Word to memorize for this chapter: Theropod. Theropoda or theropods are a dinosaur clade that is characterized by hollow bones and three-toed limbs. They are generally classed as a group of saurischian dinosaurs. Theropods were ancestrally carnivorous, although a number of theropod groups evolved to become herbivores, omnivores, piscivores and insectivores. So, basically, Brute Wyverns.
"This is gonna be awesome! A dragon that punches just like me! This will be so awesome! I know what my pet will be if Katana gives us our own dragons!" Yang said.
"Actually, there's a more fitting one for you, but that's for later. Still, this would be the second best choice." Katana said.
"Show us already!" The more excitable of the group said (Ruby, Yang, Jaune, Nora, Neo). Even the general had thought about shouting that out as well, eager to see what these creatures could do if properly trained.
Darkness gave way to show a volcanic landscape, the ground rocky and scorched black, red light mainly coming from lava, with a volcano in the background as the view descended on a group of strangely humanoid cats scattered about the landscape, one right up front, apparently digging for ores.
"Aww, they're so cute!" Ruby said.
"That's the last place I'd expect to see a bunch of cats, though." Cinder said.
"What do you think, Blake-y? Look nice to you?" Yang teased.
"I think being there would be a death sentence without aura to protect you from the heat. And even then, a volcano's erupting, shooting ash into the air. You'd breath that in and... bad things would happen." Blake informed them, not wanting to traumatize Ruby... and probably Nora and Jaune. "The cats do interest me, though." Blake admitted.
"They're known as Felynes. A member of the Lynian classification of animals. They live as mostly nomadic people, trading with humans, sometimes living beside them and on occasion, even fighting alongside hunters. So they're good kitties. Unless you make them mad, then they could be as bad as any small monster." Katana explained.
"What makes them mad?" Ironwood asked.
"Attacking them, or any other Lynian. Even the Melynx, which attack and snatch items from hunters." Katana explained.
"So cat versions of Neo?" Pyrrha asked, Neo pouting at the description. "I'm sorry!" She said.
"No fair! The Melynx started it." Nora complained.
"Hey, Felynes stick up for their own." Katana said with a shrug.
Suddenly, an echoing voice could be heard. "Imagine some mold. Now imagine if that mold reproduces by literally exploding to release its spores in the air." It said. Just then, an explosion went off just behind the Felyne.
This revealed a massive bipedal dinosaur-like monster with glowing green horns and "fists," as well as a shiny, armored hide covered in many plates and ridges that was made of obsidian and a pair of long, highly developed forelimbs, likely used as its primary means of defense. These forelimbs and horn seemed to secrete a mysterious slime that appeared to be what the glowing green substance on them was.
"Wow, that's cool! It's like a T-Rex, but with arms that can actually, do stuff!" Jaune said, amazed.
"Actually, Mr. Arc, despite their size, the T-Rex's arms were quite powerful. They're meant for slashing prey and opponents, which makes their short length beneficial, as they were able to strike rapidly." Glynda said, amazing the students.
"How did you-" Weiss started.
"Because Glynda was the biggest nerd you could find at Beacon back in the day. She never put her books down. That's probably why she was such good friends with the flagpole." Qrow said with a smirk.
"Qrow, I will make your life a living hell if you say ANYTHING else!" Glynda warned, not about to let her students learn of her embarrassing days in their place.
However, this creature appeared to be facing off against something else, as some strange finned creature burrowed into the ground and disappeared, constantly bursting out of the ground like a dolphin bursting from the water, spinning like a drill as it flew past the Theropod, narrowly missing it each time. "Now imagine something coming along and going 'I'mma weaponize that'... Well, now introducing Brachydios!" The voice announced as a strange, massive eel-like creature burst from the ground, launching high into the air, covered in lava and dropping down on the dinosaur, coiling 'round it like a snake.
"Oh, no! It's in trouble!" Velvet said, worried for the Theropod.
"Disappointing. You made it sound like this creature could decimate the Grimm. Yet it's being overpowered." Ironwood said.
