Sorry for my bad English. Ruby still is on the led in the poll. I will close the poll soon so if have a chance for you girl to be with Ceodore, still have chance. This chapter will be a bit longer than usual since is a bit special one. Is a chapter that I wanted to write make a while and finally is here.
Enjoy it.
Miles and Ceodore were always being chased by bounty hunters, militaries soldiers and huntsmens. But there times that they end entering into the enemies territory by accident. Miles stopped his walk making Ceodore stop as well. The Dark Knight look around in the forest feeling that old sensation of being observed.
-Ceodore. -Miles began. -Get ready.
After his warning, some armed mans and women appear around both Knight and apprentice. In the middle of them come a woman wearing a grimm mask. Miles stood without move but the woman makes Ceodore shudder a little.
-Look what we have here. -The masked woman spoke. -Do you know where you both put the feet?
-No and if you and your friends there don't want to waste my time and your lives, will let us alone.
-Oh! Is this a threat? -The woman answered.
-You will gain nothing with a battle that can not be won. Leave now or face your destiny.
The woman just pointed her katana against Miles.
-It seems that the destiny is your death.
Her answer makes Miles grab his axe. Ceodore did the same with his sword.
-Very well.
And began.
Beacon
Courtyard
The sun raises in the team CNVL gathered in the front door of the Academy to continue their unofficial mission and look around for the crusader. But since the morning Ceodore have a strange feeling in his gut.
-Ceodore? -And is something that his partner notice. -Is something wrong?
-N-nothing. It just... I have a strange feeling in my gut.
-Feeling? -Nora asked coming with Ren. -Do you need go to the infirmary?
-No. I feel like something is... wrong?
-Whatever is, it is better for you to ignore for now. -Ren said. -We have someone to find, remember?
Yeah. He knows. He need stop that Crusader who would hurt an innocent just because of him. He needed to put a stop in this. The day before was a total failure, Ceodore and his teammates were not able to find a single clue about the attacker so he hopes that on today's day their luck got better. This wasn't the case when team CNVL start to hear the sounds of sirens coming from the city. Not only that but have smoke coming from somewhere in the town.
-What is going on there? -Ceodore asked.
-Seems like trouble. -Pyrrha spoke after him. -We should look to see if we could help.
-Uhh. Can't I leave the Academy, remember? -Ceodore said. The team adopted a sad expression then the leader spoke again. -Look, if you guys want to check the town, go ahead. I can look around and find any more clues.
-Are you sure? -Pyrrha asked worrying about leaving Ceodore alone with someone after him.
-Hey! You know who I am. It needs more than a guy in a fancy armor to take me down.
With that Nora take her leader in a bearhug, happy to be able to see action even if he can't. She runs to the Bullhead followed by her childhood friend who did not give a look on the apprentice. Pyrrha walks after them before give a last look at Ceodore.
-Don't do anything stupid.
And he gives the thump for her. She smiled and entered into the ship with the rest of her team. The ship flies away leaving the apprentice alone at the school. Not far from where Ceodore is, Cinder and Emerald also heard the sirens.
-You don't think... -Emerald spoke. It seems to be what the girls were thinking. -But is still days away.
-How is Mercury? -Cinder ask.
-He still will be unable until the night. -Emerald said as she swore heard him screaming again. -So what now?
Cinder start to think.
Vale
What started as a beautiful day in Vale become a battle for survival. Team RWBY found themselves in the middle of the grimms after the train crashed in Vale, making an opening and releasing the monsters in the town. Just one team against all of them. Roman watched from afar all the situation. Of course, he will have to explain the reasons for the plan start early for his hirer, but this didn't take away the smirk on his face.
-Ahh! Look. -He began. -Nothing like seeing your job well done and running. Now, tell me Fido, how long until the experiment be ready for action?
-Tell will arrive soon. -Fido said as Neo have her arms around his waist. He decides to ignore her for now. -But what will be the guinea pigs for this?
Fido asked. Roman just give to him binoculars so he could see. He looks around all the destruction the grimms were causing and spotted one of them destroying a clothing store. After five seconds looking around, he found team RWBY.
-Nothing better to use as guinea pigs than some annoying insects to our lab rats. -Roman said as he lit a cigar. -Now just sit down and enjoy. The show will begin soon.
Fido did that and Neo sit by his side and laying her head on his shoulder. On the beginning, Fido didn't mind the actions of the ice cream girl, but now is start to annoy him, but say something would be the same as writing a death wish. Where did Roman found a girl like her?
Back to team RWBY, the girls did a good job getting rid of the grimms, but only about ten percent of who were invading Vale. Their stamina was getting to the limit. A King Taijitu was ready to attack Ruby. Before she could arm Crescent Rose to fight, she heard a scream.
