Wow, has it really been 2 months since I've written anything for A Rose With Iron Thorns? Dang, I better get moving if I ever want to get to some really interesting plot points I've got for the future. Not to mention the 'Remnant with Ruby' informative spin-off and any omakes that happen to occur.
Well, read this chapter while I skedaddle off to do that!
But before I go, I found a few mistakes in the last chapter, the most obvious being Ren's weapons being the same as cannon even though I had planned to change them. Whoops! Anyway, that's all sooooo…
Oh, wait! And also, I'm going to be making a prologue chapter, so you can go and read that once I've finished and uploaded it! I'm hoping that it'll be better than the stock-standard RWBY opening I've already gotten there so it set the mood for my changes of the story as early as I can. Now, with nothing left to say…
ByethanksforreadingpleaseleaveacommentbecauseIlovethose!
*Runs off*
PS Addendum:
Wow! I did not see myself writing this much in a single chapter! I guess I really just got stuck into it, huh?
Also over the course of writing this, I came to the conclusion that I haven't actually even given you all an explanation of what I was changing in the world. So I have decided to rectify that by adding what I've changed/will change in the author's notes when I write the prologue, which is next on my agenda.
Okay, you can read the story now.
Vale, Beacon City, Business District, Undisclosed Location: 22/06/137M, 11:03am
"Woof. I am washed, Neo." Roman said as he collapsed into a comfy lounge chair. His head hang back over it, eyes staring at the ceiling as Roman tried to let the exhaustion seep out of him.
Neopolitan, no last name, did not reply verbally in the slightest. Taking off her own pink, brown and white blazer and laying over another chair, she quickly moved over to a bench to pick up some papers. Work never stopped for Remnant's greatest criminal… or, more accurately, his assistant.
"I tell ya, those cultists have been running us ragged. It just no stop with them." Roman continued to complain. "Steal this, capture that, kidnap them… there just no end!"
Neo gave her boss/partner a raised eyebrow.
"Oh, don't give me that. Just because I like the money doesn't mean I don't have the right to complain about them. And you know just as well as I do that the money that they've got it good."
A considering nod.
"Although, that last chick, the one I grabbed some goons off'a Junior for, was a real piece of work I tell you what. Real crazy bitch that one. The first reaction to fighting the kid was to blow em' up. I mean, I pride myself on being dedicated to the job, but that's just cold. I'd never bust up a kid that bad."
A disbelieving look.
"Oh, you know that doesn't count! Did you see what that little shit tried to serve me?! It was so insulting that I bet my great-great-great-grandfather felt it!"
An exasperated shake of the head.
"Oh, whatever. You'll never understand. Anyway, the crazies got any more jobs for us?" Roman asked.
Neo handed him a sheet of paper with a message written out on it. Roman held out his hand which neo placed a monocle, the girl having already gone through this enough times to know what he wanted and what his gestures meant. Roman held the paper, letter to be precise, away from him as he held the monocle up. After a couple more adjustments to the paper's distance from his face, he was able to read it. And when he did, a thoughtful look crossed over his face.
"Well, what do you know…" Roman mused. "Seems like we're off the hook for a while. And, that those lot actually have got a way of spying into the big bad academy up the hill. How… interesting." Roman hopped up and off of the chair. "Well Neo, seems like we've got the time now. Contact Dalice and tell 'em we're good to smuggle those stolen Greyhawk shipments."
Neo smiled and shook her head. Never a dull moment.
✇ARwIT✇
Vale, Emerald Forest Hunting Grounds: 22/06/137M, 11:44am
The sound of a body crashing into, and perhaps partially through, wood rang across the forest as someone was flung into a tree. Thankfully, the only crunching was that coming from the destroyed bark and not the man's bones. Though, that could be a possibility considering how powerful Ruby's BDGs were. The giant metal fists whirred and hissed as their internal hydraulics and pistons moved as Ruby herself commanded them. Short adjustments made in the tough metal by her semblance were enough to cause the fists to move, their weight not a problem for Ruby.
Retracting one gauntlet, Ruby used a thumb to push on her nose and block one nostril. Clamping her mouth and blowing hard, a glob of blood and mucus shot out of the only place it could and landed on the grass not too far away. Whilst aura Projection was a good use of aura for protection, it was far from infallible. It could only block weak to medium attacks so many times in so much time, whilst heavier attacks – like ones affected by Enhancement – could go through Projection more easily.
