Grimm Scourging

"I'm sure you understand why I came back here," Ozpin said calmly, "and that we need to discuss your team's future in this forest." Frounus looked at Ozpin through his helmet and said, "I hope you can understand why we intervened." Ozpin waved him off, saying, "Anyone else would have stepped in, I guess it was a bit much to expect." He continued, "We still have to deal with your residence. Normally, I would hire people of such skill, but the students haven't exactly taken well to your team's meddling."

Frounus glared at Aichmire and Stavros, the Swordwrath looking offended and Stavros holding his head down in disappointment. "I can tell," he said, and continued, "what options do you have for us?" Ozpin looked off into the distance, and said, "There is another forest relatively near this academy. We could send you all there until we've worked everything out."

Frounus looked over to their resident Magikill, asking, "Ekrixir, should we consider this?" The elder among them nodded. "Tell us more."

Weiss was studying. Common for students, sure, but she wasn't studying for school. She had a mix of historical weapons and Grimm species books on her desk, trying to find a connection between the two. She had seen a rageful creature with a sword, a flying crossbow wielding thing, and a full flying archer squad. Clearly, this warranted investigation. Besides, she could get extra credit if she managed to document a new kind of Grimm.

For the first hour, she tried looking through swords and crossbows to see if any fit the weapons she dealt with. She found no matches. In the second and third, she tried to find beasts smart enough to use weapons. There were some, but every record shows them either far in the past or in a fairytale. For the fourth-to-sixth hours, she skimmed through hundreds of records of Huntsmen just to see if one was a strange type of Faunus or had a Semblance that gave them the Grimm look.

"Nothing," she said, "nothing on these creatures at all." She was disappointed and frustrated that she spent six hours total on these creatures. "I skipped sleeping for this-" she said, before collapsing her head onto the desk. She got up to walk as a distraction from her overall failure. However, she noticed that Blake wasn't in her bed. Confused, she walked outside to find her reading quietly under the light of the shattered moon. She walked over to her, the light of the moon shining on her hair. "What're you doing out here so late at night?" Blake looked up and replied, "What are you doing here?" Too tired to retain her usual attitude, she replied, "Investigating something I noticed during the initiation." Blake raised an eyebrow. "I think there's new types of Grimm in the Emerald Forest."

Blake looked at her with a mix of intrigue and skepticism. "What did you find?" The sleepy Schnee responded, saying, "Ruby and I fought two Grimm that used weapons. Real weaponry, something a Huntsman would use." Blake commented, "So that's why her Aura was so low," gesturing for Weiss to continue. "I looked for historical records of weapon-wielding Grimm," she said, "but the only records were a few letters from centuries ago." Weiss yawned dramatically, her untied hair swaying around. "You told me this, why?" Weiss responded, "You seem like you'd enjoy a mystery. Oh, and I really needed someone to talk to after six hours of fruitless labor."

As she walked back inside to sleep, the Faunus considered what she could do next. Tonight was a bad case of insomnia, she knew that if she did manage to sleep, she'd feel like crap the next day. She could go out and investigate the Emerald Forest, but she'd have to get permission from a professor if she didn't want to get in trouble. She closed her book and walked through the halls to think. 'If they did that to Ruby with Weiss around, it definitely wouldn't end well for me.' Looking outside through a window, she contemplated further. 'But, if there are more of these Grimm, it would be best if I investigated them before I have to fight one.' She made her decision, and luckily saw Ozpin in the hallways.

Ozpin sipped from his hot cocoa cup while walking, making eye contact with the Faunus girl. "Blake," he started, "I see that you haven't gotten any sleep either." The girl nodded and said, "I'd like to take a short walk through Emerald Forest, headmaster." Ozpin looked at her in slight surprise. "Why? The Grimm in the forest don't sleep, and neither does their bloodthirst." Blake replied, saying, "I'm aware, I just think that it would be a good place to relax and walk through," omitting her investigation intentions, "and that I can protect myself there. Ozpin deliberated for a second, thinking the scenario through. He then shrugged and said, "Sure, why not?"

At this, Blake bowed in thanks and went back inside her room to grab Gambol Shroud. Leaving her room and heading towards the forest, she planned her expedition. 'Go in, find the creatures, study them, get out. Shouldn't take more than an hour.'

The Magikill started preparing for their journey to the Forever Fall. Stated to be a vast forest with leaves of autumn, Frounus said it would be sufficient for the Order party. As Ozpin left, however, the resident wizard spoke up. "I do not believe we are in Inamorta, Frounus." The Spearton looked over his shoulder, and agreed, saying, "Not even Medusa discovered such a forest. Your spell messed things up further than we thought."

Arcusan was the third to speak up. "So, we're completely disconnected from Order?" The two nodded solemnly. "I could try to recreate the spell and control it, but I'm not sure what triggered it in the first place." Ekrixir said, looking at his staff in deep thought. Aichmire looked at the faces of the team; they were all either serious looking or downcast from the news, and for a good reason. He knew from experience that an army with low morale made for an easy target. He stood up from the log he was sitting on, and said, "Hey! What's with the long faces? We're units of Order, we've taken down the monsters of Medusa and survived the winds of time to make it here. We'll be fine, even without direct support from the Order Empire."

