RWBY: Team DUSK

by HolyKnightX

Hailing from the four kingdoms, four aspiring huntsmen with different pasts, ideals, and goals enrolls into Beacon Academy. These four huntsmen-in-training finds themselves on the same team and living under the same roof as one another. Does this new team have what it takes to unite with one another as friends, allies, or even the family that one another needs?

16. Sandra's Issues, Pt 3

Welcome to the next chapter of RWBY: Team DUSK, before starting the story. Let's answer some reviews:

Altajir95: Thanks. Yes, both of them sent letters to their father, and he went "Dad Mode" after hearing all about Daniel. All the students are now camping with their teacher, Professor Port. I will do just that.

Darth Simp: Same here, I had fun writing that entire scene with Taiyang receiving the letters from both of his daughters, and both of them are talking about Daniel. I can tell that Daniel might end up having some hard times in convincing their father.

---

Sandra's Issues Pt. 3

Finishing their venture into the Emerald Forest, Team DUSK found themselves walking up to the series of ruins, which would be acting as their camping site. Similar to all the other places, it looked almost the same as all of the genuine ruins around the forest. But, it looked to be stable enough to act as a decent enough residence for them all, lacking in a decent roof.

"Ohohoho, I see your team is the first to arrive here!"

An energetic voice could be heard calling out to them.

The members of Team DUSK turned their attention to find Professor Port sitting down on a makeshift stone seat, while a campfire was prepared.

"Well, glad to see our teacher made it here alright."

Alyssa pointed out as she and her teammates started approaching their teacher.

"Hahaha, well, I feel thankful for your concern Miss King. But, I didn't get my position as a well-respected teacher at Beacon for my dashing good looks alone," Daniel and the others seemed to almost cringe at the last comment from them. It wasn't long before he noticed that another group arrived as soon as Team DUSK arrived there, and then he turned to face that team. "I see that your friends have arrived as well!"

As Port mentioned their 'friends', Daniel turned to find Team RWBY stepping onto the camping site too. The first to realize Daniel and co arrived before them was their team leader.

"Oh, come on. I thought we would've been the first team to arrive."

Ruby complained, having seen Daniel and his team arrive before them.

"This is because you wanted to mess around."

Weiss stated, turning her attention towards her partner.

"Don't forget that you ended up getting all jumpy after hearing a branch snapping."

Yang teased, smirking jokingly at her white-haired teammate.

"Is that true, Weiss?"

Daniel asked, smiling and turning over to Weiss.

"D-Don't give me that look!"

Weiss exclaimed and demanded as her cheeks turned bright red while stomping her foot on the ground once.

Seeing the reaction of the heiress, who had no experience in living it out in the middle of the forest caused smiles to adorn everyone's faces. Weiss doesn't show many emotional reactions like this all the time but seeing things like this sparked reactions such as this. Hearing their laughter caused the white-haired young woman to pout and glare forward before looking to the side with a "humph".

"Hahaha, well, I see that both teams are potential adventures," Port proclaimed heartily, based on the fact both of these teams were the first to arrive. "As soon as the other teams arrive, we'll be talking about all the things all of you found at your respective ruin. Until then, why don't you all sit beside your favorite teacher?!"

[Right, favorite teacher.]

That was the thought doubtful about that aside from Weiss, who genuinely nodded her head smiling.

"Of course, Professor Port."

"Teacher's pet."

Sandra uttered under her breath but pretended not to have said anything as Weiss turned her sights on her.

"Did you say something?"

"Nothing princess."

Sandra replied, almost playfully.

Even then, the two teams did end up sitting around their teacher and the campfire that he had prepared for them. Despite all his bolstering about it all the time during classes, Professor Port was experienced in this area, since the campfire set up was perfect. There was a fire ring built around the fire meant to keep it from spreading outward, which the professor build himself.

"So, did your team run into any Grimm leading to the path?"

"Yes," Ruby replied to Daniel's response but looked confident as she placed both of her hands on her hips. "But, the amazing Team RWBY, led by the equally amazing Ruby Rose defeated all of them."

"You're kinda developing a bit of an ego, there Red Hood."

Daniel playfully said, turning his attention to the younger silver-eyed girl.

"Tell me about it."

Weiss commented but received a glance from Blake who was sitting beside her.

Catching the look and also the meaning behind it, Weiss again crossed her arms, while looking forward. Noticing their interactions caused Yang to laugh to herself in silence at the antics of her teammate and partner.

---

Not that much time passed as the entire group at around the campfire as the other teams arrived there; the first to arrive was Team JNPR, then the second was the other team. Seeing that his friends managed to arrive there before his team caused Jaune to let out a sigh.

"Of course, you guys arrived here first."

Jaune said slouching a bit, as Pyrrha placed a comforting hand on his back and smiled.

"Even if we didn't arrive here first, Jaune. You did an amazing job leading us all here."

Pyrrha complemented Jaune as felt better at that comment before turning his attention over towards the orange-haired girl who was smiling.

"Thanks, but I think that we would've arrived much quicker if Nora didn't ride on another Ursa!"

Jaune declared, shooting a look at Nora.

"Come on, I couldn't help myself."

Nora waves off his complaint using a cute smile and nonchalance.

"Nora, what did I tell you during the initiation?"

Ren sighed and asked at the same time.

Hearing that question from her partner and best friend, caused Nora to give serious thought to the words he'd said during the Beacon Initiation. It almost looked as if she was putting much more effort than usual into giving him a reasonable response.

"Hmm, oh," Nora said slamming her hand on her open palm. "You said Nora, don't poke the Grimm!"

"Yes, but no."

"Uh, don't touch that suspicious flower."

"Yes, but no."

"Be careful where you swing Magnhild."

"Yes, but no."

"Then I'm drawing a blank."

Nora whistled innocently while locking her fingers behind her head.

"I told you not to ride on top of another Ursa again."

"Oooooh," Nora recalled hearing that from Ren before bonking herself cutely on the head while sticking out her tongue. "Sorry, Ren, I completely forgot about that. It's just that riding on top of a Grimm is too good of a chance to pass out on."

"Nora, I know, but you should be more prudent about…."

"Uh, Ren."

As Ren was continuing to talk to Nora about not using Grimm as some kind of pet you could ride on, Pyrrha gave him a light poke to gain his attention.

"Yes, Pyrrha?"

As Ren turned to face Pyrrha, the redhead pointed in the direction, where their friends were.

Sighing, but following the direction of her finger, Ren as expected turned around to find Nora sitting together with all their friends. Ironic enough, Nora did the same thing during the Beacon Initiation when he tried to explain the same thing to her. Not giving a single vocal response, Ren headed in the same direction as his friends, while a wry laugh escaped from Pyrrha's mouth.

"Wahahaha, I'm glad to see that all of my students, no campers arrived here in one piece," Port announced as he placed both hands on his knees while laughing. "I have no doubt you all of you succeeded in bringing down all of those vicious beasts that crossed your paths! If you're all the Huntsmen-in-Training that I believe you all are, then you used the training you've accumulated since entering Beacon! Most of all, the lessons you received from me and Glynda."

At that comment, all four teams thought through their lessons from both teachers. The professor in front of them taught them about Grimm and military strategies, and Glynda taught them more about combat. No doubt that the students were adept fighters alone, but coming to Beacon allowed them to learn more about working together as a four-man team.

"Well, I'll leave that matter for another time during this camping trip. First things first, I want to hear about what all of you found at the ruins you've explained," Port stated turning to the students before turning his attention over to the first team to arrive there. "First off, we'll start with the first team to arrive, which will be Team DUSK. So, if the team leader would give his report of what he found there."

"Well, the ruin our team ended up finding led into an underground bunker to hide from the Grimm, but there was one, in particular the people who build it was scared of," Daniel had reached inside of his pockets and pulled out his Scroll, which contained the photos he took of the inside. "It must've been quite the Grimm since the walls were almost covered in drawings about it. Here."

Daniel went to the photos that he took on his Scroll, then showed them to Professor Port, who took the Scroll off his hands. It wasn't the best drawing on the wall, and of course, a long time has passed since it was first drawn on the walls. But, the best kind of description that the professor could come up with was a two-legged winged creature and a head that looked almost avian.

In all the drawings, it looked as if the warriors were fighting against it using basic weapons; and in one of them, it looked as if something akin to beams were fired from the Grimm's eyes.

"Wah, a Grimm that shoots lasers from its eyes?!"

That was Ruby's first reaction having seen the photo as it was also shown to their team as well, but that caused her partner to roll her eyes.

"I doubt that's what it is."

"And how do you know that miss-know-it-all?"

"I-I just do alright."

Both Ruby and Weiss were having their usual argument when it concerned things of this nature.

But, in the drawing, it did look as if the warriors or people in front of the Grimm were caught in a panicked state in the face of this Grimm.

"I haven't seen a Grimm before with quite this kind of physical description. I wonder if Oobleck would know of this one," Professor Port was rubbing his chin thinking about it before laughing confidently without the slightest hint of arrogance. "But, if I did find it, I wonder what kind of threat it might pose against a Huntsman of my caliber! Excellent, Mister Norden, Mister, Upson, Miss Skye, and Miss King, you've all made quite the find in locating another potential Grimm for us to research."

"Thanks, teach."

Daniel replied taking back his Scroll.

Hearing their professor's compliment caused the three of them to feel a bit more confident in themselves, which was odd considering their opinion of him wasn't the same as other teachers. Nonetheless, the students here all knew Port was a true Huntsman for a reason and could see the reason why now.

"Now, let's move onto the team who had arrived shortly after Team DUSK," Port stated turning his attention over to the four-man team composed of four women. "So, Team RWBY, what did your team end up finding during your venture inside the treacherous Emerald Forest?"

"Oh, well," Ruby knew that as the team leader, she'd be the one giving out the report and wanted to show that it was possible for her too. "Okay, well, Team RWBY ended up running into a bit of a snag since Grimm attacked us out of nowhere. But, we were able to finish them all off in time."

"Ohohoho, I see that Miss Rose here took a thing or two from my class out telling a riveting tale!"

"Well," Ruby almost didn't know how to react to that comment, but continued. "After entering the room, we found it looked to be someplace where weapons were being made to fight against the Grimm here. There was also a bunch of Dust still there that hasn't been used. I have a lot of photos of them on my Scroll too."

Ruby said pulling out her Scroll, then showing it to Professor Port, revealing a lot of ancient weapons that range from swords, spears, and arrows. As she noted, there was also some raw Dust inside the ruin too, which similar to Team DUSK's looked underground.

"This is an amazing find too! I'm sure that you're all aware of this, but multiple people have researched several ways to make use of Dust with their weapons! Although, nowadays there are more modern weapons that have better usage of Dust. However, there were numerous older methods in adding Dust into our combat styles! So, I hope that you all can learn from how ancient people made use of Dust!"

Port announced to them all.

"Uh, Professor Port?"

Alyssa raised her hand catching her teacher's attention.

"Yes, Miss King?"