It didn't help that Ruby was one of the group's two make-shift bruisers, taking the brunt of the attacks they had been suffering. Yang was the other and was better practised at using aura Projection to defend herself.
But the reason Ruby had thrown a man almost five years older than herself into a tree was… honestly quite a petty one. Not Ruby, nor her friends or Weiss (surprisingly) being petty either, but rather, this man and his company being petty. It all started about… seven minutes ago, when Mars (through Enhancement of hearing) noticed something off. Calling this to attention, both Blake and Tharum also channelled their Enhancement to hearing and deducted that they were being tracked by another group of examinees. But when the two groups actually collided, the new group (mainly consisting of older, rough-looking people) immediately engaged in combat with Ruby's group. The battle was mainly on equal ground, due to the older and slightly more experienced group having more time to independently hone their skills, whilst the younger first-timers had numbers on their side and outnumbered the older group by two people.
What tipped the scales in the end, however, was the fact that only two of the older group's members had their semblances, whilst almost all of Ruby's group had theirs.
"None of you know how to perform healing Augmentation, right?" Mars asked, hopeful that she was wrong, and that somebody did know how to use that particular aura Augmentation.
Much to her and everyone else's disappointment, the only response was a groaning chorus of noes*.
"Well piss," Mars swore.
Ruby pressed her other nose and blew out another splatter of blood. "Those guys hit harrrd." She complained.
"This was almost certainly not their first time taking the exam," Weiss said. It was the least pretentious the heiress had sounded since Ruby had met her; it probably had something to do with how Weiss was now cradling half her ribs. "It could be possible that they wanted to steal our satchels after we finished doing all the work to get them."
"Despicable," Pyrrha spat. She was the only one among them without a single injury on her. Ruby was quite envious, feeling like a tenderized sack of meat and bone.
"Can…" Jaune paused to pant, a cough interrupting it halfway, "Can we just pause to take a rest?"
"How long do we have left?" Yang asked, turning to Ruby. Ruby reached up and toggled a knob on her goggles, switching their function and displaying the time for her.
"Uhh… we started at about, eight o'clock, right?" She looked around to see some noncommittal nods of agreement. "Ok, well it's about a quarter to twelve, so… two hours?"
"W-w-we've been here f-for four hours?!" Realien exclaimed. "I-it feels like m-much less!"
"Yeah, time really flies by when you're punching things," Yang said, shrugging. The gears and metal of her gauntlets could be heard clanking together in the relatively silent forest the only other sound was the distant crackle of gunfire.
"Okay, we need to move then," Tharum said. "We only know the direction of the next objective point, not how long it will take us to get there. And that's not even factoring in if we may encounter more grimm or other hostile creatures.
"Yeah! Those borrow-y guys could come back!" Nora said. Everybody looked at her. And then to Tharum, who was shaking his head in exasperation.
"We encountered a pack of kra'sei before we met with you all."
"Ohhhhhh…" Everyone nodded.
"Perhaps we should simply get going then?" Pyrrha suggested.
The group agreed.
✇ARwIT✇
Vale, Emerald Forest Hunting Grounds: 22/06/137M, 12:10pm
The makeshift team had picked up their pace through the deep green forest which gave it its namesake. Knowing their time to complete their task and therefore be accepted into the academy, they had decided to pull out any stops they had left and book it directly to the objective.
Which had led to the idea they now had, which entailed Ruby carrying everyone on the log of a tree with her Beatdown Gauntlets whilst also flying low above the standing trees with her twin-turbine jetpack, Jetstream.
To say it was taxing would be an understatement.
It was hard enough just lifting everyone on the log, but carrying them through the air was particularly strenuous. Ruby had to keep pumping aura into both her BDGs and Jetstream to make sure neither of them stalled, sending everyone tumbling to the ground. Whilst nobody doubted that they could easily survive the fall, it still would hamper their progress if they couldn't use this quicker alternative.
"You handling this okay, Red?" Yang called up to her baby sister.
Ruby gritted her teeth and grunted. "YEP!" She bit out. "EVERYTHING UNDER CONTROL." Straining her muscles, Ruby was jokingly worried she was going to flex out of her jacket. She liked this jacket.
"Are we sure this is a good idea? Ruby seems... strained." Pyrrha asked.
