(Chapter 10)

'Every second counts.'

The motto Ciel Soleil embodied. Even without her trademark watch, she could tell the time at any given point of the day. In one word, some might describe her as disciplined, and this was certainly accurate, but a better word that encapsulates who she is would be punctual.

As her friends tried to put ground between them and the large Grimm, she stalled their pursuer with well placed shots, movements, and distractions. The only problem was that this engagement had drawn itself out far longer than she was comfortable with.

She usually carried a considerable amount of ammunition on her person for if it was needed, but had already run through roughly a fifth of the dust rounds that had been left to her for the exam. More alarming however, was the black and white monster ahead of her.

It was beginning to learn.

It was certainly a Grimm that had been around for a few years at least, but had made some dangerous mistakes in its haste, causing it harm. Now though it would still overextend in its attempts to kill, it was slowly correcting itself. At first, it was a suspicion with no base, but when it tried to rush the girl during her reload, she knew it was beginning to understand things.

That made it dangerous.

It was becoming patient, changing tactics to force Ciel to fire whenever it would attempt to bypass her to pursue her squad mates. A slightly terrifying possibility simmered in the dark-skinned girl's mind. Could it be…counting her shots? Trying to understand when it would be safe to move in for the kill?

No. Grimm weren't that intelligent; they couldn't be.

She took a breath to cleanse her mind. Fear, sadness, doubt, desperation. They brought the creatures of Grimm. Right now, despite how bleak the situation appeared, she needed to have faith. Faith that Kobalt would be alright, that their friends would make it in time to assist them, that they would make it out of this. Together.

Like clockwork, she continued to use step-backs and defensive shots in an effort to keep the beast at bay. A quick glance behind her saw that her friends had put a small chunk of distance between her and them. Knowing that to keep pace she would have to stop dueling the sphinx, Ciel improvised a plan that would give her the time she required to catch up to defend her squad mates.

As the Grimm approached her yet again, instead of retreating, she quickly stepped towards it, catching it in a moment of surprise. As it flinched, the dark-skinned girl stowed one of her revolvers onto the back of her hip, before bringing her empty hand to the top of the gun she held in her right hand and fanning the hammer at close range.

The attack wasn't as accurate as one would've expected from the girl, but it served its purpose, as a loud roar of pain filled the tundra's snowy terrain. She turned and began to run towards her friends only for her instincts to compel her to suddenly roll forwards, feeling an immense heat behind her as she did.

She turned to see the snake-headed tail of the sphinx hissing at her from its new position coiled around the body of the sphinx, and a scorch mark on the ground where she'd been moments before. Her eyes met what had once been the eyes of the sphinx to be greeted with both of its eye sockets leaking black mist, and its mouth exhaling smoke from its previous attack.

A glance behind her again had shown that her friends were gradually approaching where they could, hopefully, expect to rendezvous with Flynt and/or Whitley. But as she prepared to resume her duel with the Grimm, she remembered her supply count with a grimace. She had to be hopeful. For her friends, for her.

So, she began to fire at the sphinx again to hold the line for as long as she needed to.

Thankfully, she heard a crackle of static from the device provided to all students for the exam, signifying that they were almost in comms range.

Whitley had all too quickly lost sight of his former company as Flynt sped down the long hill to expedite his travel to where his lifelong friend needed him. However, as he raced in the direction of his squad mates, his shoe caught an unseen tree root, causing him to lose his footing and fall forwards.

As he pushed himself up from the snow, he cursed his haste, but was unable to calm himself. When he reached his feet, all was quiet around him. He closed his eyes and focused only on his breathing. Seconds ticked by, and eventually he opened his eyes.

'The only way I'm going to arrive in time to help is if I can either come up with something Jaune would do or pull that off now.'

He shivered at some of the plans his blonde squad mate had concocted in their many, many training duels during combat class, and could only wonder what reckless, daredevil idea he would employ in this situation. But he wasn't Jaune, he was Whitley Schnee.

He focused his aura in front of him and began to use his semblance. As a light formed in front of him, he began to remember his life before his recent enrollment into the Atlas academy. His eldest sister relinquishing her heir status to escape their dysfunctional family. Weiss abandoning him to go and study at Beacon. His suffering, sorrow-stricken mother who drowned herself in alcohol. And his father.

