Vertiya's vision was blurry, and she wasn't aware of much other than the dull ache in her back. She knew her spine wasn't broken, but with that much impact on her back, she was dazed. Having landed face down, she could only just about turn her head to see Yimesz standing with fists raised, facing down a boy and a girl – the girl wielding what looked like a pair of nunchucks, the guy with a belt of grenades.
"So what, you're just gonna kill off everyone else so that you make it? Gee, and there I thought honour was still something people believed in," Yimesz said, fury in his voice. Yimesz wasn't like Vertiya in the sense that when she got angry, her voice got quiet. Yimesz made sure people knew he was angry.
"Well, we were going to get Ruzovi, seeing she's way too young to be here, but people already beat us to that, and after seeing that pirate guy completely knock them both out, we decided there's no way we're fighting that," the grenade guy said, his voice cocky and assured.
"So, we looked down, and BAM the teacher's pet happened to be there, and well we can't let someone get all the attention because they had a lucky break against a Nevermore, can we?" the girl added, swinging the nunchuck casually. "So we get rid of her, and the competition becomes both even, and fair again. Apologies you lost your partner, but you'll understand it's for the best."
"You think I care about the fact she's my partner? She's my SISTER!" Yimesz yells, and with ferocity launches a punch at the boy, sending him back so far and so fast he crashes straight through two different trees before stopping. Groaning, he chucks a grenade at Yimesz and Vertiya, which explodes to surround the twins in smoke. When Yimesz could see again, the guy and girl had vanished. Growling, Yimesz returned back to Vertiya, who was starting to get back to her feet again. "You alright?" Yimesz asked, concerned.
"I've definitely been better," Vertiya responded weakly, using a tree to push herself back up, before putting three pink cards on her back. "Who were they?"
"Just a couple of idiots who couldn't even fight after a jammy surprise attack," Yimesz explained, still obviously angry as he helped Vertiya up. "Do you think you're able to walk? I can give you a hand if not."
"I should be fine, I'm just not going to be running anywhere any time soon," Vertiya said, starting to carry on walking. Her steps were uncertain, but she was still able to move, however it was clear she was slow, thanks to the attack. "We need to move, though. We've been out here for a while, and I imagine that people will be making it to the centre of the forest soon."
"Yeah, you have a point," Yimesz said, swapping his kunckledusters into revolvers, holding them at his sides. "If you spot anyone you like, tell me quick, because I'm going to shoot on sight. I'm not having any cheesy strategies by tryhard initiates."
"I'll bear that in mind," Vertiya replied with a small smile, making sure she had a couple of red cards ready to go in case of another attack.
Vertiya and Yimesz didn't run into much following on from the surprise attack. They'd stumbled across a few Beowolves in the forest, but Vertiya could easily dispose of them even in her weakened state. By reading the pink card she was using as a compass, the twins knew they were only a mile or so away from the centre, and although their progress was noticeably slower, they were making reasonable time. Well, that was, until crashing through the forest came a boy, who was clearly fleeing something, crash straight into Yimesz and knock the pair of them over. Vertiya was about to grab a yellow card, but the girl who followed the boy caused her to stop. "Fen? Surprise to see you in here, I'd have thought you'd have finished by now," Vertiya said, smiling.
"I could say the same to you as well," Fen replied, a little breathless as she dusted herself off. "I see you managed to come across your brother then? Probably a good pairing to say the least."
"Yeah, at least this way I can make sure he actually gets through Atlas," Vertiya replied, looking at the tangle of boys now getting up. Yimesz was flaring up, revolvers back into knuckledusters, but after he saw Vertiya and Fen, although the boy looked about as furious as he felt, he realised there wasn't a threat and hence lowered his fists. "Who's your partner then?" Vertiya asked, looking at the boy.
"That, is Tristov," Fen explained, and at the sound of his name Tristov turned to see why he was mentioned, nodding towards Vertiya. "Got me out of quite a rough spot, to be fair."
"Is that why you were running?" Vertiya asked, and Fen's grim expression answered the question as easily as vocal confirmation would have. "What was it?"
"Well it was originally just a Nevermore, not a Giant one like you had, just a somewhat large one. I didn't expect the follow up," Fen explained, recounting the story.
