"Uhhh, hello? Can you help me out?" My… future partner calls from his hanging position on the tree.

It's been close to half-a-minute now since that revelation hit me and I've just been standing here. I guess I should have figured that the chance of me getting partnered up with someone other than my friends was there… but the chance of it ACTUALLY happening wasn't apparent to me. "Ehhhhh." I groan as I realize that chances are, the instructors are in fact watching us, so I can't get out of this.

"Hey! Can you help—"

*Ch-Chink*

In one move, Revolt in my right hand slips into my hand and like when I was falling, the blades pop out and start spinning. With a curl back of my arm, I throw it upwards.

"Whoa!" James yelps as my blade comes dangerously close to tearing through him, but it doesn't and instead does that to the branch he's hanging out. "Aaahhhhh! Pah!" He begins falling before grunting as he lands on his face. Neither of us say anything as I simply stare with a neutral look at the body that dropped right in front of me, and he lets out a low groan barely audible. Slowly, his body collapses onto his back with his legs propped up against the tree. We stare at each other, upside down from each other's perspective. "Thanks."

"…" I don't really reply say anything to him. A fluttering in the air can be heard and he gets a momentary look of scared shock on his face…

…At least until I catch Revolt coming back to us. Extending my arm upwards, I grab the middle handle before it can kill either of us. His face now has a look of just shock on it. I holster my weapon and start walking away from him. "He-Hey! Wait up!" I don't bother to turn around as he scrambles to his feet and proceeds to chase after me. It doesn't take long for him to catch up to me. "Wow dude! That was pretty cool! Those are some nice blade you got there. When we finish this test you think I can—" I interrupt him for a second with a raised hand. We both stop walking from my action, and I slowly walk forward with my palm still pointed at him. Only a couple feet forward is when I stop and turn around, staring straight at my partner.

With slow movement, I bring my hand down and take a deep breath. "Listen, I'm not good with people. I'm really not." I tell him firmly. "I've been on my own till now and I'm gonna be straight up… I really don't like this. I really don't like the idea of being on a team and the very least, I was hoping to be paired up with someone else." I say and turn my head away from him. Out of the corner of my eye, I see his form visibly deflate at my declaration. Seeing him not getting back up, I sigh and cross my arms as I look at him. "But," He perks up, "I don't really have a choice right now since the headmaster specifically told us, 'the first person you make eye contact with after landing will be your partner for the next four years' and that's what happened." I tell and I let my arms fall to my sides. "So let's promise each other something, alright? You don't annoy me with your constant talking and badgering, and I'll… make an effort to be friends. Okay?" I offer to him with a sigh.

With an elated smile, he nods. "You got it man! I promise you won't regret it!"

"See to it that I don't." I warn him. I may be going a little hard on the guy, but I've dealt with plenty of annoying people in the past and if I am going to be partnered with him for the rest of my time at Beacon Academy, I'm gonna need to suck it up and make this work. Glancing to the side, I smirk back at him. "Now… take out your weapons." He looks at me confused. "Go on." He pulls out both his knuckle knives. "Good, now…" I slide Razors Revolts into my hands. "Show me what you got."

"Wha-What?!"

"NOW!"

*ROOOAAAR!*

A large Beowolf jumps out from a thicket of trees and bushes to my right with its claws poised to take my head off. I slide under it and with a flick up a switch, my blades serrate and start spinning. I bring one of them up and jam it into its stomach before forcing it into the ground. Before it can get up, I bring my other down and running along its body, killing it. I return my blade back to their normal state just as more of them start coming out from around us. I quickly look around and spot almost a dozen of them have surrounded us and eager to destroy us. Crouching low to the ground, I glance at James to see him in his own boxer ready position, his left blade in the reverse grip and the right is normal. "You got this?"

