"The Bonding-process is one of the most sacred, referred natural processes ever developed in life. Yet, like so many great natural processes, it holds a most unholy origin. When mankind first developed the ability to strike back at the black menace with their very souls, warriors everywhere were elated. Scientists and military prodigies then continued this combat usage, eventually discovering a new utility for our souls: the ability to go on the offense. Since then, various warriors have trained to turn their Aura into a lethal weapon, breaking into the minds of their foes for their own benefit."
-On Aura: a Thesis on the perfect utilization of your heart and body. Article part 1 of 17
Emerald forest
She should have known that it was a waste of time. Of course Ursa wouldn't know where her little sister was, but she could always hope for a miracle, right?
The two Grimm hadn't exactly been happy to comply with Yang's questioning. All she ever did was ask them if they had seen a little girl with a red cape and hood, but they hadn't answered her. They had been very rude. Instead of simply giving her a straight 'no' they had proceeded to attack her! Yang should have known better. But she did not worry at all; the two monsters were no match for her prowess and evasiveness. They had yet to land a single hit on her.
She laughed out loud and placed her hands on her hips. The two monsters tried their best to beat her to death, but she didn't give them any leeway. She didn't really know what the deal was with the whole 'kill all humans' attitude that these things were putting up. She had spent her life watching various forms of media portraying the Grimm as mankind's worst enemy, but those same forms of media had also portrayed mothers as angels in education, so there was that too.
Truth being, she simply wanted to find out if every single creature of Grimm was as murderous as the ones she had encountered in her youth. "Geeeeez! You two couldn't hit the broad side of a-"
A single strand of golden hair slowly spiraled to the ground, moving in melancholic slowness until it settled onto the dry leaves. Was that her hair? Her. Hair? Those filthy beast.
"You…" She closed her eyes and tried to contain the raging torrent of emotions that her heart produced, but she was unable to. And she didn't want to be able to. Right now, she wanted to tear and rage and kick ass. She opened her eyes and felt her Aura coming burning to life. "You monsters!"
The two Grimm barely had any chance to react before Yang jumped into the fray. She felt her fist connecting with a dull crack, breaking through its thick bone and crushing the softer tissues that it protected. She didn't need to use her gauntlets for this; she would grind them into pulp with her bare hands.
The first Ursa tried to back off with its shattered jaw, but Yang gave it now room to maneuver. She jumped closer and connected with a second strike, destroying some of its ribs. She quickly followed up with several high-powered punches, punching the younger Grimm meters backwards as her heavy blows sent it barreling through the forest. Her undying soul set it alight and burned through its fur, filling the glade in the forest with heavy smoke and the smell of burning hair.
With one last punch, she crushed its skull and sent it trashing into a nearby tree, where it got itself impaled for good measure, burning and smoking. Yang's aura nearly burned all the trees in her vicinity to a cinder when it manifested and she actually had to focus on controlling it. She wouldn't want to start a forest fire, right?
The second Ursa was slowly backing away, obviously frightened by her display of power and rage. She turned to face it and her eyes locked with his. He could see the coming storm and realized that his life was forfeit. It might as well jump off a cliff, it couldn't be deader.
It stopped moving and became frozen in place from the overwhelming waves of fear that it had to be feeling now.
"What!" She screamed at it. "You want some too!?"
The bear shook its head and tried to back away again, but before either of them could move its body suddenly rippled then collapsed, revealing the dark-haired girl that Yang had seen earlier in the large room.
What was her name again? Blake?
"Oh…hey!" She said panting, suddenly feeling the aftermath of her emotional outburst. Her limbs were shaking and her vision was a bit blurry. "I could have taken him, you know…"
Blake smiled and acknowledged the fact that they were partners now.
"Xia Long and Belladonna have teamed up… Thrush and Bronzewing have teamed up."
"I see."
"And it would appear that Miss Rose and Miss Schnee are in a bit of trouble…"
"Rose? Schnee? I am sure that they have everything under control."
Emerald forest
The situation was spiraling completely out of control and they would have no other choice but to retreat and get somewhere safe.
"Come on Ruby! We need to go!"
Damned girl. Good with words, Weiss had to give her that, but completely useless. Her sudden appearance had been completely uncalled for and its only result had been chaos and confusion. As if she, Weiss Schnee, was in need of assistance by some lousy child without manners!
First the brat had confused her with her words…telling her philosophical things about the world and understanding it. She understood the world all right; a child like her couldn't possibly know what was right.
Just when she had actually started to doubt her own believes, Ruby had disappeared, leaving her completely alone.
Well, not completely alone. She was in the fine company of at least seven Beowolves and they were planning to entertain her for the day. But that was fine; Weiss didn't worry about it. She could handle the monsters of Grimm without any help and that was exactly what she was planning to do. After all, she had been capable of convincing her father to let her go to Beacon to train. If she could do that, she could faze half a dozen feral monsters with ease.
But, much to her annoyance, just when she had properly recalled her training and she had readied her stance, the redhead had reappeared.
First the girl had left her completely alone with Grimm after she had destabilized her mind and now she had actually reappeared! And not even to save the day like she would likely want to believe, but to actually make the situation worse. Ruby managed to appear next to the Beowolf she was aiming at with Myrtenaster. She had been about to unleash a deadly fire-attack on the monster and then she girl had forced her to hold back her attack; which was impossible.
So she had set the forest on fire instead. And Rose actually wanted to continue fighting the creatures but she had no idea of the gravity of the situation! If they didn't get out of that part of the forest soon they would die.
"Move it Ruby!"
The redhead took one last look at the Grimm and then followed her example.
By the time they had managed to clear the section that was on fire, she was panting with exhaustion. Damnit that girl was good at screwing things up!
"What was that?" Ruby yelled in anger. "I could have taken them! It would have been easy!"
What? "For someone who talks so much, you don't really say anything!"
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"If you had actually taken the time to communicate with me during the encounter I wouldn't have set the forest on fire!"
