A/N: Thanks to qazse for help with reactions!
Strange ruins of a temple in the mountains were shown, before a shadow was seen passing over them. Then suddenly, a clip from a black and white movie was shown where a bunch of people were crowded together with one pointing to the sky. "Look! Up in the sky!" He declared.
"It's a bird!" Another man cried out.
"It's a plane!" A woman shouted.
"It's-" The first man began.
Suddenly, it cut back to the original scene as a creature with tentacles slowly descended into view. "Tentacles!" Rage declared as the creature was revealed to be what looked like a strange hybrid of a balloon and an octopus as it soared through the sky, accompanied by a chorus singing the word tentacles.
Most of the group was left speechless at the first sight of the creature. "…What am I looking at?" Ironwood asked.
"It looks like a giant, flying moss ball with tentacles." Qrow said.
"But how in the world can it be flying in such a way?!" Glynda questioned in disbelief.
"I suppose we'll simply have to wait to find out. But, I must say, it's certainly got me curious." Ozpin said, almost thinking some kind of magic was at work.
Surprisingly, Winter quite liked Yama Tsukami, finding it a similar kind of creepy, yet charming as Khezu. "Well, it certainly seems... quirky, if nothing else." Winter said, trying to hide any further feelings.
"It's adorable!" Ruby cried.
Summer placed a hand on Ruby's forehead and created a thermometer out of thin air, putting it in Ruby's mouth. "Sweetie, are you feeling alright? You don't have a fever, do you?" She asked, ignoring Ruby's struggling.
"It's official. You have hands down the weirdest standards in what you think is cute and adorable!" Weiss yelled at her leader like she was crazy.
"Don't judge me. I happen to think Yama is kinda adorable, in an odd, but unique way. Plus it helps that he's like a balloon." Ruby defended herself.
"Mmm… okay. That does make it kinda cute." Velvet admitted.
More of the ruins with Remobra's flying around was shown as Rage continued. "An Elder Dragon that floats through the sky. A bite of Earth, a drink of forest, it's a veritable god of the sky, made of the richest soil. Ancient trees grow thick on its back, like on a mountain. It's rumored to live near a forlorn, remote tower." Rage spoke in his mystic-sounding voice as two Remobra's were fighting over some meat, before flying away as the creature of discussion rose up near them and continued to fly through the sky. "This then, ladies and gentlemen, fellow hunters, is Yama Tsukami. An utterly bizarre, alien creature, drifting on high, a floating mountain dragon. It is utterly in a class all of its own... And it has tentacles!" Rage introduced the beast as a hunter fought it with a pair of icy dual blades as it floated in the middle of a round temple structure, before happily pointing out its tentacles.
An elderly man made a loud, echoing click noise with his mouth. "Nice." He declared as Yama Tsukami moved onto the screen.
Many agreed with Rage on how odd it is. "I think this is one type of squid or octopus I'd skip eating." Blake said, off-put by the floating mass.
"It almost looks more like an alien than an animal." Ilia said.
"You know... If they are so rare, maybe they are actually aliens?" Yang suggested.
"At this point, it wouldn't surprise me." Coco agreed.
"But how would you ever be able to tell unless you directly saw one come from space?" Adam questioned.
"It then returned to the fight between the hunter and the beast. "It is rare. So rare, in fact, that it is rarely seen." Rage explained awkwardly, essentially saying the same thing twice. "Ho ho! That's getting you into the lore mood! Are you feeling it." He laughed at his slip up.
A familiar clip from the Carapaceon lore played of the cartoon where a humanoid crab, starfish and sea sponge. "Art thou feeling it now, Mr. Krabs?" The sea sponge asked as they were sat around a game of Dungeons and Dragons, dressed as a wizard, knight and elf, with Yama Tsukami's head superimposed over the starfish's head.
"I feel... Like Rage is a goofball!" Nora laughed.
"Still, his sentence isn't wrong, technically. Simply repetitive." Pyrrha said.
"Ooh! That game reminds me of creatures and corridors! We should totally play that later." Jaune said excitedly.
"Wow. I almost forgot you were a total dork. Thanks for the reminder." Emerald said, ignoring the death glares from team JNPR, especially their resident Spartan.