"Feh!" He scoffs and as a Grimm comes at him, he ducks the things swipe before getting right up into its face and delivering a series of punches and jabs to its face, disorienting it. He follows up with his right blade stabbing up into its outstretched left arm. He then pulls his left up and slices it across its chest, over his shoulder and brings the blade down into its face, right where its eye is. The Beowolf goes limp instantly and rapidly starts to disappear when he rips his weapons out and lets the body fall. He bounces on the balls of his feet with a grin on his face before glancing to me, "Oh, I do. Can you?"

'He. Well you can't fault him for his confidence.' "Well, alright then." I mutter and turn my attention back to my own group of enemies. "Let's do this!" I yell my challenge to them.

With a collective roar, they charge me, as do James's for him.

I dash forward and jump kick one in the face, propelling him back while two more try to attack my from my sides. Bringing both my arms up, I block their attacks before pushing back and spinning around, slicing them to death. Another comes at me with both arms outstretched to its sides and tries to slash me with both it's claws in opposite directions but I bash both its arms away, leaving it wide open. Moving forward, I slice its stomach a couple times, then the chest, and finally follow up with a round house kick, sending it back. I somersault back to put a little distance away from the others and as soon as I land on my feet do I throw both of Razor and Revolt at two of them coming straight at me. Both of them each hit one each and rip into their chests before launching skywards. I dash forward and launch a palm strike to the one on the left, sending it flying back onto the ground and bringing my leg around for a kick to the right, sending him to fall onto the ground next to his friend. I raise my arms into the air and catch my weapons before spinning around with both weapons outstretched, lopping off their heads as they try to sit up.

James continues to fight back against his opponents in roughly the same spot he's been in. He continues to pummel, slash and stab each Grimm that tries to come at him. He holds them back pretty well but it I spot a train of them trying to come at him from the side as a means in order to overwhelm him.

I don't allow that however as at the right moment I extend Revolt in it's completely open set and throw it towards them. Revolt spins at breakneck speed, cutting through small branches of trees before it kills a row of Grimm that were planning to ambush James. There is a small lull in the fight and it allows us to catch our breaths. The both of us breathe hard and examine all around to make sure that we are clear of all our enemy hostilities.

"Is that all of them?" James asks, his weapons still up and ready to attack in case he's wrong. I don't reply, focusing more on the examining of the area and my quickly returning weapon.

Extending my arm up, I catch Revolt and compact both blades onto my arms. "Yeah, it looks like it." I say with a quick look around the area. "C'mon. Let's get out of here before more of them show up." He nods at my suggestion and we start jogging through the woods as fast as we can. All the while we keep our ears open and do what we can to listen around us for anymore ambushes we may encounter. Several minutes pass as we continue moving non-stop until a bit of fatigue starts to set in. I come to a stop in a small clearing and take another look around until I am satisfied we are alone. "Alright, this seems like a good spot to rest." I expect a response but looking back I find I am alone. "James?"

"Uhhh." The guy walks out from behind some bushes, breathing heavily. "Oh man. Ah crap… so tired. Just… guuu… give me a sec." He breaths heavily as he leans against a tree before sitting down against the tree.

"This place is a good spot to rest anyway. We're pretty far from where we were attacked and our ragged movement will hopefully confuse any scavengers from the site."

"Geez man… how are you still standing? I'm pretty winded from all that running." He tiredly says.

"I move around a lot. I'm a little tired but I'm still well enough for now." I explain to him. With all the on the move stuff I did before I made it to Beacon, the long running we did wasn't as tiring to me than it was for James. 'He should really exercise more if he wants to attend classes here.'

"Well, lucky you." He jokes and takes a moment to breathe a bit more. I concentrate and continue to look around to make absolutely sure that we aren't going to be ambushed by any sort of Grimm creature. Ignoring the labored steady breathing of James, the only thing I hear is the steady bristles of the wind on the trees, the very distant and barely audible signs of the other students fighting, and the chattering of woodland creatures, not Grimm.

"Alright, I don't hear any Grimm nearby so I don't think we have to worry about getting ambushed again." I inform him.