"It's not my fault that you needed help; if you had just been better at aiming then we wouldn't be here! Remember, I am just FINE on my own!"
Was the trying to say that she was better than her? The nerve of that stupid…little…brat! Weiss' aiming was perfect and her stance couldn't have been better. To think that Ruby had actually succeeded in easing her doubts for a few moments back there. Her entire calming attitude had disappeared like snow in the sun and now she was getting all excited like a little child.
And she was…just a little child. Not better than her, not more intelligent than her, just a little child.
"Well…" She said, trying to find something that could insult the redhead as intense as she had done with her. "Congratulations on being the strongest child to sneak your way into Beacon. Good job!"
And with that she turned around and walked away. An agitated shriek behind her indicated that she had at least been successful in getting back at the girl. Now she would simply have to find her way to the temple and recover the artefact. With or without Ruby Rose.
The temple was at least one kilometer ahead. All he needed to do was encounter a student, look that person in the eyes and then proceed to the destination. There he would retrieve an artefact and bring it back to Beacon Cliffs in one piece.
That was the plan, yes. And he was planning to stick by the plan. The only thing was that the only creatures he had encountered thus far were Grimm. Not exactly an enticing idea for a partner.
But the moment he stepped into the first clearing he encountered since his not-too fabulous landing, he noticed that something was wrong. Very wrong. Multiple trees around him were blasted to bits and now that he actually came to think about it, he had been hearing explosions a while back. And Jason Mauve Cho was not one to simply let things such as charred trees and explosions slide past him. If there was anything that his time with the Vale Police Department had taught him, it was that things didn't need to occur more than once to be suspicious.
And as he slowly walked through the clearing, his black boots sounding painfully loud as they crushed the fallen leaves underneath, he was starting to suspect that combat had occurred here. He could smell explosive residue and see small pockets of red Dust hanging in the air. Someone had detonated a Dust-fueled explosive recently.
A black, large Beowolf jumped out of the treeline approximately twenty meters in front of him and screamed its challenge to everyone that could hear him; which would be only him.
Jason thought it strange that a solidary Beowolf would appear just like that…usually they were part of a large pack led by an Alpha creature. Such a creature would only appear if its entire pack had been wiped out.
So he had had the bad luck to encounter an Alpha Beowolf that had just lost its pack, equal in destructive tendencies only to a pair of full-grown Ursae. Great.
It did mean a positive thing though; someone had eliminated the Beowolves. Which meant that said person was still in the vicinity and seeing as the Alpha male was standing here in front of him after the destruction of its pack, the person responsible should also be near.
The Beowolf screamed again and then charged at the lone student, picking up a speed that far exceeded normal humans.
He flipped his long black jacket open and grabbed his weapon. In dealing with such a large feral creature, there were multiple ways of subduing it. One of which was beating it into submission, but he wasn't physically strong enough. The second choice was to riddle it with bullets, but he didn't have weapons that fired bullets. That left the option of annihilating it with other means, such as Aura and Dust.
But he didn't use those either…or at least not the aura. He had more elegant ways of dispatching of his enemies and this Beowolf was about to find out which.
The Grimm was close enough that it could initiate close-combat and it swept the area in front of it with its deadly claws, but Mauve simply jumped to the side and landed on the ground. Then he jumped to his feet and readied his weapon. It was a large black rod with two blue pins at its end and leather strapped to the handhold. There were two glass segments at its sides and both were currently filled with blue dust, which an expert might use to identify it as an upgraded Stun Baton, used primarily by the more veteran members.
Such an expert would be partially right.
The wolf attacked him again and he jumped backwards, but at the same time he delivered a downwards blow on the attacking limb. Multiple sparks appeared and the monster immediately pulled its limb back, roaring with pain and anger as its muscles roughly clenched up and its nerves were thrown into haywire.
Time to go on the offence. Mauve took two steps forward and swung his weapon in an arc before him, slapping the Grimm right in his face and driving it back even further. The two pins at the front of his weapon were glowing white/hot and blue sparks jumped between the tips. The Beowolf screamed in rage and charged him once again. He jumped out of the way and rolled over the ground, after which he ducked and slid over the ground to prevent his head from being torn off. He brought his weapon up again and jammed it right in the Grimm´s face. This time both pins correctly made contact with the monster and a shockwave knocked the creature back, smoldering with heat.
He had forgotten to properly charge his melee weapon…how stupid of him. Now that it had delivered a few glancing blows, its circuits were up and running and he could finally pack a punch.
The Grimm lying on the ground didn´t get up again; the high-impact blow coupled with the intense electrical energy running through his weapon caused massive trauma on the monster´s unprotected organs. The sudden experience of so much raw energy being inserted in such a weak spot caused a powerful shockwave that could knock an Ursa on its arse. To a lesser-built Beowolf, it could cook its organs with ease.
He heard more explosions behind him and turned to face the general direction of the sounds. He did recognize that particular type of explosion…and it left only two individuals to be responsible for the fighting. Both of them would mean a troublesome partner…if he was smart, he would move in the opposite direction or, better yet, head to the temple alone.
But he couldn't return without a partner…and neither could he leave either of the two persons in his mind to deal with the enemy on their own.
He took one last look at the temple and sighed to himself. This was always the result of their actions and he always had to clean up the mess.
Jason had only covered a few meters when a figure jumped out of the treeline and smashed into him. He saw a large blade moving near his face and he moved his own weapon move to the person who had run into him/ When he recognized the contact as human, he deactivated his stun-baton and saw the bladed weapon aimed at his face disappear as well. The person in top of him had medium-length blond hair and was wearing regular clothing, but with a camo-design.
"Cho?" A female voice said.
He sighed. Of all the people to run into, he had to encounter her. "Don't call me that. My name-"
"Yeah yeah, I know that. Your name is Jason blablabla… "
Nobody knows…nobody knows my name is Cho, Jason thought. He had had plenty of run-ins with this one during his time with the VPD. She was a dangerous girl belonging to an even more dangerous family. He was not going to enjoy having her as his partner.
