"Really? You're giving Pyrrha: sweet, innocent, lovable Pyrrha, a giant, freaky spider?" Jaune asked in disbelief, unaware of Pyrrha glowing neon red from the blush she sustained due to Jaune's compliments.
"Thank you, Jaune. But I really don't mind. I've always enjoyed spiders." Pyrrha told him.
"Wow. Never would've taken you for the type, invincible girl." Cinder stated.
"And spiders can be totally awesome! They can jump and make huge webs and have super poison and all that good stuff!" Nora declared.
"And they're quite useful for getting rid of bugs and other small pests." Ren admitted.
"Yep. Spiders are pretty good and this one is the best..." Katana said, before remembering the newly discovered spider. "For now..." She said under her breath and starting the video.
A very catchy song that sounded like it was from another cartoon was heard as an armored female hunter was seen walking through a barren mountainous area, with a very massive and noticeable spider web strewn high above. As she went under the wen, something was seen rapidly crawling above her, barely giving the audience a glimpse of what they saw. The Huntress then looked down when she noticed her foot was trapped in a pile of webbing. She struggled to free her foot as the point of view of a creature with green-tinted vision was shown, before revealing it to be a massive, six-eyed spider. A woman's scream could then be heard as the spider shot a web line from its mouth, wrapping up the Huntress and pulling her up to the web above with a strangely cartoonish boing sound effect, before it all went black.
"NOPE!" Ozpin and Ironwood declared together and crossed their arms into an X sign.
Everyone looked at them in shock and disbelief. (These guys control the academies that train the protectors of the world?) Everyone thought.
"You better hope Salem doesn't find out." Cinder said with a smirk.
"Oh, she already knows. That's why she created spider-like Grimm in the first place. Even when we were together and dating, she would scare me with a toy spider. She even got our daughters in on it." He declared without missing a beat.
"Why were you so scared of them?" Ruby asked.
"Oh, a bad experience with a now extinct species of spider." Ozpin explained. [1]
"I liked that theme song, though." Jaune noted.
"Yeah, it's probably from a good show." Ruby agreed.
"Beware ye who travel to the hollow sunken, a dormant volcano lie-eth within and monsters without. The dark, the warmth, the damp, all allies to the mistress of death, the shadow spider, yet you will not see her. She will see you. Everywhere lies a trap. The walls, the floors, the ceiling, all lined with sticky tendrils, just desperate to reach out their binding grasps and hold you fast as you wait her merciless judgement. Her mandibles of impressive length..." Rage began as Aylia was seen wandering around a volcanic-looking landscape, much of it strewn with spider webs all around. She was even seen walking on top of the webbing at some points.
"Impressive length!?" Neo asked, bursting out in laughter immediately afterwards.
"It sounds like he's reading from a fanfiction now, with that tone." Winter said, facepalming
Yang grinned and teased Blake, nudging her side a bit. "What do you think, Blake? Sound like something from one of your books?" She asked, Blake pushing her back and turning away, blushing madly.
"He certainly could've worded it better." Pyrrha said, blushing a bit.
"I do not understand." Penny said.
"It's better that way, Penny." Velvet assured her.
Rage suddenly realized exactly what he said, however. "Of impressive length!? You can't softly speak of impressive length without sounding like I'm reading a fanfiction!" He said, clearly embarrassed based on his high pitch, before getting back on topic. "Okay, look. Today we talk about something truly, uniquely terrifying. Meet, Nerskilla- scylla- silla-" He said unsurely as the scene of the Huntress from before being stuck to the web was shown as Rage struggled to pronounce its name, before it cut to a woman singing "ey" over and over.
"It is a weird name." Nora admitted.
"Still, you'd assume he'd have looked up or found the proper pronunciation before making a video on the creature." Weiss said.
"Perhaps people say it differently and it's uncertain?" Ren suggested.
"So, as far as I can tell, no one on Earth actually knows how to pronounce this word. I've looked up the official, 'this is how you pronounce things' resources, many of them and none of them agree, really. I've asked general hunters, what do they say and I got about twelve different answers there. So, look, I'm just gonna say that the correct pronunciation of Nerscylla is-" Rage explained, before it cut to a cartoon of a large man in what looked to be a high school classroom was shown.