"That's good." He mutters. Since we're taking the break we need, I decide to do a quick check up of my weapons to make sure their alright after the fighting. I did after all make them go through Grimm bone and many branches of trees in under half an hour. Opening Razor up completely, I keep Revolt still together in case we somehow do get rushed and I have at least one weapon ready to fight. I grab a rag from my pocket and proceed to polish off the tree sap and debris caught on the blades. Thankfully none of it got within the joints and movement parts so I don't have to worry about the spin functions messing up anytime soon. Once Razor is finished, I put it back together and move onto Revolt. It's the same situation so I don't have to worry about any problems either. "Hey, where do we need to go?" I look up from my work and look at James.

"The temple ruins to the north. Where else." I answer like it's the most obvious answer in the world.

"Yeah I know but… where is the temple?" At his question, I finish assembling my weapons and look around. "For that matter, where is north?"

Looking towards the sky, I try to get a reading of the sun in hopes of figuring out where North is from the placement of the sun, but its position very high in the sky negates me from doing that. "Damn. We moved so fast and so far to get away from the Grimm we lost track of where we needed to go." I complain. Another problem is the trees are pretty thick so we can't look any where off the bat to find where we need to go.

"So what do we do?" He asks.

Standing in the middle of the clearing I look again for any hope of finding any indication but there's nothing, much to my chagrin. With a sigh, I concentrate. "Hold on. Let me try something."

"What?" James asks confused but Ignore him and do what I need to do.

Crouching on one knee, I clench my hand in front of me and concentrate my power again. Similar to what happened before when Jaune, Ruby and I got lost on the first day, I let out my concentrated power and stand. Staring towards the sky, I look at sun before a bird moves into my review as it becomes silhouetted by the sun. I watch it for a few seconds as it goes through the air and keep track of its direction. "I know where to go. Let's move." I tell James without looking back at him.

"How do you… Mm, know?" He asks as he gets to his feet and walks up to me.

"… Call it instinct." I give the excuse and walk off towards the direction we need to go with James trailing behind me.


Time passes as we move through the forest around us, opting to keep silent so we don't attract anymore unwanted attention like the first time we met. James was talking for a bit at first but after giving the somewhat subtle hint of Grimm possibly hearing us, he promptly shut up, especially since he didn't want to take the risk of us getting lost again.

All the while, we have to contend with the sounds of continued fighting throughout the forest. Some seem simple and small but soon after I'm starting to hear the telltale sounds of intense combat coming in from the direction we are heading. What's even worse is that I saw the shape of a Nevermore heading straight for the same direction too. Strange thing is I could have sworn I saw a red and white shape under the Nevermore but couldn't properly make it out from this distance.

"I'm really not liking all that noise up ahead." I hear James mutter behind me. He most likely means about the sounds coming from the direction of the ruins we are supposed to be heading to. I don't reply however as I try to make out just what type of Grimm's might be there. The Nevermore is obvious and maybe some Ursa's but those went away really quick. Being alone for so long and on the move in the wilderness I've take to trying to identify as many specific Grimm noises as I can in hopes to avoid them. Now though I can mentally prepare just how the fight is that we might get into. "I hope my friends are okay. What about yours?" James asks.

"I'm not really worried about them. They seem pretty capable to handle whatever is thrown at them." I reply. 'Ruby and Yang sure, but Jaune may be another case. If he can find a good partner then maybe he won't be completely dead in this place.' I think.

"I hope so. My friends are good and awesome but I still worry about them." He comments. I guess I can somewhat relate too. I've only known my new friends pretty recently and while they seem like capable fighters, I still feel pang of worry. I shake my head though of the possibility of them being hurt as I jump over a fallen tree trunk, then another and another until I find that we are in the destructive path of something big. "Whoa. What did this?" James asks as he stares at the destruction.

Taking a step forward, I look at the prints that were made in the ground. There's only one set of footprints going along the path and a lot of small holes off to the side. From the chopped trees as another indication, I grimace. "This… isn't good." I moan as I equip my weapons.

