-Chapter 12-

Building Confidence Part 2

Queen Arachinore hissed loudly, calling forth her minions; the smaller Arachinore. They attacked first by shooting webs at us, but we dodged gracefully, but Alice got caught by her feet.

"Ah!" She screamed. "Help!"

"Alice!" I yelled as I ran to catch her. I caught her arm as I pulled her, but the Arachinore pulled by with the helps of two other Arachinore.

Kuro jumped into the scene, cutting the web with his claw that was burning in fire. He freed Alice, which caused her to slam over me, making me lay on the ground as she was over me.

"Are you OK, Alice?" I asked.

She looked at me, and surprised to see how she was position. She got up quickly, and flashed in red. "Sss—Sorry about that."

"This is no time for idle chat!" Kuro yelled strictly. "We have some Grimm to fight!"

"Cover me, Alice!" I commanded as she nodded hastily in response.

I joined in the fight as everyone else did. Nora, with the support of her partner Laura, safeguarded still injured Ren. Jaune and Pyrrha fought side by the side, along with Roy who is using his weapon; duo-sword, with neon color for the edge of each blade that can also be combined and turned into a rifle or single, long sword. My teammates fought their Grimm with their respective partner.

Kuro just remembered the other web pods that they did not cut open. He checked on them, and opened one of them to see who was inside.

"Finally, you dweebs noticed me and rest of us!" The web pod revealed to be Cardin, but Kuro only opened the part where his face is revealed.

"Oh, it's you." Kuro said, sounded not too energetic.

"Come on, man! Let me out of this stinky, stupid webs! Rest of my teammates, and their partner as well as mine, too, you Pussy Cat!" Cardin ordered.

"Umm, hold on that thought for a moment." Kuro replied with a smirk as he closed the web pod.

"Hey!" Cardin yelled, but Kuro didn't pay attention to him as he resumed the fight.

"Woah! There's so many of these guys!" Rudy commented.

Ruby agreed with him. "Yang! Blake! Bumblebee!"

"Bumble what?" Rudy asked with some interests in his eyes.

Blake and Yang nodded as they performed their team attack. Everyone watched, but I focused on my own fight while my two partners performed the attack. Blake used her Gambol Shroud in its grappling form while Yang carried on at the end as her partner swing her around. My GF used her Ember Ceilia to gain momentum and speed as she punched the surrounding spider Grimm.

Queen Arachinore hissed at this as it joined into the battle officially. We all looked and faced against the mother of all spider Grimm.

"Be careful, guys! This one is a tough one!" I warned everyone.

"Meh! We can handle it!" Yang said as he, out of her mind, charged in.

"No! Don't do it!" Luke yelled, but it was too late. Queen Arachinore aimed its pointy leg at her, but she quickly slid underneath the belly of the boss Grimm. It hissed painfully, but it didn't do whole lot damage she expected it would. Everyone else joined in, except for Nora who was protecting Ren. She looked depress although.

"You go, Nora. I will handle myself." Ren said.

"But, Ren, I can't just leave you!" Nora argued.

"Just go, I will be just fine." He said. Just right after that, Nora went into the fight with big smile on her face. Ren just sighed, but grinned gladly.

Everyone strike on Queen Arachinore, but no matter what they did, it had no effect on it.

"Crap! This bitchy itchy spider is tough to kill!" Kuro exclaimed.

"What, what are we going to do then!? How will we defeat it!?" Alice panicked.

"There is got to be some kind of weakness it has, but what?" Giovanny thought aloud.

Queen Arachinore hissed more loudly, summoning more of her minion.

"If we don't find out, we will just run of energy to fight on!" Aron warned.

"Agree, Chap, but there is got to be something to end this in one swoop!" Giovanny said.

Suddenly, something very unexpected and surprising happened. One side of the wall exploded as we and the Grimm turned to see what just happened. Then, we heard guitar playing in a rock 'an roll style. Out of the smoke, we saw familiar figures.

"The SSSN has arrived along with MSNC!" Sun yelled out loud. He was accompanied with his entire team along with their respective partners and members of Team MSNC.

We looked dumb-folded and surprised. Even the arachnid creatures of Grimm, including the Queen looked shock with the WTF expression.

"My buds, let's do this! Rest of you guys plays the music!" Sun declared.