The girl who had knocked him down by accident stood up and knocked the dirt off her clothes. "So, found a partner already?"
"No." He said and got to his feet as well. "You?"
"It looks like your investigating skills are as sharp as ever…" She sarcastically said and rolled with her eyes. "Shouldn't you have interrogated that Beowolf before you zapped it?"
"No." He said and disarmed his weapon before putting it away. "Someone had killed its pack off, sending it in frenzy. Any idea who could have done that?"
"Nope!" She said unconvincingly. "Not me, no idea what you are talking about.".
"Really?" He said and crossed his arms. "So I didn't hear the detonations of your high-explosive rounds coming from that general direction? And you didn't come out of the same direction as the Beowolf did?"
"Well…"
"You must have encountered the pack and decided that it would be safer to engage them…after that the alpha male moved away. I can understand…you must have felt like you needed to follow it right?"
"Will you stop doing that?" She exclaimed, probably feeling very annoyed. "Fine, I killed its pack off and caused it to rampage. Want me to say sorry?" And then she groaned in frustration and marched off, reloading her weapon as she went.
"I knew it…" He muttered and turned towards the girl. "Elizabeth…" He called, but before he could continue she turned around and yelled: "Don't call me that! Lisa is enough!"
Fine. "Okay, Lisa, you're going in the wrong direction."
The girl turned around and continued walking, but now in a whole different direction. "I knew that."
Cho sighed and decided that he would have to bear with her. She would be his partner now after all, and his father had always taught him to never ever let your partner down.
Or zap them with a High-impact electric Baton.
"The last pairs have been formed sir…" Glynda said while taking a look at her scroll. Lie Ren and Nora Valkyrie… " She showed Headmaster Ozpin the fight between the giant serpents and Ren, which ended in the sudden appearance of Nora, 'booping' his nose. "Poor boy…I don't think those two will get along very well…still, he's way better off than Miss Nikos."
Ozpin didn't respond to her, but Glynda could see him contemplating her words. "I don't care what his transcripts say, that Jaune fellow was NOT ready for this level of combat!"
She took another look at the scroll and watched as Pyrrha set her hands on Jaune's shoulders and closed her eyes. Interesting. "Well, I guess we'll find out soon enough. Given their current pace they should reach the temple in a couple of minutes." Turning towards the Headmaster, she asked: "Speaking of which, what relics did you use for this year?"
Ozpin was still not responding to her…weird. Normally he always shared his opinions with her…what was keeping him busy? "Professor Ozpin?"
He kept watching his own scroll, not even noticing that she was talking to him.
"Cut him some slack, he sees something interesting and his mind just goes 'wham Shiny!' you know?"
And then there was him. Winner of the most annoying Hunter of the year award right there. The man –boy in her opinion- might be of 'great value' to Beacon Academy, but he was really just a very annoying know-it-all. "Professor Ozpin is most likely busy with very important issues, the likes of which are above your petty levels of responsibility. "
There! That would shut him up for at least…several minutes. Well, more if she was lucky. The one thing that he was actually good at was talk talk talk and more talk. She wondered how he had ever gotten a Hunter status…and an official function at Beacon. She trusted Ozpin's judgment but here…she had her doubts.
"Well, if Professor Goodwitch would be so nice to listen to this irresponsible little Hunter then she would notice that the amount of pairs is not neccesarily equal to half of the amount of students who started."
"That is ridiculous… nobody died, everyone formed pairs and they are all heading for the temple."
He was so annoying. Always with his cryptic remarks and wise-ass statements. Why couldn't he just say what was on his mind so that she could get it out of the way? He had been an associate of Beacon for six months now, one of which he had actually and actively worked with Professor Ozpin and his other colleague's as a Professor. She had known the guy for three weeks now and her disdain for him just kept growing.
"Well…nobody died, all of the pairs are heading for the temple and yet you have missed a very important fact."
"What would that be?"
"Why don't you check your scroll on camera view eighty-seven…a minute or two point thirty-seven back and slightly tilted up fifteen degrees."
That…was actually quite accurate. Was this simply another trick of him? Or had he actually seen something useful?
She put the numbers in on her camera-view and waited until the scroll processed her request.
She would see soon enough.
"I have the data…" Goodwitch said.
"Now…tilt the camera like I said.."
The woman complied and activated the scene he was looking for. "Oh my…" She said. "This is...unexpected…"
The footage on the scroll was indeed a highly curious one. At approximately one-hundred meters distance, at least fifteen minutes ahead of the rest, a black figure appeared at the treeline. It wasn't clear who it was because the person was standing well away from the camera, but the actions that took place spoke for themselves.
"Pan in." Said Glynda´s colleague.
The huntress gave him an odd look. She did not remember this specific camera model. "How did you know which camera to watch? What did you do?"
"Watching new students is always very pleasant to do in the evening, with a nice cup of hot chocolate and a subtle light. Soooo…I kind of upgraded the camera's around the temple with camera's that are actually able to zoom in and enhance a figure."
"You accessed school property and then proceeded to simply replace it?" asked Ozpin
"More like gave existing tech a slight upgrade that would enable the Initiation event to become more accurate…with the best of intents, of course. Just watch the footage please."
Ozpin sighed and made himself a new cup of coffee while Glynda was busy enhancing the image so that she could see what was going on. The figure on the screen was now considerably more visible and so were his surroundings. The student scanned his environment very subtly and then crouched towards a trio of trees not a few meters behind him. He placed something at the outmost left tree and then something at the outmost right one. Then he moved up to the middle tree and did…something. The whole performance didn't take more than a minute or two, but when the figure was done he immediately took a sharp turn and doubled back on his route; taking a rather big detour.
"What is this about?" Glynda asked.
The Headmaster looked at the clip and frowned. "So that's what he did…" he muttered. "Professor Goodwitch? Could you skip ahead three minutes?"
