"That-" Lie Ren panted. "That was the last of them."
He was bent over, drawing in as much air as possible. All around, the carcasses of various Grimm were dissolving into nothingness. Beside him, Yang had her arms over her head. Her breathing was also labored, though not nearly to the same extent as his.
"Too bad. I could go all day."
To their left, the sound of snapping branches drew near. "You were saying?"
"Did I stutter?" She gave a halfhearted grin.
Her attempts at hiding her tiredness were admirable. But they both knew they could not keep going like this. Luckily, Ren had a way out of this endless stream of encounters.
"My Semblance may be of use here. May I lay my hands on you?"
"Uh… alright." He moved behind her. "But those hands better not wander, buster!"
"That won't be a problem."
There was a pause from the blonde. "You calling me ugly?"
The dark-haired boy did not take the bait. To preserve his sanity, Ren knew he would be doing that often with his partner. Instead of answering, he simply placed his open palms onto her shoulders.
Tranquility draped over them like a comfy blanket. Ren saw the color wash out of Yang's body as the emotion drained away. All negativity fled them just in the nick of time.
As soon as his Semblance settled in place, the tree line opened up. A deluge of gigantic Grimm hornets streamed into their part of the woods. They shadowed the canopy as they hovered in place to survey the ground.
If Ren were capable, he would have been shaking in his kicks. The pure number of Lancers were terrifying on even an intellectual level. Most of the Lancers departed after a quick once over. A straggler stayed a moment longer to look directly at them.
Then it buzzed off with the rest.
He waited a few more minutes before releasing the purest manifestation of his soul. Yang gasped as everything returned to her. He had to take a firm grip of the upper arms to prevent her from falling over.
"Jeez, dude." She was on the verge of hysterical laughter. "Those bugs could not even comprehend us."
"From their perspective, we were nothing more than breathing rocks."
"Neato frito." Yang flopped onto her back. "That was a bit much. Think I'll take a siesta."
"Not a bad idea." With a deadline of that evening to complete initiation, they were in no rush.
She remained in the grass while he moved over to sit beneath a tree. Her arms and legs extended outward like a starfish. Sunlight bathed her sweaty skin. He took a more dignified pose, opting for the lotus position on an exposed root.
Breathing in to find his center, he calmed his Aura. Using his Semblance always threw his emotions out of whack. The stiller his soul became, the faster its physical manifestation would recharge.
With closed eyes, his thoughts lingered on the origins of the term 'soul.' His mother, a scholar of meditation, had taught him that the word was derived from an ancient dialect. Nowadays, people interpreted that older term as 'inner light.' In actuality, the correct translation was 'life breath.'
Life breath. That first breath. Creation, as bestowed by the Brother Gods.
Of course, his mother was no believer. But she liked to wonder aloud at the curiosity of how regulated breathing affected the body. There was a symmetry that was difficult to ignore, or so she said. Then An Ren would laugh at her child's confused face.
The orphaned boy missed her dearly.
"Hey, Ren?" Yang called.
His mind returned to the material world even as his body remained in pose. "Yes?"
"With that Semblance, you could have escaped from the Grimm at any time."
"Pretty much." There was no need for falsehoods.
"You did not intend to fight all of them?"
"I would have killed the largest one and ran from the rest."
Ren wanted to demonstrate to any proctors watching that he was capable of both fighting and sneaking around Grimm. Yang's arrival had thrown him off his plan. Now they had both wasted energy and delayed retrieval of a relic.
"Ah." There was a long silence. "My bad."
"What's done is done."
They were back to the quiet. He performed a self-inventory. His Aura was roughly two-thirds full.
"Where do you think they were heading?"
Ren opened his eyes. "Who?"
"The Grimm. They seemed to be in a hurry to go somewhere fast." The grass rustled as she rolled onto her belly to look at him. "Kind of unusual, huh?"
It was. In his experience, Grimm loitered until drawn to a location. Even then, they tended to move slowly unless on the hunt.
She continued. "There were so many, too. Those hornets would have overwhelmed us if it were not for you."
"I'm sure you would have been fine."
"Could they…" Yang trailed off before picking back up. "Could they be heading for the temple? That would be the only place where people would be gathering."
His eyebrows creased. "It's possible."
"No one would be expecting something like that."
