There were three things in the world that Qrow hated more then anything. The top of that list was young men looking at Cinder with anything but a passing curious glance. He remembered being young and enforced a stern five second eye contact rule before he chased them off. The second spot belonged to the true enemy of the world. And the third spot was reserved exclusively for Grimm cultists.
"Hear me brothers and sisters!" standing at the forefront of a long abandoned church stood a tall man in a Nevermore mask, wearing a robe of black and bone white as he preached to a congregation of people in similar wear. "For too long have we arrogantly allowed ourselves to fight against our gods, the beings who bring us transcendence through our demise, I say no longer, and to those who make themselves out to be our protectors," the head of the congregation gave a grand wave of his arm, and three more Grimm masked cultists dragged someone wearing a heavy robe and hood onto the front of the stage, forcing them on their knees with a hard kick to the back of their legs. "I say we see how well they can protect us from the afterlife!"
The crowd roared in approval and all Qrow could do was wish that this was one of the religions that served the wine before the executions.
With a grand movement the preacher removed the hood of their captive to reveal a rather short young woman with dual colored hair, one side being pink and the other a dark brown. Despite her current situation the only word that could describe the young woman's expression was intense boredom, as if she were in the line to get her drivers license and not having her life threatened by a group of crazy Grimm worshipers. The girl glanced through the crowd before resting her gaze directly toward Qrow's disguised form and raised a single eyebrow.
"Okay okay I think that is enough," Qrow stood up and cranked his neck from one side to the other. "Listen you aren't the only ones who have wanted to kill the annoying brat," that comment earned Qrow a stuck out tongue, and was returned with an equally mature pointed tongue. "But I can't let you kill her."
"And who do you believe you are?" The leader began to step forward, but soon found his head smashed against the wall by Qrow's hand hard enough to leave a spiderweb of cracks forming in the solid stone of the building.
Qrow used his free hand to pull free the fake Grimm mask and black garb before turning toward the congrigation. "Anyone else have a question?" in response most of the assembled cultists pulled free a variety of weapons from under their cloaks. "If you would." he nodded toward Neo, who calmly slipped from her bonds and gave a nod to the older man, stepping forward to the front of the stage and putting on a smile.
And then the assembly started screaming.
Roman kept a careful eye on the cage as Adam's blade descended down on it and split the lock, hand on his cane and his entire body poised to strike. The cage was too small to be a Beowolf or any larger creature, but there were plenty of Grimm whose size didn't give any clue to just how dangerous they could be. Anything from a Boartusk to a fully grown Rapier Wasp could be awaiting him.
What walked out of the cage was quite a bit less impressive. The creature was about the size of a large dog and had the physical appearance of a rat, however its tail was a spiked mace made of bone and its entire upper body was made of the unnatural armor that all Grimm grew when they progressed in their evolution chain. A Plaguebile, a rather low class Grimm in terms of ranking and most commonly found in older sewer ate raw sewage and could spray the toxins collected from it through the spikes on its back.
For a moment Roman felt like he was being mocked, brought to the front of the class to kill a creature that a Signal newbie would be expected to take on. His eyes went to the professor to see if he could detect some sort of mocking hint to his look.
It was in that moment that the Grimm attacked.
Despite its small limbs the creature managed an impressive leap directly toward Roman, tackling the young man and sending him flying halfway across the room, only barely able to use his cane to recover himself before the monster came in for another attack, charging forward only to spin at the last moment to swing its weaponized tail directly toward Roman. At that point his instincts took over, and he managed to divert the attack with his cane and retake a proper fighting position and gain space between himself and his enemy.
"Rough start but quick to regain form, note that class, a true Hunter can be suprised, but only once in a fight. The second time is death." Adam spoke both to the class and Roman, eyes scanning the young man and the Grimm before him in silent judgement.
It annoyed him to have a Faunus look at him with those judgmental eyes, the same eyes he saw from the workers in the factories, and the ones who worked in the house. Eyes always judging him for who he was, for what his father was.
Another moment of distraction, the Grimm moved forward to take advantage but suddenly jumped back as if something had spooked it, giving Roman enough time to recover his senses and fire a blast from his cane, hitting the creature on the back and creating a crack in its armor. Suddenly enraged beyond reason Roman let out a primal growl and leapt forward, bringing his cane down hard on the creatures already cracked back again and again, striking the creatures fragile form until the crack formed into a wide fissure, allowing him to plant the bottom of his cane into the creatures form and fire a shot directly toward its core, shattering it with the Dust round.