It then returned to the battle once again as the beast slammed down it's tentacles. "So, Yama Tsukami then, is... Well, I mean- as I said, just... What am I looking at? It has literal trees growing out of its back, grass, flowers, it is... Well- it is a floating mountain- it's not a hyperbole or an exaggeration, it has an entire ecosystem atop it. How and why this is growing out of, seemingly, its very flesh is very much a mystery, but the creature itself hoovers up great swaths of land, animal matter, any given plant that is caught up and, indeed, water as well and essentially it just converts it all into... itself?" Rage explained, although sounded unsure at the end, before the creature opened its mouth and began inhaling to try and swallow the hunter and anything else in the area, air visibly being sucked into its mouth like a vacuum as the hunter desperately ran from this attempt to eat him.
They were all left in absolute disbelief at the fact trees grow on the creature. "What is this thing?!" Neo asked in shock.
Penny was dangerously close to short-circuiting once again. "Th-that's impossible! Plants need soil to root into and draw nutrients from in order to grow! It cannot simply sprout up from a creature's head. Surely, that would become infectious, holes in the skin from roots allowing bacteria in, or it's absorbing nutrients from the beast itself, which would cause it malnutrition!" She cried out.
"I miss the days were things made sense as well, Penny. But with these monsters, I feel like we must simply accept they don't make sense." Ren told her.
"I'm wondering just what kind of plants and trees these are to grow out of this thing." Hazel pondered.
"Oh? You mean like they could be valuable?" Roman wondered greedily.
"Or they could have special, powerful properties?" Cinder asked.
The beast then spun around to attack the hunter, the sound of helicopter blades comically playing alongside the attack. "This is theorized as to how it actually floats, because essentially... what I'm trying to say is- how this was first presented to the Guild- they explained it and the Guild was like: 'So, what you're telling me is there is a floating- no wings! No wings... There is a floating m-monster th-that's got like multiple tentacles- it's absolutely giant, capable of hoovering up the land itself- it's apparently eating soil- in fact, it's attracted to only the most fertile soil... It's incredibly octopus-like, yet has seemingly the worlds freakiest human teeth that just so uncannily- ugh! And it seems to hatch and breed literal insects inside its body while having its own entire micro ecosystem atop its back... And it just goes wherever the breeze takes it... and this is the first time we've seen one?'" Rage reenacted the Guild's reaction as the creature's mouth was shown, complete with very human-like teeth as thunder bugs flew out of its mouth and attacked the hunter.
A middle-aged man with yellow skin was then shown. "Yes!" He declared with a smile.
During the description, the group bore witness to the creature's mouth and human-like teeth, everyone cringing or was freaking out at the view of its maw. "Th-those teeth almost look like human teeth." Summer said fearfully.
"Yeah, that's definitely the last thing you want to see when anything besides a person opens their mouth." Qrow said.
"Sweet dust, it's almost as bad as Nakarkos!" Weiss cried.
"Why does he keep showing close-ups of creepy mouths!" Velvet whined, covering her eyes with her bunny ears.
"Even I can't defend this, as much as I want to." Winter admitted, shuddering and looking away.
"And don't forget those needle teeth in the back." Adam pointed out, unnerved by the mouth spikes.
Well, if it eats incredibly large volumes of soil, teeth like our own would be ideal for crushing it down to make it easier to swallow. But, I will admit, that doesn't make it any less nightmare-inducing." Ozpin theorized.
The fight continued as the creature slammed its long front tentacles down at the hunter. "You can understand then, why the response was: '... What the fuck are you talking about?!' Because this thing is- It has to be just the straight up pure weirdest creature of any monster. I can't really think of anything that can challenge it, to be fair. It's a floating ball that's essentially entirely just a mouth and stomach with two, relatively for its size, small eyes that vacuum cleans the Earth below it and gently wafts along and tentacles things..." Rage explained awkwardly as the hunter managed to down the beast with tranq bombs, jumping down after it and continuing the attack.
Ironwood couldn't help but nod at this. "I hate to admit it, but if one of my soldiers told me about such a creature, I'd order him to an immediate, mandatory psyche eval." The general admitted.
"Yeah, I'd be cutting loose any guys running up on me, talking like that. I would've just assumed to go ahold of some bad... stuff, if you know what I mean." Roman agreed.