"Patience James. It isn't over yet." Ozpin assured him.
Suddenly, some music could be heard as the eel creature went in for a bite, but the dinosaur ducked under it, pressing its horn against the creatures's neck and pushing back. The creature attempted to take a few more bites at the Theropod, before it is pushed off and thrown to the ground. "ONE PUUUUUNCH!" Someone sang as the music picked up and the brawling monster threw a punch at the eel's neck/shoulder area, a transparent blue explosion going off as the eel cried out in pain, dodging a horn attack from the bipedal creature and slithering to a safe distance. It then clacked its beak several times, before the green slime smeared on the creature could be seen turning from yellow to red.
"Whoa, wait a minute..." Coco noted.
"That's probably not great for slip and slide there." Neo said.
The eel fired a red-hot beam from its mouth, but just then, the now red slime exploded, throwing the beam off-course and greatly rattling the creature and making it fall to its side. "Boom, baby! Brachydios beautifulness bombing his way right on to your faces! I love this guy, I love him so much. He is arguably my favorite monster. I cannot wait to talk about him." The voice declared excitedly as the Theropod approached the downed eel, the green slime on it turning yellow and extending down its body as it raised a fist and slammed it down on the serpent, killing it.
Everyone was shocked at this. "That's awesome!" The excitable students cried out.
"Whoa! Looks like that thing's no slouch after all!" Qrow said.
"The voice had mentioned a mold that it weaponized. So that's what he meant." Winter said in awe.
"But, shouldn't the slime just make IT explode, too?!" Weiss questioned.
"We'll have to wait and see what the voice says." Ren told her.
The voice then tripped up a bit awkwardly as it spoke. "So I'm gonna do that right now. You may be like, then: 'Well, that was pretty cool.' Yeah, that was pretty epic. 'But sorry, did you say MOLD?' Shh, shh, shh. I did, but let me explain." The voice spoke.
As it spoke, a pair of creatures similar to the eel that attacked the Brachydios approached a bright green puddle, unsure of what it is, when suddenly, another Brachydios approached one of the small eels from behind. It quickly burrowed into the rock to escape a right hook from the Theropod. Brachydios then turned its attention to the remaining eel, leaping to the left and roaring at it as the eel turned to face it. The smaller creature backed away, unknowingly backing onto the slime, which changed color and detonated, killing the small creature, earning the Brute Wyvern an easy meal.
"No! That poor thing was just a baby! Bad Brachydios!" Ruby scolded the beast.
"It's nature red, kill or be killed. Predators need to eat prey. Big, bad Brachydios just wasn't willing to starve." Cinder said, nodding in approval of the beast's drive. [1]
"More importantly, it separated the two creatures, singling one out and forced it into a situation where it could be killed with no effort on Brachydios' part. It used tactics. That means its deceptively intelligent." Ironwood noted, impressed.
"To understand Brachydios' true nature, you must first understand what it calls friend. So this Myxomycete, or slime mold is- well, weird even by monster standards." The voice explained as a video of sped-up footage showed a strange yellow slime spreading along a tree limb, bark, leaves, etc. while pulsing and popping like boiling liquid(several in the room shuddered at this).
"Slime molds in the real world have a kind of- ugh- to them, they are SQUELCHY as they spread and search for food, but they don't really have a brain. No neurons, they don't really have a way to think, yet can make decisions, such as the best direction to spread for maximum food. They feed on micro-organisms in dead and dying matter. You'll find them on logs on the forest floor, or underneath the ground in layers of dirt.
"This is so gross! I'm gonna be sick! Why do I need to see this?!" Nora cried, burying her face in Ren's chest.
"It's nature, Nora. Everything is... beautiful... in its own way." Ren told her, even though he was having trouble believing his own words.
"I'm sure Bartholomew would be able to say something positive. Something like how their feeding on dead matter cleanses the word of the harmful, dying material." Ozpin said.