The class gave a small round of applause toward the performance, through his team simply looked to each other with hints of concern plain to see on their faces.
"Excellent," the red haired faunus exclaimed. "Sometimes your enemy won't show a weak point, and attempting to exploit one would lead to some risks. Roman displayed that at times the subtle route must be abandoned in favor of a forward assault," a bell suddenly chimed and Adam gave a shrug. "Well thats it for today, go over your notes and read the foreword and the first chapter and be prepared to talk about them next class. Dismissed!"
With that stated people began to shuffle out, either groaning about the work or talking about Roman's fight with the Grimm. On his part Roman simply watched as the last bits of smoke faded as the Plaguebile disappeared before making a hasty retreat, not bothering to even look at his team before exiting the room.
"You don't think we went to far with the teasing...do you?" Emerald asked, looking toward Roman with a conflicted expression on her face. She knew that sometimes she could go a bit overboard on her teasing, but she didn't want to think a bit of ribbing had caused that.
Mercury stayed silent for a moment before turning to look at Cinder. "You should talk to him, somethings wrong."
Cinder blinked in surprise and looked toward her teammates. "Why me?" she questioned with a small amount of panic evident in her voice. She had very little social experience besides Emerald, and even that didn't exactly prepare her to deal with whatever Roman was going through.
"Because you're the leader, duh." Emerald replied with her usual devilish smile, trying to return the situation to normalcy and calm down Cinder before she went into panic mode.
The brave leader of team Cremation let out a small whine before pressing her forehead against the desk as she tried to work out some way to fix the situation that had presented itself to her.
"Well all things considered I would mark that meeting as a success," Shade stepped out of the temporary base, followed after by Ruby. Both made their way to the edge of the docks and looked out over the water. "There is something on your mind." it was a statement rather then a question.
Ruby gave a nod and looked toward him. "Ever since that kid did whatever it is that he did my head has felt fuzzy, like when you are tuning a radio and hit a half functioning signal," she placed a palm against her forehead as if it would banish the pain from her mind. "I have been having...dreams."
"Yes, I am told that most people have those." the masked man answered in a droll tone. "Part of the human condition it seems."
"But they aren't typical dreams!" the woman growled in response. "I'm used to dreams of blood, terror, the future, or just things that don't make sense. But these...I see things." the last word was almost spoken as a whisper, so far removed from her usual biting tone that it could have come from someone else.
"Things?" Shade repeated, his full attention now turned to the red hooded killer. "What kind of things?"
"Its fuzzy, but..." her eyes looked away from Shade. "I see the other three, I see us fighting together, I see them in the dreams...like frie-"
Before she could finish her explanation the ring and crown on Ruby's person suddenly began to glow a midnight black as her body convulsed in pain, a scream only being stopped by Shade's waiting hand. "Whatever that boy did was most effective against my corruption than even I realized," as he spoke dark purple energy flowered from his arm and onto Ruby's body. "Its such a shame about your eyes, you would make such a perfect host if not for the rules of the game interfering." as he spoke Ruby's eyes began to glow a bright and blinding white that seemed to cause Shade's form to catch fire for a moment before the light slowly died to a dull grey as Shade poured more energy into the girl. When he was finished the masked man took a step back and collapsed to a knee. "Damn, that took everything this host had." he slowly pulled himself to his feet and looked toward Ruby.
For a moment the woman simply looked ahead without seemingly seeing anything in front of her. But all at once her mind came back and she looked around as if she had forgotten where she was. "What was I saying?"
"Something or other, so the plan will move forward?" Shade asked, trying to hide any discomfort suffered from the process.
Ruby gave a small shrug of her shoulders. "Yang is on board, but Weiss is always about the bottom line. By the time we need to move things should be in place."
Seeing that as the only answer he would get Shade turned to leave.
"Wait before you go," the masked man turned around only to be cleaved in two by Ruby's scythe, both ends exploding into dark smoke and blood red petals as they approached the ground. "That always makes me feel better," the young woman put her weapon behind her and turned to enter the hideout once more and go over the finer parts of the plans ahead.
Cinder had spent a great majority of the day worrying about what she was going to say to Roman when she finally saw him. She could attempt to play it off like nothing had happened, but with how aggressive he had been during the fight and his deliberate avoidance of his team for all of the classes they had together it couldn't have just been nothing. However Cinder had very little experience when it came to dealing with most people, and especially with people like Roman. If her uncle had been there he would have most likely called Roman a 'puffed up prince who probably couldn't wipe himself without a hundred Lien card.' Well that was probably one of the less colorful ways he would go about saying it.