An image of a bubbly girl with orange hair came to Ren's mind. Skipping through the forest, she called out for her best friend. A bush rustled. She investigated. Then a swarm of car-sized Grimm blindsided her.
The two teens stared at each other. Horror mounted on Yang's face. Ren was sure he was the same way. They both had one thing on their mind.
VII. Run!
Grunting and groaning, an Ursa galloped on all fours around trees whilst under duress. Bark shattered as the massive frame of the bear-like Grimm smashed into wood. Clumps of debris were kicked up with each beat of its massive paws.
The creature bucked to-and-fro while in this panicked state. These actions were to no avail. Its adversaries clung tightly to the fur.
One of them was even enjoying the rough ride.
An orange-haired human rode its shoulders. Joy effused her shouts. The other human, with fluttering white locks, screamed while draped over the torso.
"What are you? Insane!?"
"Wooooooo!" Was the delirious reply.
The harassed Grimm whomped, kicked, and flailed around. Eventually, the group reached a clearing. There, its harried gaze fell upon a block of stone. Seeing an opportunity for freedom, the Ursa charged full speed ahead.
It was bent on crashing into the hard surface. Even if the Grimm were to perish, at least it would take the humans with it. Weiss Schnee, seeing the danger, took measures to prevent this.
"Enough!" She brought her rapier, Myrtenaster, forward.
Switching to the purple chamber of the weapon's revolver hilt, she activated the Dust within. Drawing a quick circle in the air, two glowing rings appeared. One surrounded the girls and the other wrapped around the monster.
Pulling the trigger detonated the rings. Both initiates were sent upward. The Ursa was pushed down. Its legs buckled as it hit the ground hard.
Flipping around in midair, she loaded Hard-light Dust into the rapier. A platform with a snowflake at the center materialized beneath her feet. With a push off, she jumped at the fallen Grimm. Her sword was poised to strike true.
"Hi-yah!"
The other girl landed first. Nora Valkyrie brought her oversized mallet down on the creature's head. Its plated skull exploded in a shower of gore.
Weiss had to summon another platform to keep the splatter off her starched clothes. The war hammer wielder was not as concerned. She smiled from underneath a smoking, inky veil that dripped down her chin. Packing away her weapon, she proudly sauntered over.
"Those were some fancy tricks you pulled off. Say, what else are you hiding?" Grabby little hands advanced on the heiress.
Weiss slapped them away. "I'm not hiding anything, especially from the likes of you!"
There were no tricks. Her Glyphs were an inheritance. Absolute proof that she was a Schnee through and through.
"Oooh! Feisty. Now I'm even more curious!"
Weiss snarled before stomping off. There was no arguing with the unmoored. To do so was to lose one's own tenuous grip on reality.
If there were any positives to this misadventure — which she would block from her memory going forward — it was that they had somehow ended up in the correct location. A dilapidated structure lay before her. The heiress refused to give the barbarian any credit for the find and instead moved alone towards the temple ruins.
She entered what was once a circular, stone building. Pillars that had supported a now missing roof were still present. Everything that would have been protected by a ceiling had weathered and cracked. The floor tiles were arranged into a gray mosaic of a compass rose.
Also present were a series of newer-looking columns. These were shorter and more ornate than the rest of the building. They were fashioned to function as pedestals.
On each of them was an object that would fit comfortably in her palm. The items were cast in various shapes of alternating black and gold. Specifically, they were shaped like chess pieces.
Weiss knew the board game well. Chess was popular in Atlas, especially amongst high society. Her own father's study was filled with strategy folios and biographies of grandmasters.
Throughout her childhood, he routinely kept her up past bedtime to run openings and endgame scenarios past her. Each one was more preposterous and situational than the last. All of them had pompous names befitting their absurd natures.
Valean Shield. Malik's Delima. The Immortal Game.
This in no small part influenced Weiss' feelings on the game. Namely, cold disdain and irritation. She had to force herself to compartmentalize those preconceptions and focus. These must have been the sought after relics.
The location was about right and the relics were exquisitely crafted. She regarded them with keen interest. They must have been valuable. Not enough to risk a huntsman's life over in a real-world scenario, but sufficiently unique to prevent chicanery. No one would be able to fake them.
Kings. Queens. Rooks. Knights. Bishops. Pawns.