-YEEEHAAAA!
Was Nora who appears flying and smashing her hammer in the snake grimm's head. With her, the rest of CNVL minus Ceodore appear.
-Let's move! -Pyrrha shout.
After the order, the team starts to kill every grimm who was foolish enough to try their luck against them. Not so long after that, Sun with his partner Neptune appear.
-Nobody move! -Sun began. -Junior detective!
-We have badges! -Neptune spoke after him. -So you know it's official!
They share a bro fist after that, but their entrance was interrupted by the sounds of engines. Both boys look to the sky and watched in awe the ships from Atlas Army taking the skies of the city. Team RWBY also watch the ships in the sky leaving Ruby distracted for a moment, but the chance the grimm have to a surprise attack was screwed by shots from one of the ships. The ship open the doors and a small army of droids land in the streets to help the huntress in training get rid of the monsters. Cinder cocked her head to Emerald and the thief smile. While her leader was going to take care of business she has some time to have some fun with those mindless beasts.
The shots of her weapon easily killed some grimms and she has to go in close quarter combat with one of them. In the hole in the middle of the city Zwei, Ruby's pet dog appear and stomp a Beowulf's head but his entrance also was interrupted by another Bullhead appearing in the sky, this time with Professor Port on board with team CFVY. Not a minute after they landed in the city, they start to defend themselves against the grimms and easily killing them.
-Nice hustle, Fox. -The leader Coco Adel spoke. -Good job. -She casually walks and was confronted by a Beowulf who gives a roar. Not affected by the display of anger she just lowers her sunglasses. -You just destroyed my favorite clothing store. -She spits before continue to talk. -Prepare to die.
The grimm try hit her with his claw only to be parried by her purse. She proceeds to kick him in a very sensible area and ending his life crashing his head on the floor. More grimm come after her and she sends almost all of them flying away with a strike. When the Death Stalker come she have to jump back to dodge his tail. Velvet stand on her side and was ready to use her weapon.
-Hey, come on. -But was interrupted by her leader. -You spend all semester building that up. Don't waste here.
With that, her purse becomes a minigun. Coco opens fire and kills almost all grimms around the street and the sky. Zwei walks back to Doctor Oobleck and Professor Port by his side. They both nodded to each other and open fire against their enemies. In the side of the dead grimms, walking with an annoyed expression was Glynda. She didn't even give a glance to the grimms she sends flying. Instead, she focused in fix the damage in the middle of the city. The hole was quickly fixed thanks to her semblance, almost like didn't have a crash early.
The grimms were defeated after that, or they thought.
Back to Roman, he watched everything and still was smiling.
-How long now Fido?
-Let me see. -Fido said as he looks at his watch. -Just riiiiiiiiiight... now.
Beacon
Ceodore was walking around the school and still looking for the Crusader. But his search was interrupted by a very familiar sensation.
Cold.
The cold run through his spine and the source were coming from behind him. Was coming from Vale.
-Oh no...
Vale
After Glynda fixed the hole in the middle of the town she let a sigh. Sometimes she didn't like to have her semblance.
But her thoughts were interrupted by something make force to reopen the hole. She used her semblance to hold whatever was trying to come but failed. The crash from the reopened hole caught the attention of everyone around who watched five dark figures jump from it and land on the streets. They were five Beowulves, but not like the grimms they saw before.
Their bodies were smaller than a normal Beowulf, almost a human size just a bit bigger. They bodies more humanoid than the others. Their claws were smaller but anyone around could tell that were sharp, very sharp. Their red eyes were dark than normal. They would be called werewolves if didn't have spikes on their shoulders and their ribcages weren't in full view above their skin like some kind of armor.
-Professor Port. -Oobleck called. -What kind are Beowulves those ones?
-I... I don't know. -Port spoke. -I never see those type in my entire life.
The grimms stared at the humans at the humans around and were drooling. One of them looks direct at Glynda who felt a chill run through her spine after look direct at his eyes. He opened his jaw and from the middle start to appear a dark energy ball with electricity running around. Glynda didn't wait to see what he was going to do and shot with her semblance against the monster but was too late. The grimm shot the dark ball what dissipated her shot and go direct to her, she raised a barrier for protection but the shot was stronger than she thought and didn't expect the explosion what throw her away. She hit her back on the wall and fall in her back. The scene shocked the three teams.
-Glynda! -Both Port and Oobleck screamed.
Oobleck runs after Glynda only to be tackled in a middle way by another of those Beowulfs. The monster holds the professor on the floor by the head on the floor with his claw and raised his other to attack, but a shot interrupted him. He looks in the direction the shot come from and his eyes caught the silver eyes of Ruby. Faster than the eye could see, the grimm run in the direction of the reaper only to be stopped by Yang. She starts to punch the grimm's chest and in that time she discovered that the exposed ribcage could be used as an armor for the monster.