After almost an hour of searching Cinder came across him in one of the many gym rooms where students could come to train. All of the other students were busy eating at the moment, but Roman was busy practicing a number of stances and forms on the training mats, his cane dancing between his hands as he effortlessly shifted from one style to another, capping the exercise by firing a single projectile from his weapon and capturing it with the handle and swinging it around him, sending out short lasting blades of Dust energy before slamming the handle to the ground and creating a shockwave of energy around his feet.
To Cinder it was all an impressive show, when he focused like that his weapon mastery was almost B-ranking with how effortless he made it seem. "That was spectacular Roman." the young woman voiced as she approached him. "I had no idea you were able to form blade beams."
The shock of hearing her voice seemed to pull Roman from his focus, turning his eyes in an almost hateful glare before returning to a more neutral expression. "I don't need your approval." he replied in a dismissive tone.
The anger behind those words hit Cinder like a gut punch, and she found herself almost at a loss for words. "I...I didn't say that you did, I was just..."
"Just what?!" he snarled at her. "We get it, miss perfect has to give a compliment just to show how humble she is?"
"That wasn't what I was doing!" Cinder bit back her pain at Roman's words and tried to match eyes with him.
"Of course it was, just because you showed off in the first battle the other two follow you like good little drones," he stalked towards her and stood in front of her, glaring down at her hatefully. "But I know the truth, Ozpin made a mistake, just because you can make a few sparks doesn't make you worthy of being a leader." he turned his back toward her and moved to the mat. "Why don't you just buzz off?"
Cinder stood there and put a hand over her heart as she felt a sudden tightness in her chest at his words. None of them were true but just the thought of them in her head was enough to hurt. Without a single word the girl turned and exited the building as fast as her feet would carry her.
Roman began to prepare for his next series of stances before the sound of clapping hands cut his concentration. "Making a girl who only wanted to be your friend cry, man the ladies must fall over themselves for a guy like you." through the door to the locker room of the gym came Adam Taurus, hair dripping beads of water and lower half wrapped in a towel.
"What would you know?" Roman asked dismissively, turning back toward the other wall.
"About being a young idiot with a lot to prove?" a tiny smirk came to Adam's lips. "Well considering I was a foot soldier for the White Fang...back when they were still the White Fang. Quite a bit."
Cinder's feet only carried her so far as the pain continued to pulse in her chest, leaning against the wall of one of the buildings or support as she rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand, determined not to cry.
"Out for an evening stroll?" a kind and grandfatherly voice asked her. At the sound of the voice Cinder looked up, only to find herself facing the smiling face of Ozpin, who walked with his cane and a cup of what could only be hot chocolate. "Perhaps you would like to join me, its a wonderful night for star gazing."
The presence of the older man seemed to calm Cinder a bit, through she didn't trust herself to speak just yet. She instead gave him a small nod before following in step with him. As they walked a chilly wind began to pick up, and seemingly without thought her Aura began to glow gently and produce ambient heat around her.
"A penny for your thoughts?" Ozpin spoke after a few minutes of silence.
Cinder thought carefully about her words for a moment, hesitant to speak them. "I'm...worried you made the wrong decision about making me the leader of my team."
Ozpin didn't speak for a moment, simply letting the statement hang in the air. "Oh?"
Seeing his response as a request for elaboration Cinder simply spilled out her words one after the other. "I am not good with people, I don't know if I can lead them without making an utter fool of myself and end of with them getting hurt. I don't even know how to go about understanding other people, I mean I have only had one friend in my life and she basically just says whatever comes to her mind, I don't have to play mind reader just to understand what is going on with her." panic began to set in Cinder's chest before Ozpin let out a small laugh that seemed to drain the tension out of her. "Sir?"
"I'm sorry I don't mean to laugh, but everything you are saying reminds me so much of another young lady who once came to me about this sort of thing." the smile on his face was warm, and he finally stopped walking as they approached a series of benches overlooking the edge of the school. "Take a seat." he gestured with the hand holding his hot chocolate. Cinder complied and took a seat, followed by Ozpin taking his own position next to her and looking toward the full moon in the sky.
"Let me tell you a story."
"You were what?!" Roman asked in a disbelieving voice. The White Fang had always been a radical group, and even if they had only begun to become truly violent after their change to the Black Fang there had still been scattered reports of violence from the group.