"This sounds like the kind of thing that Professor Oobleck would have us do in examining ruins, then explaining what it was used for," Alyssa reasoned, something that none of the students could disagree with. "So, I thought if it would've been better if he joined too."

"I think that is a wonderful suggestion and deduction, Miss King. I can see that you'll end up turning into a great Huntress if you keep up that thinking. And to tell you the truth," Professor Port showed nothing short of praise for Alyssa's realization and paused for a moment. "My fellow teacher assisted him in coming up with that idea for an activity for your campers. I did want him to come and join us, but he was preoccupied with other business. But, I wouldn't be surprised if he went to all of you to ask questions about the ruins."

Almost all of them groaned at the thought of giving him a report. They were well aware that whenever it came to Oobleck, it would need to be detailed and stretched out to more than a simple couple of words and descriptions.

"Well, I'm glad to hear that our first two leaders were able to find out something about the ancient people!"

"Hooray, two points for the Silver-Eyed Leaders!"

Ruby announced as she turned her attention over towards Daniel, a fellow leader with silver eyes. Seeing that he positioned his hand near her as the younger leader slapped his hand.

"Now, let's hear from the third leader to arrive."

Professor Port turned to Jaune, who started giving his team's description about what happened and moved on to the last team leader who did the same thing.

Seeing that the teams finished giving out their reports, Port decided that he should feed the students after a long time completing their first activity. So, opening the knapsack he brought with him, he prepared sandwiches for all of them and handed them out to the students. Although he carried some water too, the students chose to bring a canteen filled with water.

Seeing his students preparing such a thing caused a light-hearted laugh to escape from Port's mouth, then took a seat to eat the sandwich he made for himself.

"Hahaha, well, I believe that after we're finished eating out meals we should prepare defensive measures."

"Defensive measures?"

The fourth team's leader asked.

"We're camping in a forest filled with Grimm. Of course, we'll need to be prepared if one of those vicious beasts decide to attack us as we sleep," Port surmised causing some to become worried or concerned about that fact, while others thought about that happening before coming. "You'll all end up becoming Huntsmen once graduating Beacon. So, there's going to come a time where you'll need to be prepared when you find yourself coming out in the wilderness like this. In situations like this, your reaction time will need to be honed to wake up in response to a sudden attack. Or you'll need to have defensive measures prepared ahead of time."

"Uh, Professor Port. I don't mean to sound disrespectful, but wasn't it irresponsible to bring us here?"

The fourth team leader asked worriedly after hearing that.

"As the Emerald Forest is filled with several Grimm, we build in numerous cameras and security systems meant to monitor them regularly. As such, we're well aware of the patterns some of them tend to move in, and most Grimm hasn't come in the ruin we're standing in," Port explained sounding more serious and reassuring so that his students wouldn't be worried. "I want you all to experience somewhat of what it'll feel like to be Huntsmen out in the field. But, I wouldn't ever do anything to endanger the lives of my students to do that."

Hearing Professor Port's reassuring tone and explanation removed whatever fear or concern that was welling up inside them. Seeing all this happened caused Daniel to stand up to his feet, having finished eating his sandwich, and taking a drink of water.

"I can handle the defensive measures if that's fine with everyone here."

Daniel spoke up without sounding worried about it.

His teammates and friends stood there surprised about that, not expecting to hear that sudden request from him. It also made them all a bit curious as to how he was going to be handling making the defensive measures for the entire camping site.

"Daniel?"

Ruby asked tilting her head to the side curiously.

"I see."

Weiss didn't appear as worried or surprised as an idea of what he was going to be doing came to mind, because she knew more about him.

"How is Daniel going to do that Weiss?"

Ruby asked, turning to her partner, who simply remained silent wearing a knowing smile.

Realizing that she was intentionally being silent and not giving her an answer almost caused the youngest leader to almost press forward.

"You can handle it? How?"

The team leader asked.

"Hohohoho, I can see the confidence in that declaration, Mister Norden. I'll be interested in seeing how you'll be able to handle it."

Professor Port showed no hesitation in letting Daniel handle their defensive measures.

Hearing that he was given the go-ahead for handling their defense for the night, Daniel had turned his attention to Weiss.

"Mind giving me a hand with this Weiss? If we work together on this, it'll make things much better."

Listening to Daniel's request and well aware of what he had planned to do, Weiss stood up to her feet with a smile brimming with her usual confidence.

"Of course," Weiss replied as she retrieved Myrtenaster from beside her as she considered looking inside of the pouch where she carried around her Dust. "Do you need any Dust, Daniel?"

"That's fine, I have some Hard-Light Dust on me. Sure you don't mind following my lead on this one?"

"I thought a lot about our semblances working together like this. So, I'm interested in seeing the results for myself in person."

Hearing that from Weiss, Daniel retrieved a Hard-Light Dust Shell, then caused Retribution's blade to extend out into its active state. He and she started walking some distance from the ruin, and Daniel loaded the Dust Shell in Retribution. Because Hard-Light Dust was loaded inside it, the runes running alongside the blade started glowing cyan. Once everything was prepared, he set the blade's tip onto the ground, then started walking around the ruin dragging it with him, drawing a circle around the ruin's diameter.

"What's he doing?"

"I don't know."

Two members from the other team asked curiously.

"Hmm, look at the ground."

Blake pointed out as she directed her attention to the ground under Daniel.

Drawing their attention to the ground, the entire group could see that Daniel was drawing two sets of runes along the ground as he walked. Noting that Daniel's runes were being drawn along the ground had caused some ideas to enter their minds about his intentions. Once he finished drawing out a two-layered rune array, Daniel stood by Weiss who seemed prepared for the final step.

"So, are we going to do this on my mark?"

"Well, it was your idea. So, I wouldn't mind giving you the honor this time."

"Alright. So, one…two…and…."

Daniel pointed Retribution down near the runes, holding it using both hands; on the other hand, Weiss continued to hold Myrtenaster upwards. Both seemed to sync their breathing and movements for the next and final step for making a decent defense.

[…three!]

Daniel caused the runes surrounding the ruin to turn cyan, then all of them started shining the same color. At the same time, Weiss created four glyphs at the four corners. Because of both their semblances working in tandem and the Hard-Light Dust, a defensive light barrier was produced around the ruins.

[What?!]

All four members of the fourth team were surprised about what their group just witnessed for themselves. But, all their teammates and friends looked impressed about it alongside Professor Port.

"Well, that went well," Daniel said, staring straight at the light barrier that he and Weiss produced. "I can see the reason our grandparents were always mentioned as being a good team. We never did get the chance to test out our semblances working together like this before."

"Well, it went well enough this time. I wouldn't mind us training together to test it out to the fullest."

"I wonder what we'd be able to produce together," Daniel's comment caused an idea to enter Weiss' head, which caused her to give a faint blush. She was well aware of his habit of teasing her (and sometimes even Ruby), but she couldn't tell whether or it was that. But, Weiss' thoughts were stopped as Daniel extended her right hand toward her. "Now, would the young lady allow me to escort her inside her temporary residence?"

"Daniel…," Weiss gave him a genuine smile before looking straight at him. "You know one of these days, I might end up slapping you for teasing me so often."

"And I wouldn't blame you."

Despite saying that Weiss did end up taking Daniel's hand with a faint blush, as she was escorted inside of the light barrier the two produced. Of course, there was another reason that he needed to hold Weiss' hand, while he led her inside of the light barrier. Aside from that, Daniel didn't want to admit out loud that he did want to hold her hand. More so, since if he did, then he'd be at the receiving end of Yang's teasing.

However—

"Oh~, I see you two have advanced to that stage."

Knowing Yang, she'd do it regardless.

"Ugh, whatever Daniel and I do has nothing to do with you, Yang."

Weiss started letting go of Daniel's head so that she could cross her arms while staring at her teammate. Noticing her white-haired teammate's reddened look merely made the blonde want to egg her on more.

"I can see that you're trying to act all cold about it. But, those reddened cheeks are giving you away, Ice Queen."

Yang teased, but Weiss didn't want to give her a response to that since it'd simply give her more ammunition.

Before Daniel could react, as if on cue, Ruby appeared in front of him using superhuman speed as she stared up at him with curiosity beaming from her silver eyes.

"Daniel, how did you and Weiss do that?! That was awesome! Was that another part of your semblance?! Come on, come on, come on, I gotta know!"

Ruby kept on pressing on for an answer without letting Daniel get a single word out.

"Well…."

"Hohohoho, I see that two of my amazing campers have given out demonstration of their respective semblances, and gave the best possible defense against the Grimm. I can see from this that together Mister Norden and Miss Schnee is capable of creating force fields produced using Hard-Light Dust," Port declared sounding proud of both his students while placing a comforting hand on their shoulders. "But, I think that explanations could wait. Since I do believe there was something else I told you, students, to do next."

Thinking about that for a second, the group recalled that they were supposed to be setting up their sleeping bags for the night. Taking that into account all of them started doing just that and proceeded to set them up at a slight distance near the campfire. Because of their relationship with one another, the members of Team DUSK, RWBY, and JNPR found themselves setting up near one another.

Once finished, the ground found themselves sitting down on their sleeping bags a little bit exhausted from all the events that occurred. From traveling through the forest, fighting against Grimm, and going through all their ruins, which were assigned to them, almost none of them had the stamina to do much more tonight. Besides, there were a lot more activities for them to do tomorrow.

---

"Oh? So, that's how it works?"

Ruby asked sitting down legs crossed on her sleeping bag near Daniel.

Having finished setting up their sleeping bags, some students found themselves snuggling inside of them. But, there were others still conversing with one another before wanting to head out to sleep for the night. Among them was Ruby, who was too interested in finding out more about Daniel's semblance, and Weiss, who'd been listening in. Yang held a similar interest but listened in as she talked to Alyssa.

Blake, as usual, was reading from a book that she brought for the trip. It looked to be the one that she had gained from Daniel and was taking her time reading it. But, she found herself listening in to their conversation from time to time with interest too.

"Yea," Daniel replied with interest holding up an index finger as runes started appearing around it. "If I shortened it into a less complex explanation, my Runes lets me issues instructions to things depending on how I use them. Against the Behemoth before getting launched, I used them to strengthen my aura defense so I wouldn't take the full brunt of that attack. If I arrange runes into a formation, then I can use them as platforms. And if I were to use them with Dust, then I can do more than that similar to Weiss' Glyphs."

"I've seen what Weiss' Glyphs can do during the initiation. So, I can see the reason that she wanted to be a part of the same team as you," Blake pointed out, turning her attention from her book. "If you mixed your Runes with her Glyphs, then well things like this can happen."

Blake was referring to the force field made from Hard-Light Dust, which covered the entire ruin.

"Well, if it was obvious enough, then it can be seen as clear as day," Yang pointed before pointing at Daniel and Weiss. "Both of you were meant to be together. So, when's the wedding?"

"Well, it hasn't been…," Daniel was preparing to send a response for that remark but was stopped as a blushing Weiss slapped him on top of his head. It wasn't a hard slap at all, but he still feigned as if it did hurt. "Ouch. Well, I apologize, it appears I'm not at liberty to speak about it."

