The Hunt Begins... But Who is The Hunted?
The time for the field trip has arrived. After some inspiring words from Ozpin, and a really gloomy return of Team CFVY, the first year students were getting ready for their trips. Team LSBL were going with Byleth, a very strong and skilled Huntress, who is also one of Ozpin's most trusted allies. However... Team RWBY's huntsman, who was going to be in charge of them during their trip, was not the one they expected. And they currently had horrified faces upon seeing their guide for the week.
"Professor Oobleck?" Weiss asked in surprise.
It was indeed Oobleck, and the fast talking teacher paces in front of the students "Yes, I'm afraid those bags won't be necessary, girls, seeing as you've opted to shadow a Huntsman on what is now essentially a reconnaissance mission. I can assure you, we will not be establishing a single base of operations; rather, we will be traversing several miles of hazardous wasteland and making camp in any defendable locations we may stumble upon. I packed all of our essentials myself, plotted our air course, and readied the airship. And..." He zooms up right to Weiss' face "It's Doctor Oobleck. I didn't earn the PhD for fun, thank you very much!".
He quickly backs away as Weiss looks over at Blake Belladonna, who is equally disturbed "Uh...".
"Come now, children; according to my schedule, we are already three minutes behind! ...Schedule!" Oobleck said as he zips off to the airship docked farther ahead in a second.
Ruby tried to be positive and upbeat before suddenly becoming as depressed as her team halfway through "Well, alright, then! Looks like we're going to save the world with Doctor Oooobleck- okay yeah when you say it out loud it sounds worse".
"Save the world?" Ruby's team turns around to see Nora and Team JNPR approaching "You're going on world-saving missions without us? I'm hurt... sad! Maybe a little hungry? That last one's not your fault, though, Ren...".
She glares at her partner who crosses his arms and turns away with his eyes closed.
"Sounds exciting. Where ya going?" Jaune asked.
"Oh, just outside the kingdom..." Ruby answered.
"Hey! So are we!" Nora said happily.
"Ren and Nora wanted to shadow the sheriff of a nearby village" Pyrrha said.
"We set out tomorrow" Ren finished.
"Then you can party with us tonight!" Neptune and Sun approach the two groups "We're shadowing a crime specialist. All inner-city detective stuff. We get junior badges".
Jaune is awestruck as Sun speaks "We normally go to the city with you guys, which means stuff's always exploding and junk, so we thought this might be a better way to check out the kingdom when it's, you know... normal".
"Sure, because you guys are so normal" Came the sarcastic voice of Severa as she and her team approached.
"Hey, what's up?" Ruby asked.
"We just wanted to wish you luck before we head out. Luckily Professor Byleth told us it was ok, as long as we were quick" Lucina answered.
Oobleck appears from the airship to call to Team RWBY, who are embarrassed "Four minutes, ladies!"
He goes back inside as the friends smile awkwardly at the girls.
"Now I am jealous. You guys are going out with an awesome Huntress like Byleth, while we get stuck with him" Yang said in a slightly annoyed tone.
"You know Byleth?" Lyre asked.
"Not personally, no. But our Uncle has told us a few stories about her" Yang answered.
"Yeah, he said Byleth is one of the best sword fighters in the world. And that her weapon is really cool!... Wish I could've seen it in action" Ruby said in disappointment.
"Well, at least you 4 are going to go looking for those who are causing trouble around Vale. We are just hunting a grimm" Severa said.
"A grimm dangerous enough for Ozpin to send Byleth with us. I don't think our mission will be any less dangerous" Lucina reminded.
"I really don't want to go on this field trip..." Bernadetta whined.
"Bernie, we could be sent on a vacation to a paradise, and you still wouldn't want to go" Lyre pointed out.
Bernadetta glares at her "That's not true. Spending alone time in my own private room would be paradise".
Severa sighs "My partner everyone...".
Everyone chuckled a little at that before Oobleck was heard again "5 Minutes ladies!... No wait, 6 minutes!".
"Looks like it's time to go. Wish us luck!" Ruby said.
"I have a feeling you will need it" Severa said before looking at Blake "Be careful out there".
