A/N: Thanks as always for my good friend qazse for help with reactions!
"So, Neo's monster, huh? I guess it's gonna be a little thief, then?" Emerald asked.
"Hey, you're not so innocent yourself! Mercury told me about you pickpocketing that poor old shopkeep!" Neo countered.
"Well, it is definitely one of the smallest monsters we've covered so far. MAYBE smaller than Kirin, but it's close. Still, it's definitely got some tricks up it's sleeve to make up for its small size." Katana explained.
"That definitely sounds like Neo." Yang said, ruffling the former mute's hair.
"Well, let's see it, then." Cinder said.
"Yeah! I wanna see some more monsters!" Ruby cheered.
"Alright. But anyone who is afraid of bugs... You may want to prepare yourself." Katana warned, causing Ruby, the Schnee sisters, Jaune and Emerald to gulp and cuddle up to their cuddling partner.
The screen was black before clearing up to show a red-bodied praying mantis with a black head and legs. "The mantids as fascinating as they are deadly. Over two thousand species making up some of nature's most finely honed killers. With a strike speed so quick, you can quite literally blink and miss it. The only insect able to turn its head, they punch well above their weight class, taking small birds and mammals as prey." Rage spoke in an ominous, echoing voice as several more of these insects were seen, several clips even showing these small, brilliantly colored creatures fighting each other.
"I always did have a respect for mantids. One of them even tried to get me once in my corvid form. It didn't work out for him." Qrow said.
"The red and black on their bodies are stunning." Ren admitted.
"They're just colors that work good together. Not much else to say. That's how Ruby and I pull it off so easy." Cinder gloated.
"They're bugs! They're disgusting!" Weiss cried out.
"It is very lucky, then, that they are so small in stature and non-threa..." Rage started to continue, before the scenes of the small red and black mantids dissolved away to some form of desert ruins, where a massive golden mantis with large, menacing, glowing pink eyes stood, its sickle-like claws outstretched and ready for combat, letting out a screech as its name was shown beside it in Kanji. "Threatening... Oh... OH!" He cried out, before breaking down into screams, apparently running away from his microphone, based on the sound of running footsteps, then finally the sound of a door shutting.
"Golden Mantis! That's so cool!" Nora cried out excitedly.
"MINE." Neo said immediately, looking in awe at the creature.
"Yeah. Looks like Rage doesn't think so, though." Yang said with a smirk, trying not to laugh at the host's cowardice.
"I don't know, Yang. There's apparently a kind of mantis Grimm in Mistral called the Wa-Lang around that size that's considered one of the deadliest small Grimm on Remnant." Blake warned her partner. [1]
"So, let's see how similar this one is." Emerald said.
A test screen was then shown, before a hunter was shown charging towards the giant mantis. "Say hello, then, to Ahtal-Ka!" Rage properly introduced the beast as it was shown in its battle-ready stance again, letting out another shriek. "The Golden Mantis!" He declared as its music was then heard as the hunter charged in at her, readying to swing his greatsword, but another shriek from the beast stopped him, forcing him to cover his ears, before recovering and reengaging the beast, rolling forward and delivering a powerful horizontal slash.
"I almost mistook it for a golden statue." Weiss said in awe.
Ruby looked at the creature nervously. "It's glowing purple eyes are creepy, but also pretty cool." She stated.
"Yeah, they are. I'm digging the bits of blue, I'm seeing in there, too." Coco admitted.
"One of the most enigmatic, cunning and fearsome creatures to ever call this world of monsters its home. Not an Elder Dragon, despite its strength and rarity, but a Neopteron, sharing the same classification and Seltas Queen and Seltas Bitch. But oh, so much more..." Rage explained as a massive, bulky, four-legged scorpion-like beetle monster with shield-like mandibles was shown, then a much smaller beetle-like monster that could fly and also had sickle-like mandibles, but it had a sad face with teary eyes edited onto it.
"Well, the Seltas Queen looks quite interesting." Ozpin said.
"Indeed. Although, I feel that Rage is being unfairly cruel to the flying Seltas." Penny stated, refusing to repeat the name Rage had given it.
"That one is only called Seltas." Katana explained.
"I think it's pretty cool." Velvet defended the beetle monster.