"THIS WILL TAKE ME OUT FOR A BIT," Ruby replied, having heard the question. "IT'LL TAKE ME A BIT TO GET BACK INTO THINGS. SIDE NOTE: I CAN SEE THE TREEHOUSE THING AND REALLY HOPE WE GET THERE IN TIME."
"So, wait, we're going to be going without a heavy hitter for who knows how long?" Mars asked.
"A-and w-what do you mean b-by 'in time', Ruby?" Rea added.
"I MEAN BEFORE THIS," Ruby said. She could feel the metal that connected directly to her nerves begin tickling in a really bad way, like really bad pins and needles after sleeping on a leg all night. This feeling happened immediately before one of Jetstream's turbines shuddered and then exploded. Ruby cried out, whether it was in surprise or pain, that was unclear. But what was clear was that she had lost one of her two propelling devices and was now losing control of her aerial mobility.
"Everyone, disengage!" Mars ordered. Obeying, everyone hopped off the log, aiming their landings for a clear part of the forest below them with only two clear exceptions. First was Yang, who discharged her gauntlet's shotguns to stagnate her descent, almost appearing as if she hopped off the air. With his elongated airtime, she grabbed onto her younger sister, who in turn learned into Yang so that the blonde could assist in their shared landing, something Ruby was currently too exhausted to perform properly.
And the other exception was Jaune, who was too preoccupied with simply keeping his Projection up to find a landing spot. This caused him to fall through a tree whilst the rest of his friends landed gracefully on the grass carpeting the forest floor. He joined them a second later, sprawled on the ground.
"Ow." Was all Jaune said. Pyrrha offered a hand to help him up which Jaune gratefully took.
"A-are you okay Ruby?" Rea asked Ruby as the latter leaned upon Yang for support. Ruby flashed a tired grin that she matched with a small thumbs up.
"Yeah… just, a little bit worn out. I need to replenish some aura to use to get rid of my tiredness. Just, like, five minutes…" Ruby began to drift off and fall further into Yang's grasp. Yang, both seeing and feeling Ruby begin to fall peacefully unconscious shook the girl awake. "I'm Up!"
She was obviously lying, however. Ruby felt as if she had been put on one of those carnival rides that spun around really quickly and that all of her energy was flung out of her. The sleepiness was the main result of overusing her semblance, but rather a side effect. Whilst her soul scrambled to create more aura for her to use, it would leave her more lethargic than normal. And Ruby typically dealt with that by sleeping. or focused meditation.
"You sure you're okay, Red?" Yang asked. "You've never carried that much at one before, and you already know how much double-up builds are for you."
"Yeah, yeah, I'm good," Ruby reassured. The delivery was a little less than convincing to everyone due to how Ruby was once again falling further into her sister's embrace.
Weiss sighed and shook her head. "I can't believe I'm about to say this, but we should stop to break. The dunce can't walk two steps on her own, we shouldn't risk encountering trouble if we can't all handle ourselves."
"And also, we haven't had lunch!" Nora added. Everyone turned to look at the girl, who smiled as innocently as a newborn lamb. "What? It's lunchtime, that means lunch!"
"Nora, where would we get lunch from, exactly?" Tharum said, walking up to his examination partner. There was annoyance and resignation tingling around his voice.
"Well, Renny usually always make mine, so I'm sure he wouldn't mind making it for you all as well!"
"Okay, then where is Ren?"
Nora was about to answer when she stopped to look around.
"Ah." She said, "I see the problem."
"Oh, do ya?" Tharum rolled his eyes.
"Yeah, because Ren isn't here right now, and we need Ren to-"
"WE GET IT!" almost everyone chorused their interruption. When they were done, a question suddenly occurred to Rea and caused her to look around.
"H-hey, wh-where's Blake?"
This question now caused everyone to stop their feeling of irritative annoyance at Nora and mimic Rea in the act of trying to spot the black-clad ninja-like girl. However, for some reason, they couldn't spot her in the predominantly green foliage that filled up the scenery almost completely. It seemed like an easier task, seeing as the only person who was remotely dressed to blend into their current environment was Tharum, and even then, his tank top was a deeper green than the type that the leaves that gave the forest its name.
"Blaaaake?!" Yang called out aimlessly at the forest. Hopefully, the girl had simply taken a step away from the group, and wasn't that far away from th-
"I'm right here," Blake said. She had appeared from directly beside Yang with absolutely no warning at all, scaring the living daylights out of the giant gauntlet-wielding blonde.
"Were you there the whole time?" Yang asked once she had calmed down.