"Yeah, you see growing up as a faunus isn't exactly a joyride even after the laws were passed forcing others to treat us the same as other humans," Adam rested the back of his head against the wall. "When it started the White Fang was meant to act as a force that would ensure that faunus were treated fairly and that people who broke the law were punished by the letter of it," his eyes closed for a moment, as if drawing himself into the memory. "It was a great dream, which made it all the more painful when it was stepped on."
"You see back then when a store or workshop went against the law the White Fang could set up boycotts and hold public acts of defiance against the company performing said acts. I am sure you know all to well that these peaceful acts had some effects, after all the Schnee Dust company ended up toppling on itself because the amount of public scrutiny against it dropped their stocks into the ground," a small breath of satisfaction escaped from Adam's lips. "It was proof the system could work for us, that maybe we could stand up without violence and make a better world. Then the reforms happened, other business owners got scarred of what happened to the Schnee family and put pressure on those in charge. The councils defanged us, took away the ability to gather and any attempt to do so would be broken up because it might attract Grimm."
The speech was obviously having an effect on Roman, who looked more and more uncomfortable as Adam went on. His family had been one of the front runners on having that law altered around the same time they started buying the broken bits of the Schnee company. His father had always written it off by saying that faunus were lucky to find work anyway, but despite those biases it was hard to deny that the faunus workers in their building had shown more skill and restraint then most people he knew.
"But we still tried to gather, still tried our tactics that had worked before. More of us had to carry weapons to defend those who couldn't. Eventually the White Fang becomes a terrorist group, and after our leader was killed during one of our peaceful protests..." Adam shook his head. "I was actually a bit misleading before, you remind me a bit of myself, but you remind me more of someone else." Adam turned his piercing gaze to Roman. "Have you ever heard of Blake Belladonna?"
"Quite a while ago I remember a brash young man who thought he had something to prove, and that the only way to do so was to deny any help that could be given to him and prove that he could be strong by himself," Ozpin began, resting his cup on the side of the bench and looking up toward the stars and moon. "brash and arrogant he trained everyday by himself believing that it could make him stronger. But time and time again his team would advance even further then him by working together and training. The young man grew bitter of course, until one day he and his team embarked on a mission to prove their mettle. The mission went wrong however and they were forced back into a corner, and each team member in turn aided and protected him. Seeing their sacrifice opened his eyes to his folly, and seeing it he chose to do better."
Cinder drank in the story with a thoughtful expression. "So you are saying...wait and see?"
"Indeed," Ozpin pulled himself to his feet and stretched himself out. "It has only been a day since you began, and friendships are more often then not built on long term bonds of trust and mutual respect. Some take longer to build those bonds, but it doesn't make you a bad leader for not instantly knowing how to solve a problem or how to mesh with a personality you are unused to. Give it time."
"I think I understand." Cinder stood up and gave a small bow to the headmaster. "Thank you."
"No thank you, the night sky is always more enjoyable with company," the older man turned back toward the academy. "Do make sure you make it back to your dorm before curfew, you do have classes tomorrow to worry about."
"Yes sir." Cinder answered, taking her own path back to the dorm.
"Are you comparing me to the leader of the Black Fang, the most wanted criminal in the world?" Roman's voice was a mixture of disgust and amazement that anyone could possibly be so brazen as to suggest something of that nature. It almost defied explanation in his mind.
"Brash, headstrong, believing you can face the entire world by yourself and twist it to your ideals?" Adam chuckled a bit, through there was little humor to his voice. "Yeah lets just say you two have things in common. Believe it or not she didn't start out as a killer, she was more invested in the peaceful side of our work, to the point where it consumed her life, became her reason for living. When it all came crashing down with the death of the former leader of the White Fang something in her broke and all of that goodness and desire to be better just drained out and left a monster."
"I don't see..."
"And that is the issue, you think you are the best at everything you do, and you strive to enforce that worldview so that everyone else believes it as well. But you will meet people who are better then you at things, even things that you are good at yourself. As you are now you will reject them all and eventually that part will break and leave you with nothing but black hatred in your heart," Adam's voice rose a bit, containing an almost wrathful energy to it. "You can't just bemoan the problem and lash out, you need to learn the lesson and figure out how to answer it."
Roman felt a spike of anger run through him, at being lectured at, being talked down to, and also for knowing that he was right. He had acted childish toward Cinder, attacked just because he was afraid that if there was someone better it wouldn't make him as special as he wanted to be. At that moment he felt ashamed, and suddenly a common phrase his butler had always repeated came to his mind. "I guess you still can't see the forest for the trees, cub." he chuckled a bit and felt a sudden wave of nausea as he realized how awful he had been.