The others were brought to cheering, roused by the Swordwrath's pep talk. The Magikill of the party then got an idea. "The winds!" he said, continuing, "The winds were the key!" Arcusan raised his eyebrow, saying, "What do you mean?" The Magikill continued, "The storm during the festival must have interfered with my magecraft. If we could set up another storm like that, we could return to Inamorta." The others looked at each other, sharing a look of cautious optimism. "So, wait, how would we get a storm that big without more magic?" Stavros asked, remembering the storm's strength vividly. "I'm not sure," the wizard replied, "perhaps this Forever Fall could help." The ranged duo shrugged at each other while Elena healed Aichmire, his body still not fully recovered from his duel with the flying beast. "As long as we stay alive," she said, "victory is assured. I've seen enough battles to confirm that." The others took comfort in her words, aside from one individual who was not invited.

Blake knew she was in a precarious position, and that it was completely her fault. 'You'd think White Fang training would have kept me from getting in this situation.' She silently regretting her actions in the organization. Her left leg was intertwined with a branch while her right leg stabilized itself on the tree's trunk. She had hooked Gambol Shroud into the top of the tree as a grip for her arms, leaving her in a definitively terrible position in case they noticed her. 'At least it's dark out,' she thought.

She did not expect to hear that the creatures used magic. They spoke about it like it was real, something used daily, akin to the Aura and Dust she was used to. She thought that it was just this species' name for either Dust or Aura, until she noticed the female in the group healing the swordsman without using anything but her staff. 'There's gotta be a more reasonable explanation than magic,' she thought, though unable to think of one. She listened in closer, hearing them speak of a land called Inamorta; whatever that name meant. 'Not native to Vale, explains why we've never documented them before and why they're so thin.'

Looking into the sky, the sun was slightly peeking over the horizon, a good time to get back to school. Going as slowly and quietly as she could, she unhooked her weapon and climbed down the tree to reach the cliffside again. However, as she was sneaking around, she noticed that the shadows seemed to move. Steadily, but definitely moving towards the stick-ish creatures. Readying her blade, she quietly snuck up to the aerial things. Up close, she saw their similarities to the creatures at the camp, although looking far more like Grimm. As one drew its bow, the others prepared to shoot as well. She looked to where they were aiming, seeing the party casually talking to each other. 'An ambush.' One she would intercept. She sliced one of the flying creatures up with her weapon just as she did in the initiation, the others quickly twirling around to find the source of their ally's dying scream.

She quickly sliced another one up with Gambol Shroud, blocking arrows with her blade once she landed. She dashed into a bush before jumping out to rush at one of the airborne bow Grimm. They unleashed a volley of arrows upon her, yet every shot failed to hit its mark. They watched in confusion as she seemingly disappeared, before she reappeared behind them. They failed to nock another arrow into their bowstrings as they each were decapitated in quick succession, unable to cope with Gambol Shroud's grappling mode. Landing on the ground, she thought, 'These would definitely be Grimm, if they didn't bleed out every time I killed one.' Suddenly, she was knocked to the floor. She looked behind herself, seeing five cat-esque creatures trying to smack her to death. She sliced them all down in one swing, their scarlet red eyes losing their glow as they fell. She stood up and hid behind a bush, leaving a shadow behind to distract anything that come near.

'The ambush becomes the ambushed.'

Many more of those creatures approached, one trying to attack the phantom she left behind, and the other rushing straight into the camp along with an entire pack of them.

"Get them!" Aichmire yelled, Raging at the Crawlers as the Magikill, Albowtross and Archidon all burnt the Eclipsors to a crisp. "Hell awaits you all, beasts of Chaos!" the wizard declared, catching multiple of them in an explosion with the force of a rocket while Stavros and Arcusan made the shadow archers' wings blaze with their flaming projectiles. Frounus crushed a Crawler under his foot as Elena was healing Aichmire from his Rage, letting the swordsman cleave through the pack of Crawlers. Within minutes, the ambush had failed. "I expected agents of Medusa to be stronger," Frounus said as he spat on the corpse of a Crawler.

Arcusan looked around, finding no other enemies to knock down. "It was just the first attack. Chaos didn't even send any Deads." Aichmire shrugged and calmed down, lying down on the ground. "Extra time to get more of the army here. Without Medusa around, it'll be a while before her little kids can stand up to us." The other members of Order chuckled, recalling how the Chaos Empire fell by their nation's hands. However, Stavros suddenly realized something. "Wait, how'd they even get here?" The others slowly turned to him. Taking a sigh, Aichmire spoke again. "Looks like that windstorm didn't just screw us over," he said. He took his sword and walked off into the forest. He said, "If Chaos is in the same place as us, we might as well start training on the bears and birds." The others nodded in agreement and went with Aichmire into the forest.

