Chapter Six
Morning arrived with the sound of birdsong and the smell of blueberry muffins, frying bacon, and fresh brewed coffee. When Ruby awoke, she was alone in the room, and she could hear cheerful voices from downstairs. She yawned widely and got out of bed.
"Thanks for cooking breakfast, Dad," she heard Yang say as she went downstairs.
The kitchen was full of the early morning light. Yang, Blake, and Weiss were all seated at the table, chatting animatedly and eating with gusto. Tai was at the stove, scrambling a panful of eggs and turning bacon strips. "Mornin', sunshine!" He said cheerily as Ruby sat down.
"Morning to you too. Food smells great." Ruby poured herself a small measure of coffee and started stirring in sugar as Tai set a plate down in front of her. Her stomach growled and she realized that she was ravenous, and couldn't recall the last time she had really eaten a full meal. She dug in with enthusiasm.
"Right, so I thought we could start by touring the town. You all can see the layout of the current defenses, and then we'll head to the school and meet up with the other Hunters." Tai said as he sat down with a plate of his own.
"How many trained fighters are we talking about?" Yang asked between mouthfuls of egg.
"Talking fully licensed Huntsmen, it's me and the other three teachers. We also have three students who are of age to be at an academy, but have stuck around, considering three of the four academies aren't currently operating. After that it's mostly first- and second-year combat school kids and the town militia. I would have said we were well off, Patch has never had a huge grimm problem, but the attack yesterday proved that wrong. We're lucky Raven turned up when she did," he said, munching on a bacon strip.
Breakfast was a joyful affair, with lots of laughter and talking. After they had finished eating, they all helped with the dishes and then got ready for the day. Ruby and her team geared up, making sure that their weapons were ready to go and they had plenty of ammunition. The town was a short walk away from the house and they started the trip full of energy and in high spirits. Zwei followed along, tongue lolling from his mouth, wide doggy grin on his face.
Patch, despite being an island town, was not a port town. High volume ports tended to attract marine grimm, and defending against marine grimm was harder and more costly. The founders of Patch had decided to forgo a large port and instead built an airfield. The town was inland from the sea nearly three miles, but on a day with a brisk westerly wind, the smell of the ocean would permeate the air.
Patch did still have a small port in a naturally occurring cove that received the occasional cargo or passenger vessel, with a permanent garrison of volunteer militia that ensured the cove stayed free of grimm. Tai had told them that it was presumably this cove that the refugees had been making for, but they missed their mark and landed too far south. They had been in three old trawlers and a ferry, all overpacked with people, and when they had made landfall, the grimm had beset them and harried them all the way to town.
As they approached the town, they could see the damage that Tai had talked about the night before. Large sections of the wall were destroyed, and several homes had been damaged. There were tents set up everywhere in a chaotic sprawl, and people were already hard at work moving lumber and wreckage around.
A man with a large double-bladed battleax waved at them and trotted over. He was of medium build, with tanned skin and brown hair. His face was broad, plain, and good natured. He wore simple leather armor, thick work trousers held up with suspenders, and a red flannel shirt, and his feet were shod in hobnail boots. "Tai, good morning! And Ruby, Yang. This must be your famed team of Huntresses."
"Professor Slate! It's good to see you!" Ruby said. "I see you and Myrtle are doing well."
"Myrtle?" Weiss asked, with a look of puzzlement on her face.
"Myrtle is his ax," Yang said. "Slate's the smithing teacher at Signal. He helped me and Ruby forge our weapons."
"Damn straight I did. Glad to see them still in good repair. And better still to see you young ladies back in Patch. We've heard tell of your exploits, even in this far off corner of the world." He grinned at them.
"Yeah, I guess we have been around a bit, huh?" Ruby said.
"A bit? Don't be so modest. From the way Tai tells it, you and your team have been in the thick of nearly every major engagement since the attack on Beacon," Slate said.
"We do seem to find ourselves where everything is happening, that's true," Weiss said.
"Why don't you all follow me? I know we were supposed to meet later but I couldn't sit still with all this work to do." He moved off through the town, talking all the while. Several people waved and called out to Ruby and Yang as they walked.
"The people here seem really fond of you two," Blake said, taking Yang's hand.
"They're well loved, that's for sure," Tai said. "We're all very proud of everything they've accomplished."
"Dad, you're embarrassing us," Ruby said, shyly waving back to the townsfolk who called out to her.
"Your father is right, Ruby. We are proud of you. We're proud of all the Hunters that attend Signal. We do our best to forge you into weapons of justice and integrity, and then send you out into the world. And we're glad to see that you've both excelled," Slate said.