"Oh, my god! Who. The hell. CARES?!" The man demanded as the image of Nerscylla slowly and awkwardly crawled off the screen.
"Good call, Ren." Jaune told his teammate.
"That's a bit mean, though. And the language isn't necessary, either." Blake said.
""Some people can't watch their damn mouths." Neo said jokingly.
"Neo!" Cinder snapped, reaching for the multi-colored girl and making a bar of soap appear in her hand as Neo bolted. A small chase ensued before Cinder finally gave up. Neo tried to make herself a parfait, but Yang snatched it and at it herself.
"And with that sorted, let's begin. Nerscylla is a Temnoceran. Tem-no-care-an. Tem-no-care-on." Rage struggled to pronounce the creatures classification as well as the word was shown on screen as the Huntress struggled to escape the web.
A clip from an animated movie was shown, where a vulture with long, blonde hair was shown. "Ey, now don't start that again!" The vulture snapped.
"Really?! They can't even pronounce the classification!?" Winter questioned.
"Wow. That's rough to have two different names people can't say very well." Velvet said sadly.
"What was with the Vulture with Yang's hair, though?" Nora asked.
"The Jungle Book. One of my favorite kid's movies." Katana explained.
"A class of monsters that is essentially, the spiders. Categorized by web-spitting, silk-producing, poison mandibles- it's fucking spiders. It's the big-ass spiders section. So, Nerscylla is definitely the best," Rage began, then whispered, "And technically the only one, it's so sad," He silently added, before continuing at normal volume. "And she is just-" He went on, letting out a noise of disgust and horror, before explaining his fear of spiders and his growth to overcome it. [2]
"Wow. That is a REALLY bad fear of spiders." Jaune said.
"And perfectly reasonable." Ozpin added.
"Agreed. No man, woman or child should be faulted for being wary of spiders. Or wasting half a clip of ammo shooting at one." Ironwood said.
"Both of you are completely ridiculous in your fear of spiders. With aura, a spider's bite can't even penetrate your skin." Glynda snapped.
"Seriously. I can see being afraid of big Grimm spiders, but not the tiny little things." Qrow said, shaking his head.
"I'd hate to say it, sir, but they do have a point." Winter admitted.
"Nerscylla is the only Temnoceran?" Ren asked.
"For a while she was. We've recently discovered a new species, or at least a new spider monster, but I'm talking SUPER recently. Like, within the last couple months. And since then we haven't had enough time to capture and examine it. It doesn't even have a name or classification yet. Temnoceran is a good bet, but we can't be positive quite yet." Katana explained.
"That's kind of a shame." Blake said.
"That simply makes Nerscylla more unique." Pyrrha said with a smile.
Coco nodded at the mention of silk. "Oh, yeah. One of the best materials ever." She said, running a hand along her silk scarf.
"Well, well. I never put much thought into spiders, but they certainly are crafty little things." Cinder noted as they watched the Net Casting Spider snatch a bug in its, well, net.
"Yeah. That's way more active than a spider just sitting there waiting for something to touch the web and get stuck." Neo agreed.
"That's so awesome!" Ruby cried out as they saw the trees covered in massive spider webs.
"It looks like giant cotton candy!" Nora declared.
"Gotta give it to them. Spiders sure are hard workers." Yang noted.
"I will never see any of those horrid insects as any thing more than horrid insects." Weiss declared firmly.
Cue Lucas the Spider. "OH, MY GODS, IT'S SO CUTE!" All the girls minus Katana shouted together, the ice demon having frozen her ears solid to prevent their screams from deafening her. She thought Lucas was cute, too, but she'd seen videos of him several times before. The novelty had worn thin.
"But Nerscylla isn't that. When I first saw her, I had a little bit of an 'Oh, noooo...', but that quickly gave way you 'Oh! What a monster!' Quite literally in a class of her own, she- well... is a FUCKING PSYCHOPATH! So, primarily then, she hunts these guys." Rage explained as a clip was shown of a VERY strange and VERY ugly Wyvern-like creature that moved like a giant awkward chicken, accompanied by music where the singer wasn't saying anything anywhere CLOSE to comprehensible.