"These things are very unique, but the one that Brachydios allows to coat his otherwise squeaky-clean, beautifully shiny and SMOOTH Obsidian shell, which is an INCREDIBLY durable shell." The voice said as an orange Felyne was in blue boxing gear was seen taking on a Brachydios. "And I do mean DURABLE. Able to withstand heavy ordinance-level explosions without so much as flinching. It also insulates him, acting as a thermos, letting him live in both extreme cold and extreme heat. He is an apex monster found in a myriad of environments that really is one of the most dominant forces in the Monster world, because of simply how competent he is at fighting." The voice explained.
"Whoa! And I thought Yatsuhashi was a tank!" Coco said, impressed.
"I don't think any Grimm we know of can stand up to that." Velvet agreed.
"Wow, this thing sounds a lot like you, Pyrrha. How it just dominates wherever it goes and it's super awesome at fighting!" Jaune said.
Pyrrha blushed at this. "Th-thank you, Jaune." It said.
"He has boxer-level skill." The voice explained as the Felyne narrowly dodged a leaping smash from the Brachydios. "Which you might have seen evidenced already from his little arms, but we'll get to that in but a moment, we are getting ahead of ourselves. So, the mold, then: the slime mold. Naturally, it favors warm locales, but can be found in a lot of different environments. And it grows very slowly, spreading and nourishing itself until it reaches a CRITICAL MASS in size, where it will finally propagate. And to do so, it has an ingenious little method: this thing doesn't require insects to carry it. It doesn't require the wind. No, it just fucking explodes!" The voice explained as Brachydios was shown facing off against a trio of hunters, who were forced to leap back as the mold primed and exploded.
"Impressive. It sounds as though this mold could contend with Dust." Winter noted.
"A shame we don't have anything like that on Remnant." Ironwood said.
"You're upset that we DON'T have exploding mold in our world? That should be GREAT news." Qrow told him.
"It will start reacting with the air, growing from green, to yellow, to orange, to red and then BOOM! Bursting into the air, thousands of slime mold spores that land upon every surface every-THING, take root and start growing once more. And woe betide any creature that happens to be caught in a cloud, because skin is, uh, fair play for these guys. Y'know, out of all the things that are bad for a body, one thing you don't want are EXPLOSIVE, GELATINOUS MOLD growing out of you!" The voice said with an echo as everything went black for a moment.
"Ugh. If I ever see any mold like that in real life, I'm setting it on fire." Yang said.
"Better do it at a safe distance." Blake warned her.
"Considering it grows in volcanic regions, I'm unsure as to how effective that would be." Penny advised them.
"That is a BAD DAY! EXCEPT if you're called Brachydios! Remember that lovely shell we talked about? Well, it has a very special property that lets it interact very beneficially with slime mold. It WANTS to take a full-on slimy explosion! Because when the spores land on ITS skin, they will take root, they will GROW. But, they will not explode. You see, Brachydios' skin actually prevents the explosion part of its life cycle until it is freed. It will grow, it will mature, it will cover and goop and puddle, but it won't explode. And this is very key, it means when the Brachydios comes into contact with, well, ANYTHING, the slime mold growing rapidly on his body will scrape be scraped off, suddenly freed from his skin's calming effects, but already fully mature, so within mere moments. It will explode." The voice elaborated their relationship.
"Huh. Maybe Roman should carry that stuff in his pockets. Emerald would get a nasty surprise next time she tried to pickpocket him!" Neo said with a smirk.
"I'd rather have her keep both of her hands, Neo. No matter how this ends, Emerald will still be on my side, so I'll still need her as useful as possible. And she'd likely be less useful with one hand missing." Cinder warned her. Neo pouted for a minute and she find. "I'll tell her to ease up on the pickpocketing. Happy?" She asked. Neo simply smiled in confirmation.
"Hey, you can be good! You care about Emerald and don't want her to lose a hand!" Ruby noted.
Cinder blushed and looked away. "I just said she'd be less useful with one hand! That's it!" She denied Ruby's claim.