Stavros spotted a pack of Beowolves from the skies, and fired a Blazing Bolt to signal their location to the rest of the team. The Beowolves looked to the projectile as it struck one of the monsters in the face, quickly being roused to anger at their fallen member. They quickly got distracted, however, by a sudden burst of negative emotions from something nearby. One turned around instinctively, just in time to see Aichmire slitting its throat. With eyes of Rage matching their own, the Swordwrath and the Beowolves roared at each other before charging. With Elena in the backline, guarded by Frounus, the party's swordsman sliced through Grimm with extreme prejudice as their ranged units treated the beasts like mere target practice.

Three of the Beowolves tried to target Ekrixir, until they had their insides ripped open by a violent explosion. Magic leaked out from his staff as the wizard turned to the rest of the beasts, setting up an electric wall to prevent any of the beasts from escaping. The majority of the Beowolves were focused on Aichmire, his Rage acting as a beacon for the monsters, even as they all got cut down. As one tried to trample him, it got split down the middle by a clean slash. He roared, looking for more to strike down, only to see the rest of the Beowolves ablaze. He shouted out, "Hey! Leave some for me!" The ranged duo chuckled and kept firing forward, as the whole party advanced into the forest.

Two Ursai were resting near a tree, before being suddenly awoken by a surge of negative emotions. They quickly found the source as their arms were slashed and torn off, with Aichmire and Frounus taking them on respectively. One Ursa attempted to headbutt the Swordwrath and died with its head split in two. The other attempted to run from the Spearton, dying to a thrown spear to the spine. He ripped his spear out of the decaying Ursa before twirling around to see a massive black and white snake rapidly approaching, evidently alarmed by the noise.

The team charged forward without mercy with Ekrixir starting the engagement with a stream of poison acid jetting out of his staff, hitting half of the King Taijitu. Frounus and the ranged trio fought the white half of the beast, its scales set ablaze from the flaming shots. Trying to retaliate, it bit down on Arcusan to split him in half with its fangs. Unfortunately, its teeth hit only steel as Frounus' shield took the hit. It went in for another attack, before Ekrixir shouted, "Fulminate!" The explosion spell blasted the massive snake backward into its other half, which was busy trying to kill Aichmire. The Swordwrath with his signature Rage ruthlessly slashed and dashed at the black beast's scales, chipping through them as he dodged each bite. Elena stood back, healing Aichmire from afar to keep his Rage online.

Frounus glanced at Aichmire, nodding to him to finish the fight. The Spearton threw his spear into the forehead of the King Taijitu's white half, taking it to the ground where it was blasted by fire and explosions alike. The black half attacked Aichmire, leaving him a chance to mount its back. Plunging his blade into the beast's body, he dragged it through the beast's shadowy guts before finishing it off with a slash to the head. Dropping down from the fallen beast, he rushed to the stunned half of the King Taijitu and finished it off with a slice to the neck.

Taking his blade out of the beast, he walked over to the rest of the team. He asked Ekrixir, "Should we keep going?" The wizard nodded, saying, "I'm sure they would appreciate us doing this anyway." Aichmire gained a devilish grin and ran deeper into the forest.

Blake watched from tree branches, watching the crew wearily. 'Note to self, never fight all of them,' she thought, watching the still-flaming King Taijitu decay into dust. 'They called that training?' She dropped back behind the log to think. They were obviously far more experienced than anyone at the academy, and had abilities that looked more like Semblances than Dust. There were many questions to be answered–to her knowledge, non-Humans and Faunus couldn't use Semblances–but there would always be tomorrow for more investigations. She needed to sleep anyway, and she had succeeded in staying unseen. 'A success in my books.'

She ran back to the academy, grappling upward to overcome the cliffside. Getting inside, she passed by the headmaster again, giving him a quick wave before walking back to her room. Ozpin looked at her and guessed that she'd enjoyed her time in the forest. He started going to his tower. It wouldn't hurt to check the camera footage, would it? Maybe the ambience would help him sleep. Flipping the recordings on, he took a sip of his hot cocoa.

He spit it all out after hearing them talk.

"Are you sure they're not talking about something else?" Glynda said, reviewing the footage. Ozpin replied, "Positive, only magic could do that," pointing to the multiple explosions that the wizard-esque creature was making. "Surely there's a better explanation, Ozpin, magical beings don't just appear out of nowhere." She analyzed the footage again. He replied, "They didn't come out of nowhere, they arrived just after the windstorm that tore through rural Vale." Glynda asked, "You think they're connected?" Ozpin sighed. "It's our best guess until we can question them."

Glynda looked into the distance through the windows, lost in thought. After a minute or two, she said, "What if they're with Salem? I'm sure she'd be fine with sacrificing some Grimm to give her agents better cover." Ozpin considered it, before standing from his chair to get more hot cocoa. "It wouldn't be the first time I've had to wait around to find out," he said, refilling his drink. "Call James and Qrow over, we need more minds on this."

Did I botch someone's characterization? Probably, hopefully not.

Edit: Swapped out Weiss for Blake in the investigations, since, in hindsight, the Schnee heiress would be willing to study but unwilling to go out at 4:00 in the morning just to find a swordsman and crossbowman. Review if I ever screw someone else's characterization up.