The glyph that had tried to form shattered and he felt a pain in his chest. It lasted only a moment, but it was enough to bring him to his knees with his forehead pressed to the snow.

But before he could despair, images began to flood his mind. Memories of his time at the academy. The time he spent with his team, and the occasional outing with team JCKP. Ivori's use of nicknames and his attempts to rope him into pranks. Kobalt's willingness to coach him in physical training to further develop his muscles. Ciel's encouragement over the past months that helped him keep looking forwards.

A small bit of his aura left him as a glow appeared in front of him, going unnoticed by him as the pain in his chest began to shift to a slowly warming feeling. He remembered the first prank he was ever subjected to, at the hands of Neon. The scarce laugh that escaped him whenever Penny would fluster Jaune. And finally, the duels he had with his blonde friend, and how they would smile as they sparred.

A breath hit his head, and he lurched back in a moment of fright at what had crept up on him, only to be in awe of what he saw. Standing in front of his was the same sabyr that he'd killed the day prior during its sneak attack on Flynt; only now, it was a snow-white color, and below it, a crackling static Schnee family summoning glyph.

It approached him, and gently bit down on his sleeve before gently moving back, pulling the young teen to his feet. Whitley marveled at his newfound power, before he remembered what he needed to do. With no hesitation, he mounted the sabyr's back before he gave a mental command to take him in the direction of his friends. An exhale of ice later, and the tamer and summon duo took off, Whitley's tracker now activated to track the locations of his squad mates.

The warm feeling in his chest didn't leave though, and neither did the thoughts of his friends. He clutched a hand over his heart. He liked it.

And he would protect it.

Thousands of feet high up in the air, Jaune was accelerating in the direction that his squad mates were in using his weapon's umbrella form. Down below, he watched the dust cloud that was his partner blaze a trail towards their squad. Minutes ago, she had informed him that she would be increasing her speed, which would leave him a bit behind.

He gave her the go-ahead and she did exactly as she conveyed, moving quicker than what had already been an unbelievable pace. As he flew in the direction that he was needed, his mind began to wander, and he wondered what his friends at Beacon were doing during his exam.

Was team CFVY doing alright? Did Cardin and the rest of CRDL ever hash things out? His former friends invaded his mind for the briefest of seconds, but just as quickly as their intrusion came, he pushed it away, instead remembering the conversations he had with CVFY and Cardin about the Vytal Tournament.

(Flashback-September)

Jaune knew of the semblances of team CFVY and their weapons, so he could only nod his head in affirmation of the slightly taller boy's assessment. He was closing on the training center, its entrance no further than another hundred meters away, before a thought struck him like a lightning bolt followed by an alarming devilish grin.

"Hey Cardin, I have an idea. Do you think you could talk to team CFVY about it and get them on board?" Cardin could hear the smile on the blonde's face, but was confused as to what was going on in his friend's head.

"I mean, I can try. But what are you thinking?"

"Velvet is the key to whether this is gonna work or not. And another thing, does anyone know that you and team CFVY are cool?"

"I mean, people know they don't wanna kill me, but I don't think anyone would say that we're friends if they were asked." The blonde nodded with his grin ever present as he responded.

"Perfect. Here's what I'm thinking: If you could get Coco and her team to 'train' with team RWBY and PRVN, Velvet could film their training. Her excuse could be that she's recording their data so that they could do a post training review. When in reality…"

"They'd be recording it so that you could go over it with your team and come up with counters." The ginger let out a whistle at Jaune's scheme.

"That's pretty savage there J.B. Didn't know you had it in you," He paused before smiling and continuing to speak. "but I approve."

Jaune rolled his eyes as he responded to the smug tone his friend had.

"You would." With that the two shared a laugh.

(Present)

Jaune was broken from his reminiscing by a loud cry from behind him. Twisting so that he could view what was at his rear, his eyes widened as he was met with the sight of a flock of avian Grimm. They were rather peculiar as well, and he remembered them from his Grimm studies at Atlas.

At the head of the flock was the leader, if the size different was anything to go by. In addition to its two glowing red eyes, the leader had a third eye on its forehead, this one complete with a pupil. It had bone armor that covered it at its head, the top of its wings, and the front of its legs. What resembled a ribcage and spine protected its torso. The rest of the flock all looked identical save for size and the third eye, though.