"Yeaaaah, boyz!" The leader of MSNC said. The drummer hit his drum sticks together before playing the drum. The female started the electric piano as the leader and his partner began playing the guitar and bass respectfully as they began the song for the epic battle that was about to begin.

Play any song you want for the upcoming battle scene. I recommend "This Will Be the Day" by Jeff and Casey Williams.

We focused back into the fight as Team SSSN joined on our side. Sun began wiping the Grimm on the floor with his weapon in its staff form. Neptune shot each Grimm with perfect accuracy. Sage and Scarlet did their only thing.

Weiss used her glyph to create icicle spear to stave the Grimm while Giovanny wielded his sword and fought with it. Neptune joined on her side.

"How are you, my snow angel?" Neptune asked.

"You were kind of late!" Weiss argued. "But…your entrance was very cool!"

"Thanks!" He replied with a smile as they were about to kiss until….

"Hey, you two lovebirds! Focus on the fight! You don't see Ellix and Yang doing it right now!" Kuro yelled at them.

"What!?" Yang and I yelled, stopping our fight with our respective Grimm for few seconds before we resumed. Even the singing stopped for a moment when we yelled at the moment.

"For once, I agree with him on that!" Blake stated.

Weiss and Neptune focused back in the fight as she fought her Grimm with her weapon while Neptune covered her blind spot as they exchanged their support. The music resumed in playing after that interruption.

I transformed my right gauntlet into its machine gun, shooting at the horde of Grimm around me as Alice ducked safely. She noticed an upcoming trouble. She saw one Arachinore crawling down on its web over Yang as it was going to bite her head off.

"Ah! Oh no!" Alice screamed. "Yang, watch your head!"

Alice shot a pink orb from her palm as it beamed at Yang. It hit her, absorbing her into a pink bubble.

"What the!? Where this bubble came from!?" Yang gasped. Fortunately, the bubble protected her from the attack above her. She noticed the culprit, so she shot it down as her punch popped the bubble.

"Phew! That was close!" Alice said, but suddenly she fainted.

"Alice!" I yelled. I knelt down to her side. "Alice, are you OK?"

Yang noticed the situation, quickly approached to our side. "What's wrong with her, Ellix?"

"She used up her Aura to protect you, Yang!" I answered. "We need to end this quickly as she can get proper treatment!"

"Oh snap! Well, don't worry! I will take care of her! You handle the rest!" She said.

"But…" I argued.

"Don't worry, Ellix! She will be safe with me, trust me." She said with a warm smile.

I nodded. "OK. I trust you, Yang."

I gave her quick kiss on the cheek as I ran off to finish off the leader.

Queen Arachinore turned its attention on me. I summoned my sword for both gauntlets. It hissed at me loudly.

"It is time to end this!" I said with a serious tone. I charged up my aura, causing the Queen to walk back as it felt an unknown fear from me. Everyone else sensed it, too, eyeing on me. My body covered in black aura, transforming into what they thought wasn't possible.

"E—Ellix!?" Ruby shouted.

My entire body was now covered in black armor. "You, Queen Arachinore, you shall fall to my now controlled dark power of…the Black Knight!"

Queen Arachinore hissed at its loudest. Team MSNC saw this as an opportunity; they change the beat and rhythm, playing harder metal-rock like song.

The ruler of Arachinore strike with its fang, but I easily blocked it and countered it with a swing of my sword. It resulted one of its fangs to loosen out from its mouth like a baby tooth. It hissed painfully. I ran up and jumped as I sliced twice on its eyes, damaging some of them. I was now behind it as it turned around, and did its leg attack, but it missed. I teleported and reappeared underneath its belly. I charged up my right hand as fire burned my fist.

"Take this!" I yelled as I punched hard. The Queen spider Grimm screeched in burning pain as it flew off to the ceiling before it hit on the ceiling as the stalactite staved right through its head. I walked away few inches away before the Queen Arachinore fell down to the ground, imagining the occurring scene to be similar to the scene from a certain superhero who wears an armor from a movie I watched.

My armor disappeared as the battle finally ended.

"Alright!" Everyone cheered. I dropped to my knees as they noticed and ran over to me, looking worried.

"Ellix, are you OK?" Yang asked as she was carrying Alice on her back.