Everyone was dumbfounded. Both by the music and by the strange creature before them. "What... Was that?" Penny asked, barely able to process the pure ridiculousness she just saw.
"That is Gypceros, the Strange Poison Bird. It's a super goofy moron of a monster that runs around like a chicken with its head cut off, tries to run up walls and onto ceilings, only to fall flat on its face. It's tail extends and whips around and looks like a door stopper. It can spit globs of poison like Gigginox and create giant, blinding flashes with that thing on its nose. It's... interesting the first time you see it, but that gives way to annoyance REAL quick." Katana explained.
"I can certainly see why." Glynda said, almost more repulsed by the creature than Khezu.
"Yeah, I think I might use that thing for a punching bag instead of Khezu." Yang admitted.
"Probably more resistance to it." Katana said in thought.
"And it's not hard to see why. She probably saw the flail-y little morons chickens wandering about the place and had a kind of 'I think the world would be a much better place without them in.'" Rage explained as he voiced the spider monster's thoughts with an eerie, wraith-like voice. "I cannot disagree. Go fucking Anakin on their asses!" Rage cheered in approval of the spider's destruction of the bird monster.
A clip was then shown of a young man in his late teens. "I hate them!" He declared, appearing on the verge of tears.
"Star Wars. That's Anakin Skywalker. He was referring to the Tusken Raiders, who killed his mother and he slaughtered them all, even the women and younglings. He's REALLY good at killing younglings." Katana told them.
"I could understand wanting revenge for the ones that killed his mother, but even the women and children..." Blake said, horrified.
"Grief can cause people to do unimaginable things, sadly, Miss Belladonna." Ozpin told her.
"I remember back when I was with the bandits, we'd raid villages and kids who survived would come after us and try to get revenge... and more often than not, the Chief made Raven or I take care of them." Qrow said, cringing at the memories.
"The thing is, though, past just killing and eating and food, yum yum, she has an extra little quirk to her prey in Gypceros. She... skins them. She fully flays them. She, let's just say, is a proud member of House Bolton." Rage explained as the messy form of a red Gypceros could be seen in a web cocoon, before a clip of man was shown holding some strange piece of meat or bone.
The puke buckets return and all the students empty their stomach once again. "Oh, god, why would it do that?!" Weiss asked, horrified.
"It's so gross! I don't wanna see it!" Ruby said, hugging tightly to Yang and Neo to Cinder, the older sister and sister-like figure holding the younger girl close to them.
"Not even the worst thing Roman's done is that bad!" Neo cried.
"Salem must NEVER find out about this, or she'll make a Grimm out of it." Cinder said.
"And, what she does with this grizzly trophy is, she wears it, it's like a little cape, she drapes it on herself. And this is actually quite the ingenious ploy. It gives her protection against, well, the elements, but also the weaponry. The Gypceros' skin is incredibly thick and rubbery, making it both shock absorbent and taking some serious getting through from a bladed implement. On top of that, then, the Gypceros hide is incredibly thunder resistant. Thunder, rubber, you know, that classic counter. And it's so effective, Nerscylla regularly walk away from encounters with something as thunderous as a Kirin!" Rage declared as Aylia was then shown fighting the Nerscylla, landing a good number of hits, but for the most part, the two were avoiding each other's attacks in a dance of death.
Everyone was quite surprised that there was a method to the madness of skinning a monster. "So, it wears the skin for defensive purposes?" Ironwood asked.
"For an animal, that's ingenious." Winter admitted.
"And it kind of works for it. The spider knows how to accessorize." Coco said.
"You guys already know we take parts from the monsters we defeat for better equipment. Some smarter monsters have learned to do that, too." Katana explained.
"but a simple cloak of skin letting it withstand a Kirin's thunder... unreal." Ren said in awe.
"Still, could mine not have a skin cloak. That doesn't seem the most... hygienic." Pyrrha requested.
"Don't worry, Pyrrha. There's still more to see." Katana assured her.
