Chapter Ten: Insane Stratagems

No sooner had Thea turned the corner, the beast came into view. Its hulking physique, massive stone club and horned visage were the first things Neo noted as it stomped towards her. Judging from its speed and visible strength, attempting to block any of its swings would be suicide. As such, the only option was to avoid its unpredictable thrashing and land in some hits of your own. Except…that thing had much, much more reach than Neo did. As such, getting close enough to strike would be a monumental task for most.

In the meantime, a pair of individuals stood above and observed the labyrinth through a plethora of screens. They stood together in the original chamber which had dropped the students into the trial grounds, with a holographic projection displaying everything. The first was, of course, Ozpin. The second was Glynda Goodwitch. The man took a short, amused sip of his hot cocoa, whilst the blonde stared in horror at what she was seeing.

"…You never planned for anyone to fight the Minotaur Grimm, did you?"

Ozpin merely sipped once again, acknowledging the question but not providing an answer.

"…Should we intervene? Make some kind of distraction to lure the creature away?"

"Professor Goodwitch, I know that you are concerned for our newest student. However, I fear the only creature in danger here is… the Grimm." Ozpin replied, before taking another sip of his drink, almost dismissive of Glynda's unease.

She pressed her lips together to ease the tension in her head, as well as keep herself from unleashing her poorly placed temper on the headmaster. He wasn't usually wrong about these matters but… Her eyes glanced back to the screen, watching as that creature flung its club around as if it were a child thrashing around a really cool stick that they had found. Dust, debris, and stones flew in every direction, making watching the screen that much harder as the cameras became more and more obscured with every swing of the mace. And yet, Neo seemed to be avoiding the brunt of each strike by a mere few centimetres, whilst blocking out most of the shrapnel with her opened parasol.

Still, it was surely only a matter of time before Neo would run out of stamina and take a heavy blow…right? And how long would it take for the cameras to be completely covered over in dust? At that point, they'd have to stick their heads into the labyrinth, themselves, just to get a visual.

It may not seem like it, but Neo did actually have a plan. As much as she didn't want to do it, she had little choice but to use her semblance at maximum power in order to summon in some hired help with ranged options. Whilst she could just use her semblance normally in order to distract the creature and get in a hit from the animal's blindside, doing so would immediately alert the creature and Neo wasn't confident that she could roll out of striking range before the Minotaur mounted a counterattack. Plus, her weapon wasn't exactly designed to take on large Grimm. Impaling Hush's blade all the way into a vital spot would be the only way to guarantee a one-hit-kill, but getting up there would be quite impossible for someone of her stature. Why was she waiting, then? Well, she didn't want her trump card to be common knowledge for anyone observing her. As such, she was going to use that creature to kick up some fog and dust in order to obscure any observers' views, quickly summon up some reinforcements, damage its legs and then jab it in the jugular. Job done, right?

Well, it was about to be… and then they showed up.

Neo had been doing amazing thus far, staying just out of the creature's striking range and basically running circles around him. Every time he went for a big overhead smash, she rolled to the side and then slid between his legs, getting in a small opportunistic slash across the beast's hoof-like ankles. It didn't really amount to much, but it would surely add up over time… or just keep the creature annoyed at her. That being said, it had been slowly adapting. Each move was slightly different than its previous incarnation, keeping the girl from just 'cheesing the boss fight' by memorising its attack patterns.

The girl had just narrowly dodged a particularly lethal horizontal swing by performing an elegant handspring. The stone club smashed into the wall and caused a massive hole to open up in it, sending shards flying ubiquitously. When the dust settled, Neo could make out a familiar pair. Thea and err… armour person. Why were they here? Was this revenge for when Thea had told Neo to attack but she had waited until she was needed? You know, the whole 'didn't I specifically tell you' cliché.

Urgh. Now we have to do this with actual reinforcements. Sure, that was technically a good thing; more people are more…err…good, I guess. However, that meant her reinforcements weren't sacrificial pawns. She had fully expected some of her illusionary armaments to become merely statistics and glass shards during the battle. But now, she had to go for a flawless victory, or nothing at all. And she couldn't tell for certain what the odds were. This was a gamble which no sane person would ever stake their life upon. And yet, here we were. Doing that exact thing, anyway.

Okay, time to formulate a game plan. Since the Grimm now has three targets, it cannot focus down one without ignoring the others. This will give the others time to close in or attack at range. However, Neo could not guarantee their safety after that massive pillar is swung in their direction. As such, she would just have to keep that creature's attention on her as long as possible.

In the meantime, the other two were pulling themselves together after just being blindsided by, of all things, a really crappy rock collection. Thea dusted herself off and hastily pointed her rifle at the creature, letting the laser sight leave a trail of icy shards embedded in the minotaur as it moved across its form. Each shot zoomed through the air like an icy hailstorm all of its own. Rylee hastened to ready their halberd and twirled it around with incredible finesse, before tossing it like a javelin. It soared through the air like an arrow as they chased after it and leapt into the air.