"You did that on purpose to see if I would hit you, didn't you?"

Weiss as she retreated to her sleeping bag.

"I was kinda hoping you were kidding about it. Since I always thought you loved my sense of humor."

"I do sometimes, but this isn't one of those times."

Weiss replied a little honestly.

"As much as I love hearing you two lovebirds talk and pretend that you don't like each other," Sandra brought up as Daniel and Weiss glanced at one another unable to respond to that. Hearing that hint of sarcasm from Sandra almost caused Alyssa and Yang to burst out laughing. "But, I was listening to this discussion and was wondering something about this force field. But, what if someone leaves and tries coming back in?"

Sandra brought up a situation like that from the curiously she felt from hearing about their conversation and also seeing the Hard-Light force field around them.

"Well, I could give a light demonstration if the Red Hooded leader wouldn't mind acting as the test subject."

Daniel suggested turning his attention over towards Ruby, who'd almost immediately nodded her head wearing a bright smile on her face.

"Of course, I want to see what happens!"

Ruby stood up to her feet and responded.

"Alright, then let's go over there."

Daniel said standing up, then started walking to the closest section of the force field's insides, where no one will be bothered. He and Ruby were followed by Weiss, Yang, Sandra, and Alyssa. Hunter was a bit busier talking to Pyrrha and the others, while Blake could see things from here.

Having gotten close to the light force field, Daniel pointed at it.

"Just walk through it."

"Alright."

Ruby suggested without concern, knowing that if Daniel suggested her to do something like this, then it wouldn't hurt her; something that Yang knew too. Doing what Daniel said, Ruby managed to pass right through the barrier without issues as at. She turned around seeing the outside of the force field, then started waving from the outside of it.

"Alright, now try touching it."

Hearing Daniel's suggestion, Ruby placed her hand on the light barrier and could touch it, but she couldn't enter it despite pressing her hand on it.

"If you're inside the barrier, then you can leave it. But, if you leave it, then you wouldn't be able to reenter it. If I made it so that it would be entered from the outside, then it means that the Grimm could enter too. So, there are three methods to enter this."

"Three? So, mind sharing that with the class, Dani?"

Yang asked, smiling and tilting her head to the side.

"I can show it to the class," Daniel said as he passed his hand through the barrier holding it right in front of Ruby, who stared at it. "Alright, now hold out your hand."

Hearing that request, Ruby saluted him before holding out her right hand, then Daniel waved a finger right onto the back of her hand. She looked to find out that a rune appeared on the back of her hand, more than that it has the same color as her aura, red.

"Oh, this looks so cool!"

Ruby squealed looking at the rune at the back of her hand.

"Alright, now come back inside."

Daniel said, with Ruby stepping inside of the Hard-Light force field as easy as she did leave from it.

Seeing what happened caused the younger leader to smile and raise her hand looking at the rune, which had appeared on the back of her hand.

"This is so cool. It matches the color of my aura too."

"If you want to enter the barrier without no issue at all, then you need to have a specific rune from me. It'll remain as long as it isn't removed. Or if it served its specific purpose," Daniel explained to them. "I put the same one on Weiss as she entered."

Weiss focused aura on her right hand, revealing a rune similar to the one Ruby had, instead of glowing red, hers glowed light blue matching her aura. Seeing that, her partner started causing the rune to glow red as if she was turning a light on and off.

"Stop doing that! It's not a toy."

"Awww. But, I haven't seen anything like it before."

Ruby complained as she heard Weiss' complaint.

"So, what's the second method?"

"Break it. I doubt that's such a thing as an impenetrable barrier, and it takes a lot of training and practice for one to master runes. So, if a large enough Grimm smashes into it a couple of times, then it could crack."

"And the third?"

"Be Sandra."

Daniel pointed out without revealing anything.

Sandra realized he did that so he wouldn't reveal her semblance without permission, which was something that she felt a bit grateful for. Yang being one who understands social norms like that understood what that meant and didn't proceed further asking questions. And Alyssa smiled to herself, glad to be a part of a team with a leader like Daniel, who respected his teammate's privacy.

"So, could I get one too?"

Yang asked, sounding almost as if she was begging while smiling.

"Sure, do you want it on your hand?"

Daniel asked, not having any issue at all with giving Yang a similar rune.

"Hmmm? I wonder where I could want it put at," Yang started sounding a bit more teasing as she wondered the exact place she wanted the rune could be placed. Hearing this caused Weiss to narrow her eyes and Ruby kept staring on. Sandra looked on giving a blank stare, while Alyssa was laughing to herself. "Do I want it to be on my hand? I could have it on my shoulder. On my neck. Or, it could be on my…?"

As Yang started smiling, while teasingly appearing to emphasize her more developed figure, something that most men wouldn't resist looking at; Daniel was pulled back a bit from her. As most expected, Weiss pulled him back a bit, but much to their surprise, Ruby was also pulling him back from Yang.

"Eh, well, Weiss I expected since it's kinda obvious," Yang said surprised, before looking teasingly as she stared at her younger sister as a smile graced her face. "But, I didn't expect that my younger sister would join in too. Did you end up finally end up developing your first crush little sis?"

At that comment, Ruby looked a bit flustered at that thought and realized that she was holding onto Daniel a little bit too close. Similar to Weiss, her arms were almost wrapped tight around him and her chest was almost pushed up against it. Realizing all this caused Ruby's cheeks to turn red as she moved from Daniel holding her hands in a bit of a panic.

"I'm sorry, Daniel! I didn't mean to latch onto you like that. It was just that I thought that Yang doing that might be a bit uncomfortable. So, I kinda grabbed onto your arm without thinking and before I knew it I was kinda hugging onto your…."

It was almost an adorable reaction, watching Ruby blushing and stumbling with her explanation almost to where Yang wanted to hug her. As Ruby continued doing that, Daniel, Weiss, and Alyssa couldn't help finding the whole thing a bit amusing to watch.

"Uh, stop laughing at me!"

Ruby complained staring at her so-called friends and older sister.

"Pft…."

All four paused hearing a sudden sound as if someone tried controlling their laughter caught their attention, as all four turned to find that it was Sandra. All of them looked to see instead of her usual tense look, Sandra looked as if her experience was softening. She looked to be struggling to decide whether or not she should laugh, but then it happened.

"Hahahaha."

Sandra found herself laughing without holding back as Ruby looked as if the world was crashing down on top of her. The Vacuan, of all people, was also laughing at her.

"Y-You're s-so naive that it's almost adorable!"

"Oh, come on! Even Sandra is laughing at me!"

Ruby whined as she felt herself almost wanting to tear up after that, having witnessed even someone more stoic than her black-bowed teammate. But, hearing that caused Sandra to laugh a bit more, leaving the others who're not used to this side of her to remain a bit stumped.

"Am I dreaming right now?"

Yang asked, standing there stomped as she watched Sandra laughing.

Of course, if it was under normal circumstances, Yang would punch and/or attempt to fight anyone who laughed at her younger sister. But, the fact that it was someone who did not do much laughing at all or show much of the kind of emotions that showed much genuine happiness. Even her leader, partner, and Weiss all looked on with a stunning look as Sandra laughed like a normal person.

"Hey, Daniel!"

At that moment, Yang felt someone pinching her right shoulder, turning her attention towards Daniel, who looked as natural and casual as usual. Despite all that, Yang knew full and well that Daniel was the culprit.

"No, I think that you're quite awake."

She looked miffed at the fact that Daniel had done that in response to her question.

"I was being rhetorical and you know that."

"Yea, but hey, look on the bright side," Daniel said before pointing at the shoulder he pinched. "I ended up giving you that rune on the shoulder."

"Huh?"

Yang looked stunned having heard that from Daniel but didn't doubt that he did end up placing a rune on her in a second like that. She stared at her shoulder, and focused her aura a bit, then noticed that there was a rune that was shining a bright yellow. It did look similar to the one placed on her younger sister and white-haired teammate earlier on.

"Geez, you take the fun out of teasing you sometimes. You know that, right?"

"Yes, but they're also sometimes where I just go along with it. Besides, I'm kinda flattered that someone thinks of me like that from time to time, Yang."

Daniel replied smirking, shrugging his shoulders with the usual nonchalance his friends have seen thus far.

"Hehehehe, might end up putting you back as a nine, Dani."

Yang laughed lightly, and the faintest red could be seen at her cheeks at that.

At that moment, Daniel felt a light pinch on his shoulder, and similar to before in class, but this time he felt two of them instead of one. He turned to Weiss crossing her arms as she glanced to the side while turning around to see a pouting Ruby, who looked a bit surprised herself.

"Ruby, did you just pinch me too?"

"Yes, but I don't know why."

Ruby replied, crossing her arms similar to Weiss, and causing him to stare at them.

"Daniel, you're the perfect womanizer without even attempting to be."

Alyssa replied laughing and pointing at him, causing him to look a bit flustered.

"I-I just speak my mind from time to time."

"Hahahaha," Sandra was laughing as she looked at him too. "If you end up continuing things at this pace, you're going to keep amassing people who'll end up hating you."

"Well, that's all I need. I already have people who have enough people who either don't like or hate me."

"I wonder why," Weiss asked, joining in on questioning Daniel with a smile on her face. "Let me guess, was due to your typical use of sarcasm."

"Or your habit of messing with the wrong people."

Yang added crossing her arms and smiling.

"Or your habit of teasing people."

Ruby added, recalling all the times that Daniel teased her.

""Or it could just be because you attract the wrong attention.""

Alyssa and Sandra commented in surprisingly in sync unison, something that he wasn't expecting from them.

"It makes me so happy that my misery can bring all my so-called friends together," Daniel faux-sounding hurt, before placing a hand over his heart. "Congratulations, you all did something no other person has done in a long time. And that was hurting me right here in my heart."

Daniel turned around, then started walking from the group and towards his sleeping bag. Seeing him doing all of that caused the women to stare at him walking away amused.

"Come on, Daniel. I thought Nordens don't run away from a situation."

Weiss called out, trying to hide the amusement in her voice.

"This isn't running away, this is a tactical retreat."

Daniel countered as Weiss started following behind him with Ruby and Yang following him too.

"Isn't that the same as running away?"

Ruby asked.

"Come on, Dani. You can't run from this."

Yang added.

"I can try."

Daniel said as he kept fast walking forward in an attempt to gain some distance from the three women.

---

"Hahaha, laughing at Daniel's expense is always fun and a great bonding experience."

Alyssa commented as she placed a hand on her stomach, having laughed a bit more than usual.

"Yea, if there's one thing that he's good at then, it's making people laugh. Whether from some stupid joke of his, or being the butt of the joke," Sandra found herself showing a much softer and casual look compared to all of the times she's talked before. "I'm really glad that he isn't the kind of person who would end up getting mad or anything like that and goes along with it."

Alyssa titled her head to the side, then noticed that Sandra was looking and sounding more casual as she spoke about things like this. Noticing this, Sandra turned her attention towards her partner wearing a questioning look on her face, who stared back at her.

"What're you thinking about?"

Sandra asked.