Blake smiles at her girlfriend "You don't need to worry about me, Severa".
"I always worry about you" Severa admitted.
Blake walked up to her and took her hand "I will be fine, Severa. I promise".
Severa blushed, but smiled back "I know...".
"Now kiss!" Sun suddenly said, earning blazing glares from the two lovers, but luckily Neptune did them the favor of smacking Sun on the head.
Yang chuckled before looking at Bernadetta "You be careful too Bernie".
"Oh, yes, I will... You too" Bernadetta said with a blush, making Yang smile, happy for the response.
"Don't get reckless out there Lyre" Weiss said in a serious tone, but with a hint of concern.
Lyre giggled "Ahh, you do care about me!".
Weiss blushed and looked away "Shut up".
"8 Minutes!" Oobleck shouted, and this time he sounded really annoyed.
"Right! We better go!" Ruby said.
With that, the friends disband, either back to Beacon Academy or towards their mission. Little did everyone know, these field trips would be more than they bargained for. And as has become quite a patern for them, things rarely goes as planned.
On their way to their destination, Byleth was giving the briefing for their mission "Alright, as I'm sure you girls already know, a particularly dangerous grimm has been sighted in an old abandoned village. Our task is to hunt it down and kill it before it reaches any populated areas".
"We also heard we were picked for this mission specifically. Why?" Lucina asked.
Byleth looks at her "Because, we believe it could be the same grimm you four fought during your initiation".
The team got wide eyes and Lucina was the one to speak "You mean The Beast?".
"Impossible! We sent that thing of a cliff! There is no way it could've survived that fall" Severa said.
"Unfortunately, some grimm don't die so easily. I've learned from my time as a huntress that unless you see their bodies disappearing, assume they could still be alive" Byleth said.
"Easy? We barely survived the last time we fought it!" Bernadetta said, sounding scared.
"As much as I hate to say this... Bernie is right. We lucked out in that fight" Lyre admitted.
"That might be true, but remember this: We are not the same girls we were back then. Last time we fought the beast, we had only just met and we were going in to the fight with no real team experience and we had no idea what kind of monster we were facing. But this time is different. We are much stronger now than we were back then, we trained hard to function as a team, and we know what we are up against this time. We don't need luck this time, I know we can beat it, because we are a team" Lucina declared, earning stunned looks from her team.
Severa then smirked "Well well, you are really channeling your inner leader. But you're right, this time we will make sure that monster stays down".
"Yeah! No one can stop us as long as we fight together!" Lyre said with new confidence.
"Well, I guess as long as we are together, we'll be fine" Bernadetta said, sounding less nervous.
Byleth gained a ghost of a smile from the sight. She could see why Lucina was the leader, her words are truly inspiring. She only hoped the four girls were up for the challenge ahead of them. Soon their airship arrived near an abandoned village, which looked like a ghost town now. It hovers right above the ground as everyone jumps out of the craft with weapons drawn, minus Byleth who simply looked around calmly before motioning to the pilot and the ship flies away from the ruined village.
"This is a scary place" Bernadetta said.
"You will have to overcome your fear quickly, Bernadetta. Otherwise you risk attracting grimm to our location" Byleth said as she took a few steps forward before turning around to face the team "Alright, you all know why we are here. We will search this area for any signs of the grimm we are after, but feel free to clear out any other grimm you find. If we are lucky, we can secure the area and use it against our target. But if you do locate The Beast, do not try to fight it alone. You will fall back and contact the rest of us right away. This beast is to dangerous to defeat alone".
"Understood!" The team said.
"And be warned, the signal is weak out here. If you can't reach the rest on your scrolls, then go find someone instead. Do not try to be a glory seeker, this is a team effort" Byleth said, wanting to make it very clear how serious this mission was.
"We will, Professor, don't worry" Lucina assured.