As the Minotaur swung its club at Neo, who effortlessly dodged out of the way with a nimble backwards leap, the halberd embedded deeply in the back of the creature's leg, before zipping upwards into Rylee's hands and slashing vertically across the lower back of the creature, just shy of that thrashing tail. They landed with a flourish, before narrowly avoiding being stomped on by an oversized hoof.

This strike drew the attention of the creature, who swung its oversized stone mace with a sudden jumping strike which shattered the ground where the devilish animal had been standing. It left a massive crater and shattered the floor beneath it, sending jagged debris in every direction, with Rylee seemingly being in the epicentre of the attack. Thea and Neo shared a moment of panic – not for themselves, however, – as they each took cover from the stone shards. Even with that incredible armour, surviving a hit like that would be extremely difficult.

"Ozpin, this is ridiculous! I told you that this challenge would be too difficult for the new students!" Glynda roared, standing up from her chair as she observed the poor-quality camera footage. Ozpin merely sipped his cocoa, as he always did, letting her continue. "The strength of that strike, alone, could level a building. Have you considered what that would do to a student?! We're talking about instantaneous death on impact or, if we're lucky, a massive concussion and many, many broken bones!"

"Glynda. You've watched these students study and participate in mock battles with one another for the past few days – with the exception of one – and you should know what they are capable of. Both physically… and mentally." Ozpin calmly replied, watching the camera footage. The woman was very confused at this statement. What was that supposed to mean? Even with their Aura, a strike like that would instantly deplete all of it and then follow through to cause irreparable damage.

And then, the smoke cleared. The strike had been blocked, with Rylee laying on the floor and holding the halberd horizontally. The damage to the ground was merely the result of a shockwave as the floor had begun to crumble underneath Rylee's body. How was this possible? Glynda peered closer and noticed that there were four floating shields, interlocking with Rylee's halberd as they lay flat on their back, pressing against the strength and weight of the massive stone club. At that moment, a fourth combatant rounded the corner, standing behind Neo.

"Oberon?!" Thea shouted in disbelief. "I thought you were going to stay behind!"

"Humph. If I did, I'd be an even worse teammate than you." He replied, emotionlessly.

'Way to ruin a touching moment with that award-winning attitude of yours,' Thea thought to herself, as she fired at the creature's eyes in order to distract it from crushing Rylee. It howled in pain as it surged backwards, allowing Rylee to get back onto their feet and out of harm's way. Those four shields floated over to Oberon, before darting into his pouch and taking out four individual uzi-like submachine guns. Each one was black like ebony and featured a relatively large clip size. The hands floated off with them, before peppering the Minotaur from all sides with a hail of traditional bullets.

The Minotaur swatted at the floating guns as if they were merely an annoying swarm of insects, but their movements were carefully micromanaged to evade the incoming flurry of strikes. As a result of the creature's attention being diverted, the group could finally begin to approach without immediate reprisal. Thea made her advance, shooting and reloading as she went. A heavy swing of the creature's club came straight at her, but she nimbly rolled to one side and continued firing. Upon getting close enough to the creature, her weapon folded back up into its blade form, and struck the creature in the ankle, cutting deeply and leaving a trail of ice in the blade's wake. The beast howled and hastily kicked Thea backwards before she could finish her manoeuvre. Her plan was probably to shatter the ice, completely debilitating the creature's right foot. A shame it did not come to fruition.

As Thea was sent backwards into the wall, Rylee made use of the time by hurling the halberd once again, planting it deeply into the creature's stomach. Then, as if the halberd were merely a marionette on a string, Rylee balled a hand into a tight fist and somehow caused the halberd to transform without touching it. The main pole of the weapon suddenly split into three, making it take the shape of an oversized crossbow. Rylee then thrust that fist forwards in a sudden lunge, causing the newly formed ballista to fire a shot directly into the creature's stomach. An intense bolt of lightning surged through the weapon, piercing through the creature's back, and surging through the body, deeply frying the creature's innards. Even with such dire wounds, the creature was still moving. Though it was sluggish, it swung the pillar down onto Rylee who was able to roll between its legs to avoid it.

In the meantime, Neo had not been merely sitting idly, of course. Whilst the other three had been distracting it, Neo had been working on a particularly flashy coup de grâce. As the creature looked upwards from its feet, it saw the mute girl running towards him, twirling her parasol as if she were a clockwork doll. The creature raised its club and swung it down hard, shattering the vision into dust-sized glass shards. With the creature's club embedded in the ground, the real Neo burst from the smoke and began running up the creature's arm, trailing her blade along the monster's arm as she ran. The Minotaur swatted at her with its free hand, but Neo dodged by unexpectedly diving off the side and grabbing onto Rylee's halberd which was still embedded in the creature's chest. Before the Minotaur could grab her, she suddenly propelled herself upwards, driving her blade into the creature's throat. However, the blade only sunk halfway.

And then, tragedy struck as the Minotaur smacked her entire dangling body with its open palm. It collided with intense force, crushing bone and tenderising flesh in an instant. However, once again, Neo had given the Minotaur the slip. When she had plunged the needle into its throat, she had immediately let go and left behind an illusionary double. She knew that she, herself, didn't have the brute strength needed to drive that nail into the coffin. But the corpse-to-be did. And so, as it attempted to strike Neo, it only plunged the blade in all the way. What an idiot. Then again, it was a Grimm. Those things weren't exactly renowned for their high intelligence.