Goodwitch did as he asked and the scroll trembled for a few seconds before it reached the desired moment, "There…" The blond woman said.
"I'll show you!" her colleague said and pressed the play-button on her scroll, not even looking where he was poking. The video activated and for several moments, nothing happened. Then the screen started to tremble and the trees furthest away suddenly fell over.
"What…" Glynda said, but Ozpin simply watched over her shoulder. 'Then the black-clad figure reappeared. He was sprinting at considerable speed towards the treeline and when he approached the trees that he had taken the time to set up with something, he dove headfirst towards the lowest branch. He aimed his head to the side and his shoulder hit the ground first. Then the rest of his body moved between the branches, not even touching them in the slightest.
Three seconds later, two large Ursa appeared behind him and they charged after him. One of them ran past the treeline and she could see something sparkle in the air. Then the other Ursa followed it and the two Grimm were consumed in an explosion, Shrapnel flew everywhere and one of the pieces actually nailed the camera, causing a large crack in the image.
"Well…" Ozpin said and took a sip of his newly poured coffee. "That was…unexpected."
"He rigged the trees and went back to lure the two Grimm…" Glynda said and shook her head ever so slightly. "But why take the time to booby-trap the area and cause possible harm to his fellow students. That is irresponsible and hotheaded thinking."
"Actually, Miss Goodwitch," her recent colleague began again and Glynda winced when she realized he was about to correct her again. "Those two big Ursa had been tailing him for quite a while. By the time he placed the trap, they had been following him for some time."
"Your point being?" Ozpin said. The man was not easily impressed.
"My point is that everyone has formed pairs…even though there is one person who has not,"
"So this student managed to recover a relic without ever making eye-contact?"
"Yes sir."
"Hard to believe…" The Headmaster said and enjoyed another sip of coffee. But it was the truth and all three of them knew it. "But he has yet to reach the Cliffs."
"No eye-contact…" Glynda said and took another look at her scroll. "Oh! It looks like Blake and…Yang have reached the temple too."
She was definitely going to have a stern talk later today.
"We definitely need to go…this way"
And Weiss walked to the right.
"No…we definitely need to go to here!"
And Weiss walked to the left.
"Maybe we just passed the temple already and we need to go back!"
And Weiss walked back the way they came from.
"Or perhaps we simply need to keep moving ahead!"
And Weiss moved further down the road.
It was funny to see how the girl was so desperate in her attempts to hide her mistakes. Why couldn't she simply acknowledge that she was wrong and move on? "Weiss, just tell the truth and admit that you are completely lost…" Ruby said with a sigh. The two of them had been moving around this little open spot for five minutes now and the girl had done nothing but change her mind about where they needed to go.
"We! We were wrong!" The Schnee girl snapped at her. Then she realized what she had said and she quickly turned away. But her words had been said and she couldn't hide what her face said –even though she was quick to hide her expression from Ruby.
She admitted at being wrong, but she couldn't handle the thought of having the sole responsibility. She was still so scared of what really lay deed down inside of her…even though Ruby didn't know what that was yet. But she would find out eventually and then she could understand the pale girl all the better. The fact that she was so desperate at hiding her flaws and thinking herself better than everyone around her indicated that she had a deep and dark cascade of doubts and fears inside of her.
She didn't like the girl very much, but…
"I know exactly where we are heading! To the forest temple!"
Ruby sighed, something Weiss did not miss. "Oh stop it! Like you know where we are going!"
She was putting her faults with someone else…again. Taking away the responsibility to ease her doubts. Classic. "At least I am honest in it. I don't know where we are going…you should try admitting faults sometimes."
"What is that supposed to mean kid?"
Kid? Kid? She was being the irresponsible brat here, how dare she continue to put the blame with her! Ruby couldn't help it, the emotional burden of having to share so much time in the presence of a girl so…so mean like Weiss was just too big!
"It means you are a big, stupid JERK and I hate you!"
There! She had said it. Weiss had succeeded in getting her really angry and her feelings had escalated very quickly. Didn't the stupid girl realize what she was causing?
But instead of defending herself against Ruby's attack on her personality, or attack her in return, she simply looked in another direction and walked that way. "Just keep moving."
Just keep moving? Just keep moving?! What was her deal! How could she be so childish in admitting her faults at one moment and then proceed to ignore an entire new tirade just like that?
Fine. If she wanted to rile her up like that, she would get it. It took Ruby a few moments to recollect what she knew of Weiss and what she wanted her to know and then she let loose.
"Waah! Keep moving! Wheeeh! Watch where you are going! Waah! Hurry up!" The cheap imitation of her actions didn't represent her very well, but she wanted Weiss to know how she looked like when she was being so bossy and snippy. "Why are you always so bossy?"
"I am not bossy!" Weiss replied, not exactly realizing the irony of her next statement: "Don't say things like that!"
That was a shot in the rose…wasn't it? "Why won't you stop treating me like a child? You know I am competent enough!"
"You keep acting like a child! One moment you talk like a responsible adult and the next you completely lose your mind and jump out of your skin like a little kid!"
Damn. That stung. Not because it was aimed as an obvious insult –that part didn't matter to her- it was the fact that she spoke the truth. And Ruby didn't know why it was the way it was. One moment she could read Weiss clear as the day and she knew just what to say…but the words wouldn't come. And then she couldn't fathom the depths of her emotions at all. And at those points that she didn't understand Weiss, what drove her, the girl could retaliate. She could reach for the angry and bitter parts of her mind and take everything that angered her about her current partner.
And she was smart enough to know what would make sense to Ruby and what not.
"You only think so because you think you are perfect!" Ruby yelled in return, forgetting to keep tabs on her own emotions. "But surprise! You are not!"
There. Chew on that.
"I'm not...perfect!" Weiss said, much to Ruby's surprise. "Not yet, anyway. But I am close…and leagues better than you."
