Just want to address some confusion I've seen from a few reviews. Don't worry if one of the cannon characters are acting out of character. For quite a few of them, I have altered their personalities a bit as well as their backstories.

To remind you all: This is no longer the Ruby that you know. If I haven't said it's the same as cannon, assume it isn't.

I've added new kinds of enemies, new kinds of allies, new places, new systems, new resources and even have slightly reworked the aura system.

So don't worry if things are a bit different because even though I'm using the characters, systems, settings and narrative line from the cannon material, my desire is to create a whole new story for you to enjoy. Which I hope you all do.

And whilst I haven't yet told you everything I've changed or added, I promise I will eventually.

So, until then here's the continuation of the Initiation arc.

EMERALD ENEMIES

Vale, Emerald Forest Hunting Grounds: 22/06/137M, 10:09am

"AHHHHHHHHHH!" The group screamed as they ran, now including Jaune and Pyrrha who had literally run into them.

And they were running due to the expansive pack of grimm chasing them at that moment. With any other grimm, the examinees would stand their ground and wail away at their targets, but unfortunately, these were a certain type of T2 grimm.

Small, dexterous little grimm that resembled monkeys and had the nastiest habit of being able to pop out small little explosive balls from their backs and throw them with their tails.

Also known as; baga-baga.

To avoid being turned into meat slurry and then feasted upon by their pursuers, the seven girls and one boy had begun running through the forest whilst trying to come up with a plan to hit the stupidly small and nimble targets. So far, they had not come up with one that did not involve continuing to run. The only real damage done to the troop of baga-baga was when Mars started to throw her grenades at them, which didn't last very long as her supply quickly ran out. It also didn't do the most damage since most of the baga-baga flipped out of the way, leaving only some still caught in the blast radius.

"So does anyone else have a good idea?!" Mars shouted as an explosion went off to her immediate left.

"No!" the rest of the group shouted back in varying emotions, almost all of them shooting as best they could at the grimm.

"No wait yes!" Yang quickly changed her answer. "Ruby! Your Fire Arms!"

"Do you think I haven't thought of that, Yang?! I don't want to light the whole forest on fire!" Ruby protested, deflecting another projectile with a Redflector shield.

"Actually," Pyrrha interjected whilst not breaking stride, "These trees have been specially cultivated over many years of hunter use to resist most forms of weaponry. Whilst not completely immune to fire, they won't risk the spreading of fire due to a powder-like substance on their leaves."

Ruby, along with just about everyone else there, blinked at Pyrrha's surprising amount of knowledge on the subject. "Oh! Okay then!"

Ruby skidded to a turning halt as her arms grew metal cylinders that sprouted pipes connecting to large pauldrons on her shoulders, all sporting a silvery chrome look with red plating here and there. Near the front nozzles of her new arm cannons were small wicks of fire, ready to be ignited at Ruby's will. Which was now.

The aptly named 'Fire Arms' began shooting large plumes of fire around the tree branches that the baga-baga were swinging through. Unhappy screeches began sounding as the annoying little monkey grimm were forced out of their safety on high in favour of the, not on fire, ground.

But as soon as their black paws touched the grassy forest floor, they were met with metal fists and buckshots courtesy of both Yang and Rea, the latter's weapon modules forming into a drum-fed shotgun. Once the remaining little grimm were riddled with holes from bullets and blades, as well as one of them getting disintegrated, the group took the moment of reprise as a well-deserved breather.

"Okay. Everyone sound off." Mars panted. "Mars."

"Ruby!"

"Rea..."

"Blake."

"Weiss, now can I-"

"Yang's here!"

"Pyrrha."

"J-Jaune!"

"Okay, we're all good then," Mars said in relief. Flopping onto the grass below her.

"Okay guys," Yang began from her position on the ground, "I know that I want to relax as much as anyone…"

Yang got an assortment of groans and one haughty huff.

"…But we still need to get to our satchels and get out of this forest."

"Ugh, Yang's right…" Ruby complained. Sitting up, she slipped her goggles over her eyes. "Well, good news, we're not that relatively far from an objective point. If we get moving, it should about an hour to get there, bar interruptions." Ruby stood up and began walking

Weiss huffed, and everyone instinctively rolled their eyes. "And why exactly should we follow you? So far, you've led us into two tier one grimm, and a group of tier two! How can we trust you not to lead us into one of the tier threes around here, or even to our objective at all?"

"Because I've got the map, okay?!" Ruby snapped, having been fed up with Weiss' constant bitching and demeaning attitude towards Ruby at this point. "I took a picture with my goggles back in the airship. I don't know our exact position, but I've made an estimate of where we are!"