"Also, yes, you can break her spikes and then her skin... layer... coat off and then she just looks like a really exposed, bald spider and its kind of amusing." Rage added as an image of Nerscylla with the skin removed, showing her actual carapace was shown, actually looking naked and bald.
A few students chuckled at the bald spider, but quickly moved on.
"Then, past that, the consumption of Gypceros actually lets the Nerscylla absorb their poison potent abilities into herself, filling the purple crystalline structures on her back with the deadly venom, able to then deliver it via her mandibles. But before we get to those impressively lengthy things, the crystals can drip, burning and eating away at the floor as she hangs above, waiting for an unlucky sod to walk underneath. Now, her body is segregated into just two sections, only for legs as well, each ending in a barbed, hook-like sickle for gripping to ceilings and walls and, really doing the spider-y things." Rage explained as Aylia and the Nerscylla fought, Aylia indeed dodging the mandibles and stinger attacks among other things while landing the occasional hit, before a massive snake creature erupted from the ground beside them.
"That's quite common. Many creatures that consume poisonous items develop poison or venom themselves." Glynda noted.
"Ooh, mama likes those crystals! They'd probably catch a great price in jewelry stores!" Neo said excitedly.
"Neo, they're poisonous." Yang told her.
"So, what? Maybe low hundreds instead of thousands?" Neo asked, Yang rolling her eyes.
"She, then can deliver a sleep injection with her stinger. Interestingly enough, though, it's only the young Nerscylla that possess this sleeping ability as a measure to defend themselves from that which they cannot outright kill, they can render them unconscious and flee. So let's talk about that poisonous spike face! She has the ability to extend out in gruesome fashion, a pair of mandibles that-" Rage explained as Nerscylla was focused on, these mandibles appearing to violently explode out from her face, causing her to stagger in the opposite direction of the side the mandible burst from, before rushing forward and snapping them closed, Aylia just managing to dodge out of the way.
"OUCH!" Nora cried out, cringing a bit at the sight of the mandibles exploding from the creature's face.
"That's GOT to hurt." Jaune said, cringing just as much.
"Maybe it doesn't feel pain? Or it's so used to it, it doesn't feel it?" Penny asked, hoping she was right.
"It likely wouldn't do such an attack if it were not worth the effort." Ozpin told them.
"From her face! Saliva and fluid flying! They are coated in the venom from her crystals and then they snap like the most gnarly pair of scissors you have ever seen, bisecting opponents, if possible, but leaving them grievously wounded and slowly dying of noxious poison, which is actually a specific condition for hunters above normal poison that absolutely tanks your health. But either way, prey has mere moments to live after taking such a hit." Their host explained as several more instances of poisonous attacks were shown as Aylia fought the massive arachnid, all while they both avoided the massive snake.
"Poison working that fast... That's insane. I don't think we have anything on Remnant that potent." Velvet said fearfully.
"Yeah. I doubt even Qrow's liver could tolerate that." Coco declared, smirking at Ruby's uncle.
"Hey. According to Katana, I survived two whole days after being poisoned by Tyrian. That stuff's probably nothing to me." Qrow boasted.
"You really wanna take that chance?" Katana asked, raising an eyebrow. He was silent after that.
"After that, then, she leaves little globs of webs also from her... tail hole? I didn't want to say stinger again, so I went with tail hole. I don't mind talking about Nerscylla's tail hole, it's an impressive tail hole." Rage explained as they spider monster shot globs of webbing at Aylia, keeping her trapped in place.
It suddenly cut away to a man doing a PSA. "Get some help." He declared.
"Yes. Please. Get help." Winter agreed, not noticing Katana silently giggling. [3]
"Yeah. I'm perfectly fine never hearing about its... tail... hole... again." Weiss agreed.
"Right. We'll leave the tail holes to Blake's books." Yang said with a smirk.
"Yang!" Blake snapped.