Now it made sense. Either the girl was worried that she would contest her skills in a yet unknown social contest or standing…or she was so uncertain of herself that Ruby's apparent incompetence was the only thing keeping her the least bit sure of herself. Either way, her problems with her were exactly that. Problems with Ruby Rose…personal.
And that made it personal for her too. But then in a different way.
"Think this is it?"
Jaune looked around and briefly wondered whether he should have said that or not, but he was really curious! The artefact would have to be very awesome. Nobody had come here before them so they would be the first ones to get it, tight?
"I don't know if this is it…" Pyrrha responded. Well, let her be doubtful. He was sure that the artefact was in this tunnel, just like he was sure that the torch he had made was a complete success.
"Pyrrha…" He said with a sign. "I made this awesome torch, could you just humor me for like, five more feet?"
And after he had moved six feet the head of the torch promptly fell of and landed in a pool of water, taking away their only light source. Well…he DID move more than five feet without causing some sort of incident…but was that because Pyrrha had humored him?
"I think five feet is more than enough for now…" The girl said and gently grabbed his shoulder. "Do you feel that?"
"Soul-crushing regret?"
"No!" She replied, her voice dropping to a whisper. Somehow her tone managed to simultaneously give him the shivers and make him feel very warm inside. Magic. "It's warm."
And then all hell broke loose.
"What was that?" Blake said and turned around. Yang had heard it too: the terrified scream of a girl in trouble.
"Some girl is in trouble!" She replied. "Where did that come from Blake?"
The dark-haired girl didn't respond but instead stared at a point in the air.
"Blake you heard that right, what should we do?" She repeated, but her companion didn't respond. What was wrong with her? Why didn't she-
A faint whistling noise caught her attention and she slowly looked up. What was that? Was there something in the air?
"Heeeeeaaaads uuuuuuuuu-!" A feminine voice screamed. Oh! It was Ruby falling from the sky to meet them! Wait a hair-brushing minute…since when could her little sister fly? That was just plain cheating!
Ruby came closer and closer to the ground, until she reached a point where Yang could simply hold her hands up to catch her little sis.
But the flying-people event clearly had other thoughts; just when the redhead was close enough for her to land safely in the arms of her big sister, Jaune Arc suddenly appeared out of nowhere and smashed into her. It caused Ruby to be completely blown out of her course and the two of them disappeared into the trees.
How could that possibly have happened?
"Did your sister just fall out the air?" Blake asked her.
"Yes…" She responded, not sure of what just transpired before her eyes.
"And did Jaune suddenly appear to knock her into the tree?"
"Yes…" That too was a very…very random event.
Violent tearing shook her out of her confusion-induced trance and she looked to the right. A cluster of trees were knocked down by an unknown source and the noises got louder.
Suddenly, a big Ursa appeared and screamed at them. Then a pink flash became visible and the bear fell to the ground. An orange-haired girl with turquoise eyes rolled out from behind it all the while screaming with total glee.
It took the student a few moments to realize that her ride was dead and when she did, her happy behaviour did a total 180 and she turned sad. "Awww…it's broken!" She sulked.
While the girl suddenly placed her attention somewhere else and dashed for the artefacts, a dark-haired guy stumbled from behind the fallen big Ursa and nearly crashed into a tree. He took three ragged breaths and then muttered at his partner to 'Never do that again.'
"Did that girl just ride in on an Ursa?" Blake then asked.
"I…" She started, but then another series of trees got shattered to pieces as a redheaded girl with a long spear appeared. And a giant friggin' scorpion was racing after her.
"This is just…" Yang tried to say, but then Ruby appeared from her own tree and started waving at her.
Yang!" She yelled.
"Ruby!"
The red-hooded girl came charging over the open field to get to her and Yang was about to spread her arms again to hug her little sister. "Ruby!"
"Yang!"
"Nora!" The strange girl jumped between them with the biggest and most honest smile Yang had seen that day.
This was all getting too much to handle…if someone were to make a smartass remark now, she would most likely-"
"Did that girl just run all the way here with a death stalker on her tail?"
DAMNIT! That's. It.
"I can't take this anymore! Can everyone just chill out for TWO SECONDS before anything crazy happens again?"
In the two seconds that passed Ruby affectively rubbed her over her head, the guy she now recognized as Ren ran up to the girl named Nora and Blake looked up again. Okay…everything had turned to normal and the amount of crazy things had declined. Good.
"Uhh…Yang?" Ruby muttered and pulled at her shoulder. "Take it easy…but…"
"Is that Weiss Schnee hanging from a giant nevermore?"
Damn. It. Blake. Belladonna.
"Ruby!" The white-haired girl frantically screamed. "How could you leave me!"
"You left her?" Yang asked, feeling mildly surprised that her sister would do something like that. Ruby turned to her with a pleading look on her face. "I told her to join me…" I told you to jump too!" She then screamed at Weiss.
"She's gonna fall." Blake said.
"No she won't! She'll be fine!" Ruby replied.
"She's falling." Ren added.
"No she is not!"
Everybody watched with their breaths held when they saw the girl slipping and falling…and then they all sighed and groaned when all of a sudden, Jaune jumped out of the tree to catch her.
"I totally forgot he was still there!" Ruby gasped and Yang merely tried to disguise her laughing fit as a bad cough.
It was nice to see the blonde acting as such a hero; to pluck the falling damsel out of the air just as she was about to hit the ground. If only he hadn't forgotten the laws of physics, he might actually have succeeded in playing the hero.
"Oh…well-" He muttered and then both of them fell to the ground. Thankfully, Weiss' fall was broken by mister Arc's back and she was left unhurt –physically at least.
Pyrrha finally reached them and bent over forwards; struggling to catch her breath and recover from her ordeals.
"Great!" Yang yelled. "The gang's all here! Now we can all die together!"
It was meant to be humorous, but Ruby clearly didn't agree. "Not if I can help it!" She shouted enthusiastically and charged at the giant Grimm.
"Ruby wait!" She yelled, but her little sister didn't listen to her and charged headfirst into trouble. She always did that!