Time slowed down as Neo began her fall from on high. In truth, she hadn't considered the descending part of her incredible plan. Maybe it was her who was the idiot all along. Her aura had run lower than she had expected, due to all that flying debris and the glancing blows she'd taken during her prolonged fight earlier. She began rapidly assessing her options.

One: Land on the creature. Nope, already not an option. It was falling backwards, and she was falling downwards. She was set to land inconveniently between its legs.
Two: Grab onto Rylee's halberd to help land on the creature and have a safer landing. Unfortunately, that halberd had already passed her. She had reached to its handle, but her fingers were just shy of it.
Three: Open Hush. Well, that was her usual go-to landing strategy. However, she seemed to be deprived of a handle. Ah. That was an issue.

Well, at least she could hope that a handsome Prince Charming would catch her. What do you mean it's not going to happen? Look, she can dream, okay?

And then, she felt the ground beneath her. It pressed firmly against her back, head, and heeled boots. You know…this floor is oddly soft, isn't it? Oh wait…had she been caught by her proverbial Prince Charming? Hmm…didn't feel like it. Had she somehow landed on someone, instead? Nah, it was too soft for that.

She begrudgingly opened her eyes, more out of curiosity than out of fear for her own life. Maybe she was already in the clouds, in front of whatever pearly gates or dubious doors awaited her. Nope. Alas, she was still here. Where was here? A blanket, floating slightly in the air, held aloft by…four floating hands. Oh no…she'd been protected from that jagged, cobblestone surface by the creepy guy. Urgh. Neo had a sinking feeling that he was going to demand the impossible from her as soon as this was all over, in recompense for him 'saving her life.' She could see it now. The obscene requests from doing his homework, to wearing questionable outfits.

"I can't believe you!" Glynda grumbled, her eyes seething with displeasure. "Do you have any idea how dangerous that was?! How could you possibly think that was an acceptable course of action?! We already have had one fatality this year! How many more children's funerals will make you realise that sending children to fight giant murderous animals, without training them first, is not a good business practice?!"

Perhaps predictably, or even comedically, Ozpin simply took a sip of his hot cocoa and let Glynda continue to rant for a while. Only when she had finished did he reply.

"These children do have training. If you recall, each one attended various combat schools before their arrival. Most of them built their own weapons, specifically for the task of killing the murderous menace which we refer to as the Grimm. They have all worked hard to be where they stand now. You know well that they understand what they have signed up for. They may be young, but they have each made that decision to become the future protectors of humanity, and Remnant as a whole. It is not an easy job, and lives are lost in the face of duty. I know that you are angry with me because I put their lives at risk, but I know what they are capable of, and I know their limitations."

"And how could you possibly know such things? It was me who took the time to supervise and advise their sparring lessons, you know? You merely handled the documentation side of things." Glynda frowned. "And, even then, only after I had to keep waking you up whenever you slacked off!"

"Oh, but that is where you are only half right. In their documentation, I see their achievements. Their goals. Their aspirations. Even some of their secrets. There was only one student who didn't have any documentation to speak of this year." Ozpin stated, taking another sip of his cocoa.

"I do hope you're not implying that you admitted that student. Think of the –"

"That student," he stated, pointing to the little girl wearing a hat and doing her best to retrieve the blade of her parasol from the neck of the Minotaur, "defeated Miss Nikos."

"Impossible! She's renowned across all of Remnant for her fighting prowess. Even at such a young age, she'd defeated trained and licensed huntsmen in tournament conditions! To lose to someone who, assumedly, hadn't even attended combat school is unthinkable!"

"I saw it with my own eyes. She shows incredible promise. Sure, she may not have the documentation which is normally required…but I could not afford to wait another year in order to nurture such talent."

Glynda just drew a long and deep breath, before rubbing her temples firmly with her fingers. Her emerald eyes glanced back over the small girl, who had nimbly put her blade into its parasol-esque sheathe, and then gotten dogpiled by the three other students who had risked their lives to come back for her. That girl seemed…annoyed, at first… but then the secretary saw the faintest of smiles appearing upon the corners of her lips.

"I'm sorry. I spoke out of turn. You're right…I should give our students more credit. But I still think we should err on the side of caution more often. That could have gone very badly, and then where would that incredible innate talent be? Six feet under, Ozpin. Six. Feet. Under."

Ozpin gently smiled an oddly grim smile, nodding a little as he placed down his empty mug.

"Perhaps I did get a touch carried away. Then again, I was quite hoping to see more of what Miss Politan has in store. I can tell that she's…holding something back. Maybe not intentionally. Maybe she doesn't even realise her full potential, yet…"

Glynda sighed as she stood up from her chair and then lowered the ladder to the centre of the maze. The initiation had concluded, and the results were…quite the anomaly this time around. Moreso than usual, that is. Honestly, Glynda would kill to get a normal year, one of these days.