"Hmmm, oh, whatever could I be thinking at this moment," Alyssa asked herself while linking her hands together right behind her head as she started strolling around in place at a slow pace. "Well, I guess that we could end up getting back to that subject on a later date. But, I guess that I'm just enjoying the moment."

"…."

Sandra didn't respond as she noticed her partner was smiling at her with the kind of gentle look she wasn't used to since coming to Beacon. At Vacuo and growing up, things like that were almost something she haven't seen for herself all that often, if not at all.

"Shall we start heading back, partner? I don't think that it'd help us staying up late wouldn't benefit us much if we'll be doing something that requires us to be active."

"Right."

Sandra agreed without saying anything else in response, then started following behind her.

As the two proceeded to walk forward, heading in the direction of their group, Sandra found herself glancing over at the person who'd become her partner. She was well aware that she wasn't the easiest person on Remnant to get along with and cooperate with from time to time. Sandra prepared herself to handle constant complaints from whoever would end up being her partner.

However, Alyssa hadn't given any complaints at all from her attitude or comments. Instead, she has given nothing short of calm and playful comments no matter how Sandra talked. Despite all the times that she'd normally done, deserve much harsher treatment compared to what she was receiving. Sandra found herself in a far luckier position in terms of teammates and friends than she would've ever expected.

Her reasons for wanting to become a huntress, and the things that she started experiencing since then caused an abundance of feelings to well up within her chest.

"Hey, Alyssa."

Before Sandra realized it, she found herself calling out to her partner's name as the two were still a distance from their two teammates. Having heard her name being called out, Alyssa had turned her attention over towards her direction wearing a curious look.

"Hmm, need something partner?"

Alyssa kindly asked.

"Uhhh, it's…nothing. It's nothing important."

Sandra replied, glancing to the side as she looked as if she was holding back whatever she planned on saying.

Alyssa was well aware Sandra was holding back whatever she planned on saying, but she wasn't going to force an answer from her. She didn't know the kind of life Sandra lived in Vacuo, however, Alyssa knew the kind of life Vacuans lived in such a harsh environment. All the things that she's seen from Sandra thus far have often clashed against their beliefs.

"Well, whatever it is. Don't be afraid to talk to me about it," Alyssa said, turning over toward her partner wearing a smile on her face. "Aside from being partners, we're both the sole female members of Team DUSK. So, I wouldn't mind having some one-on-one girl talk."

Sandra didn't give a response and simply smiled lightly to herself, having heard that comment from Alyssa.

"You guys were almost late!"

Yang called out, watching as Alyssa and Sandra returned to their group, then took a seat.

"Late for what?"

Alyssa asked, but guessed the answer based on what was prepared right in front of them.

"It's time for s'mores!"

Ruby energetically replied as she jumped up in place after finally being able to make s'mores their first night at the camping site.

"Don't try and eat all of them before everyone gets the chance to try one. Some of us haven't tried even one of them before."

Weiss commented, looking forward to the thought of trying a s'more for herself.

"Well, you don't need to be worried about that Ice Queen, because there's s'more where that came from."

[Ugh, Yang!]

Almost all of the people around them, primarily among their friend group cringed at the blonde's pun, causing Yang to laugh to herself. Despite that, their group started preparing the s'mores by using the ingredients brought onto the trip. And once finished, the group enjoyed the famous and gooey camping treat, while talking among themselves, some even told horror stories.

Of course, most of the ghost stories told involved the Emerald Forest, and all the things that could be hidden in it, which hadn't been explored before. For those who were most experienced in camping, the stories were focused on frightening those who don't have camping experience. Among the entire group, the person that it ended up being the most was Weiss.

---

It wasn't long until, the students had found themselves heading out to sleep inside their respective sleeping bags, with the campfire still on. Aside from the crackling sound coming from the campfire, there wasn't the slightest hint of noises aside from the peaceful noise from the sleeping campers and their escort. It hadn't reached the point of being in the middle of the night, but certain students were looking forward to what will happen tomorrow and wanted to be well-rested.

For Sandra, she found herself having the same dream and memories that she had been having for the past couple of days. She squirmed around in her sleeping bag as she relived those experiences and heard the words she'd heard from her mother.

'Sandra, don't waste your time thinking about things like this. There's nothing that's going to come from thinking for the benefit of others.'

"Shut up."

'You're never going to prove yourself as my daughter if you continue acting like this.'

"Leave me alone."

'Don't you want to prove yourself to me?'

"Mom, please help me."

Sandra heard her younger self calling out for her mother.

Forcing herself awake, Sandra had leaned up into a sitting position, a small amount of sweat could be seen on her forehead. Quick breaths escape from her mouth to the point where she looked as if she was going to hyperventilate. She tried keeping it all down so that she wouldn't end up waking up the others and managed to calm herself down.

Having done that, Sandra let out one more calming breath as she stared straight up into the sky, which had been blocked by the light barrier surrounding them.

"Dammit, I haven't thought about her in years. But, since coming here, I'm continuing to think about her."

Sandra softly spoke to herself, while wiping off the sweat from her forehead.

She's been forcing herself from thinking about her mother and the things she'd experienced with that tribe, which were the worst memories thus far. The first thing this happened, Sandra's mind was in such a panicked state that it was near impossible to control her semblance. She looked around to see whether or not there was anyone awake.

"Huh, Blake's gone?"

Sandra turned to see that Blake wasn't sleeping in her sleeping bag.

She could see that the three other members of Team RWBY were sleeping, in addition to her team and all of the members of Team JNPR.

"I guess she went out for a walk," Sandra reasoned as she realized it would be impossible for her to go to sleep again for some time. Sometimes before heading out to sleep, Daniel gave everyone else the same kind of rune that would allow them to freely come and go as they pleased. "That sounds good right now. I'll go out for a walk. It's not like it's forbidden anyway."

'Right, before heading out to sleep. I want to inform you all that there's no rule again a little late-night exploring in this general area. I remember from time to time, we'd often have students heading out into the forest as a means of testing their courage. But, for those who're…ahem, in that kind of relationship, I wanted to remind you that we have cameras placed around the Emerald Forest to monitor the Grimm's activities. So, I should warn you all who plans on doing anything inappropriate.'

Hearing Professor Port's warning caused the students to become a bit flustered at the idea, and the kind of thing that happened to make him warn them.

Deciding to go out for a walk, Sandra left from her sleeping bag, putting on her shoes and grabbing onto her Gae Bulg for protection. As Daniel noted before, she didn't need one of his runes to leave this barrier, because it was a simple task to walk through it. And that was what she did as she walked through the barrier with no issue at all, having to focus more on controlling her semblance, though.

Sandra walked around without an intended path in mind, instead of wanting to clear her mind about what had been going through it the entire time. She wasn't worried about the Grimm that might be lurking around the corner, but a part of her wondered if she should've left a note or message to her team. And the thought of that caused her to let a laugh escape from her mouth.

"I did change after coming here."

For as long as she could remember, Sandra hadn't thought about what anyone else would think. And she never once thought about worrying the teachers or people back at Oscuro Academy. As long as she didn't do or cause serious trouble, there was almost no limit to where she could go. But, that entire time, she was alone.

"I didn't have friends. Or, I didn't put much effort into making them at all."

Sandra thought to herself but was aware of the truth without needing to question herself.

"I blame them for making me feel like this."

She sighed as she found herself walking forward without giving much thought to where she was going as she's just been walking straight.

Sandra thought about the first time that she'd arrived at Beacon, and thought that all she'd need to focus on was training at Beacon. Even if it wasn't something that she was used to, she would even endure dealing with all the teammates she'd gain here. But—

"Daniel comes off like an idiot, but he does his best to ensure people laugh and fight for them. Hunter doesn't talk, but he worries about all people around him and does his best to help. And my partner, Alyssa, a goody-two-shoes able who can never leave anyone in trouble alone. None of them can leave someone like me, who does nothing, but tries pushing people away alone."

Sandra was speaking in a faint distant and almost emotionless tone.

It was the first time that she thought about things like this for as long as she could remember. Anything that had involved her mother and tribe was something Sandra pushed and buried down into her mind. But, it seemed as if the more time Sandra spent around Daniel, Hunter, and Alyssa, the more that those memories began resurfacing again. And the more she tried blocking those memories, the more frequent it became.

Sandra was so invested and focused on her thoughts that she wasn't aware she was being followed around from behind. Before long, she realized that she ventured inside a part of the forest, where there was something a lot like a cave in front of her.

"Huh, I guess that I was too deep in thought to think about where I was going."

Sandra thought out loud as she looked forward to being surprised about the place she was standing right now.

She looked around surprised about the amount of distance and direction that she'd walked from the campsite, as well as the fact she hadn't run into a Grimm. Sandra stood there, finding herself staring straight at the entrance of the dark-looking cave. She looked around at the silent area and the stars into the sky, but her attention had soon turned over towards the dark cave.

Sandra looked forward and couldn't see the insides of it, but she found herself tightening her fists at the memory entering her head.

"Come on, you're not a little girl anymore."

Sandra uttered to herself as she started walking forward in the direction of the cave.

But, the closer that she got to the cave, the closer that she started tightening her hands and her heartbeat started beating faster. It was similar to the time she first dreamed about her childhood back at Vacuo, then losing control over her semblance. Even before all this, it reminded Sandra of the first time that Jaune was locked inside of that rocket-powered launcher.

"Come on, come on, Sandra You don't need to go all the way inside the cave," Sandra tried encouraging herself as she started getting closer and closer to the cave. But, the closer Sandra got, the more she started feeling as if she was walking in the thickest kind of mud. "All you need to do is take one careful step inside of the…."

"Sandra?"

Sandra was confused as she heard a sudden, but familiar voice calling out her name.

She stopped, then turned around to find Blake standing behind her tilting her head to the side from confusion as she noticed Sandra standing there. Seeing that Blake was standing behind her, Sandra moved from the cave and turned around to face her with a forced smile.

"H-Hey, Blake," Sandra replied, ensuring that Blake couldn't see her hands, which were still shaking a bit. "What are you doing here?"

"I wanted to go out for a late-night walk for some time. And I wanted to read something in peace."

"Wouldn't reading in the dark like this mess up your eyes?"

"You do know that our Scrolls have flashlights, right," Blake replied, holding out her Scroll, which does have flashlights installed into them. "I was in the middle of reading, then I looked to see you talking straight inside the forest while talking to yourself. I got a little curious and worried since it looked as if you weren't paying attention to where you were going. And there was now when you stood in front of that cave."

Sandra listened to what Blake said and noticed that most of what she had done thus far has looked a bit weird, and couldn't blame her.

"Well," Sandra tried coming up with a rational reason for her to be doing all this. "I wanted to go out for a walk to calm down a bit, then I ended up arriving in front of this cave. I almost thought that I heard something inside the cave, which was the reason that I was walking toward it like that."

Blake stared at Sandra using a questioning look, having received that response.

Blake didn't know that much about Sandra aside from their previous interactions with one another. Sandra was a serious and assured person, so acting like this was out of character for her. But, Blake was aware that there were things in a person's life that made them act odd from time to time. And all of that came from personal experience herself.