"Ahtal-Ka, then, is sexually dimorphic, the females larger, but a dull brown. The males, while smaller, adorned in golden decorations, so that they're simply SHINY!" Rage explained, music playing as he said in a singing voice. "Please, giant mantis don't eat me!" He pleaded in song. "However, the Ahtal-Ka!" Rage started, before breaking down a bit in laughter, explaining why the name made him laugh and how it used to have a different name. [2]
"This man is ENTIRELY too easy to entertain." Winter said, rolling her eyes.
"Indeed. Still, it is a unique name that's easy to say." Glynda admitted.
"Changing the name based on the region sounds strange, but Earth has different languages, so it makes sense." Ironwood stated.
"So, if the females are a dull brown, that one must be a male." Pyrrha stated.
"You may think, then, that this one, being all glittery gold and gorgeous is a male, but in fact, it is a female. A queen in her own right and master of her domain. You see, Ahtal-Ka females are very much programmed to seek out and eat the males. Very similar to actual mantids, who as I'm sure a lot of you are aware, have a kind of, um... have a kind of arrangement whereby... whereby the males get eaten after mating. Granted, it only happens about 30% of the time, it's not as exaggerated as you might think, but it's still..." Rage explained, then started tripping over his words as he tried to put the next part into words as a group of three hunters fought the Ahtal-Ka. "In order to get some, you gotta be willing to lose your head, son! Is the mantis way!" Rage explained in rap as a clip showed panning up a mantid's body, only to reveal it didn't have a head, panning to the side where another mantis was licking up any scraps it had on itself from the meal.
"Mantis eat each other's heads! Gross!" Nora cried out.
"Man, am I glad that isn't how we operate." Jaune said in relief.
"You and me both, buddy." Qrow agreed.
"Blake... Do any bug Faunus do that?" Yang asked. The Faunus princess didn't answer, merely glaring at her partner. "Right. Stupid question. Sorry." Yang said, turning away and whistling innocently.
The scene then changed back to the hunters taking on the mantis. "But! With Ahtal Ka, the female gets a lot more than a meal from eating the males. She gains literal power and starts to take on the golden decorated hue. And the more males she eats, the more intense this effect. And as you can see from looking at her... yeah, she's plowed through quite the masculine buffet and as such had become obscenely powerful and an incredibly high-level threat to the guild." Rage explained as the Ahtal-Ka seemed to be stringing up some kind of strange web as she fought.
Pyrrha's eyes widened in horror. "Oh... Never mind." She said.
Ruby was shocked and heartbroken at this. "How many Daddy Ahtal-Ka did she have to eat in order to get that strong and shiny?" She asked, horrified.
Cinder pulled her in close. "It's alright, Ruby. I'm sure she got what was coming to her." Cinder explained, but couldn't help but shudder herself. This was one more thing hitting dangerously close to home for her and how she tried to do basically the same thing: hunt down the maidens and steal their power. Which, more than likely, Salem would've just stolen anyway. She was REAL happy to be off that path now.
"As long as they got the chance to pass down their genes, I'm sure they died happy. That's all they care about in the end." Emerald told Ruby.
"However! She is rare. This entire species is rare. To the point that hunters that die to them are, yes, mourned, but a lot of people feel genuine jealousy that they at least got to see the legendary walking treasure. Supposedly her beauty in person, is worth the grizzly death that it beckons." Rage explained as the three hunters facing the beast ran in and struck at it with their greatswords while she struck at them fiercely with her tail, claws and even shot out some strange globs of liquid to combat the hunters, quickly scurrying back to a safe distance after a moment of taking several strong hits.
"Really? Some hunter's think it's an honor to be killed and devoured by this thing?" Winter questioned, believing those hunters to be fools.
"To be fair with how rare they are it would be like seeing a once in a life time art piece just before dying." Ozpin explained.
"I have to agree. Some species of mantids are very beautiful, and this one's certainly quite the sight." Glynda agreed.
"And let's just put her in perspective on the power scale here. Ahtal Ka has a little bit of a habit where by she likes to go out and collect stuff. She's a big fan of stuff, women right?" Rage said jokingly as the Ahtal Ka uses her webs to pull large pieces of metal objects towards herself, likely to be used as weapons.
All the woman/girls gasped. But before they could unleash their verbal fury on the narrator... "Urgh! I know, women can be SO needy." Nora declared.
"...Not gonna bother." Weiss decided.
"Sexist bastard." Winter growled.
"Still, why would a mantis need any of the various things she has lying around?" Ren wondered.
