Steele woke up, he made a big yawn as he stood up, he put on his shirt, and walked to the bathroom. The other students were already preparing for whatever the headmaster had in stored for them. He looked at himself on the mirror, "Yeup. Time to test out these guns on some Grimm." Steele said flexing his arms. But his self-worship was interrupted by an orange blur that placed a towel over his head. "What the!?"
"Don't get too in love with yourself, man." Naran was standing next to Steele, taking a bite of an apple.
"It's you…" Steele said taking the towel off his head and putting it next to the sink, "You just gotta be the second most annoying person I've had the displeasure of meeting."
"Oh no someone stole my number one spot?! Impossible!" Naran joked, "And who, I may ask, is this unlikeable fella?"
"This guy that Aurum took an interest in yesterday, he didn't even bat an eye at us when she was trying to start a conversation with him." Steele explained. "I don't see what she sees in him."
"You mean that dude who keeps reading news reports and weird cultish articles? Kinda gives me the creeps." Naran knew who Steele was talking about, "Hold on. You're jealous of Mr. Gloom stealing your girl, are ya?"
"You better shut your pie hole before I turn it into your next poop hole." Steele said walking out of the bathroom.
"Overaggressive. A classic trait of people in denial." Naran smiled as he followed the bigger man out. "Just making an educated observation, my dude."
"Whatever. I guess we should be heading to the cliff outside school." Steele responded.
"What a weird place for the first day of class." Naran stated.
The students gathered on the top of a cliff near the school, about half of the first-year students had been called for today's big class. They stood on top of weird squares that had Vale's coat of arms. Aurum, Steele, and Naran stood next to each other, "Hey, why are we overlooking the Emerald Forest?" Naran asked.
"Better scenery? I know I like it." Aurum replied. The breeze was quite lovely as it brushed against her hair.
"As long as we learn something, right?" Steele commented. Professor Ozpin and Professor Goodwitch walked towards them, but they stood closer to the far-right side of the row of students. Steele, Aurum, and Naran stood right in the middle of the row, barely able to hear what the teachers were saying.
"Hey, you guys are getting any of that?" Naran asked.
"Huh…so that makes…sense. We are going to be tested, in the Emerald Forest. I guess you were right, Aurum, this is going to be a boot on the ground test." Steele said.
"Awesome." Aurum got excited from the news.
"We are also getting teammates…" Steele said, "The first person we make eye contact…and we are stuck with them for the next four years." Steele added. "Also, we gotta look for some sort of artifacts or something in some abandoned temple."
"What?!" Naran was surprise by the fact that the first team test was permanent. The students prepared as Professor Goodwitch began to walk down the row examining each student's pose for departure.
"You, young man, are you prepared?" She asked Naran who had made small fuzz about the whole teammate info.
"Y-Yes ma'am!" He took stance. The students to the left began to be launched into the Emerald Forest. "I hope that there isn't some sort of…" Naran was interrupted by the sudden launch of his platform, sending him flying across the sky. "…AHHHHHHHH!"
Steele was launched next, he flew through the air, as a bird, feeling the wind rushing past his face at high speeds. "Now this is what I'm talking about!" He felt as home, looking down at the endless sea of green.
Aurum followed, with sword extended forward, like a warrior leading the charge into battle. The firearm mechanism of her sword wasn't going to be useful to land, so instead she waited until she was at tree level to submerge her sword into one of the trees and then allowing it to slice around the bark of the tree. Aurum then easily jumped down into the grassy ground and cleaned off her shoulders from the falling leaves.
Steele did what he did best, he used his brawns. Falling feet first into the thick forest, he crushed through several tree branches and trees themselves until his feet landed loudly into the ground making a reasonably large crater. "Like a pro." He said.
Naran was having trouble finding a way to properly land, "Ohshitohshitohshitohshit-!" He yelled as he saw the trees getting closer. He took out his weapon, a long staff that was colored gold and red, he pressed one of the buttons in it, making the ends of the staff shoot out into the sides as whips. The whip ends got caught in several tree branches, stopping Naran's fast descend. He hung from his staff for a while, "Whew. That was close." He then pressed the button again, the whip ends retracting back into the staff allowing Naran to safely fall onto the ground. "Now to find me a relic."
Aurum walked through the forest, sword at hand, looking around for any noticeable landmarks. But all she saw were trees and more trees with the occasional big boulder. "Hm…nothing around here. Better look for someone in the meantime." She said to herself continuing her walk towards the innards of the Emerald Forest. It was quiet, too quiet, no Grimm in sight, or any students. She then got into a small clearing, the blue sky was visible now, the rays of the sun warming her skin.
As she walked into the center of the clearing, the ground shook, "Uh oh." Aurum said, she lost balanced and fell on her bottom. From the ground an immense Grimm appeared, its long insect like body and multiple legs gave Aurum dread. Its red eyes concentrated on her, and its mandibles opened and shut in hunger. "That didn't last long." She stood back up and prepared for battle.
This beast was called the Centivore, an immense insect Grimm, that gave the King Taijitu a good run for its money in size. The monster lunged itself towards Aurum, who jumped out of the way of its mandibles, hitting the ground. She landed on its back and began to rapidly slash it as she ran down its long body. The beast recovered and shook Aurum off but she landed on her feet, "Its armored." She said, her slashes making minimal damage to its body. The Grimm was protected with a thick exoskeleton, attacks would have to be precise to hurt it.
Once again, the creature attacked making Aurum roll to the side to avoid it, she threw her sword at the creature's left eye. The Grimm yelped in pain giving Aurum an opening, she again jumped on its back and grabbed hold of one of the armor plates. She pulled with all her strength, the plate began to peel off from the Grimm's flesh. The monster coiled around, moving its tail-end to crush Aurum and protect its exposed flesh. She dodged the incoming tail, Aurum quickly ran towards the creature's wounded head. Her sword was still planted in its wounded eye, she swiftly pulled it out avoiding its maw. Wanting to end the fight, she tried again to attack its back, now with the weak spot as the target. But the monster was prepared, when Aurum jumped to strike the monster struck her away with its tail. Aurum was sent flying into a nearby rock. "Ah!" She grunted. Her aura protected her but the strike had been strong enough to be felt and so was her landing on the rock.
The Centivore approached her, Aurum had already come up with a plan. She would just go into the offensive and slash its other eye leaving it completely blinded and finally end it. But before she could enact her move several shuriken struck the monster on its exposed flesh and exploded making the Centivore explode in half killing it. Aurum walked around the vaporizing carcass of the Centivore to meet the person who had killed the monster.
It was Daku, standing on the other side. He was wearing black ornate armor with the sigil of a bat on his chestplate, and had several shuriken on his gold belt. "I didn't need help." Aurum said, "I could've killed it."
Daku looked at her… "Didn't look like it from here." He commented and turned around to walk away. Aurum sighed, she followed the black armored man. "It's already midday, and several students have already arrived at the abandoned temple."
"How do you know that?" Aurum asked.
"I did some reconnaissance after I made landfall, noticed groups of four students leaving from the same vicinity." Daku informed her, "We should make our way northwest."
"All right then, lead the way."