(Chapter 11)

Relief.

It washed through the veins of everyone present as the shortest member of team JCKP arrived to join the fight against the Grimm. The only two unaccounted members of the squad were, funnily enough, both of the captains.

Skipping pleasantries as their enemies resumed their assault, the tempo changed. Ciel having spent a great deal of time and supplies dueling with the sphinx to stall for time, felt the exhaustion begin to catch up to her.

Though she wanted to help more with the fighting, she knew there was something she could do that could still benefit them all. Quickly, she retreated to the cave where Kobalt was and took cover just inside the entrance. From here she could recuperate in safety, defend Kobalt from any stray Grimm, and still try to give long ranged support to her allies all at once.

Neon and Ivori were working together to thin the small horde of enemies attempting to swarm them, as they were the best choices currently to deal with multiple lower threat enemies quickly. Flynt and Penny were engaging the sphinx together by attacking with the android girl in front and Flynt at her rear guard.

From where he sat against the cave wall, Kobalt pushed himself to his feet and took out his tracker, and after activating it, looked to find his aura levels at just over fifteen percent. Taking a breath and stretching his arms out, he reinforced his fists with aura before punching the cave wall he sat at. He gave a small smirk at the impact it had before he walked to the entrance.

Ciel heard footsteps and turned to see her resilient teammate back on his feet and gave him a nod.

"What's the situation?" She observed him with a neutral expression as she answered him.

"You're in no position to fight Kobalt." He looked to his friends as they fought with mankind's sworn enemy as he responded.

"Maybe, but I'm not one to kick my feet up while my friends could use my strength." The timely girl just sighed as she began to relay info to the blue-clad brawler.

"I used up a lot of aura and ammunition holding that thing back, and we've got Grimm from basically every point in front of us. The others are split fighting the horde and the sphinx, and while Penny and Flynt arrived as backup, Whitley and Jaune are still unaccounted for."

Kobalt cracked his neck before he checked his gauntlet and swords. After his brief equipment check, he patted Ciel on the shoulder as he passed by her.

"Thanks for keeping me safe while I took a breather." The shorter girl gave a small smile to her teammate.

"What are friends for?"

And with that, he looked for a suitable target as he ran to rejoin the fight. As he was sprinting, Kobalt weighed the option of fighting the sphinx against thinning the Grimm ambushing them. Though he wanted to participate in the slaying of the monster that had previously taken him out of the fight, he instead swerved away from the sphinx to help Neon and Ivori.

Making his reentrance to the fight by delivering a devastating blow to a sabyr pouncing to attack Neon, he began to help extinguish the Grimm from the battlefield.

"Hey Koby! Good to have you back!" Neon's ecstatic voice called out over the sounds of battle, followed by Ivori's question.

"You good?"

Kobalt ran his fist into the mask of another sabyr as he responded to the teen a few feet away. "Could be worse."

Ivori nodded to him, and together, the three fought together to reduce the horde of smaller Grimm.

With the sphinx, Flynt and Penny were making slow progress in taking it down. Flynt had to be careful of using his dust enhanced sonic waves to not harm his teammate. The dark-skinned boy looked around them to see that the swarm of enemies that had surrounded them was beginning to thin, but it seemed as if reinforcements had arrived, as the arriving Grimm were rebolstering the numbers lost.

The trumpeter grunted as the enemy numbers began to rebolster, but something he never expected happened.

From the tree line, a sabyr that looked to be made of snow leapt into the fray with a familiar figure on its back. As it was descending, the sound of a gun being fired was heard, followed by the death of a few various Grimm. As the summoned sabyr's paws hit the snow, the figure on its back climbed off and walked towards his friends.

"My apologies, it seems I'm a bit late to the party."

From his position, Flynt stood in silent surprise, not having expected for the Schnee to have followed after him to aid his team and squad. He watched as the boy exchanged brief pleasantries with his teammates, before he looked to the trumpeter and gave a nod of the head, a gesture that Flynt returned.