"And she- well, indulges in that habit by going to a human fortifications and she's like 'I don't know what to get', so she buys everything. And by buy everything, I me, decimates the entire army stationed there in minutes by herself, ransacks the entire fortress, killing every little thing and dragging everything valuable, or what she perceives to be, back to her secluded, secret empire where she hordes it and twists and turns it into... well, we'll get to that in just a moment." Rage explained as the Ahtal-Ka picked up a massive, barbed spear-like weapon and strapped it to her back with threads, using more threads to pick up and throw another one of these spears, only much older and rustier.
"Oh, come on! Just tell us!" Jaune pleaded.
"Yeah! No fair, leaving us in suspense!" Ruby cried out.
"Now, now, you two. I'm sure we'll learn soon enough." Pyrrha assured him.
"Did you all miss the part where she slaughters everyone in the fortress she invades!?" Cinder asked.
"That shouldn't be possible! Regardless of her speed and size, an entire armed force full of soldiers should be able to defeat her." Penny stated.
"Well, it's not just her they're dealing with. She's got quite the surprise ability up her sleeve." Katana explained.
"But first, let's talk weaponry, then. Because, admittedly, despite how pretty this monster is, you'd be forgiven for thinking 'It doesn't look like- army decimating?' And, look, let me tell you why you don't want to stumble across her jeweled desert kingdom. She is quick. Very quick. And her claws are sharp. Very sharp. If you find yourself face-to-face, you'll quickly find yourself thinking 'Wait, why can I see myself? Oh, I've been decapitated'. And then, on top of that, she is able to lift, very much ant-like, many times her own body weight. She does this with her abdomen, which can contract and shrink in order to grip, with the little points, a... for example: giant-ass girder, which she then secures to her back with her signature, most potent and dazzling biological weaponry. Much like a spider spinning web, she can secrete and freely manipulate with a skill and mastery that would make Athena blush, a beautiful golden thread, shimmering in the setting sun." Rage explained as there were numerous examples of Ahtal Ka utilizing a beautiful golden thread as she fought.
"It's beautiful." Weiss said in awe.
"Oh, Neo." Coco said, snatching the former mute from her position on the couch and sitting her down in Coco's lap. "What do you say, when we get these monsters, you and me go into business on a clothing line. Get Ahtal Ka to make us some thread, then we make up some killer designs and we make bank! Heck, we could probably even make ratty-looking T-shirts and people would style buy them because they're made of gold threads!" The second-year offered.
"Would that be a lot of stress on Ahtal Ka, making too much thread all at once?" Neo asked, concerned.
"Probably not, considering how much thread you'll see it making later on." Katana informed her.
"Then it's a deal." Neo declared, shaking Coco's hand.
"Roman's gonna be doing backflips when he hears about this." Emerald said, to which Cinder nodded in agreement.
"But who's Athena?" Yang asked.
"She's the Greek Goddess of War, Wisdom and crafts. Whenever she wasn't helping mortals wage war, she was looking for any peacetime pursuits. And she was particularly well-known for spinning and weaving." Katana explained.
"Fascinating. I never knew a single god could be so varied. I always believed they stuck to one thing and one thing only. These Greek gods sound quite interesting." Glynda said.
"Perhaps, but our own gods are a good cautionary tale for limiting our fascination with the divine." Ozpin said, nodding when Katana gave him a thumb's up.
"Like a practiced dance, using her claws, which are capable of the most fine, dexterous movements out of literally any monster, she is able to quite literally weave through the battlefield, spinning the air into a golden tapestry of death. And she is not afraid to get brutal with this. For that girder she has picked up, webbed to her back, secure will unhinge and she will swing it around, using the silk as a giant battering ram that will sweep through the battlefield, crushing rock and bone alike. And that's just the start, because I have danced around it for long enough! Let's talk Ahtal-Ka's signature, army destroying ability..." Rage said ominously as an image of Ahtal-Ka with a girder on her back was shown.
"To be able to use such massive objects with such skill and force, directing them with a simple string... I can't begin to imagine the kind of control that takes." Ren said in awe.
"I mean, I use a Kusarigama, but even mine is sometime hard to direct and it only weighs a couple pounds." Blake noted.
"Army destroying..." Winter said nervously, imagining what might happen if this creature used this ability against Atlas' army.
"Katana, those creatures can't survive in cold environments, right?" Ironwood asked.
