Chapter 6: The Emerald Forest

In the Emerald Forest, Yang's POV:

I had been walking around in the Emerald Forest for what felt like hours. I haven't been able to find anyone out here.

"Helloooooo?" I called, not seeing a shadow pass by. "Is anyone out here? Helloooo?" I called again, raising my arms. "I'm getting bored here!"

I heard a rustling noise in the bushes. I turned around, hoping it would be Ruby or Lana. The rustling continued and I came over to take a peek inside.

"Is someone there? Ruby, Lana, is that you?" I asked. A low, inhuman growl is heard. My head rises up as I stare at the creature.

"Nope!" I said.

I quickly roll to the side as the Ursa charges out of the bushes. I get up and activate my Ember Celia, staring at the monster before another Ursa runs out behind me. I leap over it and its companion run at me again, only to get knocked down by my feiry punch. The other Ursa and I charge at each other, and I manage to get under it and deliver several punches and a kick to send the creature back.

"You guys wouldn't happen to have seen a girl in a red hood, have you?" I asked. The Ursi growled at me. I grew impatient.

"You could just say 'No," I said. One of the Ursai stands on its legs and swipes at me twice. I barely dodged the attacks. I laughed at the Ursas.

"Geeez, you two couldn't hit the broad side of a ba..." Before I can complete my insult, a single strand of my golden hair falls in front of my face and lands on the forest floor. I grew angry. I hate it when people pull out my hair.

"You..." I growled, angrily. I closed my violet eyes, then I opened them to reveal red, making the Ursas look at each other with confusion. I let out a loud, angry scream.

"YOU MONSTER!" I screamed.

I slammed my arms down and an inferno surrounded me for a moment. I rocket forward, unleashing a devastating combo of flaming hits and blows on the offending Ursa, making it fly through several burning trees. The other monster runs over, but stops short at my gaze while a tree falls to the ground behind me.

"What! You want some, too?!" I yelled.

The Ursa rears up and prepares to strike... right when a whirling noise is heard and the monster makes a befuddled noise, falling down for a second later to reveal Blake Belladonna with her Gambol Shroud in the beast's back.

I pant in exhaustion while Blake recalls the weapon back to her hand, sheathing it on her back and smiling to the side. I returned my eyes back to their normal color again and spoke to my new partner over the smoking remains of the monster.

"I could have taken him," I said, smiling at her.

Lana's POV:

Weiss and I readied ourselves for a fight against these Grimm creatures. I have learned about some creatures of Grimm before going to school so I know what I was up against. The Beowolf swiped at Weiss, with her Myrtenaster and getting pushed back into the middle of the beastly circle.

I tried to help by charging at the creatures, but I ran into Weiss by accident.

"Watch it!" Weiss shouted.

"Sorry," I said, rolling my eyes. Weiss and I held out our swords as Weiss goes through her dueling motions and practices while muttering to herself.

"Remember your training, Weiss. Head up, shoulders back, right foot forward - not that forward! - (Weiss corrects herself by pushing her foot back a little) Slow your breathing, wait for the right time to strike, and... (Weiss brings her rapier up, the revolver spinning) NOW!" Weiss shouted.

Weiss dashes forward with her loaded weapon at the Beawold in front of her, just when Ruby suddenly appears between the two in a blur of rose petals and a swipe of her Cresent Rose scythe, landing a hit on the monster.

"Gotcha!" Ruby shouted.

"Ruby!" I shouted. Weiss widens her eyes and screams as she quickly has to stop, swinging the sword in a random direction and creating a line of fire that sets a nearby tree ablaze, followed quickly by the rest of the forest around the clearing.

Ruby, distracted by Weiss' mess-up is barely defended when the same Beowolf scratches at her weapon, knocking the younger girl into the heiress.

"Hey, watch it!" Ruby shouted.

"Excuse me! You attacked out of turn! I could have killed you!" Weiss shouted.

"You'll have to try a lot harder than that..." Ruby said. The three of us wield their arms as the pack of Beowolves whine and growl around them. Ruby reloads her scythe just as a flaming tree falls near us. Weiss grabs mine and Ruby's arms.

"We have to go!" Weiss shouted. Weiss leads me and Ruby out of the blaze as it engulfs the grass and sets the Grimm to running back the way they came or suffering in the fire.

Ruby, Weiss, and I stop a safe ways from the smoke and flames. Weiss leans over and pants as Ruby looks behind her. I kept my distance from those two because I knew they didn't get along well.

"What was that?! That should have been easy!" Ruby yelled.

"Well perhaps if you had exercised even the slightest amount of caution with the placement of your strikes, I wouldn't have set the forest on fire!" Weiss shouted.

Ruby scoffed before saying, "What's that supposed to mean?!"

"I'm just surprised someone who talks so MUCH would communicate so LITTLE during an encounter!" Weiss shouted.

"Well, I'm sorry you need my help to win a fight, I'm just fine on my own!" Ruby yelled.

"Well, congratulations on being the strongest childs to sneak your way into Beacon! Bravo!" Weiss shouted back. That pissed me off with what she had said. Ruby and I didn't sneak our way in!

Weiss begins to walk off on her partners yet again. Ruby, with an agitated shriek, unfolds Cresent Rose, slices a tree down to the stump, refolds it back, and follows her partner as the tree crashes behind her. Neither notice the large dark feather floating onto the fallen trunk behind them. I ran to catch up with Ruby.

"Ruby? Are you okay?" I asked.

"Yeah... she just makes me angry," Ruby said.

"Yeah, she's a meanie!" I said. Weiss turned around when I said that.