"Normally, it wouldn't be mere moments. However, the Brachydios has a secondary weapon to better integrate with this lovely, slimy marriage." The voice explained as Brachydios was shown THOROUGHLY licking its arms as rather suggestive music was playing.
"It's spit?! Eww!" Coco said.
"That's the most disgusting monster of all time!" Weiss cried out.
"Indeed. I'd rather fight anything else than that beast." Winter agreed with her little sister.
"What if I told you there's a monster that farts, belches and throws giant wads of feces at you?" Katana asked. The two pale sisters turned white as paper as this, meaning they'd much rather fight Brachydios. "That's what I thought." Katana said.
A snap was then heard as the Felyne was shown fighting the Brute Wyvern again."That is his Saliva. You see, as I said earlier, it takes a while, normally, for the slime mold to reach that explosive maturity, but Brachydios SALIVA, well... It acts as a hyper. Growth. Enhancer, rapidly speeding up the growth process into mere moments. It will be found consistently lavishing its tongue over its arms in order to prime, as it were, the mold and get it into a frenzied, mature state just ACHING to explode, on the very EDGE, but just unable to quite pop." The voice explained with an explosion noise in the background.
"So that's how this goes down, then. Brachydios is scrappy. Now he's smaller than your average Brute Wyvern," The voice explained as a cartoon bear quickly raised up about halfway up from the bottom of the screen, vanishing just as quickly, the voice not even holding it together, breaking down into laughter.
"What was that? It was cute!" Velvet said.
"And what are these Brute Wyverns?" Ozpin asked.
"That cartoon bear was Yogi, a cartoon bear smarter than your average bear that always tries to steal picnic baskets. As for Brute Wyverns, they're basically Theropod dinosaurs: bipedal, no wings, mostly carnivorous. Like Jaune said, basically T-Rexes." Katana explained.
"But he more than makes up for it with his just outright skill. You see, he fights very much like a boxer, with punches expertly placed to completely batter foes into submission. And, if your punches are laced with explosions, that helps as well." The voice explained.
"Oh, yeah. This is my spirit monster! Seriously, how can one fit me better than this?" Yang asked.
"You'll see." Katana told her.
"Jeez, Blondie. So impatient." Neo teased, earning herself a minute of tickle torture from Yang, before Katana stopped it to continue the viewing.
"Arguably the most dangerous of all the Brute Wyverns and yes, that includes Deviljho." The voice said (Everyone looked to Katana, who mouthed "later"). "Brachydios would give him one hell of a run for his money. Normally, nothing dares challenge him, because even if they could kill him, they cannot physically harm him without covering themselves in explosive slime. So unless the monster assailing him is an Elder Dragon like Teostra that can TAKE IT! And Teostra would definitely beat a Brachydios, well it's just not worth it. It would be a Pyrrhic victory. Mutually assured destruction." The voice explained.
"That's the kind of status I want. No one daring to challenge me!" Cinder declared, subconsciously running her hand through Ruby's hair once again as if she were a cartoon villain and Ruby, her black cat.
"But don't forget how lonely and cold it is at the top." Glynda reminded her.
"Elder Dragons? You mentioned those already, right? It's what Glacies is? What are they?" Pyrrha asked.
"They're considered gods amongst monsters, forces of nature capable of leaving the world in ruins, like how Glacies can freeze whole landmasses. Teostra is basically a lion dragon that makes big explosions and fire." Katana explained.
"And that works wonders for Brachydios, letting him root himself, a fearsome apex. A carnivore capable of taking his pick of damn near any potential meal. He is an impressive specimen." The voice said, an image of Brachydios gaining a pink filter with hearts flying across the screen (No one was sure how to react). "He has speed and agility to put most Wyverns to shame, certainly the other Brutes. He has the maneuverability to get behind you before you can even say-" The voice went on, before cutting to an image of a buff bald man with a splat of green photo-shopped on his face.
"Nani?!" The man cried out in confusion, "What?!" being subtitled at the bottom.