"My entire life I have been told that it was my birthright to be the best at everything, whenever my father had time to speak to me he drilled into my mind that we were supposed to stand above other people," Roman let out a sigh and broke eye contact with Adam, no longer feeling the same confidence as he had before. "I'm not blind to the things my family has done, but when you are taught that you are always right how do you just admit you are wrong?!"
"By admitting you were wrong." Adam answered plainly.
"That easy is it?" Roman asked with a pained chuckle.
"Your leader distracted the Plaguebile so you could land a killing blow."
A look of shock passed over Roman's face. "She did?"
"She did."
"Oh." Roman had no idea how to input that information.
A soft smile came over Adam's face. "You should go thank her."
"I should?" Roman asked, unsure of himself.
"Yes, probably wouldn't hurt to apologize for being a brat while you were at it."
"I suppose it wouldn't." Roman admitted.
"Every journey starts with the first step kid, work on being a better person using that mindset and even if you stumble they will be there to catch you." Adam turned back toward the locker room.
"Wait, before I go... why were you here?" Roman asked curiously.
"I teach the last class of the evening and the hot water is all used up in the teachers wing by the time I get home. This is the only place to get a hot shower that I can sneak to this late."
"So this entire meeting was..."
"Entirely a coincidence."
For a moment Roman didn't know how to respond, but finally simply laughed and turned to head back toward the team dorm, trying to figure out how to apologize for the way he had acted.
Adam walked back into the gym locker room and slipped on his uniform, checking his Scroll and noticing a message from Ozpin asking how the talk had went. "Yep, entirely a coincidence."
The final bell of the night rang as students turned off their lights and crawled into bed, either with flashlights to continue studying or reading, or just resting their heads against pillows. In the room of team Cremation however three of its occupants were currently resting into their bed. Emerald was sprawled upon the bed and snoring loud enough to wake the dead, while Mercury laid flat on his back on the bunk and hardly seemed to move or breath at all. Cinder was surrounded by open books and pages of paper, leaving only a tiny portion of the mattress left for her to lay on.
The door creaked open slowly as Roman entered into the room, careful to lock the door behind him before walking over to Cinder's bed and kneeling down next to it. Part of him didn't want to wake her, but another part knew that if he didn't apologize straight away he would probably back out of it. So he moved his hand forward and gently nudged her, which seemed to rouse the girl rather quickly. She gave him a quizzical look but before she could react Roman began to speak. "Listen...I am not the best with other people, or getting along with other people. In fact I am utterly horrible at it. So I know at times I am not going to be the easiest person to deal with, or the best teammate or friend or anything else. But I think that I want to try and be better, or at least be better then I am now."
Cinder blinked in response and reached up, pulling out two earplugs and looking at him. "I'm sorry, what was that?"
Roman's mouth fell open and he blinked at her. "Wha-"
"Sorry its just...well if Emerald isn't utterly exhausted at the end of the day she snores like an Ursa with a frog in its throat, so if you don't have them, or the apparent ability to sleep through thunder like Mercury does you won't get a wink of sleep," a sudden thought occurred to Cinder and she quickly reached under her bed and pulled out another set and offered them to Roman. "Do you want a pair?"
Roman simply knelt there for a moment in utter silence before laughing quietly. "Yes, please," he took the pair and let out a sigh. "Sorry for being an ass today."
The apology took Cinder by surprise, but she simply smiled and nodded. "Its okay, its the first day of this whole team thing for all of us. Just means its all up from here right?"
"Well one can only hope," Roman paused again. "Thank you. I was wrong about you being a bad choice for leader, just know that I will support you however I can, so long as you can deal with me."
"Deal." Cinder offered him a pinky. "You know how to make a pinky promise right rich boy?"
"Some things are universal you know." he linked his with hers and gave a nod. "Goodnight Cinder."
"Goodnight Roman, see you in the morning." Cinder turned over and placed her earplugs back in.
"Goodnight Cinder." he placed his own into his ears and laid back on his bed, the movement of which caused the springs to groan for only a moment.
Emerald shot awake and glared toward Roman. "Some of us are trying to sleep, keep it down!"
The shout woke the next three rooms which caused quite a bit of shouting all around.
And from the smile that came to Roman's face, it was apparent he didn't mind one bit.