Some of the relics were missing. Weiss was not the first to claim a prize. Nevertheless, she could make inferences. There were two pieces of a type in each color. Twenty-four in all.
Oddly, there were not enough pawns. Chess usually came with eight for each player. Only a few being present was strange. In addition, there could only ever be one king per side. A second queen could exist if a pawn were promoted, but again it was a strange addition.
Weiss wondered why. They were told to grab a relic. Not two.
What would happen to the twin?
There had to be significance to their appearance. Weiss was not sure how, though. She suddenly wished she had asked more of Professor Goodwitch.
Perhaps this was a lesson unto itself. Understanding the full parameters of a mission before accepting was, in hindsight, a good policy. Regardless, the Schnee understood her assignment. This was the time to claim her place in Beacon.
Now for the big question. Which one to take?
Was it pretentious to carry a royal piece? Did taking a Knight demonstrate outside the box thinking? What about the Bishops? Piety, maybe?
If there was significance to the choice, she needed to understand what that was before making the selection. This would be difficult. She could spend hours agonizing and still feel like she made the wrong decision.
"Look Weissy! A castle!"
Nora was not weighed down by such heady thoughts. While Weiss had debated, the other girl had taken the initiative. She now held a golden Rook over her head like it was the greatest of treasures.
"Put that down!"
"Why?" The oblivious one asked. "This is what we were after, right? What's the big deal?"
"This is a big deal. Huge! Act like it."
"I'm acting just fine!" Nora snapped. "You're the one being all pushy."
Not liking her tone, Weiss responded in kind. "Pushy!? Well excuse me for not being an empty-headed thrill-seeker who blunders her way through a deadly forest like it was a delightful meadow and uses the Grimm like her own personal transport!"
"Yeah, well… You're excused!"
"Why you-"
"Weiss! Nora!" Someone called.
Temporarily pausing the debate, they both turned to the voice. Walking up was the scraggly, pretend knight from before. His cheesy smile was almost believable.
"Jauney!"
"Ugh, you again." Weiss huffed.
"Hey there, Snow Angel."
Nora giggled. "That's a terrible nickname."
"Yeah, maybe not my best. I'll come up with a better one." He gracelessly winked before seeing the Rook in Nora's hand. "Is that a relic?"
"We think so. Hurry! Go grab one!"
He moved around to the pedestals. "Don't mind if I do."
Whichever of the Chess pieces he picked, Weiss did not know. Showing any interest in him was just asking to invite more of his unwanted attention. The last thing she needed was for him to get the wrong idea.
The boy pressed all of her buttons. Annoying. Unkempt. Full of himself.
Adding on was that he had the audacity to think he deserved her or Pyrrha Nikos on his team. His success in acquiring one of them was intolerable. Weiss would be damned before letting the scoundrel get his way.
The prodigy in question was present. Pyrrha stood apart. There was a subdued quality to her demeanor. She had yet to say a word, her gaze cast downward.
Noticing the melancholy, Nora went to her next. "Hanging in there, Champ?"
"Yes!" Pyrrha startled. "Yes. I am well."
There was little conviction in her words. No one with a functional brain cell would believe them. Weiss recognized the brittle lies. This was a cry for help.
In a flash of anger, she pointed her sword at Jaune. "Did he try something boorish with you while you two were alone!?"
"Whoa!" He reared back, closing a compartment on his armor. "I didn't-"
Nora gasped. "Say it ain't so! Don't tell me I have to break Jaune-Jaune's legs."
For the first time since they had partnered, Weiss felt a warmness for Nora. With a shared nod, both of them advanced on the lone male. They were only stopped when his victim stepped in their way.
"Nothing like that happened!"
"Now Pyrrha." Nora said in an understanding tone. "There is nothing to be ashamed of. We've all trusted people we shouldn't. We can't be blamed for what we don't know."
"I knew he was a criminal." Weiss added.
All three had various responses. Confusion for Pyrrha. Excitement for Nora. Dread for Arc. Weiss had him right where she wanted.
"This stalker snuck onto my chartered ship." As she continued, his eyes became dramatically wide. "You also ran off with my luggage, from which a pair of silk stockings were missing. My very clothes were your sick playthings, weren't they!?