Everyone looked to Penny. "He was speaking Japanese." She answered.
They then looked to Katana. "It's from Fist of the North Star. The main character Kenshiro fights by striking your pressure points. At first, it seems like he did nothing to you, but then he says 'You're already dead' and you go 'what?!', but then you die in a horrifying bloody explosion. It's one of the biggest memes of my world." She explained.
Everyone was shocked and horrified at this. "How is that possible?! I know pressure points are something some fighting styles exploit, even to deadly effect, but nothing like that." Ren said, terrified.
"It's not, don't worry. That fighting style is completely made up and total BS, anyway, since its ultimate move is literally becoming intangible." Katana assured them.
"That's impossible. Not even the most powerful Semblances known on Remnant are capable of that." Ironwood said, shocked.
"Yes, it is impossible, that's why it's so stupid." Katana said.
"His horn, then, also coated in this slimy substance, can be embedded deep in the ground, unleashing a huge puddle for a colossally larger explosion than you would ever get naturally. He is an expert at using his rounded clobberers to deadly effect. You could say that Brachydios is very... well... ARMED." The voice made a pun, a clip of Brachydios with its mouth moving back and forth rapidly, a clip of laughter playing to make it seem like the monster laughed at the pun.
Yang laughed at this as the others groaned. "Okay, this narrator is alright in my book!" She said.
"He's in my book, too... Of people to beat down." Neo declared.
"Still, Brachydios is really cool using its horn like that. It uses all of its parts to their fullest!" Ruby noted.
"So like a lot of these apex monsters, he's very territorial, very aggressive. He'll attack on sight with a mighty roar." The voice explained, a sound clip of the roar being played (They all jumped at this, a bit shaken). "And then DOTH BATTLE COMMENCE!" The voiced declared with an echo, epic music then playing as the clip was slowed down (They were in awe at this.). "He has then the large, clubbed tail which he can use as said club, but mostly acts as counter-balance to his acrobatic shenanigans. His mouth serrated with the shell for huge tearing effect and can crush rock with relative ease and he does technically have arms, they're just folded into his pounders that make up his combat strategy." The voice listed the rest of Brachydios' natural weapons. "Oh and he can also use the slime mold as sticky suction pads to climb up cliffs." The voice said as that was shown in the video.
"Very impressive. This slime mold is truly versatile." Penny stated.
"Indeed. It begs the question of what other less violent ways the slime could be applied." Ozpin agreed.
"So that all said then, what happens when a Brachydios gets angry? When Brachydios enters... The slime lust?" The voice asked in a quiet, echoing, wraith-like tone as a Brachydios emerged from smoke, glaring furiously.
The teachers steeled themselves with some difficulty at the intimidating sight as Weiss clung to Winter, Nora to Ren, JAUNE to PYRRHA, rather than the other way around, Neo to Yang, Ruby to Cinder AND Penny, Velvet to Coco and Blake to Katana, holding Zwei closely. "Ren... I'm scared." Nora said.
"Me, too, Nora." Ren told her.
"But remember, it's still an animal, part of nature. Intimidation is a factor at play here to unnerve its opponent and cause it to make hasty decisions which could prove to be costly mistakes. If you keep a cool, calm head and focus, it's likely far less dangerous that it seems." Ironwood told them.
"Oh, no. It's still VERY dangerous, but you are on the right track, general. Saner heads prevail." Katana confirmed.
"His body heats up like a furnace and his shell destabilizes, which then causes the slime to go a little bit wonky itself, because of course, the slime mold isn't just on his horn and pounders, its a thing layer over his entire body. And now this slime itself also activates, in fact, the slime itself becomes even more almost explode-y, permanently sitting in that yellow-y to orange phase JUST before it would turn red and blow up." The voice explained as another clip showed strange orange raptors near a puddle of slime mold, a Brachydios entering the scene, before a strange and large fish monster with legs erupted from the lava, spitting a glob of it at the slime mold, exploding it and sending the raptors flying. The fish then leapt from the lava and hip checked Brachydios, who responded with a flurry of punches. The fish tried to retreat, before the slime exploded and killed it, Brachydios roaring in victory.