"Alright," Blake decided to go along with that answer, causing him relief in Sandra. "So, would you at least want a little bit of company?"

"Well, that's surprising. I didn't take you for the type to offer something like that."

"No, but I think that our teammates have had some effect on us."

Blake seemed to tease, and Sandra looked bashful since it meant that the black-haired girl heard her conversing to herself.

"I wouldn't mind some company. But, don't expect a conversation."

"Same here," Blake replied with a light smile. "I'm not as conversing as Yang, Daniel, or Alyssa."

"That's for sure."

Both the introverts found themselves laughing a bit after mentioning their more extroverted partners, friends, and teammates. From there, the two found themselves walking around together, not uttering a single word, but it was still a peaceful and enjoyable moment. And it was because of this, that Sandra was able to calm herself down in comparison to how she was before.

Some time passed, and the duo soon returned to the campsite to find out it wasn't them alone who decided to go out for the night. As some of their friends or teammates left out for the night, the same as themselves, but neither were worried and returned to their sleeping bag.

---

The next morning, everyone found themselves to their teacher wondering what should be prepared for them. And it was then that someone from the group offered to handle preparing breakfast. However, that part of the morning was taken care of due to the insistence of two people.

"This French Toast is amazing!"

"I love Ren's cooking!"

Ruby and Nora found themselves cheering at the breakfast made for them all.

The entire camping group relished in the breakfast prepared for them all by the duo of Daniel and Ren, consisting of French toast drenched in syrup, scrambled eggs, fresh fruit, and milk. Eating their breakfast, all of the students and their teacher relished the delicious taste. For the red-hooded leader, Ruby loved the fact that Daniel sliced a bunch of strawberries for her breakfast.

"But, Daniel cooked too."

Ruby pointed out as she kept happily eating the French toast.

"…hmm hmm."

Nora didn't look as if she was paying attention to Ruby's comment and focused on eating the French toast that'd been prepared for her by Ren.

"This is so good."

Yang commented.

"I didn't think French toast could taste like this."

Weiss added, not able to recall the last time that she had eaten French toast before. But, the sweetness from the syrup mixed with the cinnamon was something that caught her taste buds to dance from pleasure.

"Yes, this is delicious."

Blake agreed.

"Daniel should cook for us more often."

"If being a Huntsman doesn't work out, then you could be a Chef."

Alyssa and Sandra pointed out, while Hunter held up a thumbs up smiling.

Daniel and Ren stood right beside one another looking proud about the breakfast the two prepared for the whole group. There was even a moment where Daniel held a balled-up fist in Ren's direction, who stared at it for merely a second, then bumped fists with him.

"Wahahaha, I see these two young men are excellent cooks," Professor Port agreed to love the tastes of the food handed to him, something that he wasn't expecting. "I can tell that you two will end up being quite well-liked by a lot of young women. It is a known fact that women do love men who can cook."

At that comment about Ren being around other women, Nora looked as if she was prepared to grab a hold of her Magnhild if that happened. It was the kind of reaction that shocked and scared Nora's teammates and friends as this was the first time anyone has seen an orange-haired girl like this.

"Nora?"

Ren stared at Nora wearing a stoic look, but it looked to be enough to calm the orange-haired young woman.

"I wouldn't want to get on her bad side."

Someone from the other team commented surprised about Nora's sudden flare of emotions.

"I didn't think Nora could react to something like that."

Alyssa uttered to herself.

"Well, you should've seen Weiss when I said I asked Daniel out on a date. I thought her entire face was going to turn bright red like a tomato."

Yang uttered to her friend smiling and laughing, but this caught Weiss' attention, who was close enough to hear it from her teammate.

"Yang?! That isn't something you needed to bring up!"

Weiss said glaring at Yang irritated that she brought that up.

"But, it was sooo cute. I almost brought out the big sister in me, and the need to tease came up."

"Well, I'm not your sister and we're the same age. That is," Weiss stated pointing straight at Ruby, who was still gorging on the French toast without a care in the world. "And I already have an older sister."

[What, really?]

Members from Team RWBY, DUSK (aside from Daniel), and JNPR were all surprised after hearing that.

"Right, I don't think anyone knew that."

Daniel said without thinking much about what Weiss did and didn't mention to her teammates.

"I don't get the reason everyone's so surprised. I never said that I didn't have siblings," Weiss started looking at all her friends. "I have an older sister named Winter Schnee, an Atlas Special Operative. And a little brother named Whitley Schnee. What made you think that I was an only child?"

[…Well….]

"Never mind."

Weiss held out her hand, stopping them all from speaking, and could imagine all of the comments that her friends thought of. Most of it could have had something to do with her attitude.

"So, what's your relationship with them like?"

Yang curiously asked.

"It's…complicated."

That was the one response that Weiss could come up with, as Yang didn't proceed further having heard that.

"Well, students let's move on to the second activity that I have planned out for you all."

Once the students and their teacher finished eating their breakfast, everyone sat beside one another, while their teacher stood in front of them. All the students were waiting in anticipation to hear about what their teacher had planned out for them this time.

"Alright, campers. Are you aware of the kind of lessons that I have given you all thus far?"

Professor Port asked them.

"I know," Weiss replied, raising her hand and acting like a dutiable student despite them not being inside a class. "Your lesson plan includes Grimm studies and Military strategies. So, in your class, we'll learn about the activities and habits of the Grimm. At the same time, we learn about old strategies and implement newer strategies in a real-life situation."

"Amazing, Miss Schnee," Professor Port said pointing at Weiss, who looked proud of herself. "In this next activity will be taking on a far more proactive turn instead of the first one we did before. So, because we have four teams here. We'll have two teams merging into one, making two teams with eight members added on them. Afterward, both the teams of eight will be fighting against each other in a mock battle."

[Oooooh!]

Everyone seemed interested in the idea of fighting in the Emerald Forest, differing from the usual training ground at school, which had lesser room.

"Alright, this sounds cool," Ruby was into the idea of having this match as she stood up to her feet. "But, how are we going to choose who goes onto what team?"

"Excellent question, Miss Rose. And you're an excellent teacher and camp director have thought of an amazing idea to solve that issue."

Professor Port turned around, then reached inside his bag without allowing the students to see what he started to grab. After doing some rustling around a bit, he revealed four identical cards that didn't have the slightest hint of a difference between them. However, seeing as it would be the thing to decide, which team would end up being, it must have something distinguishing them.

"On two of these Cards, there is the letter A. And on the second pair, is the letter B," Port announced, meaning it was written on the side he was looking at. "So, the leaders from each time will pick on a card and that will become their assigned team. Please will the team leaders stand up and pick a card."

Receiving their teacher's suggestion, the four-team leaders stood up and walked in front of Professor Port who had been holding the four cards. Daniel, Ruby, Jaune, and the fourth leader stood there wondering, which card each of them should pick. The four leaders soon picked their cards, then found themselves pulling them towards themselves and looked at them.

Daniel: Team A

Ruby: Team A

Jaune: Team B

Fourth leader: Team B

"Yeah, me, Daniel, and our teams get to be on Team A," Ruby merrily cheered aloud, before turning her attention over toward Jaune. "I'm sorry, Jaune. I didn't mean to say that I wouldn't have been happier being on the same team as you, Pyrrha, Nora, and Ren."

Ruby tried telling Jaune she and Team RWBY wouldn't have been better in the same group as Team JNPR. But, in response to this, the male blonde held out his hands showing a genuine smile.

"It's fine, Ruby. I know that you didn't mean anything rude about it. Besides, I like it like this."

Jaune replied, with more confidence than he had shown before.

Since managing to deal with Cardin, he has been working on proving that he earned his position at Beacon as a Huntsman-in-Training. His friends were well aware that Jaune has been training on the dormitory roof with Pyrrha from time to time.

"Why's that Jaune?"

Daniel asked with more curiosity, wanting to hear Jaune's reasoning behind it.

"You two are the first friends I made here. Both of you are amazing fighters and leaders, which is the reason that I wanted to prove that I can be as good. So, in this one, I'm going to be competing against both of you."

Hearing Jaune's confidence caused both friends to stare at them wearing a smile on their faces. He had sought to prove and compete against them to prove that he could be as good as them. Although, the two of them knew that Jaune was a good person and leader. However, they weren't the kind of people who'd turn down a challenge.

"Well, I hope that you know that I'm not going to hold back."

"I've never been one to turn down a challenge."

Daniel and Ruby gave their replies as Jaune gave them a confident smile.

Seeing their leader acting with this newfound confidence caused Pyrrha, Nora, and Ren to all look on with pride, while challenging Daniel and Ruby. Professor Port looked on with the same kind of pride as his students acted in such a manner with one another.

"Well, I don't know much about you," the fourth team leader said as he approached Jaune, scratching the back of his head. "But, I look forward to working with you in this."

"Same here."

Jaune replied holding out his hand in a friendly manner, and the team leader responded in kind.

"I'm glad to see that my students are getting along well with one another. It makes me glad that I planned out this camping trip," Professor Port said smiling and placing his hand on his hip while laughing. "I'll be explaining what the rules, location, and situation for this mock battle will take place to the individual teams. And I want all of you to think about this was a real-life situation meant to be handled with care."

[Yes, Professor Port!]

Both the newly formed Team A and B replied standing in an almost saluting position in front of their teacher.

---

It has been almost half an hour since Professor Port announced that there would be a mock battle between both teams of eight members. In that time frame, the students were making plans and preparations having talked among themselves about the situation.

In the Emerald Forest, Blake, and Sandra found themselves walking through the road leading in the forest as the two were scanning the area. At the same time, their group was waiting for an ambush from the opposing Team B.

"I'm kinda surprised about the amount of thought that Professor Port put into all this."

Sandra pointed out as she waited for the potential attack to come out.

"For as much as Professor Port acts…flamboyant in class," Black replied, almost not knowing the correct words to describe their professor, Peter Port who does act in an almost pompous manner in classes. "He does have his moments, where his lessons are insightful, which is often rare."

"Yea, I can agree with that. I often think that he enjoys spending more time talking about himself rather than the fact he's supposed to be teaching us," Sandra joked, something that almost caused Blake to give out a laugh. "But, I am enjoying this trip more than I thought that I would."

"I agree. It almost makes me want to have a much longer camping trip in the future."

As the two introverted women were having a leisure conversation with one another, there was a light feeling the two were having at that moment. Both of them had a good deal of real-life experience under their belt and knew that this feeling wasn't something as cliche as a scene from a horror movie.

Sandra and Blake went for their weapons without wanting to show much intention on doing so, but this wasn't an issue at all. Since no matter what, those two would still be attacked by their pursuers. Rushing at them the two of them were Ren and the female member from the fourth team, wielding two tonfas.

Reacting to her, Sandra blocked the assault by using her inactive Gae Bulg, before activating it to respond to the sharp knee aimed at her side. It almost impressed Sandra with the amount of flexibility she displayed in the heat of battle. But, it didn't deter her as the tonfa wielder pressed forward with her assault as she showed her a good amount of martial art skills.