The Schnee heiress was no 'upper class twit.' Her sharp mind had no difficulties in distinguishing the faces of 'the help.' Weiss recognized Arc the moment they had met again in the locker room.
She had stayed quiet before, unsure of his intentions. Perhaps he had been working a part time job to earn money. Now she knew without a doubt that there was something wrong with him.
Jaune Arc was no part time Bullhead attendant. He was a no-good stowaway. A perverted stowaway.
"I don't know anything about that-" Pyrrha began.
"I didn't do anything to your fancy socks!" Jaune cried.
"-but he has been a perfect gentleman with me."
Weiss did not believe her. Nora was not as steadfast.
"Okie-dokie." The traitor backed away. "I knew you were a good guy!"
"Y-you said you were going to break my legs!"
"Never can be too careful. Besides, it would've hurt me more than it would've hurt you."
"There's no way! That would have hurt me a lot!"
"Emotionally, I would have been all tore up inside."
As the idiots' comedy routine continued, Weiss felt herself becoming angrier and angrier. They were outright mocking her concerns. She prepared to tell them both off when an out-of-place sound caused her to hesitate.
A buzz tickled her hearing. She swatted near her ear, thinking a fly was close by. This did nothing to dampen the high pitch. It only grew louder. Closer.
Everyone was similarly glancing around. No one could place it immediately. The source was soon enough revealed.
From over the trees, a streak of black and white flew in. The Grimm, a large hornet Weiss knew as native to her homeland, hovered before them. Crimson compact eyes glared hatefully at the teenagers.
Unsure of its intentions, no one dared move. An uncomfortable bead of sweat rolled down Weiss' nose. As the perspiration plopped off, the Lancer moved. It vibrated before letting out a bone rattling screech. One that could no doubt be heard for miles.
This lasted for only a second before a projectile was lobbed at it. The monster exploded in a flash of crackling pink smoke. Nora stepped into view brandishing a grenade launcher formed out of her war hammer.
"Boy, I didn't think I could hate those things more."
"You trigger-happy buffoon!" Weiss shrieked. "That was no ordinary Grimm! We should have figured out what it was up to before blowing it up!"
"Forget that! Be happy I stopped it from finishing whatever it was doing."
"I don't think you stopped it." Pyrrha said while looking eastward.
They all swiveled to see. Weiss could not keep a gasp from escaping her mouth. She was hardly the only one to be shocked.
More Lancers were on the horizon. Exponentially more. The sun darkened as they passed before the glowing sphere.
"There are so many." Nora gulped.
And all of them were heading towards their current location.
Weiss knew now what the dead drone was trying to accomplish. Pyrrha, of course, had figured it out first. That Lancer had been a scout. The swarm was coming to answer the call to avenge their fallen brethren.
Broken ruins were no place to hold out against those numbers. A full platoon of Huntsmen would be wiped out. The four of them were not even students.
"What should we do?" Weiss asked no one in particular.
Arc, somehow, was the most sensible. He pointed in the opposite direction. With a deep inhale, he answered by shouting at the top of his lungs.
/ / /
"Duck!"
Blake trusted the warning and doubled over. There was the 'whiz' of a bullet over her head. A warmth splashed on her back. The Lancer that had been closing in now wiggled on the ground in its death throes.
Its thorax had been shot out.
She had no chance to make a shout of gratitude to her partner. Another winged demon swooped down. Executing a backflip, she fired a short burst into a set of compound eyes. Robbed of sight, it crashed into a coniferous tree.
There was no time to finish it off. Three needles yo-yoed out from all sides. Her rapidly produced Shadow was turned into a pincushion as she was pushed into the air.
Wasting not, she brought her wakizashi and bladed sheath to bear. Corkscrewing downward, the sharp edges tore the Drone's wings to shreds. She landed in a crouch over a Lancer. Her sword came down to split the head open.
Two more shots rang out to kill off the rest. Blake was wobbly on her feet. She had been fighting non-stop for the past half-hour.
They had been moving slowly along the canopy to avoid this type of trouble. Unfortunately, the girls could not have foreseen that the tree they were crossing over into was filled with killer hornets. From the moment the opposing forces had crossed paths, they were off to the races.
Blake, opting to take the fight to the Lancers, leapt down to the forest floor to draw them in. Her abilities made her well suited for the task of front-line fighter. Ruby stayed behind to provide an overwatch. Long range appeared to be the younger girl's specialty.