"Did that fish thing come out of lava?!" Weiss cried.
"Well, we did see an eel-like creature emerge from lava before." Glynda reminded her student.
"That's Lavasioth. It's a Piscine Wyvern... No one likes Piscine Wyverns, they're just the worst." Katana told them. (Except Beotodus.) She thought.
"More importantly, though, that means the slime has a countdown, so you know when its safe or not." Jaune noted.
"Excellent deduction, Mr. Arc." Winter praised.
"Not bad, kid." Qrow agreed.
"It is truly active. Which means, no longer will he leave puddles of slime that explodes. Nope! Now his slime explodes on contact with high impact. Imagine Brachydios, but somebody's picked him up and dunked him in a huge amount of nitroglycerin, creating colossal, Earth-shaking explosions with every punch, cleaving out pockets of rock and monster alike as he swings with quite literal explosive force. His horn creating lines of explosions after being thrust into the ground that cascade from him, obliterating all in their path. Jumping into the air and slamming down, creating a vaporizing blast of concussive force. He is unbelievably deadly in his enraged state. He will invade other monster's territories, decimate the apex and claim it as his own." The voice warned.
"Well, so much for the countdown." Neo said.
"Many creatures are known to become more violent and dangerous when severely agitated, but never to such extremes." Pyrrha said in shock.
"It's pretty clear these aren't any normal animals there, Invincible Girl." Coco told her.
"Now, it's said that the slime itself isn't that in balance sometimes with your Brachydios. In fact, the constant cycle-" The voice began, before the Brachydios on screen apparently punched the camera, shattering the screen and sending the viewing into darkness. "Oh, for Gog's sake! Who left the camera there?! Ugh! Give me a second!" The voice declared, before another camera was somehow brought in.
Everyone chuckled at this. "Hold onto that humor, people. You're gonna need it, because it's about to get dark. Steel yourselves." Katana warned them.
"I am 80% titanium. Is that close enough?" Penny asked.
"I don't think that's what she meant, Penny." Velvet told her.
"Cycling and breeding on a Brachydios' skin can cause it to go a liiiittle bit, um... psychopathic. And it's said this is what actually gives it such a violent tendency and makes its enraged such a stark transformation. There is a lot of hearsay that the slime mold infects not just the skin, but the mind as well, forcing the Brachydios into so many of these environments to spread its spores. This would flip the relationship from symbiotic to parasitic, which would be a huge discovery if confirmed by the scholars at the Wyverian academy." The voice explained as a female hunter in Brachydios armor entered a volcanic area and tried to avoid getting pulverized by the beast.
"So Brachydios may be a prisoner to the slime? That's horrible." Blake said.
"Yeah. They're strong enough, they should ditch that stupid mold!" Nora declared.
"It's not that easy, Nora. The slime's a HUGE advantage. And Brachydios may not even know it's being manipulated." Jaune told her. He shuddered at the though, but he knew that if he was offered something like the slime mold to give him a massive leg up, he'd have a hard time saying no.
"So, what's the difference between symbiotic and parasitic?" Ruby asked.
The screen suddenly changed to a cartoonish drawing of Cinder with a mask over half her face and her left arm a Geist arm. "Well, Ruby: symbiotic relationships work to the benefit of both parties, whereas parasitic benefits only one, often even to the detriment of the other. It's like if Cinder keeps following Salem, she WILL lose an eye and an arm, which will be replaced with a Grimm arm she'll need to learn to coexist with." Katana explained, glaring at Cinder, likely to drill the message in.