Sandra responded in kind and began countering the assaults with her spearmanship, handling the spear in her hands; showing skills honed in battle. In response to this, the female tonfa user held them in her hands, then thrust the right one forward. But, Sandra noted that the front looked something like a gun barrel, and that came to life as a blast was fired from it.

Sandra barely managed to avoid it, as I seemed to merely graze her side a bit. But, nothing like that would be an immediate thing to be worried about.

"Hello, Blake."

"Ren."

Both friends gave one more greeting before starting their fight against one another.

Ren used StormFlower, paired green semi-automatic pistols with sickle-like blades on them. And Blake used her Gambol Shroud, a black katana with a gun affixed into the guard, with a black ribbon attached to the button, in addition to a sheathe capable of being used as a single-edged cleaver.

Both Blake and Ren faced off against one another in a head-on manner as the two dual-wielded their respective weapons. The two clashed in a manner using their respective weapons, neither of them seemed to gain an edge against one another at that time.

"You're doing better than I thought."

Sandra seemed to complement the tonfa user as she blocked a slash from Sandra's red spear.

"I didn't take you as the one who'd give compliments."

Her opponent replied, giving a light surprise about that sudden compliment.

"You wouldn't be wrong."

Sandra didn't deny that she wouldn't give compliments to people under normal circumstances, then followed up using a kick aimed at her side.

"Kyaa!"

This time, she attacked connected as the Tonfa user was sent off in another direction, positioning her shoulder on her side as if to alleviate the pain. She almost let out a pained laugh after recovering from that last attack, but she knew that there was a chance it could turn out like this.

"Well, I knew this wouldn't be an easy fight. Jaune told me that it would be hard fighting one of you in a head-on fight. So, I have to use this."

"…use…what…?"

Sandra found herself surprised as the Tonfa user's figure and the entire area around her looked to have started to become distorted. It wasn't that alone, as Sandra started feeling as if she was sick, having an almost high level of disorientation.

"Ugh."

Sandra couldn't help putting her hand on her head and was unable to maintain her posture.

It was because of that break in form that gave the Tonfa user to opening that she needed, propelling forward and landing a blow into Sandra's abdomen.

"Kuh!"

Sandra was blown backward feeling that impact, accompanied by a close-range blast, forcing Sandra to place a hand on her stomach. At the moment of impact, Sandra felt her senses returning to normal, but it was too late for her to react. Returning to her fighting stance, she wondered what the Tonfa user did to make her feel like that.

"What the hell was that? It felt as if I was nauseous for a second…."

Sandra was on high alert in that instance, but couldn't understand the reason why.

Seconds later, the Tonfa user went forward at Sandra and started attacking using a wide arrange of assaults with her tonfas. Like before, Sandra handled each of the assaults using her spear, even blocking a head-on blast with the shaft. The Tonfa user's fighting style almost reminded Sandra of Yang's using her Ember Celica, while mixing the explosive blasts into her attacks.

But, as soon as Sandra blocked the last hit, she looked forward to seeing the Tonfa user stopping right in front of her a second time. Similar to before, Sandra started feeling the same feeling of nausea as her vision became warped and couldn't maintain her stance.

"Ugh, this again. There's no doubt that this is a semblance, but I can't even focus…."

Sandra knew that a second attack was going to come at any moment, and couldn't maintain her stance.

As Sandra looked on as the Tonfa user seemed almost distorted in front of her, and couldn't properly examine all her movements. The Tonfa user realized the limits of her semblance, keeping her movements limited as she tried launching one final attack. She propelled forward, making a beeline straight for Sandra, who started feeling a lot better. But, like before, Sandra wouldn't be able to recover in time to make proper defensive measures.

Seeing that Sandra was close to getting hit, Blake turned around for a moment as Ren was rushing at her using StormFlower. Looking as if she left herself wide open, Ren managed to slash Blake using the sickle-like blades. But, despite seeming to hit Blake, the blades cut through what looked to be a duplicate that faded into nothing, as the real Blake went for Sandra.

Turning her Gambol Shroud into a kusarigama, Blake tossed it at Sandra, then wrapped it around her waist and pulled the spearwoman towards her. Just as Sandra was pulled in her direction, the Tonfa user struck air, as that explosive blast didn't make contact.

"Ugh, thanks, Blake."

Sandra recovered from that last hit from her semblance.

"Sandra, that semblance of hers…."

"Yea, I know, it messed up my senses and I couldn't react to anything that she did," Sandra said as she stood up in a prepared stance. "But, the second she started moving, I started feeling better."

"Ugh, this is the reason that I hate using my semblance sometimes head-on," the Tonfa user complained as she stood beside Ren. "It gets easier to examine the more I use it, especially if my opponent is smart."

"Well, I believe that's the reason you work together with your partner."

Ren advised as he stood beside her.

"If it wasn't for the fact that friend of yours looked as if she'd break people's legs," The Tonfa user began mumbling to herself as she talked to Ren. "I'd try and date you."

"Hmm, what was that?"

Ren asked as he couldn't hear his temp. partner's mumbling.

"Nothing."

The Tonfa user replied in response, but Blake tried keeping down her smile as she heard most of what was said.

From there, Blake and Sandra stood in front of Ren and the Tonfa user, and both sides rushed forward, turning it into a two-on-two battle.

---

Meanwhile, in another ruin, which was being used as a temporary base, Team A, who was assigned a defensive position instead of an offensive one. On the abandoned ruin's roof, Ruby and Hunter stood in a prepared stance with their weapons; the former turned Crescent Rose into its sniper form while surveying the area.

"I still don't see anyone around us, Hunter."

Ruby informed her assigned partner, who couldn't see anyone on his side either.

"Hohohoho, I hope my bodyguards would be able to defend me from harm."

Sitting behind them in the middle was Professor Port, who was acting as the assigned target for Team B.

For this mock battle, Professor Port assigned Team A, the defensive position and would be protect be protecting him, while Team B would be the attacking team. Of course, it was a difficult task for some of them, considering all the members of Team A were more used to offensive measures. Most of their semblances were also based more on offense rather than defense.

"This is so difficult waiting to be attacked."

Ruby groaned as she kept waiting for them to be attacked rather than being the ones attacking. But, at the same time, she was used to doing this to some degree as she practiced acting as a sniper.

"Well, I can't relate since that's what I don't do. I'm used to waiting for a rather."

Hunter had no means of communicating with Ruby, seeing as she couldn't understand sign language.

But, most of the members of Team A could understand that it was because of that reason Professor Port allotted this position to them. And wanted the students to experience fighting in a manner not suiting what the two weren't used to at all.

Daniel, who was on the ground started looking forward waiting for the assault and wasn't as antsy since it wasn't the first time he did this. After talking about strategies for some time, he and Ruby thought that the best solution was for their members to be watching the four corners from all sides. He was watching the north position; Weiss was watching the west; Yang was watching the east, and Alyssa was watching the south.

"Daniel, we still don't see anyone approaching out in the distance!"

Ruby announced, not taking her attention from the forest.

[Neither from our end!]

Yang, Weiss, and Alyssa all replied, informing them about the sides they were defending.

"Let's be prepared for anything. We know that Jaune is smarter than he looks and we don't know about what the other's semblances are."

Daniel noted as the others agreed with him.

"I still haven't heard back from Blake or Sandra, who was sent to scavenge the area minutes ago."

Ruby informed, having not received a single message from them despite being almost ten minutes since the two of them left. Daniel guessed there would be a chance that two or more people would attempt to sneak inside their base using other methods. And when it came time to think about who should be sent, he was surprised as Ruby came up with the same idea of sending Blake and Sandra together.

"She is once again showing the reason she came two years early."

Daniel smiled, at the similar ingenuity of the red-hooded leader.

"Huh?"

Daniel looked surprised at that moment as he felt a reaction from one of the runes that he set to react to people walking past them. Daniel pulled out his Scroll, then contacted the person stationed at the east, where those runes were placed.

"Yang, can you see anyone on your end?"

[Uh, no. I can't see anyone on my end. Why?]

Yang replied, not seeing a single person walking around in front of her.

"I got a reaction from one of the runes that I placed in that area. So, someone should be there."

[Well, there's no one…wait…aah!]

"Yang?!"

Daniel let out a surprised voice, having heard a sudden scream from Yang.

Moments later, Yang was knocked into the same direction where Daniel was positioned literally without knowing what hit her. But, she realized that something hard hit her in the right shoulder based on the impact, but her aura defended her from the brunt of it.

"Tch, what was that?!"

Yang looked annoyed as she got into a prepared position, activating Ember Celica.

"Yang, what happened?"

Daniel asked as he brought out Retribution into its full form.

"I don't know. Something was moving on the ground, then the next thing that I knew, I was hit."

Yang explained as he looked forward prepared for a second assault and could see some weird movement on the ground in front of her. Before Yang could think about the next move, there were some sudden movements as if an unseen assailant was running towards her. As the unknown assailant kept getting closer to her, their figure began to become clearer and more visual.

As the unseen figure seemed to leap into the air, holding something behind them, their figure became revealed to both Daniel and Yang.

""Nora?!""

"Nora!"

Nora announced as she swung down Magnhild on top of Yang, who moved backward, causing the ground to be splintered from the impact.

"I didn't think that Nora could turn invisible."

Yang commented as she blocked the second swing from Magnhild, feeling the impact behind that blow.

"Well, semblances are often representations of a person," Daniel said as he maintained his position, while Yang and Nora kept going at it using fast and strong blows. "And Nora doesn't seem like the person who'd be able to turn invisible. Instead, hers would be flashier."

"That's right."

"Aw, my friends know me so well."

Nora despite sounding cutesy in that response, kept the pressure on Yang focusing more on brute strength which said the opposite.

"Daniel, what's going on? How did Nora end up there?"

Ruby asked from her position.

"Ruby, everyone! There's someone here able to turn themselves and others invisible so…."

"Daniel, in front of you!"

Ruby warned, but even without it, Daniel could hear something coming towards him seconds later.

As he turned around, he saw Pyrrha's shield, Akoúo̱ being flung at him, and leaned backward, causing it to sail right above his head. Daniel soon returned to position as Akoúo̱ returned to Pyrrha because of her semblance, Polarity. Seconds later, he looked to see Pyrrha, aiming a dropkick at him. Daniel blocked it using Retribution, but still felt the force behind it.

"Well, hello, there Pyrrha. That was a dramatic entrance."

"Hello, Daniel."

Pyrrha kindly replied as she got into position.

"So, based on the fact you look happy and proud at the same time," Daniel said, holding Retribution in his hand while examining the look on Pyrrha's face. "This was Jaune's idea wasn't it?"

"You'd be right about that," Pyrrha said as she stood in front of Daniel. "And I'm also happy that I get to fight you."

"Well, I can't let down the champion's expectations!"

Not wasting time, Daniel rushed at Pyrrha using Retribution, which she blocked using Akoúo̱, then the two began to battle. Unlike before in classes, the two started fighting much more seriously, considering that both combatants realized the kind of strength and skill one another had. From each impact, the two released noises as loud as the ones that could be heard from Nora and Yang.