The arrangement worked well. At least, it did at first. Attrition was slowly exacting a punishing price.
The Grimm were wearing down her defenses. Blake could sense her Aura draining away. Each activation of her Semblance was a bit slower than the last. She needed to end this soon.
Yet there was no end in sight.
Not only were the numbers on the enemy's side constantly being replenished, but their strategies were getting better. In the relatively confined space, the first group of bugs had difficulty navigating around each other. Blake and Ruby had picked off ten without breaking a sweat.
The next wave was fewer in relative totals but not in the absolute. Blake knew more were just out of sight. She could hear them buzzing. This was a purposeful action. The Drones wanted more room to operate.
Not only that, but the Grimm had shifted from trying to overwhelm the girls to more advanced maneuvers. Now they were using feints and trickery to gain the advantage. Without her Shadows, they would have had the cat faunus dead to rights nine times over.
It flew in the face of what Blake knew of the creatures, but there was no denying what she was experiencing. They were getting smarter. Harder to predict.
"Gah!" Blake turned to the exclamation.
Ruby had been forced to abandon her station. A Lancer had performed a suicide dive into her perched position. Its bulk had uprooted the entire tree.
Dumped onto the ground, she was a sitting duck. A Drone swooped in for the kill. Blake pushed her body to the limit to intercept.
She threw her sickle and just managed to hook the ribbon around a leg. A hard tug was just enough to set it off course. Rolling to the side, Ruby brought her barrel around and blew the Grimm's head off.
Breathing a sigh of relief, Blake returned her weapon to her hand. This sense of safety proved temporary. In a flash, another monster was upon her.
It provided no chance for her to perform a shadowy substitute to get away. There was a collision. Though, oddly, it was not between the Grimm and the faunus.
Rose petals fluttered in the air.
Blake had been floored. Ruby lay on top of her. Somehow, the smaller girl had crossed the distance to tackle her partner out of the way.
Although grateful, Blake was severely bewildered. "How...?"
"Watch out!"
The Grimm was circling back around. Neither could react. Both had been caught prone. They braced for the pain, hoping that their Auras would hold.
"Raaaaagh!" Someone, not either of them, screamed.
A ball of pure hellfire slammed into the hornet before it could reach them. Heat washed over Blake's face. She flinched. Ruby did not. Instead, her eyes were glued to the ensuing fireworks.
In those polished silver pools, Blake saw the explosion. She also observed recognition there. A warmth of a different sort.
"Yang!"
Blake turned back to see the younger girl's sister standing there. Her long, golden hair rose towards the sky like a naked flame. The Grimm she had headed off lay smoking at her feet.
Other Lancers were attempting to move in, yet the inferno kept them at bay. Not making any progress, they rerouted towards the two they could get at. Yang was having none of that and ran at them.
"Get them to safety!" She roared before blazing a path towards the monsters.
Her fist collided with a Lancer before literally exploding on contact. Through the incineration, Yang tackled another flying creature through a set of bushes. The fluttering and screeches of dying Grimm followed.
From behind, a twig snapped. Both girls tensed as a hand settled on their shoulders. Then it was as though the weight of the world slid off.
The pink-eyed boy, Ren, was there. "Are you injured?"
"No." The hidden faunus answered for them.
Her partner appeared to be in a daze. Truthfully, so was she. Or more accurately, she was in a perfect state of emotional balance. It reminded her of waking after a deep sleep.
In those first moments of lucidness, everything was so perfect. She felt safe, warm, and secure. Like her life was her own. Right before memories of her past slammed back into her head.
It was then that she noticed his glowing hands. "You are doing something to us."
"I'm suppressing our negativity to mask us from the Grimm."
As if on cue, another Drone zoomed on by. It did not so much as look at the seated trio. His Semblance was incredible.
"How long can you keep this up?"
"Not very. The more individuals I cover, the faster my Aura drains." That should have scared her, but fear was prevented from taking root. "However, it gives us a few moments to plan."
"That girl… Yang." Blake tested the name on her tongue. "She wanted you to take us away from here. Can you do that?"
"If you were to carry me, I could focus on only using my Semblance. Perhaps we could get far enough away from the epicenter of whatever is causing this."
"What about my sister?" Ruby drunkenly chimed in.