It was like she was punching an iron armor.
The grimm hold her by the arms and for the surprise of rest of the team headbutt her away. Coco shrugs off the surprise and armed her minigun against one of the Beowulves. The one she targeted run in her direction and the moment her minigun open fire, the Beowulf was with one of his legs in the minigun, shocking Coco from how fast they could move. Distracted by the surprise the Beowulf kicked her away in the street, but his attack was stopped by the samurai who blocked the attack with his sword, but the strike was stronger than he thought.
He blocked blows from Beowulves before but this one was stronger than an Ursa. He opens his jaw and focused the same dark energy what blow Glynda away. Fox punched his jaw before he could shot but the head didn't move a millimeter. Coco notices that and enters in panic.
-Move! -She screamed.
The team moves a second before the energy was shot. The dark ball hit the floor creating an explosion and a second hole in the street. At this point everyone around notices that those grimms were stronger than the normal ones.
Pyrrha move in the direction of the fourth Beowulf with her sword in the rifle mode. She knew that the grimm would be able to dodge, she just wanted to measure the speed of her opponent. This grimm is fast, very fast. Once in front of her, she transforms her weapon in a spear and blocks his strike with some effort. Ren moves to his side and shot him with his guns causing no effect on him. Not knowing what the Beowulf could do, Ren was caught by surprise by an attack with the tail, sending him away.
-Ren! -Nora shout then rushed against the grimm.
The Beowulf take a blow from the hammer but with his paw opened, distracted Pyrrha take the opportunity to cut his belly with little effect. The fur also was hard to cut. The grimm hold Nora by the head and throw her in Pyrrha sending both girls to the floor. He jumped against the girls and Pyrrha uses her semblance to hit him with Nora's hammer, but was enough only to hold him for a second, was enough to give Pyrrha and Nora time to roll of the way before he cold dug his claws in one of the girls. Ren recovered from the attack and start to cut the grimm with the blades of his guns, only to the grimm block with his wrists. They are not only stronger and faster, they also are smarter. The grimm kicked Ren in the chest and stomped him on the floor. He opens the jaw and the energy again starts to be focused in his mouth.
Ren was saved by Professor Port who hit the grimm with his axe with force enough to move his head away from Ren's direction. The energy flew away and blew up a building nearby. Team RWBY wasn't better than any of them, Weiss has just frozen the grimm with her ice and he easily broke it. Her ice was strong enough to hold even a Nevermore in the place, but this Beowulf was able to destroy her ice with his strength and seemed not make any effort to do it. He charged at the heiress and hit her with his claw, only for her disappear right in the place. Blake appears behind him and starts to cut him from head to toe with her sword, but he was fast enough to kick her away. Ruby used her semblance to attack the grimm, she is faster than Blake so the grimm could not get her so easy. Ruby was just distracting him so her sister could land a full power blow in his chin. The grimm was sent flying away and crashed on the floor.
-Did we? -Weiss asked.
The girls wait to see and the Beowulf got up, cracked the neck and look back at the girls.
Back to Glynda, she has covered herself in a bubble with her aura to block strikes from the grimm who attacked her. She creates a wave with her aura with enough force to repeal the grimm so she could leave the gain some space. She covered half of the grimm with ice but like Weiss, he broke with no problem. The Beowulf charged another shot against the witch who charged a ball of fire to counter attack. Both shots were fired and collide exploding, creating a huge smoke screen. From the screen, the Beowulf charged against the Glynda and she raises an ice wall to protect herself. The ice wall was easily broken but Glynda disappeared. The Beowulf sniffed the air for a moment and then, stuck his claw in the air where Glynda just appeared from nothing dodging his attack. She raises her crop and a pillar of ice cover the Beowulf. The pillar keeps growing until become bigger than the buildings around and then, charged another fireball and shot at the grimm. The explosion was strong enough to create a shockwave breaking the glasses around. The monster falls in the street like a meteor but got up like just receive a weak blow.
-What are those grimms? -Glynda asked in low voice.
Oobleck holds himself well against the grimm and was receiving help from the droids of Atlas, but the machines proved to be useless against such powerful monster. Their weapons were doing no effect and the Beowulf was easily cutting them like they were toys. Didn't take too long for all of them be destroyed.
-Did he destroy all those droids in such little time? -Oobleck asked not believing in what he saw.
Back to CNVL, they were running around the Beowulf trying to confuse him. This makes grimm angry and he let a roar, a very loud roar, loud enough to make the three huntsmen in training cover their ears in a vain effort to protect themselves from the sound. Pyrrha, Ren and Nora were on their knees, giving the grimm a chance to charge again against one of the students. He opens his jaw and shot the dark energy like a Gatling gun around. The team has to split to dodge the attack. The explosion left for the attack called the attention of everyone around.