"No."
Everyone stared at Blake, expecting more to come after her singular-word answer. However, it didn't, so Weiss decided to prompt her.
"So? Where did you abandon us to go?" She asked impatiently.
"I went to scout the objective point. There was something wrong."
"What's that?" Jaune asked. "Let me guess, there are not enough satchels again." He sagged.
"I didn't get that far to check. The problem was that the solrock lantern was destroyed, I could only spot half of it." Blake finished.
"Wait, so that means there were grimm there, right? Oh great." Jaune said.
"No, that's the other thing. There were no tracks at all. None from other students, beasts, or grimm." Blake replied.
"You must be pretty good at tracking Blake; those aren't the easiest types of things to spot," Mars remarked. Her tone clearly told everyone how impressed she was at Blake's wilderness survival skills.
But Blake shook her head. "It wasn't hard, there was a field of tall grass surrounding it, a couple of blooming flowers too. None of it looked to be disturbed."
At Blake's explanation, Rea blanched as her face turned whiter than Weiss' hair.
"W-what kind of flowers?" She asked timidly.
"I don't really know. Small rainbow-coloured ones, they looked like small pinwheels." Blake said. This answer caused Rea's face to go even paler, now better resembling quartz instead of skin. It was visible to everyone now just how acute the young Grayhawk's terror was.
"Rea, what's wrong?" Ruby asked. The conversation had allowed her a bit of time to get some strength back and feel worried for her recently new friend.
"Those f-flowers are perfect descriptions for a type of flower that can only grow in one specific condition," Rea explained to everyone. Her hand slid slowly into a rift she had created next to her waist and rose back out holding the handle of what looked to be some sort of weaponized dust-powered laser cutter, like the ones used in the mines of Vaccuo but more made for bisecting creatures opposed to rocks. It also had a bulky frame and shades of grey colouring that signified it was another weapon made by Rea's combined modules.
Everyone saw Rea doing this, getting the subtle clue and drawing their own weapons along with her. Their stances slowly transitioned from casually standing around to being ready to jump any way they needed to, whether that be to attack or dodge was still to be decided.
"And what's that condition?" Ruby asked, still building up her strength to summon one of her various weaponry builds.
"When summoned by a Drythd Grimm," Rea said, her voice having lost all signs of nervousness as her eyes darted around their space with predatory ferocity. Gone was the fearful, socially shy Realien Grayhawk and in her place was a battle-ready warrior wielding a laser gun.
As if her words were the gunshot at the beginning of a race, the undergrowth behind Jaune and Pyrrha exploded as inky black, gnarled hands about the size of a man's forearm went to grab them. Pulling Jaune aside with her, Pyrrha leapt clear out of the way of the Drythd grimm that had been hiding as a nearby bush.
The thing was very odd in appearance, not in the slightest resembling another type of animal. If anything, it appeared somewhat human. Its face was a simple pale white skull, one that looked eerily similar to that of the top of a sheep's skull, but the horns were a liquid black held in the shape of tree branches. The skull was placed on a large bushy hide that, instead of skin or fur, looked to be one giant clump of leaves all stuck together. The leaves themselves look almost healthy, if not for their perpetual black colouration. The further down the body they went, the more the leaves seemed to dissolve in favour of a wispy tendril of smoke. The aforementioned hands were attached to long spindly arms that were a little too long than they should be and were attached lower on the grimm's torso than was normal. White blooming flowers that looked like the ones Blake described but without colour, grew out of the thing's back.
Without even the smallest amount of further prompting needed, everyone who was able of ranged attacks opened fire on the grimm. Before the ejected munitions could connect, the Drythd had dug its hands into the ground and thrown up a barrier made of barked wood. The bullets and shotgun pellets splintered into the barrier but did not break through the surprisingly thick barrier.
"What the heck?! The fuck was that?!" Mars exclaimed. She was holding her tonfa up, long sides pointing away from herself instead of resting at the undersides of her arms. Her grenade stash had run dry already, so the girl had only her baton-like blades to rely upon.
"It's a tier-III grimm, it has special abilities," Rea answered the undirected question. "Luckily, it's one of the less powerful, catalogued ones." Her gun was trained on the wooden wall, waiting for the Drythd to reengage.
"Luckily?" Weiss asked disparagingly. "That thing's a tier-III grimm! We're not even scout-ranked Hunters yet! At least a few Huntsmen ranked huntser are needed to take on a grimm like this, even if it is a weaker one! We only just managed to take care of those tier twos and we still needed eight of us to do so!"