"And these form, well, if you walk in them, you get wrapped up and then she will slowly pull you in range and you are at her mercy, unable to move but an inch, wriggling as you feel her mandibles start to chow down while you are still yet drawing breath. Her many eyes glowing in the gloom, a blue eerie, ghostly visage, one you don't want to see staring at you from a dark place. She is quite the efficient hunter: skilled, quick and deadly, she can full on Spider-Man by attaching a quick web shot to a high place nearby and come swinging at you." He declared as Nerscylla was indeed showing off many varied uses for her webs in order to limit Aylia's movements.
"That could be VERY useful for dealing with large groups of Grimm, or ones fleeing battles in order to rally their numbers, or simply survive and grow from their encounters." Pyrrha noted.
"Wow. These monsters open up new ways of thinking we never thought about." Ruby said in awe.
"Well said, little Rose. It's amazing what you can learn when you stop and appreciate things." Cinder agreed. She never really stopped to appreciate the things around her, so watching these videos that have made her do just that has been quite eye opening.
"She's got various claws and swipes and body motions to try and barrel through you. She really will use everything she can to make it happen. And she prefers the ambush life, though. In direct conflict, she's not the most fearsome of foes, at least to other monsters. But that said, she's no slouch. She's able to hang with the impressive might of the likes of Tigrex and Nargacuga and-" Rage explained as Nerscylla did show off some charging and claw attacks, before the images of Tigrex and Nargacuga appeared on the screen. The image of a Barioth popped up from the bottom of the screen as well, but Rage was quick to shut that down. "Not you. Never you." He declared as the image slowly lowered off the screen, accompanied by sad music.
"Stop being such a jerk to Barioth! It looks like a very interesting monster I'd like to learn more about!" Blake said, highly annoyed and Rage's cruelty towards Barioth.
"To show such bias shows his ignorance and immaturity." Ironwood agreed. Believe it or not, he was actually a cat person.
"But even like a Tetsucabra, or a Khezu, or a Seltas can find itself caught, immobilized and set an appointment with the sweet oblivion of nothingness by getting a little too feisty around her webbed nests. They do construct their nests deliberately where traffic is high, hoping to snare as many prey as possible. It's not uncommon to find a grim graveyard that would make even a Predator jealous." Rage explained as Alia looked up to see a skinned Gypceros in a cocoon in a volcano area, a strange alien creature appearing to look down from the cliffs above, before disappearing. "Hanging without skin and long since without hope. It's a sight that no one is ever quite the same after witnessing." He declared as the Gypceros corpse was zoomed in on with eerie music playing beside.
"You guys have Carnivore, too!? That's my favorite action/horror series!" Coco said.
"They are pretty good." Velvet admitted.
"Can we just please stop seeing hanging, skinless bodies?!" Neo pleaded.
"Though, that is about it for your base Nerscylla, she's not the most complex or utterly insane monster you'd ever go up against, but her effect on the world is just magnificent, having this niche of utter terrifying predator perfection and having entire zones containing her web makes you realize how unlucky you are to be hunted by one." Rage finished on the normal Nerscylla as in the fight, the spider creature dug underground to escape Aylia.
"It really is quite incredible how much a single monster changes the environment around it. And one that's not even an Elder Dragon." Ren admitted.
"Indeed. For a monster that is considered nothing too out of the ordinary, Nerscylla seems quite extraordinary." Penny agreed.
"As long as it is far away from me, I suppose I can agree with that." Ozpin admitted.
"Now, there is a Nerscylla subspecies, the Shrouded Nerscylla. Known as the Trap Spider this time, she lives in more sandy, warmer climes, such as the dunes, where she lays underground in a lightly covered, hole, waiting for passerby's, similar to the actual trapdoor spider, wearing a cloak of its own webbing this time, as opposed to a coat of flesh [4]. And her prey of favor is not the Gypceros, but the Khezu." Rage explained as a Nerscylla wearing pale skin to cover it with yellow crystals on its back. After the mention of the cave-dwelling creature, it was then shown letting out the painfully familiar roar, before the screen went black with a squishing noise. "See, isn't it nice when a Khezu shuts the fuck up?" Rage asked.
"This may be the greatest spider of all time." Ironwood declared.
"Nerscylla is the greatest." Weiss agreed.
"I want it now." Pyrrha said.
"Imagine what it could do to Apathy Grimm, they're almost as bad as Khezu." Glynda noted.