"They've only been reported in harsh deserts, so I'd assume no." Katana said, the Atlesians sighing in relief.
"You see, she's very clever. She has a lot going on in the noggin. She is capable of mechanical constructions. COMPLEX mechanical constructions. Meet the Ahtal-Nesto!" Rage declared with an echo, accompanied by an epic chorus as Ahtal Ka shot out several lines of silk and began pulling up what looked to be random, albeit very large, pieces of scrap, until she pulled up enough to reveal a clearly monster-like mechanical form, quickly swinging towards it and into its chest area, pulling on the threads even more until she was encased in a cocoon of gold and she had pulled up a massive form of metal scraps, looking similar to a brontosaurus, or other long-necked quadrupedal dinosaur. "She constructs herself, from the stolen shit, a working, pilotable mech in her own image, wrought in steel that she decimates all before her with! Using it as secure transport from location to location, it is the most effective defensive strategy, in the history of monster combat!" Rage explained as the mech began to move and attack the hunters.
"So goddamn cool!" Vegeta cried from off-screen.
"WHOA MAMA! Are you all seeing this?!" Ruby asked in shock and awe.
"I'm seeing it, Ruby... And I can't believe it..." Blake said, completely in stunned silence.
"It's not... possible..." Velvet said.
"I want it NOW." Neo said in awe, practically drooling.
"That. Is. The coolest. Thing. EVER!" Nora shouted.
"How could one possibly fight that?" Pyrrha asked in horror.
"WHAT! First a rocket powered dragon, now a mantis that builds and controls a mech suit! It's like these monsters are straggling my suspension of disbelief!" Weiss cried out.
"I'd like to agree, Miss Schnee, but we're seeing it in action. I can't find any room for argument." Glynda told her.
"So, yeah. Pretty cool, right? That's pretty neat. It's just the best thing. And it kind of almost works. Her thread is strong. Imagine if you tie some string to a door, pull on it and then the door closes. Well, imagine from her pilot's cocoon, she has a series of threads she can pull on which, through a complex web, emanating out through this mechanical monster, like a golden nervous system will make it dance to her tune and her music is a masterpiece." Rage added as the hunter climbed on the mech and began attacking several large golden flower buds with webs at the bottom, bringing it down and allowing the hunter to attack more vulnerable bits.
"Fascinating. To truly be able to move such a massive creation like an actual living creature with a nervous system. I don't even believe I could master such a level of precision. No matter how many lives I have." Ozpin said.
"I'm not sure if any human or Faunus is capable of that, Professor." Velvet assured her Headmaster.
"Let's hope it's good at weaving those threads into G-strings instead." Coco said.
"Miss Adel!" Glynda reprimanded.
"Don't worry, Glynda. We'll make sure to make granny panties for you, too." Neo said.
If looks could kill, the glare Glynda was giving the former mute would've killed her a thousand times over. "Miss Politan. When we return to Remnant, you will serve detention for the rest of the school year." Glynda told her, tapping her crop in her hand as if daring Neo to argue. Neo gulped and nodded at this.
"Neo, what were you thinking!?" Emerald asked, shocked and still somewhat horrified.
"While fighting this, then... well, you better hope for the best. It is nigh impenetrable to traditional attacks. Only large scale explosions ever causing it significant damage. It is disabled by climbing it physically and severing the thread connections which is used to control it. Eventually, with the right strike in just the right place, it will be brought to ground, where you can enter it at the pilot level and start battering through the cocoon in which she hides, slowly but surely damaging it to the point she loses control, it falls apart and she is forced to fight you once more. The quote-unquote 'phases' of this fight, the different strategies she goes for while trying to dispose of hunters in are just incredible." Rage explained as the hunter continued to climb on the mech and damage the cocoons on it, or even dodging massive stomps that also shot up giant spikes of Earth while on the ground trying to find a way up the mech.
"You know the best part, that thing's way bigger and more durable then those tin cans Atlas makes." Qrow chuckled.
"I'm gonna stop you right there Qrow, as our Colossus model is at least three times as big and has a cannon for killing Leviathans." Ironwood declared proudly.
"But you have to admit sir, it's astounding that Ahtal-Ka can make such a construct from scrap and steel beams and control it with it's threads." Winter admitted.
"Perhaps if we gave them enough material, they could find a way to strengthen the walls of Mantle." Penny pondered.