"Weiss is right," Ruby surprisingly found herself agreeing. "This thing is way out of our league. Not to mention, I'm running on fumes right now."
"So, we cut and run then? What about the satchels?" Jaune asked.
"This thing's a tier-III, which means it's somewhat intelligent," Rea said. "It probably found the objective point and set up a trap for anyone who went there."
"You sure know a lot about this thing," Tharum said. His gaze was locked on the surrounding bushes and trees, and his large sword grasped tightly in both of his hands. If he hadn't been so preoccupied by watching their flanks, he probably would have eyed Rea suspiciously.
"I've read the Grimmuths no Lexica back-to-back. Drythds are classified as Tier-IIIs mainly for their floromancy, control over plants. They're typically ambushers, meaning that they're on the back foot for direct confrontations. If Blake hadn't warned us about the flowers, we well could have walked straight into this thing's trap."
"But you're the one who recognized the flowers for what they were, Rea. You're as much as our saviour!" Ruby told her friend encouragingly.
Rea, despite hre currently serious and focused demeanour, still succumbed to her shy and bashful social nature and couldn't help but blush at Ruby's kind words. "N-not right now, Ruby. We need to focus; it could show up at any-"
No sooner had Rea begun speculating than vines had lashed out, unseen, from further into the Emerald forest straight at Pyrrha. The Mistral champion spun quickly, cutting the vines with the sharpened edge of her shield and stopping them short before they could restrain her. Seemingly unrelenting in its attack, the grass grew underneath Yang's feet and attempted to tie itself around her feet and root Yang to the ground. Pulsing her aura, Yang used Enhancement to strengthen the muscles in her legs and tear them away from the unnaturally strong grass one by one.
"Where the fuck is this thing? I seriously am getting the burning need to punch its stupid goat face in." Yang cursed.
"I dunno, I can't see it anywhere!" Nora called back, looking around wildly as her hammer swung to follow her gaze. The fingers on one of her hands were stretched ready to pull the lever on the hammer's shaft and allow it to discharge a dust blast.
"We need to keep our guard up!" Mars said. "It took the first chance it had when we began to go lax!"
"That'd make sense if it were an ambusher. Just needs to wait so that the ambush will work." Jaune said. Everyone turned to look at him in surprise. Jaune looked back at all of them with his own surprise. "What? My dad took me hunting as a kid!"
This brief window of distraction at Jaune's sudden and unexpected wisdom was enough for the Drythd, which burst out of the grassy carpeted earth. It was like it had burrowed out of the ground, but its exit hole only went as deep as the short grass roots did. It seemed it was more swimming through the grass than burrowing through soil. But its attack wasn't simply coming out of the floor to say, 'How do you do?'. It was more along the lines of soaring towards a relatively defenceless and currently unarmed Ruby. Seeing this herself, Ruby pushed what little aura left she had into using Enhancement on her leg to increase its strength when she sidestepped the attack.
But it wasn't enough, because whilst Ruby had strengthened her leg, she hadn't enough aura to spare in completing the technique and reinforcing the leg to withstand the superhuman movement. This led to her crying out in pain as the muscles in her leg tore and what was meant to be a graceful sidestep turned into a rough dive into the dirt. Not wasting any time, the team reopened fire at the grimm, bullets propelled by dust powder whizzing through their air. But the Drythd hadn't planned to stick around because as soon as it had missed ruby it dove down, back into the grass.
"Ruby!" Four different voices called in distress. Yang, Rea, Jaune and Mars rushed forward to aid their friend (and sister in Yang's case). Jaune and Yang helped the young girl up, making sure she wasn't putting any weight on the leg she tried to use to jump. Whilst the thing wasn't damaged in any serious way, it hurt worse than if a Frontier scorch wasp had stung Ruby. The torn muscles could be likened to that of a workout to end all workouts, and the body part was now acutely aware of any and all pressure on itself.
Now not only was Ruby on her last dregs of aura before being able to replenish it, but she was also immobile in half of her legs. Practically the definition of useless as far as a Hunter was concerned. Or, at least, as far as Ruby herself was concerned. By this point, Ruby felt like she was just dead weight to everyone. She always did this, getting too confident in herself. She did it when she fought Roman, and she did it again now.
Ruby clenched her gloved fist. She had to make this right.