As they walked around the town, Ruby noticed a lot of people with shell-shocked expressions. Judging by their ragged clothes and haggard faces, she figured they must be the refugees, and her heart went out to them. Salem had caused so much pain, made so many people homeless. Ruby turned her attention back to Slate as he continued to point out the sections of wall that were the most damaged and outlined his plan for repair and expansion.
"So, we need lumber, is what I'm taking away from this," Yang said. "A lot of it."
"Just so! We'll meet up with the other hunters and work out protection for the logging parties. I also want to send a party to the ships the refugees took, see if there's anything worth salvaging off them. There's the school now." Slate pointed at a large building constructed from massive pine logs. Signal Combat School wasn't as flashy as some of the other combat schools, but it had a reputation for churning out quality hunters year after year. There was a cluster of teenagers in a range of ages outside the doors.
One of them called out eagerly, "Hey, that's team Ruby!" The group turned as one to look at the new arrivals.
"Hey!" Yang said, tipping them a two fingered salute off her brow.
The young man who had called out rushed over to them. He had sandy blonde hair pulled back into a ponytail and a smattering of freckles on his acne covered face. His hazel eyes shone with admiration as he stared at Ruby.
"I started at Signal the year you went to Beacon. I was really excited to be in school with you, but you were just so good they moved you ahead. My name is Troy. Troy Broadleaf." He held out a hand.
Ruby took it, very unsure of how to react to this. "Those things happen sometimes, haha. Ozpin himself saw me in action and well, the rest is history."
"You were recruited by the headmaster himself? I didn't know that part. And you're Yang!" He moved to shake Yang's hand. She shook with her prosthetic. Troy looked down at it. "Is that Atlesian tech? That's so cool!"
"Yeah, not as good as the real thing, but it comes in 'handy' sometimes. You certainly have a lot of energy." She looked at Troy with amusement while Blake smiled at her bad pun and Weiss rolled her eyes. The joke sailed straight over Troy's head.
"Give it a rest, will you Troy? They're just another team of huntresses." A girl, sullen, called out from the wall.
"Yeah, one of teams that fought Salem herself and lived to talk about it. Don't mind her, she's got a bad case of teenage angst," Troy said, voice low.
"I heard that, nimrod," the girl called out.
"Angsty, huh?" Yang said, elbowing Blake while raising an eyebrow at her.
"Haha," Blake said without amusement.
"Students! As Mr. Broadleaf pointed out, this is Team RWBY. They're here in an official capacity, and as they are licensed huntresses, you will treat them with the same respect you give us teachers. Am I understood?" Slate called out.
There was a murmur of assent in varying degrees of enthusiasm, while Troy eagerly called "Yes Sir!"
The sullen girl rolled her eyes but nodded. "Good!" Slate said. Let's meet with the rest and we'll go over assignments."
The students went inside the school, and the rest followed them. Ruby felt a wave of nostalgia as she entered the building. It smelled exactly the same as she remembered it, that faint essence of pine underneath the sharper scents of oiled leather, steel, and gunpowder. They followed Slate to the small auditorium, through halls at once familiar and unknown. Inside were the other two teachers and a few more students. Ruby scanned the younger faces for people she knew but was disappointed. All eyes turned to them as they entered.
"Tai, Slate, RWBY." A woman in a buttoned blouse with wavy auburn hair nodded to them as they came in. She had a short jacket of red on over the blouse, tight leather leggings with high, buckled boots, a fencing saber at one side and a hand crossbow at the other.
"Hey, Professor Helsing! Long time no see!" Ruby called out.
Next to her was a small, balding, unassuming man with bottle bottomed glasses, dressed in a rumpled, time-worn suit. There was a pencil-thin tie in a loose knot around his neck. "My goodness, is that Ruby Rose and Yang Xiao Long? And those must be your esteemed teammates, Miss Schnee and Miss Belladona. Welcome to our humble school."
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Sir," Weiss said, giving her customary curtsy.
"We're glad to be of service," Blake said.
"And so polite, too. My name is Professor Hyde, and the pleasure is mine." He had a wheezy, wavery, reed thin voice. "Now that we're all here, Tai, did you want to do the honors?"
"You got it." Tai said, and climbed onto the auditorium stage to address the small crowd. He cleared his throat.
"We have quite the job ahead of us. Preliminary census counts put the number of refugees from Vale at two hundred and seventeen. That may change over the coming days, if any more followed this initial wave. We need to ensure that they are all taken in and cared for. We will need to expand and repair the wall, and find a way to feed and house them," Tai said, walking slowly back and forth on the stage.