As the two got close to one another, Pyrrha used a surprising amount of ingenuity and flexibility in using both her weapon and shield; switching from the short sword to spear at a moment's notice. And Pyrrha was surprised that Daniel was capable of holding up against the almost relentless onslaught that continued without pause. As Daniel moved backward as he noticed Pyrrha pointing her rifle at him.

He leaped up, avoiding the shot while bringing down Retribution towards Pyrrha with the intent of using a strong downward swing. As he was doing that, Pyrrha motioned her hand at Daniel, using her Polarity to take control of Retribution, and started moving it in another direction. Noticing this, then realizing he'd be flung too, Daniel let go of Retribution.

"Alright, if that's how you want to do it, then let's go!"

Daniel announced, then came aiming a downward high at Pyrrha.

She blocked it using Akoúo̱, but felt the force behind the kick as her knees buckled a bit.

Both fighters smiled a bit as the two continued with their battle.

---

In the west, where Weiss was standing she prepared herself in her area as she heard the fights occurring around her. She became aware that there was someone able to turn invisible too, and was preparing herself as much as possible for an assault. It was then, Weiss started hearing quick footsteps heading towards her, and moved aside as she avoided a downward slash.

"Jaune," Weiss turned around pointing Myrtenaster straight at him, then stated. "Did you think that I wouldn't be to avoid that?"

"Yea, sneaking around isn't my strong suit."

Jaune replied as he held Mors Crocea Mors in his hands.

"Well, you sneaked into Beacon," Weiss replied, but then could see a surprised expression on Jaune's face. "I have been spending too much time around Daniel. I can assume that this was your idea."

"Yea. So, did it impress you?"

"I must admit, yes."

Weiss replied with some hint of a smile and genuine feelings.

"Is it enough to…?"

"No."

Weiss replied this time in a manner most suitable for her.

"Well, can't blame a guy for trying," Jaune mumbled to himself before getting more serious. "I don't think that I'll be able to defeat you. But, as the leader of Team JNPR, I'll have them try my hardest."

Seeing how serious Jaune was being in this situation was enough to garner some respect from Weiss, who gave a smile and stood in a prepared stance.

"And since my partner of the leader of Team RWBY, I can't show a bad side either."

Weiss replied, showing Jaune the respect that he deserved.

It wasn't long until, Weiss propelled herself forward at high-speed at Jaune, aiming Myrtenaster forward towards her opponent. Reacting to this, Jaune blocked it using his shield and returned the slash using his sword. But, she avoided this too almost as if she were a ballerina through spinning and moving to the side. Weiss and Jaune kept on with their battle, with the clear difference in skill, but the blonde pressed forward with sheer tenacity.

---

"Hmm, my campers sure are giving it their all. And I'm happy to see that all of them playing their roles," Professor Port looked proud as his students were putting all their effort into fulfilling their assigned roles, whether the role was offense or defense. "I must say that I'm quite impressed that Mister Arc was capable of coming up with the idea with his new teammate's semblance for this sneak attack. He's a rather capable and potential leader if I've ever seen one as a teacher. But, I must say that Mister Norden and Miss Rose works well together too. I can't wait to see the future of all my students."

As Professor Port was smiling at what his students were all doing.

"All of our teammates are fighting against their opponents," Ruby started speaking with Hunter while looking behind her as well for a sneak attack. "Yang is fighting Nora. Daniel is fighting Pyrrha. Weiss is fighting Jaune. And Alyssa is fighting one of their teammates."

As Ruby noted, Alyssa was also fighting against one of the others from the fourth team, a well-built male student, who was using a battleax as a weapon. But, neither she nor Hunter could see the other two members from the fourth team. Of course, one of them could make themselves invisible, making it harder to see hear them.

"Ugh, when are they going to…kyaaa?!"

Ruby was surprised as she was knocked off the roof from a sudden invisible assault before she could finish what she was doing to say next. It alerted Hunter as he prepared an arrow in Actaeon, then pulled back the bowstring, and fired off an arrow in the same spot Ruby was. Due to that, Hunter ended up hitting someone using the arrow, which knocked them off balance.

Because of that, the invisibility semblance was knocked out off, revealing the team leader and his female partner. Hunter couldn't tell, which one of them was responsible for the making of the invisible.

"Well, I didn't think that someone would be able to pinpoint where we were in an instant like that."

The team leader replied, not giving a single clue at all.

"We still won either way," the female partner noted as she tried placing her hand on Professor Port, which would make them the winners. At least, that's what she thought as her hand couldn't touch him at all, as a sudden light barrier was formed. "Wh-What, isn't this…?"

"That would be Daniel."

Both the leader and partner recognized that as the same barrier Daniel made previously, but this looked to have been triggered.

"Don't look up, Daniel!"

"I'm not!"

At that sudden shout, Ruby was launched back up and landed right next to Hunter, holding Crescent Rose in its scythe form. As she did that, she looked to notice Hunter staring at her, while her cheeks seemed to have been turned a bright red.

"Nothing happened!"

Ruby stated without Hunter giving a single sign he thought that.

"…?"

---

Seconds later, as Daniel was still fighting against Pyrrha without Retribution most of the time considering that she was capable of controlling its path using Polarity.

"…kyaaa!"

Daniel caught the last of the scream from Ruby as she was knocked off the ruin's roof and was heading towards the ground. Noticing the position, she was in at the moment, looking as if she was going to land on the ground, a sudden idea crossed his mind.

"Back in a second, Pyrrha."

"Huh?"

Pyrrha looked confused but prepared as Daniel jumped up, then aimed a straightforward kick as a runic array appeared underneath his feet. After that, a blue shockwave was released and repelled Pyrrha backward, then at the same time. Daniel used that momentum to propel himself backward, landing on his hands as he positioned his feet in the same position Ruby planned on landing.

"Hahaha, that was awesome, Daniel."

Ruby looked surprised and smiled after seeing what Daniel did.

"And that was one cute scream, Ruby," Daniel teased as he was prepared to do what he needed to do to get Ruby back onto the roof. "Do you know what to do next?"

"Of course! Let's do it," Ruby announced, preparing herself for what was going to happen next, but realized what position she was in this moment. Even she could realize that she was wearing what she referred to as a combat skirt, and Daniel was underneath her. Realizing all that, Ruby looked flustered but kept herself prepared at the same time. "Don't look up!"

"I'm not!"

Daniel replied, realizing the same thing as runes appeared underneath his feet.

As Pyrrha was charging at him, Daniel propelled her up into the air as she prepared to transform Crescent Rose.

"That was some quick thinking, Daniel!"

Pyrrha announced, smiling at the fact he thought of and did it without hesitating.

"I've always been quick on my feet!"

Daniel replied as he flipped back up, then charged straight at Pyrrha and continued their battle.

---

On the ruin's rooftop, Ruby and Hunter were both fighting against the leader and his partner; the former wielded a three-section staff and the latter wielding throwing knives. Holding the leader made a wide swing at Ruby using his staff, but she blocked it using Crescent Rose. But, he fixed his position, then swing it at her a second time, a blow that ended up hitting her in the shoulder.

"Tch. Hah!"

Ruby groaned as she started rushing at him again, spinning Crescent Rose, then aimed a wide swing at him in a manner that didn't deter Hunter. The team leader almost couldn't block it using his right section staff, because the force behind the swing wasn't something he'd expect from the younger girl. And the pressure continued as the younger girl kept launching various fast attacks.

The leader almost couldn't block them all, as she kept the pressure on him without giving much breathing room. Seeing her partner being pressured like this, the partner tried tossing one of the knives at Ruby. But, just as one of them was thrown at her, it was shot down by Hunter using expert aim.

"Well, this isn't going to be easier for me," the female partner surmised as she started pulling out far more knives from her person. "So, I might as well use this."

Soon enough, there were green sparkles started appearing around her as the knives seem to float around her in a formation. Seeing this, there was no question that the invisibility semblance belonged to the latter, and this was a semblance the two were familiar with.

"Is this the same as Professor Goodwitch's Telekinesis?"

Hunter was reminded as hers and Glynda's semblances both resembled one another. Even so, their skills using weren't the same as one another, and if her skills were similar to their Combat Instructor, then Hunter would have had little to no chances against her. Either way, he started preparing an arrow, then started a fight against her as she manipulated the knives' path.

In their fight, Hunter ended up firing several arrows at her and whatever knife he could, while avoiding all the knives fired at him. But, it was in this fight, he realized the method that the female partner used her Telekinesis, which relied on controlling the knives and nothing else.

"If she could control both my arrows and her knives at the same time, then it would've been troublesome."

Hunter thought as he avoided another knife, that was redirected toward him. And fired off another arrow towards the female partner, who avoided the arrow. But, similar to her, Hunter used his semblance to alter the path of the arrow, which came back at her blindspot.

"Huh, did you use the same semblance at me?"

The female partner ended up asking on reflex as the arrow grazed her side, but Hunter didn't respond. Not that he could or would.

In the battle between Ruby and the team leader, he ended up using his semblance to turn his three-section staff invisible. Not wasting time, he swung the staff, then struck the side of Ruby's face, because she couldn't see its direct path. After recovering from the impact, Ruby placed a hand on the place she was struck, then turned angry eyes towards the team leader.

"I suddenly feel danger."

"Graaah!"

Ruby let out a battle cry as she charged at the team leader.

The battle between Team A and B continued for a couple of minutes before ending with the winner soon being decided. And in the end, the winners ended up being Team A.

---

"Hahaha, I never thought that I'd see such an incredible and intense fight! All my wonderful campers were putting their all into the battle."

Professor Port announced as he stood in front of his somewhat exhausted students. A good number of them had their auras in the red, which starting to recharge at the moment.

"This was an awesome fight."

Ruby said smiling, while her previous opponent would need some more time to recover seeing as his aura was in the deeper red.

"I'm never fighting her again."

The team leader uttered as his body seemed sore all over.

'I have never seen Ruby that mad before.'

Hunter signed, recalling the entire fight as Ruby went after the team leader.

"I wonder where she got that from?"

Daniel replied to Hunter, as both most turned their attention over towards Yang, who looked proud of her sister. A young woman can lose her composure and act in a hostile manner towards the person who caused it at the drop of a hat.

"What? I'm too cool for you people?"

Yang asked, not seeming to care about the looks she was receiving at that moment.

"Well, it was fun fighting against Daniel. Although, we never got the chance to finish that fight."

Pyrrha said, showing a clear look of enjoyment on her face, rethinking the fight that she had with Daniel. Much to her disappointment, it soon ended when Team A was called the winners.

Despite losing, no one from Team B was mad about it, and Team A found the entire thing fun as it pushed them a lot of them more than expected. Again, because of their professor who hosted this entire thing, all four teams were able to learn something more and have fun at the same time.

"Well, students this night we'll be returning to the campus seeing as tomorrow will be normal classes."

[Ugh!]

