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"Ren's been quiet." Nora rode up beside me. We were following Ruby whose senses assured us that this was the direction her uncle was in. We'd passed a burning wreckage of the forest, the place where we were told his weapon had been found.

It had been a place filled with damaged foliage and burnt down and toppled trees. Some stretches of ground still smoked from dust cartridges used and discarded. However Ruby had made sure to stop me from organizing a search in the area and ordered us into the mountains. She was certain her uncle was there, even injured.

Ruby followed her heart upwards and I could only follow.

With anyone else, I'd say Ren was always quiet. This was Nora we were talking about, though. Nora. She was basically Ren's and her own mouth piece. She knew, probably better than Ren himself did and certainly better than I did.

"You talked to him didn't you," she accused. She said it like I had killed someone. Which I had of course. Just not over this.

"We had a chat." I hedged. People assumed that because of her talkativeness that she was also airheaded. But whatever air had been in her head had left through her mouth long ago and now it left behind whatever people had in their heads besides air. Brains, I think they called them.

"Really?!" She faked shock. "Well maybe I deserve to know what it was about. It is afterall, affecting our ability to talk to each other."

"It was about you." She was going to fake shock again. "Don't play dumb. I just gave some advice about how I got with Ruby. I told him she really made the first move."

"Do you think I haven't made moves? I'm making moves over here."

"He said he was scared." Ren rode a ways behind us. He trusted his horse and had his eyes nearly closed in concentration. He was constantly feeling outwards for Grimm and danger.

Between him in that state and Ruby leading that left me and Nora with space to chat.

"Scared of what. What does he have to be scared of? Isn't it obvious how much I care about him?" She asked the world and not me.

"He's afraid of you." I tried to explain.

"He's afraid of me? Why?"

"How should I know?"

"Well now you're really being unhelpful. I think you're doing it on purpose. He had no reason to be afraid of me. I love him."

"He's confused."

She chewed her cheek hard. "Does he think I'll just abandon him or something? We're all we have." She looked at me. "No offense."

"None taken." Genuinely. I was a piece of shit.

"I meant all we have to each other. No. I meant-"

"Seriously none taken." Really.

"So what does he really have to be afraid of? I'm willing and I know from listening to him in his sleep that he is."

I had no idea what she was talking about. Ren may as well have been a ghost in his sleep back at Beacon.

"He's scared of ruining what you already have."

"That's ridiculous. Of course we'll ruin what we have right now. That's the point." She rode for a moment in thought. "Besides, we'll never have what we have right now again anyways. That's how time works, I think."

Thanks for the panic, Nora.

"I tried to tell him something similar." I defended myself.

"Ugh. You told him the opposite. Didn't you. You probably said something about having your cake and eating it too."

"I really don't think I did. There are some anxieties that mediocre dudes have that beautiful girls don't, is all."

"I knew it. You told him something sweet instead of seize the day and now he isn't seizing, Jaune. I want to be seized."

I wanted to protest the scary things she had told me but no. She was trucking along and I just had to keep up. "Have you tried just kissing him?"

She sighed. "No. But I've tried everything short of that. Should I?"

"He wants to kiss you. You want to kiss him. Just use some late night in your room. What are you waiting for? Tell him to come to you and you know he will. He's just scared.

"It's not that easy?" She tried. She sighed. "I'm scared, too. You know. He's not the only scared one. Besides, will you be okay with it? I mean, sure, we're not back at Beacon so it's less drama. But you'll be the odd one out in JNR. Are you okay with that? Anyways it feels like such a big leap."

"Seize your guy Nora. He wants to be seized by you."

"You're bullshit Jaune. You cheat." It was said with affection, though. She sighed again, even harder than before, leaning against her horse's neck a little. "Maybe I'm a little scared too. Maybe-"

"This is it!" Ruby called out behind her to us. Her heart and connection with her uncle had led us here. I gave Nora a parting look before I rode up beside Ruby and dismounted with her.

She pushed aside some leaves and foliage. She gasped and recoiled and I heard a low voice murmur her name from it. I peeked inside the hiding place. Half a person laid in there. They were tall and I do mean 'were' because if we sat him up now he'd barely come up to my torso. Though his torso was decently long, I suppose.

He had red eyes and dark, graying hair, and no legs. He had no legs at the mid thigh and he moaned a name I didn't catch but it made Ruby focus, so I assumed it was hers.

"Jaune, get the stretcher ready," she ordered me. I nodded along and walked back to where Ren had stopped his horse next to Nora's. I pulled the sticks free and put the mobile stretcher together to drag behind a horse.