"And this again, makes me think that Nerscylla are just trying to do a PR job here. It's not their fault they look like giant, lumbering nightmare fuel. And I think they've realized this and gone 'We want better relations with the humans. Maybe if we kill two of the most irritating monsters on lock, they will see us better'." Rage theorized, speaking in a wraith-like voice to act as Nerscylla once again. "And I can't deny it's working! If I was told there's something en masse removing Gypceros and Khezu from the wild, I'd want to shake their fucking spindly leg at that point! I wouldn't actually, because I don't wanna die, but I would at least yell thank you from far, far away." He declared.
"Nice one!" He called out, sounding from a distance.
"Agreed." Winter said.
I never thought I'd say a spider is my hero, but... that spider is my hero." Blake said.
"Indeed. Not only does it control the population of its prey, but it also decreases the number of horrible monsters." Penny agreed.
"This habit, then, instead of poison and instead of purple, we have paralysis yellow as the spikes and this ghostly-like shroud of webs, giving her quite the striking form. Past that, she's very similar to her counterparts. A little bit faster, a little bit stronger, you know how the subspecies do. But while they certainly look terrifying, I sleep better at night knowing those giant spiders are out there, dealing with the real big issues." Rage finished as a Gypceros was shown again being its usual spastic self, until the image of a Nerscylla flew at it from high speeds from the side of the screen, everything going black with another squishing sound. [5]
"Alright. And with that, all of team JNPR's monsters have been shown. What did you think?" Katana asked.
"It was incredible. They were far more complex than I'd imagined, they way they use Gypceros skin, or their webbing for protection is amazing. On top of all the other things they can do, I can only see absolutely giant Grimm defeating one of them." Pyrrha said.
"It was pretty cool. And it's definitely a huge relief that they get rid of Khezu's." Blake admitted.
"Agreed." Everyone said at once.
"So, we're wrapping up team RWBY next, right? That means it's either mine or Blake's next?" Yang asked excitedly.
"That's right. And since we've already heard a little about it." Katana started, before turning away. "And it's a short video, so I can be a little lazy." She added, turning back. "We'll hear about yours next, Yang. But be warned. It may not be as disturbing as Khezu or Nerscylla, but I think all of you will still find the Rajang to be the stuff of nightmares." Katana warned them, starting the next episode.
A/N: Hello, everyone! I hope you enjoyed this chapter as always!
And as always, I'm issuing my challenge for someone to write class 1-A reacting to these creatures, transcripts from the chapters I've already done being provided, so you really only need to do the reactions.
Also, issuing my friend, Eclipse Metastar's challenge for someone to write the S-class heroes of One Punch Man, minus Blast and plus Saitama (and anyone else, if you so desire), reacting to any of the following: Death Battle, My Hero Academia, The MCU, Deadpool, Ultimate Spider-Man, Avengers Assemble, Young Justice or Teen Titans. There's a lot of choices and they're all yours. Just PM Eclipse Metastar if you wish to take said challenge and include you took the challenge when you write the story. And if you do Death Battle, give each fighter a hero or monster ranking.
[1] Thanks to AmaltheaLuchiaAizen for basically that entire scene.
[2] Sorry if I'm being lazy here by not writing the part I skipped, but it feels a bit disingenuous to include Rage's fear of spiders in the story. But at least I still covered everything he mentioned in that time frame.
[3] Surely, you all get the reference.
[4] I was originally told by AmaltheaLuchiaAizen that, according to Monster Hunter Stories, Shrouded Nerscylla the ambush-style trapdoor spider as opposed to normal Nerscylla being a wolf spider or tarantula, wearing a cloak of webbing instead of Khezu skin. I looked it up and this was false, but upon further discussion, we agreed it made sense, generally fitting better and, come on, I think we can all agree Pyrrha would MUCH rather prefer riding on a spider covered in webs than one covered in a cloak of dead, possibly rotting, flesh.
[5] What did you guys think of my alternate ending? I had to cut it off before he began talking about World, but ending it just explaining the subspecies is a little faster and stronger, didn't seem like much of a closer, since it wasn't really meant to close there.