Several more images of Ahtal-Nesto were shown. "But it gets even better! It really does. This is just the showy part, it's not actually that effective at killing an individual target. Too large scale, but you know what is REALLY good at killing an individual target? A big spear-like creation, pointed specifically at the thing that you want to be deadified. How would you feel if I told you she can wield a Dragonator?" Rage asked, before the clip of a somewhat seasoned man was shown as he turned around, panting heavily as more terrifying orchestral music was heard.
"Dragonator? That's a thing?" Blake asked.
"Yes, it's an absolutely MASSIVE spear made out of the strongest metals known to man, usually only saved for use against Elder Dragons." Katana explained.
"Whoa. Then they have to be among the strongest weapons in your world." Cinder said.
"Very close to the top, yes." Katana said.
"Those could be very useful for boats crossing the ocean that must deal with large sea Grimm." Ozpin stated, Ironwood nodding in agreement.
"Who's the guy? He could almost pass for Ozpin's brother." Yang said.
"That's the Commander. The guy in charge of the Research Commission into the New World and, some people often say, obsessed with Dragonators." Katana explained.
"But I was right! It's too big to fight individual small targets!" Jaune said proudly.
"That's our fearless leader!" Nora said.
"Yep! 'Phase 3' is when she starts picking up Dragonators! You know those fortresses she's been raiding? Yep, she's got quite the supply of Dragonators. This is where the fight really begins." Rage declared as the Ahtal-Ka swung the massive spear at the hunters before her, accompanied by awesome music which was likely her theme. "Through blood, sweat and tears will see you into 'Phase 4' and this is phase that is by far the hardest and this is the phase where she is desperate. Forced to the brink, she lets her silk fly. You can see it in the air, dancing its dance, playing along with her expert tune as she picks up a giant water wheel to send swinging 'round the arena, the roof now a layer of silk and thread, dancing to her elegant tune." Rage explained as the Ahtal-Ka indeed set up almost a spider-web of golden threads, keeping the aforementioned wheel on its back, swinging it around and even throwing it, letting it roll around while she hung on with thread as it nearly rolled over hunters and she even spun three more Dragonators in a circle around her from above.
Damn this mantis is better at using threads then a spider." Nora said, crossing her arms, very impressed.
"And she has such control over them, you'd almost think she was using telekinesis." Ren agreed, equally impressed.
"Dazzling in the final eclectic moments of this battle for the ages. She, using the fine control she displayed for the Ahtal-Nesto, will pick up, seemingly floating in the air, triple Dragonators, spinning them around and targeting the would-be adversaries. Now, you can flash her out of it, but that's boring. She will launch them at you, like... well, come on! She's firing a Dragonator at you! That's a way to ruin your day! That's not good! that's not what you really want! And this is where everything comes to bear. You have to dodge, weave and chip away until she slowly gives up on her cling to her treasures and her life and you can pick up some really good armor from it. I like the Ahtal-Ka armor. And her greatsword? It's not bad, I'm a fan." Rage explained as the Ahtal-Nesto was shown breaking apart, revealing Ahtal-Ka with her eyes glowing, indicating she was furious.
"So, thoughts?" Katana asked.
"It might even be even cooler than Valstrax!" Ruby said.
"Yeah! That mech thing is incredible! We could crush whole hordes of Grimm in that thing!" Jaune agreed.
"Or, it could crush cities, so I'm not keen on the idea of giving it to a known criminal." Ironwood said.
"Hey! I'm going straight after this! Besides, Coco and I already made the deal for the clothing shop!" Neo defended.
"I like the water wheel! I wanna ride on a giant wheel like that!" Nora said.
"I wouldn't mind trying to take on that mech myself!" Yang declared.
"It would be an interesting challenge." Winter admitted.
"Well then, Miss Politan, whose monster shall we see next?" Glynda asked.
"Hm... I'm curious about Emerald's monster." Neo said.
"Thanks, Neo." Emerald said with a smile.
"Very well. Prepare for a beast of confusion and mystery, who can disorient you or put you to sleep, before making that sleep permanent. The Malfestio!" Katana declared.
A/N: Thanks as always for reading! I hope you enjoyed it!
[1] The Wa-Lang comes from the RWBY visual novel/dating simulator, team JPDE.
[2] Sorry for cutting out a bit there. I was actually going to include the whole bit, but I couldn't find how to spell Ahtal-Ka's old name for the life of me. The captions in the video DEFINITELY didn't help.