"Give me a hand lifting him." I ordered Nora. She nodded and dismounted. "Ren, make sure I put it together right." He checked the stretcher and how it was attached to his horse. The last thing I wanted to give the already injured man was a concussion by dropping him.

In my head I couldn't stop thinking about how the man in the foliage had cauterized his own legs at the mid thigh. The asymmetry of it had me shook.

I grabbed beneath one arm and the man let loose a groan as Nora took the other. How the hell had he escaped while so badly injured from whatever had been strong enough to hurt him like this? Let alone make it this far from the sight of his battle?

It wasn't like he had won and then dragged himself all the way up here. Most Grimm left no sign of their defeat but the Nuckelavee was riddled with weapons which wouldn't disintegrate with it. There would have been a sign that it was slain.

He grabbed me as I set him on the stretcher. "It's not dead. I hurt it, though. All I did was hurt it. It's old as fuck and it's not dead." He rambled at me deliriously. "How are you going to kill it, Tai?" Ruby shushed him softly.

Well I was going to use bombs but evidently that wouldn't work which means I'd need to use guns and swords. Probably with bombs. I strapped Qrow into the stretcher at the waist and beneath the arms. I pulled the leg restraints tight over nothing. Better that than having them flapping and dragging.

They hung in the air over the lopsided stumps. I recoiled when I finished and Ruby was there beside me looking down at her uncle with affectionate eyes. She brushed his dirty hair and whispered something to him which was none of my business to listen to.

"Jaune," she murmured. "Do you think it has a cave up here too? Near here? Where it would go if it was hurt?"

"I do." And I did. "I want to get some bombs ready." I moved over to my horse where I had some large dust crystals strapped and began to wire them together with copper and tape. Electric and fire. "I want to throw some of these at it when we meet. Then move in for the kill."

"Sounds like a plan." Did it? Was that enough? Did I really sound so collected? My voice shook to my own ears. "Ren!" She called out. "Lead us towards danger."

He closed his eyes and gave a firm nod. He and Nora were holding hands close by, both of hers in one of his. He remounted and I did too, trailing close to Ruby this time. "Tai's your father, right?"

She nodded as she remounted and I pivoted my horse beside hers as I tossed a bomb to Ren which he caught dexterously. I was saving most of the electric crystals for Nora. A big plan B.

"Taiyang Xiao Long. Yang's bio-mom named her after him when she was born. Then she left us."

"But you were both raised by your Mom? Something Rose?" Families were complicated.

"Can we talk about this later?"

"Right. Right. Of course."

Would there be a later? Old huntsmen were like Grimm. A lot grew with the experience that comes with age. How to kill better. How to use their semblances.

If Qrow only did a number on it, then I could only hope he's done enough to mean something. Hopefully half as much as it had done on him. Otherwise this was shaping up to be the fight of our lives. Or at least mine.

I breathed in and focused on riding. I reached out to my semblance and I must have been holding my breath and charging it because I wasn't empty.

"Found something." Ren declared, shortly after leading us off an animal trail into the path of something larger. Something which didn't care about following the footsteps of other animals because it simply wasn't.

He said it loud enough for me to hear over my musings and from behind him. Combat mode Ren (TM).

It was a puddle of Grimm blood. There was a stirring within that made my horse skittish as I rode up to it and from horse back I sunk my blade down into it. I squashed whatever 'life' was inside.

No question, then. We were on its trail.

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Eventually the horses grew too nervous to approach and we left them further back in the mountains and continued on foot. I armed Nora with electric dust and everyone with bombs. Maybe we'd get lucky and perform a one-two punch with Nora's semblance and the explosives but I still felt unprepared and small compared to it.

We had to leave Ruby's uncle behind. Strapped to a horse and defenseless. Ruby kept giving parting looks until I walked up beside her and took her hand. "Game face, Rubes."

"Right. Game face." She shook her head and flashed into a blur of petals in place. Loosening up for the fight in some way.

The older huntsman had regained some aura so he probably wouldn't die. He was just going to be in a lot of pain whenever he woke up for real.

It was waiting for us, staring out from its den with enormous red eyes and face mask. Just staring. I figured it chose its dens for visibility and it wasn't like it needed sleep like we did so it was just standing there at the mouth of the cave near the edge of a cliff.

"Now." I called out and I suddenly found our plan lacking when we all threw our explosives at different parts of the beast. Ren's aim struck its side where a deep gash leaked black blood. It recoiled and mine straight missed and went over its head, exploding against the den wall above it.