Weiss drew a sharp breath. "That's…"

"That's a marvellous idea!" Pyrrha interrupted. Whilst not intentionally cutting Weiss, Pyrrha wouldn't lie and say it wasn't unwanted. "Navigation is a crucial need when travelling in the wilds, it was very clever to take the only map we've seen with us!"

"Thanks, uh…" Ruby began, trailing off once she realized she had forgotten who Realien called the tall crimson-haired girl earlier. That, and her attention drifted to her weapons. "…uhhhhiiisss that Miló and Akoúo̱!?" Ruby asked excitedly, thoughts of her previous objective gone.

"Oh, um, yes?" Pyrrha answered, quickly taken off guard by Ruby's question. She unholstered Miló for Ruby to inspect, who gladly did so.

"Amazing! You don't often see triply transformative weapons nowadays, but it's certainly versatile!" Ruby evaluated. "Rea! Look at this!"

The grey-haired teen suddenly popped up beside Ruby, startling Pyrrha with her sudden appearance.

"I-it certainly is well c-constructed. Gravis d-dust tempered steel, r-right?"

"Hmm..." Ruby poked Miló with a finger. "Yep. It's a nicely balanced temper, not too heavy on the dust."

"You c-can tell?" Rea asked, surprised.

"O-oh, yeah. Kind of a sub-power for me. It only works on machinery though..." Ruby blushed, embarrassed. "I think it's meant to help me construct my own builds."

"Oh, t-that would make sense, m-m-material is a large affecter in w-weaponry design. It'd be pertinent t-to know what you're making when y-you have so many to generate on the f-f-fly."

Noticing Ruby was about to respond, and possibly prolong this unexpected discussion inevitably, Yang stepped forward and gently tapped the back of Ruby's head with her metal fist's knuckles.

"Uh, this is all well and good Ru, but mind getting back to showing where to go?" Yang asked.

"Ah! Right!" Ruby yelped frantically, "T-this way!" She pointed before marching off.

"And you wonder why I'm worried it's her we're following." Weiss huffed.

✇ARWIT✇

Vale, Emerald Forest Hunting Grounds: 22/06/137M, 10:53am

A fact to know about the Emerald Forest was this; not all the wildlife in it consisted of grimm. Quite a number of species were brought in from the frontier to help populate the forest and give Hunters of all skill levels experience in dealing with the more aggressive fauna.

One such type of this frontier species was the Kra'sei. Quadrupedal alien-looking creatures about the size of a dog that had hard, shiftable, armour-like chitin along their spines and on their forelegs. They possessed no eyes on their face, on a single gaping mouth with four fangs in the corners. Their large forelegs helped them burrow underground as well as attack anything in their territory.

Despite all their aggressive features, kra'sei were herbivores, much like the majority of frontier animals that weren't grimm. Kra'sei were commonly referred to as the 'self-contained ecosystem', due to the fact that kra'sei grew their food on their backs, underneath their retractable chitin. The vegetable they grow is packed with nutrients and proteins, enough to continuously sustain a kra'sei so that finding any other means of nourishment would be pointless.

Growing plants on their backs have caused kra'sei to adopt the behavioural pattern of laying half-submerged in the ground with their back plates open as to allow their plants to perform chlorophyll. This typically has led many frontiersmen into mistaking a kra'sei as a regular plant and trying to harvest them whilst foraging. Expectedly, this upsets the kra'sei in question and causes them to become aggressive towards whoever had disturbed them.

The reason why kra'sei are currently relevant is that not too long ago, Nora Valkyrie had attempted to pick and eat one of their vegetables and angered a small horde of them.

Whilst not as overwhelming in numbers as lower-ranking grimm like beowolves or zawtooths, the kra'sei made up for it in being noticeably more intelligent and creative than the grimm (which typically only rush at Hunters without thought of self-preservation or strategy).

That and they could spit acid. That was also a thing.

As Nora once again hefted her hammer over her head and let it slam down on top of what she hoped would be a kra'sei and not once again an empty hole, she pulled the lever on the shaft to set off an explosive blast of blazis dust. As the dirt settled and removed its obscurity of her target, Nora growled to find that the kra'sei had burrowed away again.

"Hey, sword guy!" Nora called to her partner.

Not too far away, a boy with chocolate-coloured skin and deep hazel hair cut into a curly crew cut turned his emerald-green eyes to face Nora with a frown.

"What is it now hammer girl?" The boy returned in a thick accent, shifting the sword as big as his body over his shoulder, positioning it so that it rested on his pale teal singlet and not his bare shoulder.

"How the heck are you hitting these things? They always get away before I smash them!" Nora questioned.