"Truly, only seeing can be believing in this case. I'm seeing right now and even I'm not believing. I would certainly make any student telling me this to see the nurse." Glynda added,
The hunter seemed to be dealing a large amount of damage to the creature, based on how it flinched and cringed at his attacks. "It seems to convert the matter that it does absorb and distribute it as Helium-like gas, which is how it stay up. The tentacles can be used as somewhat as a propeller and rudder system, but other times it is overcome by, well... the wind and ends up really getting too close to human settlements and has led it to have a reputation of actually attacking, because it will hoover up anything underneath it, be that buildings and people, so... It's technically omnivorous, but more accurately, it's 'I don't give a fuck what I put in my mouth-orous', which isn't a technical classification, but one that very much accurately describes this freaky floating foliage of a beast!" Rage cried out at the sheer absurdity of the creature before him as the hunter downed it again and continued his assault.
"I guess that makes sense on how it can fly." Coco accepted the explanation.
"It's definitely not the most efficient method, but it clearly seems to work." Blake added, gesturing to the screen.
"Well... Now we have a classification for how Nora eats." Jaune said teasingly.
"Hey! You're lucky your our leader, Jaune, or you'd be on the receiving end of my hammer!" Nora declared. "Besides, that's how you should handle food! If it's edible, wolf it down!" The adopted daughter of Thor added.
The hunter was back up on top of the round structure, avoiding Yama Tsukami's tentacles and trying to strike the beast just out of reach. "So obviously, when he gets too close to human civilization, someone has to be sent to do something about him. The tower in question that he hangs out at is one of the few places he hangs out at is one of the few places that he comes to rest and actually get a little energy back, which is why you have the opportunity to fight him as you climb to the top and stake your challenge. And he does have a few little neat moves where he will essentially get his Beyblade on..." Rage explained as the beast was seen rotating with its tentacles held out, becoming a spinning top of death. "Rotating around where you have to duck and weave. But his mouth really is just... Ah! It unnerves me! It unsettles me!" The host complained as a slow-motion clip with chilling music gave a close up of the horrific maw with human-like teeth in the front and countless rows of needle-like teeth towards the back as a hunter with a lance stabbed at the mouth.
A clip then showed a group of people looking on in horror and disgust. "Well, that was weird!" One man declared.
"I think if it didn't unnerve him, that would definitively push him into the realm of insane." Ren stated, to which everyone agreed.
The clip got a laugh out of everyone. "Understatement of the year, buddy." Yang said.
Ruby couldn't help but laugh at the creature's spinning attack. "It's spin attack is so cute. And the helicopter noise was hilarious!" She giggled.
"Not the most efficient way to attack, but it's certainly unique. And against anything larger than a human, I'd imagine that would be quite hard to dodge." Pyrrha analyzed.
As the beast continued to roar and the hunter poked at it with his lance, a swarm of glowing blue insects flew out of the creature's massive maw, preparing to attack the hunter. "And he has a symbiotic relationship with the Great Thunderbugs, the electric ball of buzz that can both shock and paralyze. They breed incessantly in his mouth cavity and then will fight to defend him in return for having such favorable... Well, nesting opportunities. And these thunderbugs that he produces EXPLODE ON CONTACT! Because of course they do!" Rage explained as the angry bugs indeed flew at the hunter, attempting to shock him, only to explode when that failed.
Once again, the group was left in disbelief, their minds on the verge of shutting down and/or short-circuiting. "How! That should be completely impossible! Yama Tsukami should have to swallow whatever it eats for it to get to the stomach, so the thunderbugs likely would get pushed down along with whatever it ate! Even if they didn't, they wouldn't be getting the amount of food they would need to survive. And even THEN! Surely, they would die from both oxygen deprivation, since they'd only get oxygen every time Yama Tsukami needed to breathe, or C02 poisoning! A creature that big must produce an absolutely devastating amount of C02 with each breath!" Penny cried out.
"It's possible little bits of things that could be edible to them get stuck on those spike teeth way in the back. So there's that, I guess. But you've got a point about the rest." Ilia said.
"I think if this gets too much crazier, it's gonna break Penny." Neo said in concern.