They had enough satchels for most of them to get away. Ruby was fifteen, she wasn't even supposed to be here, she could swallow having to wait another two years to apply again. But she could ask three other people to go down with her! She knew this was Yang's dream, and Ruby would never ask that of her. The same went for Rea, Jaune and Mars, they were Ruby's new friends, and she would make them fail on her account. But nonetheless, Ruby had to make the suggestion.
"Guys…" she began slowly. "I don't think we're going to be able to win this fight."
"Wha- Ruby! Don't say that!" Rea protested.
"But it's true. Weiss is right, we aren't strong enough to fight something this powerful. We're used to grimm that act like wild animals and the worst thing about them is maybe one or two mutations. We aren't ready to fight something that thinks like us and has powers like us."
Everyone wanted to deny it, say that they could take it, that they could do what they were sent here for: to become hunters. But nobody did. Because no one had any illusions about the truth of the girl's words.
"Look, we already have six satchels. I…" Ruby choked up for a moment. The tear she was holding back was tough to do so. This was her one dream in life, and she was about to give up a chance at it. "I think it'd be best if some of us sent up our flares. The hunters proctoring will be able to handle the Drythd, I know that Uncle Six is one of them and he's a Jaeger-ranked hunter."
"Wait, Uncle Six?! That Guy's your uncle?!" Weiss exclaimed loudly in shock. She then got a claw swipe at her for her distraction, like the dorsal fin of a shark swimming just out of the water. Weiss, with proficiency and grace, easily created a glyph under her so that she'd be harmlessly thrown straight up into the air, avoiding the raking claws by a less than considerable margin.
"Keep focus Frost Top!" Mars admonished. Weiss grumbled but didn't reply back with her usual biting remarks. "Ruby, what are you saying?"
Mars had asked a question. She really didn't want to have to, but she did. Because she didn't want to even consider the answer she already knew was coming.
"I'm saying that the safest way out of this is for some of us to choose failing," Ruby said the words nobody wanted to hear. "And I won't make any of you do it, but, I will. I've already come here two years earlier, I can wait just like the rest of you did."
The following silence was palpable. Everyone was stunned at Ruby's words, the only cognition they retained was for watching out for the Drythd. From the moment they had met Ruby, she had always seemed to be the biggest dreamer of them all. To become what the girl herself had described as 'A real hunter'. She believe that she truly could do good in the world they lived in, and would let nothing short of an act of Ani to stop her. And yet here she was, forced to sacrifice that dream for some time so that she could fulfil that very same dream, and protect them. It was… jarring, to say the least. And nobody had any clue, big or small, as to what to say.
All except, Rea. And that was a simple two-letter word.
"No." She said. It shattered the silence like a sledgehammer through glass.
Each and every face there turned to stare at the normally shy and timid girl.
"No, Ruby. You're not." Rea added.
"I-I'm not?" Ruby stuttered. It was like she and Rea had switched speaking voices.
"No. Because this isn't you. Because you are amazing, Ruby Rose. When I came here, I was worrying about everything. I mean everything. I wouldn't have lasted to make it to the assembly, I would have chickened out and ran straight back home. I can't do a lot of this stuff, the only thing I can is the fighting. But You helped me do the other stuff. You helped show me that I wasn't alone, despite coming here by myself. You showed me that I could connect to people who weren't my family. And you certainly didn't give up on me when I ran or hid from someone that I was scared of interacting with!"
Everyone glanced at Weiss.
"You stood by me and told me, without speaking, that you'd be there for me. So I'm going to be here for you now, Ruby. We are going to get through this. We are all going to succeed and get accepted into Beacon Academy for Hunters. And most of all, we not-even-scouts-yets, are going to kill this tier III grimm!"
The Drythd, believing Rea to be sufficiently distracted enough, lunged at her from straight out of the wood from a tree. Rea, however, was not in the slightest distracted. Without even breaking eye contact with Ruby, Rea had raised her arm and discharged a shot from her weapon that stuck the grimm. It only hit one of its antlers, and it wasn't very damaging, but the cry of distress it let out as it sank back into the undergrowth was as invigorating as a stadium cheering for the young to-be hunters.
"So, get up Ruby! It's time to do your job and be a hunter!"
And so Ruby, despite the screaming pain in her leg, stood up.
They had a grimm to kill.
If you see any mistakes I've made, please tell me so that I can fix them.
Till next time!