"We would have to leave her behind. I would not be able to hide all of us."
"No!" She cried in horror.
A Beowolf poked its head out of some shrubbery. Blake grabbed Ruby's hand and squeezed. This seemed to calm her enough for Ren's Semblance to settle back into place. The snout retracted into the greenery.
"We are only talking through our options. Is there any chance Yang can escape on her own?"
"No." Ruby said in a monotone. "When she fights, Yang gets super bad tunnel vision. Her Semblance makes it worse. She'll go until she wins, or she passes out."
And then she would die. Ruby could not bring herself to say that, but they all could infer. Blake processed this information quickly and nodded.
"Ren, could you get Ruby out of here? With my training in exfiltration, I can retrieve Yang and-"
"No." Ruby said once more.
This time, with greater conviction. More determination. Blake was taken aback at how adamant and earnest the tiny huntress-to-be was.
"I know you want to help your sister-"
"It's not just Yang." She interrupted, eyes shining bright. "It's you. It's Ren. It's everyone in this forest. I'm not leaving anyone behind."
Now the girl was being unreasonable. "Sometimes there are no-win scenarios. People will die, no matter what you do."
"Then I will fight harder." As if that would solve everything.
"Good Huntsmen have to make bad choices all the time." Ren tried to talk sense into her. "They cannot be everywhere."
There was a bitter undertone to his words. If his Semblance were not active, Grimm would have been all over them. Ruby pressed ahead anyway.
"Then we will be better than good. Starting right now, we will be the best."
His turn had now come to be surprised by her force of will. Though this only showed on his face for a second. Then he came to a decision.
"What will we do, then?"
Put on the spot, Ruby fidgeted. A simple reminder that she was younger than them. Blake was unsure by how much but was comfortable saying it was a year or two. These were not insignificant years either.
Ruby was less experienced in many ways. This may have been the very first time she had to make a life-or-death decision. One that involved her family as well.
She regained her nerve before replying. "We grab Yang and run for the temple. There has to be people there that we can band together with."
It was a gamble. They had no guarantees that things would be easier out there. They could be heading into the thick of the storm.
Then again, there was no guarantee period. The opposite direction could be just as fraught. With such a limited view, they knew nothing of the amount of Grimm they faced. Better a chance of running into other struggling initiates or intervening teachers.
At this point, Blake would gladly fail the test to live another day.
"I'm in." She turned to Ren. "How about you? This is not what we signed up for. I wouldn't blame you for cutting out."
He shook his head. "My partner told me to get you to safety. I intend to follow through."
His piece said, Ren stood. Retracting his hands, terror flooded Blake's nerves. She had to shake it off. There was no place for that now.
No more time to waste, they ran in the direction Yang had gone.
As the person most able to avoid nasty surprises, Blake took point. Ren, with his machine pistols, was at the back. Ruby ping-ponged between them to scan their surroundings with her scoped rifle.
These precautions proved to be pointless. Whatever would have stood in their way was dead. Grimm bodies littered the ground and the trees. Smoldering grass in the shape of hurried footsteps led them to the one they sought.
They soon found what they were looking for.
Yang, bleeding and burning, crouched beneath a score of Lancers. She used her Aura as a barrier to keep the harassing Grimm that lay on her away. They pressed inward as she tried to catch her breath. The monsters were not going to allow her the luxury.
Seeing the blonde in trouble, the dark-haired girl readied to jump to the rescue. She was beaten out of the gate by another. A tornado of plucked roses blew past Blake and towards Yang.
On the winds of change was carried Ruby. With her was the largest scythe Blake had ever seen. In motions almost too fast to follow, the younger sibling slashed the Lancers to ribbons.
When she stopped her assault, the Grimm fluttered their wings twice before falling about in messy chunks. Using her towering weapon as a staff, she reached down for her sister. The crimson cape on her shoulders fluttered majestically behind them.
"You shouldn't have come after me." Yang seethed while begrudgingly accepting the assistance.
"Ground me later."
At that very moment, the Grimm were regrouping. Branches and leaves shook as more Lancers made their way into the forest to get to the quartet. They were not out of this yet.
Still, looking at Ruby now, Blake felt something. An emotion welled up inside her. One she had not experienced in a long time. Not since leaving her home on Menagerie.