"What is it?" James asks worried as he pulls out his knives after seeing me arm up.

"This path was made by a Deathstalker chasing someone straight for the ruins." I explain as we follow the trail.

"Do you know who?"

"No idea. But we better get moving. The fight sounds like it's getting bad." I say and we go into a jog. True to my words, the fighting ahead of us starts to get a bit more heated and fierce.

"I hope Alex and Jason are there… or not. I don't know what to hope for." He says as he matches my speed.

I nod along with him as with how bad things sound, I don't know if whether I should hope that my friends aren't there in the middle of the danger, or they will be and I can help. "Let's see what's going on then." I say sternly and start to run forward with my arms stretched out. James matches my speed in hopes that we can help whoever's in trouble.

It doesn't take us long to get to where we need to go. Thankfully the Deathstalkers trail through the trees allows us to go directly to where the ruins are since we don't have to worry about any blocking foliage besides a few fallen trees. As we make it into the clearing, we come upon a sight that makes us pause. I was right before on the Grimm that were here. The Deathstalkers tail is stuck in a large plume of ice and there is a Nevermore circling up above. "This doesn't look good." I mutter.

"Over there!" James points away from the Deathstalker several dozen feet away from us. I make out a pedestal that contains the relics and several different colored human shapes as well. Looking a little closer, I smile as I see Yang, Ruby and Jaune there along with a bunch of other people.

"Good. Doesn't look like things are that bad here." I comment.

*Crack*

My hope diminishes a bit however as the ice holding its tail breaks and it takes off after the group of students with the Nevermore preparing to dive-bomb them. "Aaaaaand now they're bad."

"Shut up." I tell James before moving forward. "Let's follow. Hopefully we can find a opening to help them." I propose.

"Right behind you!" He replies with a smile and continues with me.

Unfortunately we don't get very far before something derails us.

"HEEEEEEELLP!" The sudden shout and cry for help stops us in our tracks before we can follow the main group of students. We turn around to the forest where the cry came from. "Please help!" The cry comes from a pair of students that come running out of the tree line towards us. They don't look good however as one of them is being helped to run along by the other. The injured one has a long line of red running down the side of his body. 'Wait, those look a bit fami—'

"Oh no… JASON! ALEX!" James yells their names and bolts after them without any regard.

"Wait!" I try to stop him but he's too fast. What makes it worse is the fact that a small group of Beowolf's and Ursa's come charging after them. One Beowold manages to stretch its claw out just enough to nick Jason in the leg who was helping Alex. "Grrr!" I growl at the immediate danger and set my blades to spin at max speed. "God damnit!" I grunt and charge.


This has been sorely overdue. I am so sorry for those of you that have been waiting for this but my drive to write this story was a bit lacking at around half way through this chapter. Even now I'm not a hundred percent satisfied with this chapter and I feel as though I rushed it when I actually 'felt' like writing it again. Another problem was that there was this new drop of episodes for Steven Universe and I was so hyped for what they showed I just couldn't help myself in making several chapters in a row for my 'A Tale of A Jade' story.

Either way, I'm going back to my regular schedule of working on all my stories one after another so as long as nothing else comes up that diverges my attention, I should be cranking out chapters for all my stories at a steady pace.

Now onto other RWBY content. I came back from RTX and I managed to attend the RWBY panel at the first day. Had to wait in line for 2 hours after the Camp Camp panel was capped and the place was almost completely packed when they finally let us in till the panel actually started. The teaser videos they showed us of Chibi were funny and the teaser for the new volume was awesome too. Can't wait to see just what new stuff their going to give us in the next set of episodes. It didn't really give us a ton of stuff to contemplate and speculate as to what might exactly happen but regardless it looks good.

Again, sorry for the long wait and the next chapter I am really looking forward to showing you all because it'll reveal something I've kept somewhat hidden for Ethan and should differentiate him from everyone else.

Anyway as always, thank you all for your patience, have a great day and have fun reading.