Suddenly, Penny disengaged from the fight to stand next to Flynt as she investigated the darkening evening sky. After a few moments, a smile emerged on her features that made her teammate question where her sudden happiness came from, but before he could question her, she spoke.

"He's here."

Flynt scanned the distance the android was gazing towards, having a good idea as to who she was referring to, but couldn't see anything. A crackle of static came over the trackers of all the students, followed by a voice they all knew and were glad to hear.

"Get to cover, Now!"

Despite wondering why they needed to seek shelter, all the teens were sprinting towards the cave Ciel was resting in. As they joined her in the cave, all was quiet save for the growls and snarls coming from the Grimm that were slowly advancing on the cave.

Just then, a loud screech was heard overhead. Whitley got to the edge of the cave and peered upwards, followed by the rest of his squad. They were stunned as they saw an elder strix and its flock diving towards the battlefield. As it progressively got closer, they were able to make out a figure glowing white on its back and realized who it was.

From his place on the strix's back, Jaune had stabbed the elder around its wing joints with his weapon's dual sword form and was steering it on a crash course with the ground. Not wanting to go down with his mode of transportation, he yanked his swords free of the elder's thick skin and leapt backwards so that he could employ his landing strategy.

He watched as the elder strix shifted slightly to not die from the fall, but its flock weren't so lucky. Without any commands being given, the rest of the flock was still following its leader at full speed, and began to impact the battlefield at terminal velocity, taking out the smaller Grimm that had surrounded his friends shelter.

As his boots softly touched the ground, a weight impacted his back. He turned to face his partner and gave her a thumbs up as their friends joined them.

"Nice throw Partner." Penny gave him a smile in response to his praise. Around them, their friends blanched at the implications of what he'd just said, save for one.

"Best. Team leader. Ever! No offense Whitley." Neon's remark drew chuckles from everyone present. Whitley just shook his head with a small smile as he walked to his fellow team leader.

"Just when I think you can't do anything more reckless; you use an elder strix as a mode of transportation."

Jaune motioned for a fist bump, and Whitley's knuckles met the taller teen's own.

A screech interrupted their reunion, and the two teams surveyed the clearing. The two Grimm that were left were the strix that had regained its bearing and the sphinx. The squad's co-captains shared a look.

"You take the sphinx, we'll take the strix?" The blonde of team JCKP questioned his friend.

"My thoughts exactly." The younger teen responded, and with that, teams JCKP and WICK went to opposite ends of the clearing to engage their chosen targets.

"Flynt! At range, you are our best option, Penny and I'll get it on the ground. Neon, once we do, keep it from to flying again. Flynt once that's done, it's all you." With that, they moved to take down their enemy.

Jaune was firing at the owl Grimm while Penny was using her lasers to try and land a shot that would bring the bone-clad beast back to the ground.

"Penny, can you pull it down?" The girl in question ran calculations for a moment before, she nodded to her partner.

"I'll leave the timing to you."

While JCKP was preparing to bring their enemy down, WICK was harassing the sphinx from every direction, not giving it time to choose a target from the four of them. The pain it felt from the slashes, punches, and gunshots from the teens kept building, until it released a roar and began to spin so that it could clear them from around itself to get some space.

But its spin was halted by Kobalt holding one of its front legs in place, and he wouldn't budge. It looked down and a glow began to emanate from its throat as it prepared a breath of fire, but before it could continue, a white whip wrapped itself around the sphinx's maw and shut it.

The increasing danger of the situation wasn't lost on the sphinx, and its tail sneakily maneuvered itself to strike at the boy in white but was caught off guard as it was snared in Whitley's lasso. The snake tail glared at the leader of team WICK, who smiled back before flicking a switch on the handle, causing the lighting dust to activate and emit a blue light along the lasso, before it reached the loop and decapitated the snake tail as if it was a plasma cutter.

Another roar of agony came from the beast as it was completely blind now, only having the ability to sense negativity as its form of sight, of which there was currently none. Ivori released his whip's hold on the Grimm as Kobalt jumped away to prepare an aura enhanced strike. Whitley summoned two glyphs, one below the sphinx causing it to be suspended in the air, and another for his blue-clad teammate to use to propel himself.