The dual blades hunter was shown again as he fought the beast. "It is even possible to get on his head in some instances and harvest some rare Dragonmoss and Dragonwood, with Dragonwood being quite a parasitic indeed, in nature, so... Whether or not it is entirely up to Yama Tsukami that this... Well, green pasture is planted firmly on his scalp is up for debate. But what isn't is how high up the food chain he is, given that he eats just... EVERYTHING! It makes a Deviljho blush! And he's just not really challengeable, you have to get up to him in the first place, but he is massive! His bulk is potent! He's not the most offensively inclined, but he doesn't really need to be, it's just not worth the effort for nearly every creature to actually attempt to take this down. He is mysterious and fits into no known category, so of course, he got slapped with Elder Dragon. And... It is just... Well, look at it! It's hard to even properly lore something like this, because so little is known about it." Rage admitted as the hunter downed the beast with tranq bombs again.
"Wonderful. Another glutton that can eat things on a massive scale." Hazel grumbled.
"Well, at least he just said it CAN, not that it does. Maybe it only needs one big meal at a time." Emerald said hopefully.
"Wishful thinking, kid, but I highly doubt it." Qrow said.
"I just hope that Dragonwood stuff doesn't hurt Yama that bad." Velvet said worriedly, earning nods from Pyrrha and Ruby.
The hunter was getting his free hits in once again. "Now, it can use the gas it produces as a defensive shield, not quite Kushala-like, but enough to throw off more accurate attempts at taking him down and then the tentacles themselves are quite lightweight, but they're also... very sticky, which implies that he uses them for plunging into the ground and ripping out, or at least loosening huge amounts of soil and undergrowth for him to then-" Rage began, before making a slurping noise. "'Ah, I love me some soil in the mornin'!'" He declared as if he were the flying cephalopod. "Though, the end of the tentacles is sporting some quite vicious claws that can be used in a whip-like motion to scythe through rock, tree and indeed, flesh alike if he's really feeling particularly threatened. It can also anchor itself to the ground, or really anything around it with these in order to prevent it from being dislodged from too strong a breeze or, well... perhaps a would-be challenger." The host explained as the beast awoke and floated back to the top.
"So it can use it's gas almost like a smokescreen. Very clever. And those tentacles are a lot more impressive than I thought. This may be one of the few times where I like something with tentacles." Cinder admitted.
"I was just wondering if it had to sleep or if it could stop somewhere without getting blown away." Jaune said.
"That has to be inconvenient, though, the wind pushing you a certain way instead of where you want to go." Blake noted.
"Comes with the lifestyle, I suppose." Hazel told them.
"I wonder how heavy he is then? If wind can still push him around despite how big he is, he probably can't weigh that much. Maybe we could use him for super-sized volleyball." Yang suggested.
"Oh, sure. And then he can eat all of us!" Weiss snapped, causing Yang to shrink down a bit.
Once it reached the top where the hunter was, it began attacking viciously once again. "They are very multi-purposed, they're like a Swiss Army Knife of tentacles... which is something something I now need to add to my bucket list of things to acquire- But the point remains, he has a pretty good command of them, but he's not really aggressive- in fact, not at all, he just... Does. Any damage he causes is incidental, due to his wanton suction, but he just floats and is. That is how it be for Yama Tsukami. And are we really gonna hold accidentally swallowing an entire village against him? There's a lot of people in the world, there's not many Yama Tsukami. You gotta have some perspective here- what's a little bloodshed?" Rage asked as the hunter was the one knocked down for once instead of the cephalopod.
Many frowned at the joke Rage made. "What's a little bloodshed? Really?" Coco asked.
"That's in rather poor tastes." Ozpin agreed.
However, the fans of darker humor (Blake, Qrow, Cinder, Emerald, Neo, Roman, Yang and Nora) all got a good chuckle. "Oh, come on, Oz. It's just a little joke. No need to get more grey hairs over it." Qrow told him.
"Sometimes a little dark humor makes things more interesting." Cinder agreed.
"Hey, people are WAY easier to replace than the rare animals they CONSTANTLY kill or put in danger of extinction. I say wipe a few more villages out." Razara said.
"That's certainly an ideal you'll have to drop when you get to Beacon." Glynda said strictly.