"Yeah, Yang. I guess I used too much of my Aura, too." I admitted before I chuckled a little.

"That…was…just amazing!" Ruby said excitedly. "You actually controlled Black Knight's power, even becoming him!"

"You really have improved, Ellix. You met over my expectations!" Pyrrha said.

"Heh he, thank you." I replied as I got up, feeling little bit better.

"Well, enough praising how much Ellix improve and all, and let's just snatch the artifacts before something else happens!" Kuro said rudely, but although with a good point.

However, the floor began to shake as rocks falling down from the ceiling.

"Oh no! The cave is ceiling in! We got to get out of here!" Pyrrha stated.

"But, what about the artifacts!?" Jaune asked.

"No time for that!" I said. "We got to get out NOW!"

Unfortunately, the cave that we entered through closed in.

"Dudes and dude-ad, this way!" The leader of Team MSNC yelled, reminding us the entrance that Team SSSN and they made earlier. Kuro, Pyrrha, Luke, and Sage carried the web pods as we went into the man-made entrance that the two teams made, running as fast as possible as the ceiling collapsed, trying to catch us in its debris.

We saw the light up ahead, and we got out safely before the cave finally closed in. We panted heavily as some of us looked back to the closed cave entrance.

"Is everyone OK?" I asked.

Everyone nodded as I checked all the people. Everyone was assembled thankfully.

"Glad we got out of there! I thought we were goner for a second!" Jaune relieved as he just laid on his back, stretching his arm out.

"I agree, but at least we are alright." Pyrrha said. "I am glad that you are safe now, Jaune."

"Yeah, me too, Pyrrha and so to you, too." Jaune said, giving a small, yet tired looking smile.

She grinned back with a reassured expression. Kuro looked at the two with a smirk. Pyrrha then got up and turned to Kuro, which he quickly changed his expression to his usual serious, unfriendly look.

"Kuro." She spoke.

"What is it, Sparta Girl?" Kuro replied with a dislike voice.

"Thank you for…saving us back there, and I'm sorry for hitting you to faint. I only did it to save one of us, and I chose you, so there will be a chance for you to get help." Pyrrha admitted.

Kuro looked seldom and just sighed. "Whatever. At least you got to see your leader safe and sound and we are alive, then, it is fine with me, even though I think you are such a bi…pushy girl for hitting me."

Pyrrha smiled. "Thank you, Kuro. You are a good partner to me."

"Hmph!" He huffed, but felt happy about it.

"That was quite a…fight we had in the cave." Giovanny spoke.

"I agree with you, friend." Aron said calmly. "It was very tough, but we managed to pull through."

"I agree on that also, Aron." Luke nodded as he agreed to Aron's thought.

"We were very lucky, I got to say!" Rudy grinned widely. "That was hell of a fight! But, we are safe and sound, right? And…"

Rudy turned to see me as I converse with my teammates while we tended Alice. "We now know that he can really control it."

"Is Alice alright?" I asked worryingly.

Blake was checking her purse. "Don't worry, Ellix. She is going to be fine. Her purse is normal, just sleeping now."

I was relieved to hear that. "Thank you, Blake."

"That's good to hear!" Ruby said happily.

"Hmph!" Kuro went up to join us. "Look at her! Pathetically sleeping on a failed mission while we did most of the fighting. What a poor sab, Pinkie she is!"

Suddenly, his last word caused her eye to open and she got up, surprisingly all of us. "For the last time, it is NOT PINKIE!"

"Alice! You are back to normal!" Ruby yelled in joy as she gave her a big, great hug.

"Oh, um, yes, I am back!" She said in her usual timid voice.

"Well, she is quick in changing the mood." Weiss said underneath her mouth.

"At least that is a good thing." Blake whispered.

"Yo, Alice! Glad you are back in health." Yang smiled cheekily to her. "And, thank for saving my head then!"

My teammates looked dumb-folded and disbelieved to hear another terrible pun from her, but I didn't mind at all.

"Huh? Oh!" Alice remembered. "Um, your welcome?"

Yang gave her a hug, which surprised her. "I am glad that you are OK, Alice."

"Ummm…it's…my pleasure." She said, feeling happy after the hug, but still felt little bit confused.