These owl Grimm were strix, and the leader, alarmingly, was an elder. What made them dangerous were two things in particular. One, they were fairly sneaky all things considered, as they could fly silently. Two, when an elder is present, the elder can control any lesser strix nearby; sharing their sight and dictating their actions. This wasn't factoring in the sharp claws and beak, as well as the stiff tail feathers it could launch as projectiles.

As they flew to approach him, Jaune realized the imminent danger he was in. His bad idea had put him thousands of feet in the air and was now about to get attacked. But, as far as bad ideas go, it was infinitely better than what he just came up with. As they got progressively closer and closer, the blonde put his new plan into action.

He changed the direction of his acceleration and was suddenly helping to close the distance between him and the flock of avain Grimm. However, he really didn't want to do what he was about to do. Too bad he didn't have time to think of anything else.

Ciel and company's situation had become more precarious. As they retreated from the large abomination, they looked ahead and saw that they were unfortunately coming up on a large cliff face.

They spotted an opening in the rock face; a cave. Hopefully it wasn't the home to a deathstalker, but there weren't any other options in this scenario. She turned back to engage the sphinx in a final stand as she unholstered both of her revolvers. Neon saw what the punctual girl was preparing for and looked to Ivori.

"Ivy, let me take Kobalt to the cave! I can get there quicker if I use my semblance to carry him. Once I get him in there and he's safe, I'll come back to help you two." Ivory looked to his brother before he took his weapon into his hand and rushed towards his teammate to assist in killing the Grimm.

Neon slung an arm of the larger teen over her shoulder before she looked towards his pained face. "Hey big guy, I'm gonna get you to cover so I can help fight. So hold on, cause we're gonna go pretty fast for a few seconds, alright?" The blue clad fighter just nodded to her, and after Neon took a moment to gather her aura, the two took off as Neon was running through the snow carrying Kobalt.

Within moments the two were bathed in the darkness of the cave. Neon took out one of her dust chucks, before cracking it like a glow stick, causing it to emit a blue light so that she could scan the cave's interior. Seeing that it was empty, save for fallen rocks of various sizes, she sat Kobalt around the slight curve that the cave wall had. She looked to him to make sure she was good to go fight besides her squad, and he nodded towards the cave entrance.

As she rushed to rejoin the fight, using her semblance to move faster, she used the tracker to check her friends' aura levels. Seeing that they were all over half, save for Kobalt, she got ready for the skirmish she was running back into.

The unspoken strategy was rather simple but effective. Ivori would lash out with his pendulum whip to harass the Grimm and try to land a cut that would sever the snake tail. If the sphinx tried to attack the stylish teen, Ciel would lay down fire from an angle to distract it so that Ivori could put space between him and their enemy.

If it instead focused on Ciel, Neon would flank it and unleash a barrage of dust enhanced blows with her weapons. And when Neon would become its target, the dark-skinned boy would let loose a flurry of whip slashes to get the cat faunus clear of danger while Ciel would reload.

Their improvised strategy worked well, until the Grimm displayed its higher than normal intelligence again. It lunged towards Ciel with its right paw raised to deliver a heavy hit, but turned its blinded face to the left and unleashed a fireball aimed at Ivori, while its snake tail swung to impact the ginger faunus who'd been trying to flank from the creature's right side.

The paw swipe was a glancing blow but managed to knock the beret wearing girl off her feet and away from one of her weapons. The fireball was a bit off target, causing it to miss the charming teen slightly, but the heat was enough to cause him to flinch. The tail swipe however, hit its mark, and Neon had the air taken out of her chest for a brief spell as she flew and hit a tree with her back.

As the three got back up to their feet, they eyed the Grimm warily. As they prepared for another engagement, the sound of something sliding through the snow was heard faintly, progressively getting louder with each moment, before a fallen tree flew from the tree line towards the sphinx.

The beast reacted quickly, narrowly avoiding the large projectile as it passed by it into the snow. As the tree's motion slowed, Flynt climbed out of the center. As he approached the Grimm, he took his trumpet into his hands and readied himself to play a note.