Ruby hit the ground at its feet and Nora's struck one of its legs. It howled again. Shaking the entire mountain range. Nora pulled out her launcher and started blasting the side of the horse as we tried our first approach.

It certainly tried to stop us from getting close enough to its body to do any damage. Its arms stretched out and slashed at Ren and Ruby, but Ruby burst apart and sprinted past it and Ren somersaulted over its arms slashing into its hide with his daggers as he went. It galloped in place, a far side faster than I thought it had any right too.

Ruby shot it a half a dozen times as they approached each other before flying apart and slashing at its already injured side with her scythe.

On the other side, Nora took an electric dust crystal and shoved it into her chest. It slipped right through her skin and she let out a pained war cry before jumping. Ruby caught her mid air and launched her even faster off of her scythe with a flash from the rifle. Nora slammed her hammer meatily into the uninjured flank.

The force of the blow knocked it to its front knees in a flash of pink and yellow lightning.

The monster had enough. It bulldozed into Nora and before she could eat any more dust it tried to pin her down and crush her.

But its attention was stolen by me. My semblance activated in a flare of aura. As my aura changed color and consistency, its eyes locked on to me and I sprinted straight towards it.

Without any aura, I could end things here and now with a Cross Slash to its center mass. With one massive knee pinning Nora to the ground, only the shaft of Magnihild was between her in the beast.

It looked away, suddenly changing targets. I jumped over one arm but the other slapped me from the air and slashed at me. I blocked but wasn't fast enough to counter attack afterwards. Its arm was enough to nearly knock me off balance. I was the only one besides Nora trying to block the attacks rather than dodge them. She was at least using both arms to do so.

Ruby hovered right up to it and shot it in the face and it let loose another horrible shriek and tried to claw at her with one free arm.

Ren skirted around the beast in a wide arc, hoping to get behind it, opening fire all the while and peppering it with small green bullets.

I needed to act fast, before my semblance faded but its arms were fantastic for keeping me at bay by hammering my shield. I wasn't able to slash at even the arms and it lowered more weight onto Nora. It even began to depress her into the ground and she let loose another half war-cry, half pained shout as she tried to hold it up. She reached over with her mouth a bit through a crystal strapped to her shoulder.

The explosion rocked the beast off of her while she absorbed it completely and threw its leg upwards. Getting up out of the hole it pushed her into would have taken too long so Ren leapt in and snatched her off the ground before it could come back down with its taloned front legs.

I switched the form of my weapon while it was distracted. The shield wasn't helping at all. I needed the weight and heft the broadsword had.

I blocked its slithering arm with the wide side of my blade and danced to the side. It went slightly limp when the explosion went off and I then spent Limit on my only target. Its right arm.

Wielding the weapon with both hands, I was fast enough to cut off its hand at the wrist in a single upwards swing.

It howled once more, the waves reverberated over us and Ruby slipped behind it and tried to pull Crescent Rose through an injured leg with a pull of her trigger. It only bit halfway through, though. Despite all her strength, its hide was tough at the legs and she had to dash out of the way of mashing hooved feet as it trotted about in agony and tried to regain balance.

I sighed. My semblance was a long way off now. I felt naked with it so far away in this fight. I sprinted towards the monster as Ruby flitted about slashing at its sides and its legs but she never got the chance to do anything like decapitate it.

It had so much speed that it was able to trot about and slash at her with its legs even as it fought the rest of us with its arms.

Nora was back on her feet but we only had one crystal left to overcharge her with. she danced inwards, swinging the hammer about and trying to catch the side of one of its knees. Ren reloaded beside her, his eyes in a narrow glare. He jumped over it in one massive leap, cartwheeling and raining bullets down on it as he flipped.

It spun in a circle, letting its arms flail about to try and catch us all in a get-off-me option that first knocked me off my feet then, when its next arm came around, knocked me to the edge of the cliff.

"Jaune!" Ruby shouted. She must have evaded its attacks, unlike me. It seemed like it managed to drive her back though.

"Ren don't!" I heard Nora call before I heard the smack of meat against rock.

I climbed back up onto the battlefield only to see it had Ren pinned to a wall of its den. It made no move to rush him down and crush him. Instead it watched the still standing Nora and Ruby warily.

It pressed him further into the rock and I watched his aura glow under the force of it.

It dropped him when a grenade splashed against its back. It shrieked and slipped its handless arm at the offending Nora but she rolled underneath it.