I smiled. "I want to say thank you, too, Alice. If it wasn't your fast thinking, Yang would not…have her hair by now."

"Heck yeah I would have not! I would be really pissed if that happened!" Yang exclaimed. My teammates and I laughed about that as Alice looked little bit perplex, but then laughed with us.

Suddenly, one of the web pods ripped apart by him. "Gaaaarrrh! I finally got that out!"

"Oh, look who is here to ruin the moment." Kuro joked.

"Damn you guys! Why didn't you release us early!? Especially you Pussy Cat!" Cardin scowled.

"Hey! At least you and your teammates, and partners are alright, right? Put a sock in it!" Kuro growled.

"Why you!" Cardin was about to launch an attack, but I stepped forward, stopping him just in time.

"Calm down, Cardin. Forget about Kuro, and just let go." I said.

"Hmph! Fine." He shrugged as he crossed his arms. "But, since you guys did most of the work, did you guys got the artifacts?"

As my friends helped with the rest of Team CRDL and ROUH out of the web pods, we all thought about that.

"Well…we didn't get it while we were fighting, unfortunately. The cave got collapsed." Jaune admitted.

"What!? Man, you guys are pathetic!" Cardin sneered.

"Hey! Appreciate that we are still here, OK! Or you wouldn't be rude to us right now!" Weiss pointed out, frowning at him.

"Snow Angel is right, bud!" Neptune agreed.

"There is still a chance." I spoke, catching everyone's attention. "Stay here until I come back, guys."

I focused myself before I teleported away.

"Woah! Where did he go!?" Cardin gasped.

About an hour later, I appeared again, surprising everyone.

"And where did you go?" Weiss interrogated me.

"The answer is these." I showed them the things I had in my arms. They were the artifacts, the main objective of our mission.

"Woah! You got all of the artifacts out of that cave!" Nora stated.

"Sweet! Way to go, Ellix!" Ruby cheered.

"He's my man!" Yang said, playfully punching me to my shoulder.

"Did you actually went back in the cave and dug all these up for us?" Jaune asked.

"A mission is a mission, Jaune. I cannot let all of us fail, even after all the stuffs we went through today. Did anyone call using the recon?" I asked.

Just at the right time, like on cue, the pilot arrived with big airship, big enough for all of us to give a ride.

"Over here!" Pyrrha waved at the pilot.

The pilot gave a thump up at us as he landed safely onto the ground. He opened the hatch door, allowing us to get on. We all got on, and then he started the engine, lifting the airship off from the ground. Each freshman carried the artifact. Everyone was happy and felt proud, thanking me, but I noticed Alice was thinking to herself quietly as she looked at the artifact she had.

We arrived to Beacon Academy in less than an hour as the color of the sky was red-orange, indicating that it was the afternoon, approaching. We saw Professor Goodwitch and Professor Mantle, standing by and waiting for us.

We walked up to them. "Students, I am glad that you all arrived safe and sound." Professor Goodwitch said, looking quite proud of us. "May I see the artifact that each of you retrieve."

The freshmen gave her the artifact as she and Prof. Mantle checked each piece to make sure they are real, even though I won't think of a way to cheat through this mission we had.

"Hmph, congratulations. It looks like you young soldiers have passed." Prof. Mantle spoke, making the freshman grin to their delight. Alice was still thinking to herself quietly.

"You freshmen did a great job, and I hope that each of you learn a thing or two from your respective superior during this mission. You may all rest for tonight, and all of you pass." Professor Goodwitch said, causing the freshmen and some of us cheered, especially Ruby, Yang, and Nora.

Giovanny bowed to Weiss as she did back to him. Aron and Blake nodded before he went on a separate way. Luke just crossed his arm and sighed as he followed Aron, his team partner.

Rudy went to talk with Ruby. "Hey, Ruby."

"Um, yes?" She asked, looking a bit nervous, but little more opened to him compare to last time.

"Good job out there! Sorry that we kind of got in that sticky situation." Rudy said with a cheeky grin as he rubbed back of his head.

"Yeah, I know." She giggled.

"Well, I will see you around, OK." Rudy said as he waved at her before he left with his teammates.

"Yeah! I will see you around, too." Ruby waved back. Yang smiled cheekily at her, which she noticed and felt little bit creeped out. "What?"