Byleth nods and they head in to the village, slightly splitting up, but not going to far away from each other. Lucina looks around for a bit until she heard growls. She looked and saw several Beowolves. She narrowed her eyes and readied her sword. The small pack of grimm charged at her, she side stepped one and cut of it's head at the same time. She then quickly spun around, cutting the next Beowolf in half, before delivering a downward slash which killed the third Beowolf. She looked and saw the last and biggest Beowolf running at her. She ran towards it herself, and just as it leaps at her, she leans back and slides on her legs while holding up her sword, successfully cutting the grimm in half. She took a moment to make sure everyone were dead before continuing on.
Meanwhile, Severa was doing her own searching before a Ursa showed up and attacked her. Not even bothering to look at it, Severa simply held out her sword, making the Ursa run chest first in to it, killed by it's own reckless charge. Severa pulled her sword free before she noticed and Ursa Major coming towards her. She narrowed her eyes and readied herself. The large bear grimm towered over her and brought it's large paw down towards her. Changing her weapon in to it's shield mode, Severa blocked the blow before forcing the grimm's arm to the side. She delivered a back flip kick to the Ursa's jaw, making it lean back, and as Severa came back down, she changed her weapon back in to it's blade mode and stabbed right through the Ursa's neck, killing it on the spot. Severa sighed before continuing on.
Meanwhile, Lyre had climbed on to the rooftops to see if she could spot anything from higher ground. As she scouted the area she felt the roof was starting to crack. She leaps out of the way as a King Taijitu burst through the roof. Lyre smirked, she always wanted to take down one of these snake looking grimm. She dodged a bite from the Black head and ran across it's body towards the White head, which tried bite her, but she avoids it, tricking it in to biting it's own body. Lyre then leaps on the white head and and claws at it, making it shake it's head in anger and pain, trying to shake her of. But Lyre clawed it's eyes, blinding it, and as it swings it's head around in pain, it accidentally impales it's head on a large and sharp wooden piece of a destroyed building. The Black head launched at Lyre with's mouth wide open, but Lyre leaps in to it's mouth and used her semblance to cut it's head of from the inside. She had fun killing the monster, but she needed to keep going.
With Bernadetta, she had her bow ready as she nervously searched for any signs of the Beast, secretly hoping she wouldn't find it. As she looked around, a swarm of small Nevermores flew out of nowhere and began attacking quickly. Thanks to Bernadetta always keeping an eye out for danger, she spotted them in time and quickly fired some arrows, which successfully killed several of the small grimm. The few she didn't hit came closed to her, forcing her to use her bow as a melee weapon and she hit all of them away without anyone managing to scratch her, some where even killed by the force of her blows. She tried to catch her breath, only for a Beowolf to show up and attacked her. Bernadetta yelped in surprise as she dodged it's attacks, almost falling. She grabbed a sharp rock and stabbed it in to the Beofwolf's eye, causing it to howl in pain. It roars in rage, but that proved to be a bad move as a fire arrow went down it's throat and blew it's head of. Bernadetta could finally catch her breath... she really did not like fighting.
After their clashes with the grimm, the team had not found any traces of The Beast. They decided to regroup and find Byleth... when they did, they saw her put her sword away while being surrounded by dead grimm. They looked impressed to see that she took down so many by herself. Then again, what else can one expect from such a skilled huntress?
Byleth looked at them "Did you find anything?" The team shook their heads "Then it's clear the Beast is not in this area. Let's call it a day. We will resume our search tomorrow".
"Can't believe we didn't find anything" Lyre said.
"No kidding. The Beast is bigger than some of these housed. How hard could it be to find something that size?" Severa asked.
Bernadetta fidgeted with her fingers "I'm... honestly in no rush to fight that monster again".
Lucina sighs "Regardless, we need to find it and stop it before it hurts anyone. But Byleth is right, we should rest up and see if we can find it latter".
Everyone nods before they follow Byleth.
Elswere, The Beast was moving through the forest, searching for someone to kill. The wind blew over it, causing it to stop. It smelled the air and detected five sents... and it recognized four of them. Letting out a growl the Beast looked in the direction of the ruined village in the distance. It then let out a quick roar before it began moving towards the village. It was time to get some revenge on the girls who nearly killed it all those months ago.
Soon enough, the rematch of The Huntresses vs The Beast, would begin.
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Tell me what you think.