"I got this!" She yelled and swung with her scythe at the armoured scorpion; it didn't work one bit and its counterattack left her completely open to any other attacking monsters.
Like the giant Nevermore in the sky, for example. The bird swept down from high above and then swung its mighty wings at their position, unleashing a barrage of fast-moving projectiles.
Feathers with sharpened tips –not good for your health.
"Ruby!"
She ran after her little sister to warn her, but she was already running away from the Grimm. She hadn't seen the Nevermore's attack; there would be no defending herself!
The deadly projectiles sailed through the air and impacted on the ground. One of them pinned Ruby's cloak to the ground and several others blocked Yang's way. Damnit, she couldn't get to her sister like that! And the Death-Stalker could!
She stopped trying to work her way past the large feathers and instead focused on getting the barricade itself out of the way. Grabbing one of the feathers, she activated her Ember Celica's and smashed through them. Would she be fast enough? The big scorpion was getting closer and closer and it was preparing to deliver a lethal blow to her little sister.
Just as she smashed through the final feather and prepared to unleash a hellish barrage on the Grimm, a white flash shot past her and caused her to stay her hand.
What was that?
"You are so childish…" She said, trying to find other words that could possibly describe the many conflicted feelings she was having right now.
Part of her was angry with the girl –with Ruby, for acting so impulsively and charging of at her own. Another part of her was worried about what might have happened if she hadn't been on time…the possibilities of not being able to protect the redhead and what might have been the results.
And yet another part of her was angry…with herself. Angry because she had been so mean to the girl, because she had given away an air of I-don't-care-for-you and then proceeded to save her life. She most likely caused some very conflicting thoughts in Ruby.
But then again, she had proven to be perfectly capable of seeing through her façade. Of all the people Weiss had met, Ruby was the only one who addressed what she really felt like. The girl had told her things…said words that caused emotions she hadn't felt for quite some time. Ruby knew just what to say and it scared her. How deeply did the girl understand her and what would she think about it?
So instead of giving away how…vulnerable she currently felt, she tried to continue her act of being in control. See what Ruby had to think about that.
"And impulsive and reckless. You are also very sloppy and you don't look at what's in front of you –and don't even get me started on your stance!"
She had interfered just in time to save her life with Myrtenaster, using the dust-powered weapon to fabricate a giant wall of ice to block the Grimm's stinger. Turning around to look at her partner's face, she noticed that the girl looked very much surprised. And thankful.
"But your…perception…of the world around you is like a diamond in the rough. And I GUESS that I can be…a little hard to handle sometimes. If you try to stop showing off, I can try to be…nicer."
"I am not trying to show off…" Ruby muttered. She wasn't? Then why did she talk and act like she had something to prove- oh.
"I just want to prove that I can be a good partner!" She then said. Well, that explained a few things. The formulation of her sentences reflecting exactly what Weiss was feeling at the wrong moment, her impulsive and quite suicidal attack on a superior enemy and her entire behaviour towards her environment. She wanted her to know that she could be trusted with something as important as Beacon Academy. But that was just the wrong way to go about!
"Well…" She said and took a few steps back. "You might want to reevaluate your conclusions…but you're fine."
Miss Rose sighed and whispered something. Together they removed the large feather that was pinning her to the ground and once it was removed, the Death-Stalker was about to break free of its icy encasement. Their timing was once again perfect.
While she walked away, the blond girl called Yang ran up to her little sister and gave her a bone-crunching hug. That had to be painful…
"Ehhh…guys?" Jaune Arc tried to get their attention by pointing to the ever-present Nevermore. "That thing is still out there!"
These people were so silly. Why would they waste time worrying when what they needed to do was clear and visible?
"Look, there is no sense in dilly-dallying. Our objective is right in front of us!"
That got their attention. Everyone was looking at her now and she could see their little brain-radars working at overtime. "She's right!" Ruby said. She didn't have a problem when it came to agreeing with somebody she did not like? That was actually rather mature of her. "Our mission is grab an artefact and bring it back to the Cliffs. There is no use fighting these things!"
"Yes!" Jaune yelled. "That is an idea I can get behind! Run and live!"
Weiss wasn't too sure whether that was the appropriate way to name their strategy, but what the hell. If she could accept Ruby for who she was eventually, sometime during their partnership, then she might as well try to accept Jaune. Right?
Ruby took a look at the artefact grabbed by her big sister and then ran off to grab the same one. Did she just randomly decide who should be their other two team members? What nerve!
Then Weiss let her professional people-judging eyes run over the other viable candidates. Pyrrha and Jaune? If only the athletic star hadn't teamed up with the useless blond kid. Ren and Nora? Like hell she would team up with two of those weirdoes. The other students had yet to arrive, so Ruby had actually taken the best choice present. Her people-skills were rather well-developed…almost too developed for a girl her age.
While Jaune took the gold rook as his and Pyrrha's artefact, Ren turned to look at something Weiss could not see and yelled: "Time we left!"
"Right!" Ruby yelled and charged ahead. "Follow me!"
Finally she took the upper hand.
Weiss ran after the now-formed teams and didn't realize that Blake and Yang lagged behind for a bit.
"What was that?" Lisa yelled in response to the ground shaking and monstrous screams sounding up ahead.
"I guess Grimm…" He replied. This situation was going from bad to worse. His partner was a sarcastic hothead, he still hadn't found the artefact he required to graduate for the Initiation and his partner was a sarcastic hothead.
"I get that smartass. But what kind? What did it find and what is happening now?"
Like he knew what was going on! Perhaps the girl simply needed to shut up and move, that would work. "Why don't you take a look?"
"If you can keep up!" She smirked and without any warning she took off, nearly leaving him alone. He sighed and quickly decided that he would need to stick with his partner, no matter how annoying she was.
"Wait up!" He called and ran after her. "Lisa wait!"
She was so impulsive…so thoughtless! She would not survive long if she kept on making decisions in one rash weak moment of the mind.
