Blake walked behind her new partner, the pretty blonde from the airbus, who was apparently named Yang. Occasionally, a smoldering branch would crack and crash onto the ground near them.
"Jeeze, Ruby," Yang said as she caught one such branch and tossed it away, "did you have to destroy half the forest?"
"Your sister did this?" Blake asked. She had been one of the last to enter the treeline, and therefore been nearly scorched by the sheet of golden light that had been burned the sky, and the treetops, moments later.
"Yeah… Ruby, uh, she doesn't really do anything that isn't "overkill". That's what the Wolkenritter are for."
What. The. Hell
"Those are her bodyguards, I take it?"
"Yeah. Do yourself a favor, don't piss them off. They can be very uh… Scary, when angry. Anyways, let's get that relic."
"But why was she allowed to bring Bodyguards to Beacon?" Blake asked as they walked.
"They wouldn't have let her come if they didn't," Yang said with a shrug, "Ruby was really fragile when she was younger, stuck in a wheelchair, all that. We're all really protective of her."
Blake couldn't imagine going from a wheelchair to the most prestigious combat school in Vale. She couldn't imagine going from that to burning a treeline.
They exited the trees to find the ruins they were looking for, walking up and picking out a relic, and turned to go to their exfiltration zone when, quite unexpectedly, a boy and a girl riding a Ursa came out of the treeline, burning branches caught in it's hair before the girl brought a hammer down on its head, ending the surprisingly pitiful Grimm's suffering.
A minute later, as they were about to enter the treeline, they were forced to dodge out of the way as two more potential students ran in, the biggest Deathstalker Blake had ever seen following them as Yang and Blake deployed their weapons.
—
Jaune ran through the burning trees, wondering if Beacon regularly set forests on fire to up the "excitement" or if this was just a coincidence. Tripping over a branch that had fallen in their way, Jaune stumbled a few steps and barely avoided getting impaled by the giant scorpion Grimm chasing them. Dodging around a few more trees, he moaned as he saw one fallen in their path, only for Pyrrha to charge it with her shield brandished in front of her. Following behind, Jaune felt his jaw drop as she smashed through the dead tree and yelled, "Come on!"
Jaune followed her through, continuing to run. Eventually, they hit the treeline, running by one girl with black hair and one with blonde, who jumped out of their way and prepared their weapons.
Another girl, a light redhead, launched herself in the air before coming down on the scorpion with a loud bang. It stopped the Grimm in its tracks, but didn't seem to do any damage to it. The Grimm shook it off, standing up… Only to suddenly collapse, decay rising from it.
"Good job, Nora," another boy said, sounding tired.
—
Ruby landed, dropping Weiss and handing the piece they had grabbed to Professor Goodwitch, before walking over to the makeshift basecamp her knights had created. Taking her cane from Vita with a smile and a kiss on the cheek, Ruby clipped it back onto her arm as Signum draped her coat over her shoulders and she de-Unisoned with Rein. Weiss walked up behind her after stabling herself, looking over the screens, "Is that one of yours' Semblance?"
"Something along those lines," Ruby said slightly dismissively, more focused on how Yang was doing than talking to Weiss. She wasn't in the mood to explain magic today, "Why are you monitoring that guy?"
'That guy was a blonde with blue eyes, running through the forest with sweat pouring down his face. If Ruby didn't know any better, she'd say he was more out of shape than her.
"An Unusually large Link- Aura. Low S," Signum reported, "We thought he might be a threat, but…"
"He doesn't look like he could be a threat to a kitten," Ruby retorted as he tripped over a branch.
"Quite," Signum agreed, "I'm not sure what someone with no combat training is doing at what is supposed to be the most prestigious school in Vale, but it doesn't impress me."
"I will agree Mr. Arc's behavior doesn't match his record," Professor Goodwitch said, walking over to join them, "However, anyone is allowed to take the exam. We just trust it to weed out the foolish enough to enter without prior training."
"Survival of the fittest, huh?" Ruby said.
"I suppose you could call it that."
"But that doesn't help if they get a skilled enough partner," Signum said.
"Most who land in that circumstance drop out before the year is done," Goodwitch explained, "they can't handle the strain of trying to keep up with someone so much better than them that they burn out and drop out."
Finally, the Deathstalker and them burst from the trees into the clearing with Yang. Ruby watched the attack from the ginger bounce off without any harm before saying, "Shamal?"
"Yes, Ruby?"
"Crush it."
Shamal inserted her arm into a magic circle, to a startled gasp from Weiss, and on the screen the Deathstalker collapsed. A moment later, Shamal pulled her hand out of the circle, hand dripping with black goo.
—
It was Vita's turn to push Ruby through the fairgrounds, the seven year old looking around happily at the banners welcoming people to the 36th Vytal Festival. High above them, several combat airships were doing tricks to the amusement of the crowd and to the side Huntsmen who wouldn't be participating in the Vytal Tournament were sparring for similar reasons.
"Vita, look!" Ruby said, vibrating in her chair the best she could with her paraplegia. She was pointing at a game where you used an airgun to hit moving targets, "Let's go over there!
Vita pushed Ruby over, grabbing two guns and handing ten lien to the man manning the stall. Ruby braced her gun against her shoulder, and at the sound of the horn, they both began to fire. Ruby moving fluidly from one target to the other while Vita didn't really participate, happy to just watch Ruby have fun. At the end of it, Ruby picked a large bunny rabbit as her reward, before handing it to Vita.
"It reminds me of you," Ruby said, a bright smile on her face.
—