The sphinx was not prepared to suddenly be assaulted by a fiery sonic wave buffeting its hide. A roar of pain came from the monstrosity as it swiveled its snake head towards the trumpeter. It took a step back from the students and eyed them with caution.

Flynt opted to ignore it completely as he jogged over to where his partner was crouched in the snow recovering from the last blow dealt to her.

"Sup Kit-Kat." She roller her eyes at him, as she took the hand he offered her to get pulled to her feet before she responded.

"You're late." She said as she lightly slapped his chest.

"Sorry. I'd have been here sooner, but I'm running off a few hours of sleep." Banter complete, his face shifted to one of concern as he looked at his lifelong friend. "But for real, are you good?"

She gave him a soft smile as she answered him. "Yeah, I just took a bit of a heavy hit is all. Still got all nine of my lives."

Flynt turned away from the girl and looked to the Grimm who was eyeing him specifically. He readied his trumpet as he prepped to engage the large sphinx with his squad mates.

Flynt opened up the fight with another fiery sonic wave attack, forcing the creature to avoid his attack. As it hopped to its side, the assault on the large Grimm continued with Ciel and Ivori rejoining the effort, and Neon waiting for an opportunity to land a good hit.

The battle continued before suddenly the sphinx let out a loud howl at the sunset sky. A pause followed, before a minute or so later, growls could be heard. They looked to the tree line surrounding them and noticed red eyes that were visible from the darkness of the frozen forest.

A few dozen Grimm began to emerge from the forest. Consisting mostly of sabyrs, boarbatusks, and an ursa here and there, but thankfully, no elders were among them. As the Grimm gathered around the only elder present, the sphinx, they began to growl and roar at the students and charge.

Ciel reloaded her revolvers, Flynt checked the dust vials in his trumpet valves, Ivori adjusted his glasses, and Neon began to stretch. Sufficiently prepared, the students ran forwards and began the chaotic battle with their enemies. As they fought, a dust cloud could faintly be seen approaching from behind the gathering of Grimm, but whatever was making it was approaching fast.

By the time one of the teens pointed it out, it had gotten much closer than a minute prior, but then suddenly disappeared. The teens were startled however, when around them, a few Grimm began to get impaled from above by familiar swords. Landing behind them was the innocent ginger of team JCKP, complete with her ever present smile.

"Greetings Friends!"

(Meanwhile, Beacon Academy)

"Again!" The voice of the commanding leader of team CFVY called out as she watched the members of teams RWBY and PRVN run through drills and spars against each other, or against Fox and Yatsuhashi.

Velvet stood on the sidelines as she needed to be able to quickly move to a new location if she thought there might be a better angle to capture the footage of the two team's training with Anesidora.

After another half hour of drills and training, the first years were given a 15 minute break to rest. Even Pyrrha and Vernal were a bit winded from the level of intensity that their upperclassman took with their training. Vernal only showed up to the team training as a way to gauge her strength against older students who were viewed as some of the best future huntsman at Beacon.

As Pyrrha sat on a bench in one, Velvet suddenly sat down besides her and started up a small conversation.

"So, how are you feeling?"

The red head was sweating a bit, but still gave the girl a smile as she answered.

"Good! I haven't had a workout like this in quite sometime. Our team's training sessions never last this long, even when we train with team RWBY."

The spartan girl put a hand over her heart as she continued to speak.

"After my recent loss, I realized that I needed to up my training, as well as my team's. Thanks to you and your team agreeing to train with us, we can get some proper physical training in, hopefully build better team relations, and further improve." Pyrrha looked to her friends as they all spoke with each other and laughed about various things and smiled.

"I feel like because of this, we can become stronger." Velvet in turn mirrored her smile knowing that after they did a brief review of their training session, that she would be compiling the footage she has to help Jaune and Cardin, who no one besides her team knew she was dating, so that they can come up with counters for teams RWBY and PRVN.

'You're not the only one getting stronger.'

(A/N)

Hey again guys! Really quick update on this one I know. All I can really say is that this chapter almost wrote itself. Kinda threw me off, but I'm glad that y'all will have a chance to read it so soon.

Hope all of you are staying safe and healthy. DM me if you have any questions or if you just would like a small chat.

B.J.H.