"In a healthy relationship, the Grimm arm will work with Cinder to make themselves stronger." She continued as the Grimm arm lashed out at Raven, Fria and a mystery woman, draining their powers and showing Cinder winking and making a peace sign with the Grimm arm as the words "Full Maiden powers" was written above her. "Or, the Grimm arm could take over, forcing Cinder to work only for it and Salem's benefit, possibly even completely turning Cinder into a Grimm." Katana finished as a horrified Cinder was smacked around by the Grimm arm, struggling to hold it back, until it extended over and behind her and gave her a wedgie, before she was turned into a Geist.
"Well... Thanks for the nightmare fuel." Cinder said, horrified. Ruby held her hand and Cinder squeezed it firmly.
"The biggest supporting factor for this theory is that you do find so much slime molds growing in various areas it really shouldn't, even in Tundra, only getting their safely because a Brachydios has, well, carried it. But, equally it could be a byproduct of its usual roaming, apex-destroying nature. They'd need to get a hunter to 'research' one... With swords." The voice said as a clip of a bald man with a scar over his eye made air quotes when the voice said "research".
"That's not how you research things." Weiss said.
"Well, I suppose these creatures would have to be subdued to be studied. Observation in the wild only gets you so far." Ren noted.
"Precisely. To learn the ins and outs of anything, it has to be thoroughly investigated." Ironwood confirmed.
"So, that is Brachydios, but it doesn't end there." The voice told them.
"Oh, of course there's more! Let me guess, it can shoot laser beams or spit giant globs of slime at you?!" Yang asked incredulously.
"Don't jinx it." Qrow said.
"So, sometimes when the slime explodes upon the floor, not all of it is consumed. There remains a small portion that then goes dormant. While dormant, assuming nothing activates it: no earthquakes, no fire, no curious monsters, it will slowly accumulate power, absorbing nutrients and other some-such goodies and becoming especially potent. And it will keep doing this as long as its allowed to stay dormant. Well, Brachydios knows about this phenomenon and will seek these especially potent slimes out and apply them to himself. Firstly, it gives him a higher standing with Miss Brachydios potentials, as they will choose to mate with the Brachydios with the most potent slime." The voice explained as another trio of hunters ran from another Brachydios.
"That makes sense." Neo said.
"Too bad animals don't mate for love like we do. Right, Ren?" Nora said, looking to Ren, who blushed and looked away.
"The animal kingdom is a much harsher place, Miss Valkyrie. Survival of the fittest rules supreme there. And females often seek the fittest to raise superior children to continue their genes." Ozpin told her.
"But secondly, this newer, more potent concoction... Well, it imbues various strengths upon the Brachydios, transforming it, changing him into the RAGING BRACHYDIOS." The voice said with an echo. "Akin to Savage Deviljho or Furious Rajang, this Variant is titanic in its fury. Now that he has the slime, it makes him a little more on the aggressive side, it does start to err more on the parasitic side of things and it's kind of a twisted irony, really. The Brachydios are programmed to seek these out for the sake of propagating their genus, but in a cruel twist of fate, they kind of have to lose their minds a little in the process." The voice said in a SLIGHTLY more somber tone.
"Whoa! That things huge! Way bigger than the other Brachy's we've seen so far!" Ruby cried out.
"And that much bigger, they can only be that much stronger." Pyrrha said cautiously.
"But that new slime drives it insane... When they're designed to look for it. That's so sad..." Velvet said.
Cinder again shivered at this. (What if that happens to me? What if I get so caught up with this power thing, I go insane or lose my mind. What would the point even be then?!) She thought to herself in horror.
Katana heard these thoughts and nodded. "This was the right choice to start with." She said.
"This slime enhances firstly, the body itself, it feeds the nutrients its absorbed into the Brachydios, growing it in size. This slows it down, but it gains way more in power and brute strength. It becomes colossal. On top of that, the slime itself is incredibly potent, the explosion size absolutely dwarfing its brethren, causing the entire arena to cascade cacophony of constant BOOM as you fight it. This Brachydios has its own arena, the Ingle Isle, because there, there is a high amount of the extra tasty slime, so they are drawn to it from all around." The voice explained.
"That's how you know something's a boss in video games, when they get their own special arenas." Jaune said.