Thankfully she wasn't that war ahead. He found her at the next clearing in the forest, standing roughly fifty meters away from the temple.
It was an…old thing. There were multiple platforms with pedestals scattered all across the area, but he could not see what was standing on those pedestals.
"Hey Cho!" The girl yelled. "Look at this! Are these the artefacts?"
Perhaps they were. He would need to take a closer look though; inspect them for any signs of trickery or traps. It never hurt to be sure.
Another explosion went off, this time sounding way closer than the one before. Whatever was causing all that ruckus was getting closer.
He sighed and quickly joined his partner in her investigation of the pedestals. There were multiple statues standing on top of them, closely resembling chess pieces.
"Oh this is just great!" Lisa yelled angrily. "I don't even know how to chess!"
"What a surprise…" Cho muttered.
"What did you say?"
"Nothing."
A third explosion sounded and multiple trees got blown to pieces, at a point at least ten meters from their route.
"What is that?" Lisa softly said.
"I don't know."
"Well…go and investigate!"
"I don't want to."
"Cho scared?"
"Cho fine with where he is standing now."
Two figures suddenly appeared from the hole in the treeline. They were running at top speed towards the temple-ground where they were standing. He had seen those two students at the start of the Initiation, but not before or after it. Probably newcomers to Beacon Academy just like they were. Great; more unknown people to babysit.
"Lisa?" One of the two girls approaching them yelled in surprise.
"Grace!" His partner yelled in return and waved at her. How nice of you to drop in like that!"
"No dropping on today I'm afraid." The girl responded. She too wore regular clothes, but at least this 'Grace' had the sense to actually strap some protective plating to her chest and arms. It gave her a more professional look when compared to his current partner. Jason actually recognized her; she didn't have a record with the Police, but she had been the prime suspect in plenty of nonlethal detonations across Vale.
The other girl looked more…exotic. She had long straight hair with blue stripes coloured through it. Her clothes weren't anything special either, but she had one very striking feature which drew his attention.
She was wearing a blindfold. What was up with that?
"What is going on-" Lisa interrupted his thought-process, but her answer presented itself rather quick in the form of at least a dozen Beowolves, crashing through the newly-formed hole in the treeline.
"Those guys have been on our asses for like, four minutes now." Grace said nonchalantly. She was very calm when faced with the prospect of having to fight more than twelve Grimm together with three people she didn't know. "By the way, my name is Grace. I am an old friend of Lisa's."
"Jason Mauve Cho."
"Lisa."
He looked at the girl with the blindfold, but she simply ignored them and turned to face the incoming enemies.
Seriously; how did she do that?
"Open fire!" Lisa yelled and grabbed her weapon. It looked rather crude in his opinion; the operator was forced to both carry AND fire the weapon from the hip instead of aiming it correctly. It had a grip at the top of the weapon and a particularly large blade protruding from the back, designed for both slashing and stabbing. That blade formed half the size of her gun.
"Wow Lisa!" Grace said. "Since when do you carry that monster around at school?"
"Since my brother officially gave me permission to use it." She responded.
"You need your brother's permission to use your own weapons?" Cho asked.
"Yes!" All three of the girls replied at the same time. What. Had he. Gotten himself. Into.
The charging Beowolves were close enough now for him to start worrying. His ranged attacks were only effective from seven meters distance. Anything further away than that could just stand and wave at him for all the damage he could do.
"Hold your fire." Grace said and pulled some kind of remote out of her pocket. "Fire in the hole."
Her voice was so calm that it didn't betray anything, but it didn't sound overly suppressed. This Grace was honestly calm in this situation –had she some kind of secret weapon?
She pressed the button and the ground underneath the charging Grimm exploded rather violently. Multiple screams and growls were heard as the wolves were torn to pieces by the detonation. When the fireworks and debris had cleared, there were only seven left to continue their attack –albeit very dazed.
"What was that?" The blind girl asked.
"I dropped several centi-explosives halfway between us and our stalking Grimm." Grace replied. "All I had to do was wait until they charged right over it and push the button."
"Centi-explosives?" He asked, searching his mind for a way to place the word 'Centi' when coupled with 'Explosives'.
"Yeah…on a scale between kilo and micro-"
"Let's not do this now…" Her partner said and readied herself in a combat stance. She revealed her hands –and the razor-sharp claws that adorned them. It was a nice design actually; a glove or metal gauntlet decorated with large knife-like protrusions. It wouldn't interfere with close-combat styles too much and when used effectively, they could be very, very useful.
"Hell yeah!" Lisa yelled and clicked the safety off. She then opened fire on the remaining Grimm –firing high-explosive rounds that exploded as soon as they hit their marks.
The explosions weren't particularly powerful though; she killed a total of one Beowolves during her salvo, but the sheer amount of splash damage disoriented and completely dazed the monsters. It was an excellent suppressing weapon when it came to crowd-control, Cho had to give her that.
But then more trees split apart around them and suddenly their position got assaulted by another two dozen Grimm, most of them were more Beowolves but there were also some big Ursas among them.
"What…" Grace said with a big sigh, reminiscent of a sudden revelation. "I did NOT rig those positions…stupid of me."
After the blond girl had emptied her clip –he counted seven shots- she cursed and pulled a handle at the top of the weapon. A hole appeared and she quickly dug in her pockets, searching for more ammo.
"I got them!" Grace said and pulled a red item from her back. She activated a button and it collapsed, forming a complicated-looking spoon-like weapon.
Scratch spoon-like: it was a red spoon. It was more than two meters long and the bulbous head had a fist-sized hole in it.
"What is that?" asked Jason..
"This is Dragon's Foliage!" Grace said with a grin. It is a highly-versatile explosive/incendiary weapon!
A spoon was explosive and incendiary? How?
"Show me." He stated and crossed his arms. The monsters of Grimm were crossing high open ground and if they got any closer, he and the blind girl would be able to engage them.