Fen rolled to the side as the Nevermore dived at her, slashing her fans at the Nevermore's torso in the manoeuvre. She knew the Grimm was weakening, but she couldn't take it down just yet. One more attack and she'd have it. Sprinting after the Nevermore, she threw one of her fans just as it was starting to take off, catching it in the wing and disrupting its flight. Screeching, the Nevermore rose up in the air as Fen caught her fan, before diving again. Fen, grinning, leapt up into the air, spinning so she was facing the same way as the Nevermore diving underneath her, before shooting hooks from both fans at the Nevermore, and leaning back in the air. The pull of the hooks caused the Nevermore to fly upwards, looping around Fen in the air at the length of the hooks once, before Fen dropped to the ground, pulling the Nevermore crashing head first into the ground behind her. Grinning, Fen detached her hooks from the Grimm, starting to walk off until she heard more screeching behind her. Fen spun, confused. The Nevermore she just brought to the ground was dead, she was certain of it. However, that wasn't the reason why there was screeching. Fen looked up, and there was a swarm of Nevermore flying in the air towards her. Fen was comfortable taking on a large Nevermore by herself, or at least a clump of smaller Nevermores. However, she could see at least three Giants in the swarm, and that was something she was not going to deal with on her own. She started backing up, keeping an eye on their movements whilst trying to find a thicker tree patch rather than the open area she was currently in, but before she could make a move towards one, two of the Giant Nevermores flapped their wings, both sending barrages of feathers at Fen. She started backflipping away, trying to dodge the hail, but caught herself mid flip as a feather shot into the ground right where she would have landed. However, as a result, Fen ended up on her back on the ground as a feather flew straight for her head. Quickly rolling to the left to dodge it, Fen had little breathing time as another feather plummeted at where she'd end up, causing her to roll back to the right. Unfortunately, that left Fen boxed in as a third feather came flying down at her, and although she raised her fans to try and cut it up before it hit her, it never got that far. Someone had jumped in front of her, and attached to his arm was a device that shot out a rectangular holographic shield. The feathers shattered upon hitting it, but by the fact his arm was slowly sinking, the impact of each feather was affecting him.
"You know, you are allowed to move!" the boy yelled, which woke Fen up. Pushing herself back up to her feet, she started running for tree cover, the boy running with her and covering both of them with his shield.
"Thanks for the save, by the way," Fen said, as they got into the thicker forest and out of the immediate aim of the Nevermore swarm. "Fen, by the way," she added as an afterthought.
"Tristov, but if we stop here the Nevermores will just clear through the forest to find us. We need to keep moving," Tristov replied, no longer with a shield coming out of his arm. Fen picked up on the Russian sounding hint to his accent, but didn't make a comment on it. "Come on, let's go," Tristov said, at which point Fen picked up the pace, running alongside him.
"And that's how we ended up here," Fen explained. "What about you? Come across much yet?"
"A handful of Grimm here and there, as well as some of the initiates attacking us," Vertiya said, her tone dark when she mentioned the initiates, at which Fen raised an eyebrow. She obviously hadn't run into one.
"Yeah, I bumped into a pair like that as well, but stopped their attacks pretty easily," Tristov explained, but he hardly sounded bothered by it. "Fen, we need to make a move, we're already behind."
"Good point," Fen said to Tristov, before turning back to Vertiya. "I'll speak to you later when we're both through all of this. See you later," she said, before jogging over to Tristov, leaving the area with him.
"I suppose you having friends isn't always a bad thing," Yimesz said, grinning. "I mean, I know hopefully enough people to stop us getting attacked, but you knowing one person is an added bonus."
"One day I am going to make pink cards permanently stick, and I will put one over your mouth," Vertiya said, shaking her head as she limped forwards. "We need to get to the end as well. We're not exactly making brilliant time ourselves," she added.
It was only a few more minutes until Vertiya and Yimesz came across another clearing, but this clearing was a lot larger than the ones they had come across before, and this one also had a fountain in it. Vertiya quickly counted how many people there were stood there, and realised there were 38. "Perfect," she said to herself with a grin, as she and Yimesz started making their way to the fountain, which was still a good hundred metres away. That being said, about fifty metres to their right, another pair came crashing out of the clearing, and not only that, it was the pair that attacked them earlier. They made brief eye contact, realising the situation, and the other pair started sprinting, causing Vertiya and Yimesz to do so as well. However, Vertiya, weakened by that earlier attack, knew she couldn't outsprint the pair of them, so instead realised she'd have to do something else. Pulling out a blue card, she stopped, took careful aim, and threw. The card soared through the air, before catching the male in the right foot, causing him to fall to ground with his foot frozen to it. The girl got to the fountain just before Yimesz did, but upon realising she didn't have her partner, ran back to go get him. By the time the guy had managed to get his foot unfrozen, Vertiya had got to the fountain as well, and when the other pair got to the fountain, they were livid.
"But General Ironwood, she attacked us? Surely they should get disqualified or something for that," the girl argued with Ironwood, glaring at Vertiya.
"Well, I never said that attacking other initiates was against the rules," Ironwood pointed out, his arms folded and expression unwavering. "Besides, I had plenty of cameras dotted around the forest, and I saw that you actually attacked them from behind, which as far as I'm concerned, is a lot worse than them giving revenge. Your arguments, therefore, are invalid, and you have not passed to the next stage," he concluded.
Vertiya grinned to herself upon hearing these words. Her back was still in discomfort after all, so to know that she had just knocked out the people who had attacked her was a victory in her eyes. "Shame isn't it, I guess karma does come back around," she said to the duo, walking away from their shouted insults. She wasn't bothered about them. She still had two rounds left before she'd even get into Atlas Academy, and she needed to get those out of the way now.