As Kobalt shot forwards, he delivered a destructive blow to the Grimm that sent it falling to the center of the clearing. As it tried to get up, a screech from above caused the members of team WICK to look up to see a falling strix land atop the sphinx.

Neon took this as her chance and burst into movement with her semblance, cracking her nunchaku as she did so to set them to ice dust.

In a rainbow streak, she ran around the two downed enemies, freezing them together and to the ground where she could. From their position away from the Grimm, Whitley made a glyph for Ciel to fire through, and as her bullets impacted the two Grimm, they began to encase it in ice like Neon was doing. Flynt summoned his clones to help speed up completely covering the two in ice.

Soon, the two grim were frozen together completely in a large block of ice, but still very much alive. Work done, everyone stepped back as Penny skipped to stand in front of the ice containing their enemies. She brought her blades out in front of her and put out her hands as a green glow appeared. After a moment to gather energy, she pulled her arms back, and then pushed forwards sending a beam straight through the ice, and the two Grimm inside.

Black mist began to leak from the hole she made, and soon cheers from the teens filled the darkened sky.

A bright fire surrounded by teens chatting the night away. Some inspected their equipment, others ate rations, but everyone was content.

As time went on, Whitley sat on a stump a bit away from the group thinking some things over. To his side, he noticed someone sit down on the rock next to him, and when he looked over, he was surprised to see Flynt.

For a while, neither of them spoke, both teens having something on their minds, but unwilling to start.

"Guess I'll start." It was a reluctant opening to the topic both teens had on their minds, and Flynt had Whitley's full attention as he continued.

"…I misjudged you. I didn't think you would come to help with the fight, but I was wrong."

Flynt stayed quiet for a moment and the youngest Schnee took that as his queue to respond.

"Well, what you said about how you could fight with everything you have if you know your friends are alright, that made me think about some things."

Another silence, but no tension was present; an improvement to be sure.

"Why did you follow after me to come help them." Genuine curiosity filled Flynt's question.

Whitley thought about what he felt at the moment he made his choice to run after Flynt.

"I don't know. I just moved and before I knew it, I was running down that hill at full speed." The white-haired teen paused before he continued.

"But as I was running, I realized you were right. I wanted to fight besides my friends, so there was really only one thing to do."

The two sat in silence after that, before Flynt put a hand towards Whitley. The younger teen looked at him as he explained.

"Look, I think we started out on the wrong foot. So, if you want, let's wipe the slate clean and maybe go from there?"

It was an honest proposal, one that the well-mannered teen accepted by returning the handshake.

The following morning, everyone was ready to travel after packing up their impromptu camp. After a breakfast of rations, Whitley and Jaune were discussing the possible next course of action when the rest of their squad approached.

"So, what's the plan guys?"

The two co-captains looked at the one who asked, Ivori, and Jaune began to speak.

"Well, judging from the tracker, if we want to make to Mantle, we just head straight in that direction. But…" The blonde sent a look to the leader of team WICK, who picked up the explanation.

"We think that since we have so much time left in the exam, that we should try and round up the other students."

Their squad mates weren't expecting that and sent them looks asking for an explanation.

"In our first-year class, there are six squads including us. That means that there are forty other students scattered outside Mantle besides us. We checked the tracker's display during the morning location ping, and it looks like all forty of the other students are alive at the very least." While not personally connected to many of the other students in their year, it was nice to know that their classmates were all still alive and kicking.

Whitley picked up where Jaune left off as their squad started to think. "Luckily, we won't have to back track, and most of the other students have found themselves a traveling companion, but there are some stragglers. We think that we should split up into our individual teams, round up the other students, and reconvene at the center most gate from our position by no later than the last day, earlier if possible."

The youngest teen present pointed to a gate to show where they would meet up. Kobalt decided to voice a question that presented itself in his head.

"What happens if one group doesn't reconvene by then?" Jaune turned to the blue brawler as he answered.