Blake watches the smoke where team CNVL was a second ago and almost was caught in their enemies' claw if Sun didn't have blocked the attack with his bo staff. The money was pushed a few feets away and he put his arms together, using clones of his aura to try to hold the grimm. He uses a lot of clones.
-Open fire! -Ruby shout and her all her team shot against him at the same time.
The Beowulf destroy all the clones and was hit by the shots. Shot after shot the grimm was becoming even more angrier. He let a roar not so loud like the other but was enough to distract the girls and Sun, but not Neptune who sneak behind him and stab him with his trident, electrocuting him. But for the boy's surprise, the grimm was able to move despite being electrocuted. He grabbed the trident and throw Neptune on Sun. Blake charged at him but was stopped by Port.
-Girls. It is obvious that grimm is too much for huntress in training to take care. Take the others and leave.
-What?! But they are five and just one are giving you guys all that effort! -Ruby said trying to convince Port to let her team keep fighting. -You guys will need help.
-And I'm sure that the help is coming. -Port said with a calm tone what confused Ruby. -We just need to hold them for a while until they arrive. But for now, take the others and leave.
Truth to be told, she never faces a grimm that strong before. Not even the Nevermore from the initiation caused so much trouble for her and her team. She gives a look on CFVY who also was having difficult to fight against their Beowulf. But Port and Oobleck team up to fight against one and Goodwitch was also having difficult in her battle. She couldn't let them alone, neither her team.
-So let us help until the reinforcement come! -Ruby shout and all her team stood where they were.
Port let a sigh.
-Alright, but keep together. Not try to face him alone.
The girls nodded and resumed their fight. Oobleck joined Port and both them look to their opponent.
-What students we have this year, I am correct? -Oobleck asked.
-It seems that the next generation will be something, isn't it? -Port asked before both of them continued their battle.
Back at the CNVL, the things got even more worst for them. It seems that they didn't have enough firepower to cause a significant damage against the grimm. Nora's grenade launcher was too slow to hit the Beowulf and they could use dust to paralyze him. They couldn't ask for help from Weiss or Glynda since they were busy with their opponents. It seems that they could end the grimm for bad, only hold him until one of their allies defeat their opponents so they could help them. But was too late when the grimm changed another of those balls of energy. Seeing a chance, Pyrrha put her weapon in the rifle mode and shot straight at the ball, exploding in the grimm's face. The team have a sense of triumph but was short lived when the grimm release a wave of the same energy sending the three of them away. It was like they were hit by a big wave at the ocean. Ren and Nora landed close to each other and Pyrrha far from them.
Still dizzy after the attack, she was caught by the grimm by her arm. He sniffed her and drooled like just smelled his lunch. Pyrrha, however, was not the type to just let herself be killed like that. She purposely let herself be taken by the arm so she could be closer enough of the grimm and give an attack where didn't have any protection, his eye. She slashed his left eye with Milo, making the grimm scream but not loose the hold of the huntress in training. He looks at her with an expression that Pyrrha knew as anger. He throws Pyrrha at the floor with force and did again, again and again. The force was enough to make Pyrrha's vision like a blur. Then she felt something grab her by both legs, her world was upside down.
The grimm's paw starts to be covered by a dark energy and raised it to a fatal blow. Feeling dizzy after being throw at the floor so many times, Pyrrha couldn't move her body properly dodge. Ren and Nora watch in horror their friend be about to take a fatal blow from the monster's claw.
-Pyrrha! -Ren shout.
-No! -Nora shout.
But before the claw could make contact with the redhead, a sword attack lowered the blow enough to only cut part of Pyrrha's hair. Another attack sends the grimm away and releases the champion from his grip. With her vision returning, Pyrrha sees the familiar figure of her leader standing by her side.
-Ceodore? -She asks.
-Yeah. -He answers with a smile, then his expression turns serious as he looks at the grimm. -Make a while that I don't see one of those.
-Wait. You know what are those grimms? -She asked to him.
-Is not obvious? -Ceodore asked not averting his gaze from the Beowulf. -They are miasma grimms.
End of the chapter.
Miasma not can make people stronger but grimms as well. Ceodore finally left the academy but only because grimm infected with miasma appeared. What first tour huh? A final note, it seems that Pyrrha have a change in her appearance in this fic. If you want to know how exactly she is, the most close thing I can imagine is a comic about her and Jaune where she cut her hair so a boy can notices her, you know who is the boy right? If cannot find this comic just thing in her hair similar to Amber's hair.
That's all folks. Until next time.