"So…how was your time with him, eh?" She nudged to her side.

"Y…Yang! Like I said before, nothing is weird going on between him and me! We were just partner for this mission!" She whined.

"Well, for now, that is, but he is considered to be your 'student' or apprentice in some way, at least in this program we are put into." Blake stated.

"Which means that you will get to see him as much as you like! Lucky gal you are, Ruby!" Yang said excitedy. "Rudy is perfect for you; handsome, funny with puns, and just overall nice guy. You are growing from a little girl stage to a woman stage!"

"Yang!" She yelled as she chased after her as Yang playfully ran away from her.

Weiss just facepalmed to herself. "I want to get back to our dorm room ASAP."

"Yeah, and dinner, too." I said, chuckling a bit.

After that, we went to the diner hall and ate dinner. Yang ordered a lot of food, and just ate them, but she did share some with me as she fed me like a baby, even though I can clearly eat for myself. However, I didn't mind.

We then headed to our dorm room. I went to my personal bathroom to wash up for the night before I head to bed. Meanwhile, the girls rested on their bed.

"So happy to be back in my bed!" Ruby said as she laid comfortable on her bed.

"I agree." Weiss nodded.

"Me too." Blake said.

"Same." Yang said as she ate the hidden beef jerky she had under her bed. Then, they heard knocking on the door.

"Hmm, who could that be at this late?" Weiss asked. "Hey, someone get the door."

"Why don't you get the door, Weiss?" Ruby asked.

"I am a heiress and I need my beauty sleep. You do it!" She ordered.

"Fine." She said, slightly annoyed. Ruby jumped off from her bed, walked to the door, and opened it. It revealed to be Alice.

"Oh, hello. Sorry to interrupt you and your team, Ruby." Alice said timidly.

"Oh! Hi, Alice. Why are you here?" Ruby greeted. "Come in! Come in!"

Alice came into the room as the other three girls watched her, little bit surprised to see her, but very curious to why she is here.

"Why are you here, anyway?" Weiss questioned.

"Well…you see…." She said shly. "I…."

"Yes?" Weiss said.

"…want…"

"Yeah?" Ruby said.

"…to ask…" She continued.

"Yes?" Blake said.

"Ummmm…"

"Just spill the bean already!" Yang exclaimed.

"Um, I want to ask if Yang can help me to train!" Alice shouted.

Silence occurred in the room for some seconds, allowing Alice to flush in red.

"I…I am sorry to shout out like that!" She quickly apologized.

Ruby and Yang just laughed while Blake giggled a bit and Weiss just shrugged.

"Is that the reason why you came here?" Weiss asked.

"Um, yes. That is right." Alice admitted shyly.

Yang got up from her bed. "Alice, I like ya, and I will gladly train you."

Alice's eyes sparked a bit. "Really? You would?"

"Of course! We are friend, and I noticed that your gauntlet looks awesome! Little on the girly side, but cute in its own way!"

Alice gave a warm smile, something my teammates saw the last time since when she met me. "Thank you, Yang. Thank you very much!"

She weep in joy as tears filled from her eyes. Ruby comforted her from the side. "Hey, don't cry, Alice."

"Sorry. I am just crying in joy." She said, sniffed. "Also, don't tell Kuro or everyone else about this. I…I want to get stronger and prove to everyone that I am more useful."

Yang smiled. "Alice, you are useful, just like how you saved me back then. Don't think too negative on yourself. That's your first lesson from old master Yang!"

"Oh, ok." Alice said. "Yes maim!"

I was peeping through my door, listening to everything they said. I slowly and quietly closed the door and just slouched on the side with my arms crossed, with a reassured grin on my face.

Author's Note: Woohoo! This little arc, "Ender Woodlands" I will just call it is over, and I really enjoyed it. I know most of the chapters for this small story arc were short, but hey, I think I did good job. Remember, folks, I have a poll open to allow you guys to vote for what you want to see for the future chapter; would you want Chapter 16 to be a last filler chapter or go with the plot chapter. Please put in your vote by early as Monday.

Next times in Tales of Ellix Knight 2, I will introduce my own iteration of the opening theme scenes based on the original, first RWBY opening and Ellix's theme song. See you guys this weekend!