"If that happens, then we go bring them back. Together." The two captains gave them all a moment to think, before they shared a look and Whitley asked them the question.

"Are all of you onboard with this plan?" The group looked amongst themselves before they began to smirk and nod.

"We trust you, both of you." With that the two teams split into their individual groups, with team WICK going to collect the students to the north, and team JCKP moving to collect the students to the south.

(Day 14, Mid-term passing deadline, Edge of Mantle)

Standing in the center of one of the gate's to Mantle was General James Ironwood himself. Peering at his watch, he saw the timer on his watch slowly counting down. No students had arrived yet, and anyone that was to pass needed to arrive within the next fifteen minutes.

He stood vigilant at the gates, watching the blizzard veiled land ahead of him, praying for at least one student to return to Mantle safe. The disciplined man thought back to when the previous headmaster conducted this same exam. He and his team made it back to Mantle on the evening of seventh, setting a record, but sadly, they were also the only team from his year to return.

The only student who came close to his record was one of his specialists, Winter Schnee, who returned on the morning of the ninth day, without her team. When her team arrived two days later, they requested formal transfers to different squads because she had left them when they disagreed with her.

Ironwood saw a rebellious spirit who wanted to belong to something in the eldest of the Schnee siblings, and so after drilling discipline, respect, and camaraderie into the girl, she earned the title of specialist, someone who inspired those things in others.

He looked down at his watch and saw the timer; ten-minutes left. He looked to one of his soldiers and held his hand out and was handed a tablet sized scroll.

"Any changes?"

The older soldier he spoke to shake his head negatively as he answered his superior.

"None sir. The blizzard is interfering with the signals of the trackers. Normally they'd still show locations, or if it really was messing with our system, aura readings next to the names of students. But right now, we're bli-"

The tablet made a sound from where it was held in the hands of the General, and just as both men were about to look at the screen, a voice from the top of the wall surrounding Atlas called out. Quickly, Ironwood handed the tablet back to the soldier, who watched the general briskly make his way up the stairs to the top of the wall.

As he arrived, he looked to the younger man who'd likely been a member of the Atlesian military for no more than five years.

"Report." The younger man saluted before he spoke with a grin on his face.

"Sir, you need to see this."

With that, he moved away from his place behind the viewing scope so that the general could observe the open expanse ahead of them. As he scanned the environment, the blizzard began to lighten slowly, and his eyes widened at what he was seeing.

He stepped away from the scope before thanking the younger man and making his way down to stand outside of the gates that led to Mantle. With only a bit less than a minute left, in front of the general stood every first-year huntsman hopeful he'd scattered into the frozen wilderness of Solitas.

And standing ahead of them was teams JCKP and WICK. He cleared his throat and gave a speech to the returning students, praising their skills, their tenacity, their will, and asking forgiveness for his methods. It was a formality to be sure, and some here and there still seemed rather upset all things considered but stayed silent.

After he concluded, he stood to the side of the gate so that the students could enter Mantle and relinquish their trackers to the waiting soldiers who were assisting the exam.

James looked at the large gathering of students as they conversed among each other and spotted the ones who were likely responsible for making this possible at the center of the gathering; the leaders of team JCKP and WICK. He stood with his arms behind his back as he studied the two young men with a smile.

For they may have taken almost every moment they were given to pass, this was the first year in decades that a class in its entirety returned home. He'd have to remember to write a letter to Ozpin, thanking him for the talent he'd sent to have honed at his academy.

But first, he would enjoy the relief that came with not having any fallen students in a dangerous exam.

(A/N)

Hey again, hope you're all still enjoying the read. This chapter wrote itself pretty quick, but I also did a LOT of rewriting and backtracking with this one.

Ultimately, I decided not to include the 12 days of searching through the forest cause it came out as boring and mundane every time I approached it.

But! That means that we are finished with the Midterms, and that means were getting closer to the end of the first semester, which for me is very exciting.

Also, do you think that maybe I should respond to comments in A/N's, or should I PM the reviewer instead?

Stay healthy,

B.J.H.