Some of the students groaned at that idea, surprisingly, something that neither of them would've expected at all.

"Now now, students, I know that you enjoyed spending this trip around your wonderful camp director. But, even a good thing must end sometimes. And there will be numerous opportunities for you student to have moments like this in the future," Professor Port noted as he looked to all his students, before going over to pick up the bag that he brought for the camping trip. "Now, there's the matter of all the ingredients that I have remaining inside of this bag. I don't want to waste anything seeing as this was my idea. So, if Mister Norden and Ren would be gracious enough to cook one final meal for this trip."

"That sounds awesome! I love Daniel's cooking!"

"And Ren can cook anything!"

Ruby and Nora looked into the idea and said male cooks glanced over at one another.

"So, want to see what we can cook using what's left, Ren?"

"That would be a pleasure, Daniel."

Ren replied, showing a faint smile at the thought of cooking a meal.

---

Intending to press forward with their intentions of cooking one last meal using the remaining ingredients, both the cooks started making the preparations. Not intending to leave the two students with all the work, Professor Port made a perfect fire for them, similar to the one he made previously. Even the others joined in on giving their assistance no matter how small or menial.

And once everything was finished, the entire group enjoyed the meal prepared by Daniel and Ren, who used the remaining ingredients that Professor Port brought. And their dessert was the rest of the s'mores prepared with all that remained from last night.

"This was an awesome trip."

Yang said as she sat down beside her teammates and friends.

"Yea," Blake agreed with her partner before continuing. "At first, I wasn't that as hopeful since Professor Port was in charge of leading it. But, it turned out to be a fun trip out into a Grimm-filled forest."

"Hehehe, I think I'm starting to rub off on my dear, Blakey."

"Now, I'm worried."

Blake joked as she talked with her partner.

"But, this was a fun trip. I feel as if I did learn something for a change while having fun at the same time."

Alyssa added, as she turned her attention toward Sandra, who looked as if she was loving the moment too. She still couldn't break the suspicion that there was something else wrong with Sandra that she wasn't sharing. But, that was something that she'll wait for Sandra herself to share rather than forcing her into doing so.

"This was a good way to end a camping trip. So, what did you think about the experience, Weiss?"

Daniel asked, turning his attention over toward Weiss.

"Well, it was a decent enough experience," Weiss replied, not showing much emotion about it. Although, she was not one to share her experiences to the fullest sometimes. "But, I wouldn't mind doing something like this again."

"I bet you wouldn't princess. But, I think that you'd rather it be a more one-on-one thing with a certain boy here."

Sandra brought up while seeming to smile to herself.

"Wh-What," Weiss' face was turning bright red at the suggestion from Sandra, not that she didn't dislike the idea of that. "I have been thinking about this for some time. But, you have been more proactive in speaking up and making a lot of comments directing at me."

"Well, what can I say? Daniel was right about you being quite easy to tease about certain things," Sandra stated, showing more of a genuine smile and laugh. "Don't worry your rich little head. You already have enough to deal with, with Daniel. So, I won't make a habit out of it."

"Humph, at least someone's being considerate. I can't say the same thing about my partner and him."

Weiss said sitting down while crossing her arms. Her attention was directed squarely on Ruby and Daniel.

"What're you talking about? I'm always considerate about your feeling," Ruby spoke almost in defiance, as there were multiple people from her friend group staring at her in response. "What's with those looks? I do take all of the feelings of my friends into account."

"I don't know about that."

Weiss added, still looking mad about something.

"Wait, is this about what happened last night?"

Daniel asked, thinking that as Weiss' reason for acting like this.

"Oh," Ruby seemed to know what happened last night and let out a sound. "Are you still mad about that, Weiss?"

"What happened last night?"

Yang asked as the others became curious too.

"Of course, I'm still mad about what happened. It wasn't funny at all."

Weiss replied.

"Uh, what happened last night?"

Alyssa asked this time.

"But, it was kinda funny. It wouldn't be a camping trip without it."

Ruby replied to Weiss without giving a single response.

"Weiss, come on. It wasn't that bad."

Daniel added.

The more that Daniel, Weiss, and Ruby talked about what happened last night, the more that it started looking a lot like a private incident.

"Yes, it was. I never want to do something like that…."

"For the love of god! What happened last night?!"

Unable to take the conversation between them, Sandra finally asked them, causing the trio's attention.

"Uh, well…."

As Daniel was going to give them a response he stopped, then stood up to his feet without hesitating at all.

Not speaking a single word, he started looking around on high alert as he felt as if something was looking at the people there. There was something dark examining them with nothing less than ill-intention. Everyone who was there stared at Daniel with a confused expression wondering what was wrong with him.

"Daniel, what's wrong?"

Weiss worriedly asked, knowing he wouldn't react to something like this."

"There's something here."

Ren replied, feeling the same thing as Daniel, but was seconds later than him.

"Where is it, Ren?"

Nora asked, knowing that Ren wasn't wrong in situations like this, and believing Daniel too.

Realizing that there was something here, the professor and students went on high alert in preparations to react to anything that was going to happen. It was then that Daniel reached for Retribution, activate it, then pointed it high in the sky as there was a shadow on the ground.

"It's above us!"

Daniel warned as he pulled the trigger.

Just as Daniel fired that blast from Retribution, it seemed to hit something as it flew right above them, causing the wind pressure to push against them. The group managed to maintain their footing as it landed on the ground right behind them. As the entire group turned around to see what it was, it, of course, was a Grimm. But, it wasn't like the normal kind of Grimm anyone there has run into thus far.

It was a two-legged winged Grimm, towering over them, with an elongated tail, and a face that from here looks a mixture between an avian and reptile. Of course, the same with most Grimm, its body was black, there was a lot of white bone plated on it, mask, and spine-like spikes running down its back.

"Uh, Daniel."

Alyssa called out to Daniel, gaining his attention.

"Yea."

"Doesn't that look kinda like the Grimm drawn on the walls?"

"Yea."

Daniel replied, immediately recognizing the Grimm.

"The same one that Ruby thinks shoots out lasers of some kind."

"That is also true."

Daniel and the others looked forward as the unidentified Grimm seemed to move around as if it was a chicken of some kind as its head darted around.

"We should probably kill it before it does anything like that."

"Yes, we should."

Daniel said as he turned around to see all the others around him prepared.

"Be careful students," Professor Port stood in front of his students, looking much more serious than before as he stared at the Grimm in front of him. "I haven't seen a species of Grimm like this before. And it appears as if none of the people from the previous era could defeat it. So, I want everyone here to follow any order that I give no matter what happens! So, let's celebrate the end of this camping trip with this Grimm's death?!"

[Right!]

All four teams replied following Professor Port's lead as he pulled out his weapon, Blowhard. And from there, he's the first person to launch the first attack at the unnamed Grimm, hitting it in its face mask.

"Graaaah!"

It bellowed as it started rushing at them without concern at all.

Daniel rushed straight at the Grimm, then fired one more shot at the Grimm's head, stunning it a bit, and pressed on slashing its chest. It didn't appear to deter it much as the creature simply pressed forward and almost brushed him aside. Seeing that Daniel was knocked aside by it, Alyssa and Sandra rushed forward with their weapons all prepared.

Hunter kept a distance from the Grimm, as he prepared two arrows in Actaeon, then released them both straight at it. In response to this, the Grimm blocked the arrows using its tails. But, it didn't expect that Alyssa to come in, swinging both her Gwyn Ddraig at the Grimm, smashing both against its head. Sandra became soon after as she slashed its right leg using her spear.

After being struck at its leg, it titled a bit as it couldn't remain it's bearing fast enough. Seeing that, Ruby rushed at it using her Petal Burst, then swung Crescent Rose at it. Reacting to it, the Grimm moved its head aside, then it aimed its tail at the young leader, knocking her aside.

"Ouch."

Ruby groaned as she recovered from the assault, but found the Grimm turning its attention over toward her.

Before it could do anything to her, the Grimm found multiple shotgun blasts smashing against its head, exploding against it. It distracted the Grimm enough for Ruby to escape from it, and transformed Crescent Rose into a rifle, then fired off an assortment of shots at it. Weiss and Blake nodded to one another, then started rushing forward at the Grimm too using their weapons.

Team JNPR and the fourth team started rushing in too as the Grimm started darting around in multiple directions, as the twelve students tried overwhelming it with numbers.

"Gra…graaa…."

The Grimm started making creepier noises, then it started moving its head backward as its opened its mouth.

"Graaaaaaaaaah!"

It released a high-pitched sound from its mouth as it traveled across the entire area.

[Aaaaah!]

Because of the high-pitched noise, it forced the students and their professor to cover their ears from the intensity of its screech. But, for Blake, it seemed as if she was having a worse time hearing its voice as it looked to be in greater pain. She couldn't hold onto her weapon as she was holding onto her ears and head as much as she could while bending down.

Daniel tried struggling to compose himself, knowing that the Grimm wouldn't give them a chance to react and to come up with a counterattack. He wasn't alone as Ruby, Weiss, and members from his and their team tried to get some idea of what to do next. It was then that the Grimm turned its attention over toward Blake, and Alyssa, who was standing near her struggling too.

Three people noticed this, Daniel, Yang, and Sandra, none of them were as well off as the other, because they're still disoriented. The Grimm turned its head toward them as its eyes seemed to give off a faint and ominous glow, as a previous premonition started to come true. Its eyes started shining at its stared at the two women, and a red light started coming from it.

"No!"

Much to their surprise, Sandra was the first to react and released a blast of gravitational force from her Gael Bulg that pushed her toward them. Sandra seemed to shield them using her body, going against all of her survival instincts to defend herself. Soon enough, she was covered in the red light rather than Alyssa and Blake and was forced into staring into the Grimm's eyes.

"…."

Sandra's eyes turned red as she looked almost like a puppet that had its strings cut as she landed on her knees while dropping Gae Bulg.

""Sandra!""

"...!"

Daniel and Alyssa ended up calling out after seeing their teammate and partner in this state, while Hunter looked on worried as Sandra fell to the ground.

However, despite calling out her name as loud as possible, Sandra couldn't hear anything at all. Not as all her friends called out to her. Not the feeling of her weapon leaving her hand. Nor even the Grimm right in front of them in this moment.

---

A/N: Well, this is the end of the next chapter of RWBY – Team DUSK, this was the last day of the camping trip, with all the students proceeding to do the second activity that Professor Port planned out for them. Before all that, the entire group had fun together talking and eating s'mores, which I'm sure that Ruby was looking forward to the most. There was also more of an explanation from Daniel about his Runes and was even a showcase of how well they work with Weiss' Glyphs, as the two could form a large Hard-Light Barrier.

Sandra finds herself alone in the forest going through her own issues, which seems to have caused some deep trauma, where she ran into Blake, who she walked with for some time. Next, Teams A and B have managed to give each other some trouble for different reasons, with some more semblances from the fourth team there being shown. But, in the end, the entire group suffered an attack from an unidentified Grimm that ended up hitting Sandra who defended Alyssa and Sandra from its mysterious attack. How this is all going to end up will be revealed next time.