get you first it will take less time for you to get back on your feet." Coran explained laughing at Dev's horrified expression. "Just a joke dude."

"Not very funny. I might heal quick but it still hurts."

"Look, this might seem hard to believe but your heritage gives you the quickest reflexes of all of us. That means that you're the least likely to get got by the 'gougers'. That put your mind at rest?"

"Not really." He replied. But that was the plan and Coran was sure it would work.