"But how do they know to find it there?" Blake wondered.
"Animal instinct, Miss Belladonna. Animals are simply instinctually aware of places they must find throughout there lives. Many sea creatures are known to make the journey to the place of their birth when its time to have their own young. It's possible the Brachydios somehow simply hone in on the slime's presence." Glynda explained.
"Or, it's possible the slime they already have directs them." Winter wagered.
"Now the thing is, Raging Brachydios is QUITE POWERFUL. It's even come to blows with Crimson Fatalis, Fatalis being the most powerful monster, full stop. Arguably the strongest being in Monster Hunter and while its not won, it's given it a PROPER good beating. It can take Teostra, it can take Akantor, the Black God. Do NOT underestimate the sheer fury of a Raging Brachydios. And they're also um... A little bit immortal." The voice said in a nervous tone.
"What?!" Everyone shouted.
"No way! That's just impossible! No way some mold makes something immortal!" Weiss snapped.
"Katana, how can you even think we could beat these things! You're crazy!" Nora cried out.
"That's very possible, but once again, humans without aura and semblances are able to handle themselves against these creatures one-on-one, so you likely could as well, especially if you went at them as a team." Katana assured her.
"You see, there is a special organ it develops once this state is achieved called the Immortal Reactor. And this WILL, in a special process, as yet unknown to the world of Monster Hunters, interact with the slime, becoming an almost miracle formula that pumps around a Brachydios, consistently rejuvenating its cells, essentially increasing its lifespan some think indefinitely. Which means you can have ancient Raging Brachydios as fit as their prime with the battle knowledge to put, well... anyone to shame. They are an emergency for the Guild to deal with and will dispatch a crack team of hunters as soon as possible. Not many of them tend to come back." The voice admitted.
"A simple fungus... able to do this much..." Ironwood said in shock.
"Hey, if there's one thing we've learned about this stuff, it's ANYTHING but simple." Qrow told him.
"Yeah. Like the craziest mold on Earth. I'm never letting any food get old and gross again." Coco said, fearing that mold would show up on outdated food.
"The slime then, arguably does this because it does see a Raging Brachydios as a host, maybe this is the point at which it becomes parasitic. The slime is a lot more active now, essentially a Brachydios that's raging is permanently enraged with an extra one on top of that, the classic gem. The slime on his shell can now actually explode. It's no longer forcibly calm. It will reactively detonate if threats are nearby, if you as a hunter chill near him for too long, the patches will blow up to repel you. It very much is protecting Brachydios. Defending the mutual in the relationship, or defending the host, that's for you to decide. But fear the Raging Brachydios, it's explosions are thunderous and its strength is indomitable." The voice finally finished as the screen went dark.
"So, what did you all think for your first monster?" Katana asked.
"Brachydios itself was awesome, but that slime... I REALLY don't like it." Ruby said.
"We should ensure nothing like that exists on Remnant, if only to assure it won't naturally become a problem, not even accounting Salem." Winter suggested.
"Indeed. If the Grimm could possess such mold, it would be disasterous.
"Still, I wouldn't mind going a few rounds with that thing. I'd never replace Ember Celica, but I might think of making some back-up gauntlets from those pounders." Yang said.
"That is a thing. Hunters often use parts of monsters they've fought both for armor and weapons." Katana told them.
"Fascinating." Penny said.
"This has... certainly given me a lot to think about." Cinder admitted.
"Are there any monsters that DON'T get super dark at the end?" Blake asked.
"I wanna see an awesome lightning monster! Something I could ride into battle!" Nora declared.
Katana thought for a moment, then smiled and nodded. "I've got the perfect thing." She said. (And thankfully, that episode's way shorter). She thought lazily.
A/N: I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! Let me know what other creatures you'd like RWBY to react to lore about... providing there IS a lore video on the monster.
[1] My mom and brother have this argument all the time. My mother hates it whenever the predator catches the prey, but my brother hates it when the predator goes hungry... unless it's Orca's killing a Great White Shark.