"Move in a circle!" I shouted. "Don't stand still!"

Ren gathered his breath and started sprinting while Nora continued her pace, bouncing grenades off of its back and flanks. She opened the already existing wounds further. Ruby hesitated, just a second, and went to finish hamstringing the creature as it turned to keep up with the explosions.

It seemed ready and it reared forwards like a horse and kicked her with both back legs once she was behind it. It hit her hard enough to bounce her off the cave wall and make her aura flash crimson around her.

It leapt at her, pouncing on her with both clawed front hooves, reminding me suddenly of a large cat instead of a horse but she saw it coming and gasped before melting into petals.

I rolled my wrist and checked my scroll. Nora and I were both green, even if hers had hints of yellow to it. Ren was a solid yellow and Ruby was looking orange.

I wasn't sure if she was so low from using her semblance so much or if it had done that much damage to her in a single shot, hitting her center of mass with both hooves.

With its back to me, I sprinted forward and swung through its hind leg, I missed the point where Ruby had already started an injury but cut through nonetheless and kept my momentum.

Black, acidic smoke billowed from where I sliced.

It turned its body into me. Slamming its spiked ribcage into my face and torso. I rolled to the side before it could land on me and start its crushing bit but its handless arm swept up from the other direction and made me grunt as it flung me off my feet in the opposite direction of my roll.

Ren surged forwards, slashing at its free arm but it body checked him too. It grabbed me by the leg and slammed me into the ground once just to make me dizzy.

Then it slammed me twice to make my head spin.

Then it slammed me a third time to actually make the message stick.

Its arm slithered back over to it and we took another moment to size each other up. Its gaze roamed over each of us and I found myself wondering if it could tell how much it had hurt any one of us.

I mean, I could see the damage to its flank and right back leg. I could see where the explosives had burned its back, head and sides.

Could it see how much damage each of our aura had taken with those two sets of glowing red eyes?

I hoped not because in my head its eyes held on Ruby, our little glass cannon. Or it could have been my imagination.

Time was in my favor, though. If it wanted to give me time I'd use it to charge.

It rushed us with it's lopsided claws and tried to get a hand on Ruby but she vanished once more. It seemed to anticipate that and the arms changed directions, one knocked Ren aside and the other grabbed Nora by the leg and tried to throw her off the edge.

Ren stopped it by burying both daggers into the left arm as it tried to reach past him and pinned the arm down. Ruby appeared and shot it twice and slashed its front with the long edge of Crescent Rose. She was gone again in a moment but I could hear her panting.

Its other arm, handless now swatted at me and the whole thing galloped towards where Ren had its arm pinned. If it couldn't bring its arm back I suppose it had no choice but to come to its arm.

It seemed to have the same conclusion and I couldn't really stay in the way and I dashed back. Ren had to give up his position, releasing its arm due to the sheer threat the massive body possessed. I darted around to the left rear leg and Ruby met me there. Without a word between us we went for the hamstring again. This time we sliced through and it tumbled down onto its knees.

It was strong enough to lift itself back up and hobble around unbalanced on one leg. The damage made me gain Limit and with a burst of aura I sliced upwards lifting myself into the air I parted through its left flank and then I came back down in a wave of blue. I left two sharp deep cuts in its side next to each other from the motion.

It screamed again but it must have realized that this was its end. It wouldn't be able to escape us now for sure. Nora swallowed the last dust crystal and bashed into its right side.

It tumbled down. Its body battered and nearly sliced in two between my cuts and the damage Qrow left behind. The sheer force of Nora's attack was nearly enough to blow it in half.

Alone it probably would have killed any one of us but I wasn't sure if it had ever come across a team of hunters.

It slashed at me, desperately. It was one final attempt to take one of us down. But Ruby and I caught the handless arm between our weapons. I stabbed Crocea Mors down through the limb and into the earth. Ruby then flitted over to its neck and hooked the scythe under its neck and simultaneously swung herself upwards and cut through to the other side. With her blade over the horse's neck, she shot upwards and pulled down, taking the horse's head off in a single fluid and fast motion.

Nora slammed magnihild down against its last free arm and we held on despite the shrieks and howls as Ren walked up to its face and ripped it off with his daggers.

Both bodies turned to smoke and weapons clattered to the ground. Arrows and broken spears fell. I could have sworn it gave me one last parting glare before its head turned to smoke on the ground and Ren uncharacteristically kicked it, sending it rolling as it unraveled into nothing.

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-WG