"In all honesty, I completely agree with Rage. My whole family generally thinks 'too many humans, bad for the animals'." Katana said, her daughters nodding in agreement. [1]
However, that didn't last long as the hunter sent it to the ground once more after another bombardment of tranq bombs. "In fact, it's the blood that's supposedly the leading theory, provides the main source of nutrients which grows his... Well, mountain back and fills it with life, so... It's essentially a blood forest that he's carrying around with him, which is a really nice image, isn't it? Just- oh, yay! Though a lot of hunters do find themselves gathering up there and getting some rare flora that they otherwise would struggle to find, especially the aforementioned Dragonmoss and/or wood. But it's like he acts as his own insulated bubble ecosystem- it's like nature decided to take one of the elephants of the turtle and make it a monster, but also leave the entire Earth on it's back, just in case you felt like visiting." Rage explained as the image of what looked like the Earth, only flat, on the back of several impossibly giant elephants on the back of a planet-sized turtle.
"Wait, what?" Everyone asked in confusion at seeing the weird example.
"In Hindu mythology, the world is supposedly balanced on the back of four giant elephants on the back of a giant-er turtle." Tekko explained.
"Mythology if weird." Ilia said.
"You've got that right." Adam agreed.
"So, yeah, basically he's comparing Yama to one of the elephants." Razara finished the explanation.
"That's so cool! I'd love to see a super giant elephant or planet turtle!" Ruby said.
"Elephants on top of a turtle. That is one phrase I never thought I'd hear in my life." Summer said.
The beast was then back up and lashing out with its tentacles again. "And due to the nature of its 'I absorb all of the things! Hahahaha!' You get a lot of different Yama Tsukami's: in size, in even shape and especially in what's growing on their back. In fact, the most common ones we encounter are theorized to be juveniles, so they may end up absolute colossi in the sky and come to rest and haven't moved in so long, people think they are just a genuine mountain that at any point could actually take off which is a scary, but pretty damn cool thought: you're just walking along and suddenly, the entire, seemingly, area around you starts rumbling and rising into the air. And then you look down and see a huge swath of ground being pulled aside and blinking back at you, this piercing, orange eye and at that point, you beg for mercy." Rage finished with a laugh at the idea.
"Oh, wonderful. Another giant the could be even more giant!" Winter said sarcastically.
"Agreed. The amount of massive monsters that are believed to be only juvenile is absolutely absurd at this point." Glynda agreed.
"Wait until they see Dalamadur." Razara whispered to Tekko, who giggled.
"You'd think with the threat these creature's potentially pose, you would keep better track of them." Ironwood said.
"They're VERY few and far between, James. One hasn't been sighted in years. It's a non-issue. When it becomes an issue... Well, let's just hope it doesn't become an issue." Katana told them.
"So, thoughts?" Tekko asked for once.
"It's a little weird-looking and creepy, but I really like it. It eats a lot, but it's not endlessly hungry like Nakarkos. And it's teeth are weird, but it's just a funny oddball. I kind of want to ride on one and just lay on top of it. I bet it's grass is soft and there are flowers everywhere." Ruby said with a smile and a dreamy look on her face.
Weiss, meanwhile, looked at Ruby like she grew another head. "Are you kidding me?! That thing is terrifying! It's mouth, full of human-like teeth, has a bunch of exploding bugs in it" She cried out.
"If I could watch it from a safe distance, I think it'd be neat, but as it stands, I'd want to stay away from it at all costs." Jaune said.
"It's definitely unique, that's for sure." Velvet said.
"If you ignore the teeth, it's pretty cool. And kind of funny." Neo admitted.
"So, if it's basically a giant balloon with tentacles, why not just poke it with something sharp till it pops?" Nora asked.
The cinnamon trio looked horrified at this, even gagging a bit. "Nora! That's terrible! Why would you think that!? He's a nice monster! He never tries to hurt anybody!" Ruby snapped.
"Okay, okay. Sorry." Nora huffed.
"So, I take it we're done with tentacles for a while?" Summer asked.
"Yeah. We're done with tentacles for a good bit. For now, I think I'll take this GOLDEN opportunity to introduce you to one more Elder Dragon. But don't worry, Kulve Taroth is nowhere near as crazy as those two." Katana assured them, playing the next video.
[1] Yes, this is true. Too many endangered species and most of them are because of us.