Qrow looked out toward the frozen assembly before looking back toward Neo, whose eyes had turned from a haunting silver to her normal pink and brown coloring. "Is it done?" he asked, which earned him a nod in response. "Good," he turned back toward the cult leader, who was pressed against the wall and holding his head in pain. "Now you are going to answer my questions before I use this sword on my back to subtract a few limbs from your body."
The cultist simply laughed and looked toward Qrow. "Do you really believe that I care for this mortal flesh?" manic laughter poured out from behind the mask. "I am but a vessel for our god to speak through."
"Oh yeah?" Qrow grabbed the man by his collar and pulled him close. "And what does your 'god' have to say to me right now?"
For a moment there was silence, but then the cultist answered in a voice not his own. "Hello again Qrow, have you missed me?" The voice coming from the cultist was unmistakably Shade's.
Qrow quickly slammed the cultists body into the wall hard enough to leave cracks in the stonework before quickly grabbing the blade from his back and running it through the cultist body in one movement. Rather then blood and screams the cultist simply laughed as dark ichor began to drip from his body.
"Now that is no way to say hello," the cult leader said in Shade's tone. As he spoke the fallen members of the cult began to rise, their bodies cracking and groaning as their forms seemed to shift and change. "Through if we are going to play the killing game its only fair I tell you that I brought a few friends."
"Damn it!" Qrow reached forward and grabbed the cult leaders mask, ripping it off to reveal the face underneath.
The man might have once had average features, but not his face was pure white, with black veins playing about his skin as he continued to laugh in an almost manic way, eyes glowing red as a pitch black began to consume his sclerae and leave him with a haunting look. "Now then, lets play!"
The cultists in the room finished their conversion, and standing in their place were Grimm of various shapes and sizes, hungry eyes glaring up toward Neo and Qrow as both prepared to fight. "Ready kid?" Qrow asked as he yanked his blade out of the stone and destroyed Shade's host.
A nod was offered as the young woman pulled a blade free from her umbrella and readied herself for battle.
"Then lets go." the two charged toward the enemy, ready to fight.
Hunter Ranking System
The Hunter hierarchy begins from the bottom up so to speak, and today we will be going through the various ranks and positions that Hunters hold in our society.
Most Hunters begin their careers from starter Academy's, where they are taught the essentials of combat and various other skills in order to prepare them for the road ahead. These Hunters are called Junior Hunters, and are restricted from accepting missions without strict guidance from one of the teachers.
Once graduation is reached Junior Hunters will sign up to one of the four Hunter Academies around the world in order to hone their skills, through it is also possible to enter into one of these prestigious places by either passing a rigorous mental and physical exam or being signed as ready to enter by a Huntsmen or B rank or higher or a high ranking member of the council waiving the need to apply. Once they enter the school they are labeled as Huntsmen in training, and while still carefully monitored for their first year and a half will be sent on missions by themselves after they reach their second year of instruction.
After four years or equivalent acts of valor proving a Hunters strength these people will graduate from their Academy of choice and be entered into the Hunter Information System as a rank E Hunter, able to accept the lowest of missions until they can build up their rank or show a sufficient reason they should be advanced. Through it is also common for Hunters to enter into the ranks of their kingdoms military after graduation, but those Hunters fall under the preview of the military and their own ranks are kept separate from the more mercenary Hunters.
The basic breakdown of Hunter ranks is thus
E- New Hunters or disabled in some way. They are tasked with low danger missions that pay out at the same level.
D- Outside of Kingdom ranging missions and seek and destroy. These Hunters are trusted to be able to battle against packs of Grimm by themselves or with teams.
C- This is the rank many Hunters hit the limit of, usual missions involve long term protection of either small settlements or merchants. Most never feel the need to advance beyond this position.
B- Elite warriors who are battle tested and can be counted on to lead other groups of Hunters into larger scale missions, such as mass extermination missions or larger projects such as the failed Mountain Glenn expansion. Are also highly sought out bodyguards to the super rich.
A- The best of the best, normally hired on by one of the four Academies to teach the next generation but also known to start up their own organizations to hire out their Hunters privately.
S- The highest honor that a Hunter can be given, signifying the highest skill in the world. It is rumored that those who stand on this level can best A ranked Grimm by themselves. The current holders of this honor are Headmaster Ozpin of Vale, General James Ironwood of Atlas, Headmaster Tarrant Hightopp of Mistral, Headmaster Hearthwood Pendragon of Vacuo, and Qrow Branwen of Vale. These five are the only current holders of the S ranking.
For more information report to instructors.