"I can hear you!" Weiss yelled. I just rolled my eyes. Ruby and I laughed to ourselves when she walked away.

Deeper in the forest, no POV:

Meanwhile, across the Forest, Pyrrha, armed with Milo and Akouo, and Jaune are making their way through the bushes. Jaune hears a noise far away and turns his head.

"Did you hear that?" Jaune asked.

"Gunfire. It seems some of our comrades have encountered the enemy." Pyrrha answered.

They keep moving forward. Jaune is still staring in the sound's direction as Pyrrha raises a branch to pass by and accidentally releases it right at Jaune's face, making him fall to the floor. Pyrrha notices and looks back behind her.

"Jaune! I'm sorry!" Pyrrha cried. Jaune laughs, lowering his hand from his cheek to reveal a gash from the wooden branch.

"It's okay! Just a scratch!" Jaune said. Jaune gets back up when Pyrrha approaches him.

"Why didn't you activate your Aura?" Pyrrha asked.

"Huh?" Jaune said.

"Your Aura," Pyrrha said.

"Gesundheit," Jaune said.

"Jaune, do you... know what Aura is?" Pyrrha asked.

Jaune waves the question off, avoiding eye contact and giving a scoff. "Psch! Of course, I do! Do YOU know what Aura is?" Jaune asked sarcastically.

Pyrrha smiles at him and gets ready to explain as the scene changes to Lie Ren's trek through the forest's tall grass.

"Aura is the manifestation of our soul. It bears our burdens and shields our hearts. Have you ever felt like you were being watched without knowing that someone was there?" Pyrrha said.

"Uh... yeah," Jaune answered.

Ren stops and narrows his eyes, looking around him while a huge black Grimm serpent rises up from the grass behind him and quickly surrounds him with its large, hissing body. Ren adapts a fighting stance as the snake coils together in front of him and attacks with its long fangs.

Pyrrha walks around Jaune as she continues teaching him about Aura. "With practice, our Aura can be our shield. Everyone has it, even animals."

"What about monsters?" Jaune asked.

"No," Pyrrha said. The scene switches back to Ren as he leaps out of the way, the snake's mouth hitting the ground and instantly coming up again to hit a jumping Ren back with its snout.

"The monsters we fight lack a soul. They are the creatures of Grimm, the manifestation of anonymity." Pyrrha explained.

Ren lands a crouch when the serpent encircles him again, and he unleashes his StormFlower before jumping up and firing at the creature.

"They are the darkness, and we are the light," Pyrrha said. Ren kicks the snake's snout and slashes at his head.

"Right, that's why we fight them!" Jaune said.

"It's not about why; it's about knowing," Pyrrha said.

The snake flows around Ren and tries to bite him again, but he flips over it and drives his weapons into its head, pausing a moment without sensing the serpent's white head behind him.

"Understanding dark and light helps us manifest our Aura. Everyone has some of both." Pyrrha explained.

Ren turns back and looks up at the white head as it launches itself at him, dodging it and landing just in time to see the head slither towards him. As it gets closer, he runs at it and leaps onto the blackhead, sliding over its body and blasting the other head.

"By baring your soul outward as a force, you can deflect harm. All of our tools and equipment are conduits for Aura. You protect yourself and your soul when fighting." Pyrrha explained.

Ren is unprepared for the white half to hit him with its head, knocking him off as he drops his weapons, and leaving him to merely raise his arms and distantly cries "No!" to the mouth of the blackhead.

Jaune opens his eyes with the revelation. "It's like a forest field!" Jaune said excitedly.

"Yes, if you want to look at it that way," Pyrrha said.

Ren is now holding the front fangs of the colossal snake in his hands, glowing a faint, pulsating pink as he grips the teeth and yanks them from the monster's mouth, causing it to fail away. It attempts to bite him again, but Ren spins to the side and stabs a fang into its eye, rotating his arm to deliver a final blow that drives the makeshift weapon into its skull, which ripples, expands, and blows apart in a dark mess as its headless body falls over its fellow creature. Wasting no time, Ren runs right at the whitehead.

Pyrrha walks up to Jaune and touches the side of his head. "Now, close your eyes and concentrate," Pyrrha instructed.

"Uhh... okay," Jaune said. Jaune complied with Pyrrha's instructions. Pyrrha smiles and closes her own eyes, opening them and her skin glows, and her irises shrink before shutting them again. The two stand there, now with Pyrrha glowing a faint red and Jaune a bright white.

"For it is in passing that we achieve immortality. Through this, we become a paragon of virtue and glory to rise above all, infinite in distance and unbounded by death." Pyrrha said. Pyrrha places a hand on Jaune's chest before continuing to speak. "I release your soul, and by my shoulder protect thee."

Pyrrha stops glowing red and hunches over in tiredness. Jaune is still glowing and looks at Pyrrha with concern.

"Pyrrha?" Jaune said. Pyrrha gets back up.

"It's all right. I used my Aura to unlock yours, but the energy that protects you now is your own." Pyrrha explained. Pyrrha grins as she watches the scratch close up and vanish. "You have a lot of it."

Jaune smiles and looks at his hands as the glowing stops. "Wow..." Jaune whispered to himself.

At the same time, Ren stands atop of the body of his enemy, sliding the weapons in his sleeves and brushing them off before a strange, animal-like noise is heard above him twice. He looks up and meets the upside-down eyes of Nora Valkyrie. Ren chuckles.

"I still don't think that's what a sloth sounds like," Ren said.

In response, Nora gives her friend a "Boop!" on the nose.