The boy let out a disgruntled sigh. "You need to get them off the ground. Try popping them out of their holes instead of immediately trying to barbarically hit them." As if to provide an example, part of the boy's sword popped out of the blade to reveal a smaller sword, which he then used to throw into the ground just under a kra'sei. With its immediate escape route blocked off, the boy rushed forward and took one strong cleave of his blade to rend the kra'sei in two, spraying oddly-coloured ichor everywhere. "Like that." He said, placing the smaller sword back into the bigger one.

"Ohhhhhhh!" Nora nodded in understanding. Turning back to her own foe, she stuffed the head of her hammer into the ground, and pulled the lever, and exploded the kra'sei right out of its hole. Grinning maniacally, Nora twirled around to give her hammer enough momentum to obliterate the kra'sei when it collided with it. Which it did, turning the kra'sei to paste. "Thanks, sword guy! That worked great!"

"Tharum Leafcutter."

"Huh?" Nora blinked in surprise

"That's my name. I told you it earlier, but you didn't listen." Tharum clarified.

"Oh!" Nora's face shifted into a bright grin. "I'm Nora Valkyrie!"

Tharum sighed again. "Yes, you've already told me that..." Trying to move past Nora's... absent-mindedness, Tharum took a look at their current situation.

Having just witnessed a good deal of their pack become compost by these two initiates, the remaining kra'sei had already turned and fled deeper into the forest. This now left the initiation pair free to proceed in their journey.

"Come on. We are done here." Tharum declared.

"Sure thing, Tharum-guy!" Nora saluted. Tharum sighed again.

✇ARWIT✇

Vale, Emerald Forest Hunting Grounds: 22/06/137M, 11:17am

"Ahhhh! We're here!" Ruby shouted in excitement to her group "I knew we would find it!"

Before them, there was a large clearing with a small outpost tower sitting in the middle. The building was made completely out of wood, with a green-painted slant roof and a single ladder leading up the side of the tower. Finally, a blazing lantern about the size and shape of a beachball and made of white stone hung from the middle of the underside of the tower's platform.

"Hey! Good job Ruby!" Yang cheered, giving her sister an endearing fist bump to the shoulder. Not wasting any time, everyone began to step into the clearing and towards the wooden tower.

"Hey, uh, what's with the lantern?" Jaune asked, poking towards the white stone light he referred to.

"T-that's a solrock lantern, Jaune," Rea explained, being right next to the blonde boy. She seemed to be stuttering less and less as she spent more time with the others, only doing it once or twice a sentence now. "T-they're used to ward off grimm. Someone l-likely put it up to make sure that this place isn't destroyed by grimm."

"Really? How can something ward off grimm?" Mars asked, intrigued.

"S-s-solrock is a u-unique mineral from {insert location here -don't forget!}. It's able to s-store aura of Hunters, a-and the gradually release it. Th-the energy k-k-keeps grimm away, subconsciously. Whilst not b-being a flat-out d-deterrent for grimm, it does make them l-less inclined to come near. Empty solrock i-i-is can b-be used to restrain hunters, d-drawing away any aura they try and use." Rea explained as best she could under the anxiety from the attention. "I-it's m-m-mainly used out on the frontier, so it's not the m-most common knowledge."

By the time she had finished informing her companions of the solrock's properties, the gap of clearing between the thick forest and wooden structure was crossed, and now Ruby had already begun to climb the tower.

"I'll grab some satchels for everyone! You guys just stay down there and keep an eye out!" Ruby called to her friends (and Weiss).

"For what?!" Someone shouted back, Ruby couldn't really tell who.

"Uh, I don't really know? For anything?" Ruby shrugged, not turning around and instead continuing to climb the tower. Upon reaching the top, Ruby heaved herself up and over the floor's ledge, and into the tower's one and only room. It wasn't lit at all, only relying on the natural light coming through the six windows to illuminate everything properly. On the walls, there were hooks with small pouches on them, but a noticeable amount of the hooks were vacant from the mentioned pouches.

Ruby frowned. 'We must've not been the first ones to get here then…' she thought. But when her gaze passed over the remaining bags, her frown shifted into a pained grimace. Hoping she was wrong, Ruby began to move around the small tower more, double-checking that there wasn't any information about it she had missed accidentally.

Back down on the forest floor, everyone stood waiting for Ruby to come back so they could leave. The almost midday sun beat down from among lazily floating clouds, making a temperature that wasn't unbearable but neither completely pleasant. Mars and Jaune had decided to sit down on the lush grass whilst they waited patiently for Ruby's return.

"…so, anybody down for a game of 'I Spy'?" Yang asked jokingly. Mars and Pyrrha chuckled at the obvious attempt at some comedy.

"Bad news guys!" Ruby said as she dropped down from the tower, using her aura to cushion her fall. In her hands were multiple dark, teal-coloured satchels. But the unavoidable and unfortunate fact of the satchels was...

"There's only six." Mars pointed out when she noticed how many Ruby was carrying.