"As you wish!" Grace said and twisted the spoon around. She performed several complicated moves with it and Jason shook his head, not even surprised by the sheer absurdity of the situation. The girl had just turned her giant spoon in a flamethrower. Not any design he had ever seen before, but still a very badass design. The head of the spoon had folded into the front and presented the main bulk of the weapon. The other parts of her weapon had shifted and moved to both the front and the rear; presenting a stock and a space where she could insert the ammunition and hold it with her other hand. The bulbous section was most likely the place where her weapon from; the hole was aimed directly at the approaching Grimm.
"So…" Grace said and fired her Dragon's Foliage. Quite literally. A large stream of orange-red fire appeared from the bulbous head and sped towards the Grimm approaching her; a big Ursa. "What do you think?"
Cho simply stared at her with a blank expression. A girl he had never met had turned her giant spoon in a big flamethrower and was hosing the enemy with it. "It takes a real lunatic to use a flamethrower. "
"You hurt my feelings…" The girl grinned as the torched the Grimm with her weapon. "Bad guys coming in!"
The Beowolves had reached her and it was the turn of her new teammates to come into action. The blind girl lunged forward and started slashing the incoming wolves with her claws. Lisa spun around and buried the bladed edge of her weapon in the back of a charging individual, before turning to face the next one and blast it in the face.
Well, now he finally got to actually fight the Grimm that had been stalking them. He pulled out his own weapon –not named after anything at all- and unfolded it. The large black stick wasn't larger than one meter, but it didn't need to be insanely large to do his bidding. He smashed an approaching Beowolf in the stomach with his weapon and send it flying.
Another Ursa approached him from his left, this one bigger than any Ursa he had seen before. And he had seen plenty of big Ursas. He rebalanced his weight to his rear leg and swung his weapon backwards, not taking his eyes of his enemy. He prodded the Beowolf in the face when it attempted to sneak up on him and then aimed his hand at the Ursa. It was within seven meters of him; close enough for him to unleash his ranged attack.
He pushed the palm of his hand outwards and revealed the skeletal structure underneath it. It was practically a small grappling hook, but with an inversed effect. He launched the multiple wires with synapses attached to the ends at the Grimm and watched in satisfaction as they made contact.
His first weapon was a melee-oriented stick that could deliver powerful impacts and electric currents, his second weapon was a ranged Taser-like device which launched multiple electrified wires at the opponent. They would embed themselves in the target's flesh or clothes and then deliver the pain; a combined effort of dust and electricity would run through the target for as long as they made contact.
The Grimm screamed and trashed, forcing Cho to take a few steps closer to it. If it accidentally tore out the wires, he'd be in trouble; the energy-current would only remain stable for as long as the wires were in direct contact with the target.
The Ursa fell to the ground, convulsing with the shocks. It wasn't exactly the most humane way to kill an enemy but what the hell. They were only Grimm and besides: he didn't burn them alive like someone did.
But then, much to his frustration, the Ursa pulled free of the wires and they fell to the ground. Now unburdened by the electricity running through its body, the bear got to its feet and growled at Cho.
"Damn!" He muttered and retracted the wires. For some reason this Grimm unit was very resilient to his shock-attacks; he would have to deliver some more strikes. "Heads up!" He yelled and jumped backwards when the monster came crashing towards him. Its razor-sharp claws missed by him by mere centimeters and now Cho found himself on the defense, dodging and jumping but never retaliating.
And close combat wasn't exactly his strongest point; when facing a stronger or faster opponent he would usually smack the crap out of it with his stick.
But not today.
"Grace!" Lisa yelled as she pulled her bladed gun out of one of her targets. "Get Cho!"
"On it!" She yelled and turned towards the Ursa bearing down on him.
Her flamethrower would cook them both if she turned it on them. Normally he wouldn't worry about potential friendly fire because most of the people he had worked with had the common sense not to aim weapons at allies.
A girl wielding a flamethrower-spoon wouldn't have that sense. He rolled to his side and caught one of the Ursa's paws against his leg. His direction in the air was altered slightly by that hit; instead of going to the left he now flew to the right. No problem.
"Heads down!" Grace yelled and appeared behind him, now wielding her weapon in its melee form. What would she-
She smacked the Ursa right in its face with the bulbous edge of her weapon, hitting it with an audible 'clunk'.
The Grimm staggered backwards from the blow and clutched its head, where a black-red sphere had attached itself.
What was that?
"Might want to get clear of the Grimm…" Grace said, already standing ten meters behind him. Great.
He turned around and ran for safety, but he had barely gotten more than a few feet when the world behind him exploded. The spherical device on the Ursa's head had been a sticky explosive of some kind and it had just blown the bear to bits.
He sailed through the air a lot more gracious than the last time, but any flying he did was bad. And when he smacked belly-down on the floor he decided that he never, EVER wanted to fly again. His body hurt everywhere and the sheer stupidity of getting knocked down by a grenade-dispensing spoon wielded by a childhood friend of his partner was just too much for him to handle.
So he sighed and closed his eyes for a few seconds. "I hate flying…" He muttered and looked up again, expecting his teammates to be already on the move.
He did not expect Lisa to stand in front of him with a big smile on her face –and an extended hand. "Nice flying idiot…" She said while he grabbed her hand. "Don't cops learn to fly?"
"Not a cop…" He said and took a moment to catch his breath. "And I am a bad flyer."
Well…aside from his new team consisting of a blind girl with claws, a lunatic with an exploding spoon-flamethrower and a girl with a record longer than his legs, things were actually pretty good. Found the artefacts, formed a team and completed the Initiation.
Now they just had to get back to the Cliffs.
"After that, when man found out he could kill with Aura, he turned towards the other side of the gem. It was then found out that a trained individual could also join with the Aura of another being, creating a bond unlike anything on Remnant has ever experienced. A bond that would serve a much, much more important role in the war than any offensive usage of Aura ever could.
-On Aura: a Thesis on the perfect utilization of your heart and body. Article part 2 of 17