Ruby simply frowned and looked away.

"So what do we do now?" Jaune asked the thought everyone was thinking. Everyone stood there in silence, trying to come up with an idea that would be most beneficial to their situation. In the end, it was Yang who made the first proposal.

"We could split up? some of go whilst some stay together to find the last pair satchels." Yang suggested.

"I think that's the best idea we have on the table." Weiss agreed. "It'd be wasteful to not ensure that at least some of us succeeded."

Mars chuckled dryly. "Don't put all your eggs in one basket then, huh? Well, then who stays and who goes?"

"Wiess, Jaune, Rea, Blake, Mars, Pyrrha you guys can go," Ruby said tossing a satchel to each of them. "Yang and I can go find some more satchels."

"No dice, Red," Mars said, throwing hers back. "I've never taken the easy way and aren't about to start now."

"M-me to." Rea walked forward and put her own satchel back in Ruby's arms. "I-I'm not about to l-leave my friend behind to fend f-for themselves!" She smiled warmly at Ruby.

"Yeah! I'm not leaving friends behind." Jaune echoed Rea's sentiment.

Weiss sighed begrudgingly. "You really don't listen, do you? Professor Six said that our cooperation will determine our grades. So either you're leaving with me or staying here." Her eyes settled squarely on Ruby's own. Ruby returned the stare with a stalwart and determined one of her own.

"I'm staying," Ruby answered the unspoken question.

"Then it seems I have to as well, you stubborn child." Weiss mocked.

"Ah, you love me," Ruby replied cheekily. This small tease caused Weiss to break down into a blushing and sputtering mess, unsure of what or how to answer with.

"Well, I still believe I should stay with you all. I still am Jaune's partner after all and doubt even with my skill that I could handle all of this forest on my own." Pyrrha said to the group.

"Strength in numbers." Was all Blake's input.

Ruby smiled, not sure how to properly respond to all the solidarity between her new friends (and Wiess, surprisingly). SO, instead of saying anything, she simply smiled more. It was only when the sound of rustling foliage and crunching of forest debris began to grow closer and closer. Each of the initiates pivoted on the spot, their weapons drawing with different sounds of metal scraping upon metal. They had come this far and were ready for whatever came next.

Everything except, a ginger-haired girl and a dark-skinned boy.

"Oh! Hey guys!"

✇ARWIT✇

Vale, Emerald Forest Hunting Grounds: 22/06/137M, 11:29am

Twirling through the air, his long-hemmed sleeves and pants flapping behind him like ribbons, Ren came out of his movement and blunged both of his guns' blades into the head of a taijitu. Taijitu were a tier-I grimm that appeared as large snakes, about the size of an average-sized tree trunk. Their fangs were abnormally long and spiny bone jutted out of their slick black scales. Most of all, their tails had long, dagger-like blades on them made out of the same pale white bone. Using their elongated bodies like whips, the taijitu flung their tails towards both Ren and his partner in the hope of either impaling them or severing a limb.

None of the serpentine grimm had had any luck so far, as both prospective hunters had proven exceptionally evasive as well as acrobatic. And so they were left with being severed and stabbed themselves by twin blades of either green or pink.

Alongside Ren was his partner, a girl with fluffy, short-cut pink hair that bore a striking resemblance to cotton candy. She wore a simplistic and minimal design for her clothing, dissimilar to some of the extravagant outfits that some other initiates wore. The clothes in question was a sleeveless tailcoat made of a deep red cotton and a pair of maroon tights which then led into what appeared to be ballet shoes. It was honestly very complimentary to her fighting style; acrobatic and flashy, which was only emphasized by the two bright-pink Jian swords she was swinging around whilst a third sat still sheathed along her back hip.

Swinging, thrusting and plunging her swords, Sam Kura became surrounded by more and more split-open taijitu corpses. Whilst racking up an impressive body count, she was still at a disadvantage to getting more than Ren, who had the better range of the two in the form of his bow, made out of his two separate swords. But, when it came to it, the two proved to be a formidably lethal duo who wordlessly slew the grimm around them. This surprised Ren to an extent, because not too long earlier Sam had been…

"Well, that's the last of them! C'mon, let's keep going we shouldn't have that much time left. Or maybe we do I can't really tell, did you have a watch on you? Eh, doesn't matter really we'll know if we fail or not so I guess it's just best to keep going and hope for the best. Let's go this way it doesn't seem that anyone has gone through it so maybe they haven't found any satchels yet. Actually, that might be a bad idea and we should follow that way since people did go through it and they can lead us to an objective point."

Talking his ear off. Well at least she wasn't as rambunctious as Nora, and if Ren could handle her then he could handle Sam fine.

Hopefully.

If you see any mistakes I've made, please tell me so that I can fix them.

Till next time!