"Right now they are road weary, sore, and grieving. I expect you all to treat them with kindness and respect. Once they have started to settle in, we need to get an idea of what professions and skills these people have. If any of them want to help now, we need to get them organized into work groups. Slate, Hyde, I'm leaving the town with you and the youngest students. Slate has been drawing up a plan for an extended wall and extra housing. You are to aid him in this endeavor." He stopped in the middle of the stage and pointed at Ruby.
"Team RWBY, I want you to head to the landing zone on the beach. There may be stragglers. I want you to take Mr. Broadleaf and Ms. Rime with you. When you are confident the beach is clear, make your way north to the cove. There is another team there to rendezvous with. While your focus for this mission is to find any survivors, I'd like you to search the ships for possible salvage as well," he said, smiling at Ruby.
"Professor Helsing and I will take the rest of you into the forest. We will be escorting a group of foresters. Our primary objective is to keep the foresters safe, the secondary objective is to find suitable trees for lumber. Questions?"
The sullen girl, Rime, raised her hand. "Yeah, do I have to be teamed up with Troy?"
"Yes. You need to learn the value of teamwork, and I believe partnering you with Mr. Broadleaf and Team RWBY will be beneficial for you. Let's get to it!"
There was a low rumble of activity as the assembled trainees and hunters got up from their seats and moved out. Tai waved to his daughters as he led his team out of the room. Troy was practically vibrating with excitement as he turned to Ruby. "I can't believe I got assigned to your mission! I won't let you down, Ma'am."
Blake raised her eyebrows as Yang snorted laughter. "Ma'am? Ruby is what, only like two years older than you."
"Yes, just call me Ruby, please," Ruby said, cheeks faintly colored.
"But you're the team lead," he said, puzzled.
"Yeah, we're not super big on formality. Just follow our example out there, ok?" Yang said.
The girl, Rime, had trudged over and was now glaring out at them from under her bangs. Her hair was black, and she was almost as pale as Weiss. She had on black lipstick, black eyeliner, and her combat outfit was completely black as well. The only other color that showed was the silver of the various fastenings and studs on her clothes, and the bright green of her eyes. She had a pair of swords strapped to her back, each with a distinct hilt.
Ruby looked at her warmly. "Welcome to the team! I think we should get an idea of what you and Troy's fighting styles are before we head out."
She shrugged. "I fight with swords. I have a longsword and a short sword. I can fight with one or two blades, depending on what the situation calls for. I can also merge them into a zweihander, for the really big jobs. My semblance is 'Soul Shatter'. I can infuse my soul's essence into my blades, without a need for dust."
"That's really cool," Ruby said. "Any ranged capabilities?"
As a response, Rime drew her longsword. It whirred and clicked as it assembled itself into a rifle.
"Very cool! Can you infuse your bullets, too?"
"Yeah." Was the terse response. Rime obviously thought she had done enough talking.
"And what about you, Troy?" Ruby asked the enthusiastic young man.
"My semblance is Shillelagh!"
"Uh, pardon?" Ruby asked.
"I can make clubs out of wood!" He exclaimed brightly.
"That's... cool, too."
"Yeah, it's very practical. As long as I'm near a tree, I'm good to go."
"What if you aren't near a tree?" Yang asked.
"Uh. I never thought about that. Patch has so many trees, you see…" He trailed off, frowning.
"Maybe you should bring a staff with you?" Weiss suggested helpfully.
"I do! Well, I normally do. I broke mine last night. I need to make a new one, I figured I would do it today when my aura wasn't so low.
"Ok then! Let's head out and get you a weapon!" Ruby exclaimed.
Ruby, along with her teammates and the two students, made her way to the eastern side of town. Troy said he was confident he could lead them to where the refugees had made landfall, and said he'd find a good 'singing tree' along the way, whatever that meant. Ruby talked to them as they walked.
"Like Tai said, our priority is to find and help any survivors. However, I need you all to know that there's a good chance we'll only find the less fortunate. Will you be able to handle that?"
Rime nodded once, curtly. Troy looked confused. "Less fortunate?"
"She means people who didn't make it," Blake said at the same time Yang said, "Dead people."
"Oh. Ok then, yeah, I think I will be. I've dealt with the aftermath of grimm attacks before." Troy's cheerful complexion darkened briefly, then lit up once again. "Hey!" He ran off the path into the woods.
"Is it just me, or is that kid a little, ah, eccentric?" Weiss asked.
"Nah, he's definitely a little weird. That's ok though, every hunter needs at least a small dose of crazy. It's the only real way to do the job," Yang said.
"You got more than a small dose, dear," Blake said, smiling. "But Ruby definitely got the largest dose in your family."
"Hey!" Ruby said, as they followed Troy off the path.
"Remember initiation day?" Weiss asked. "You ran straight up the side of a cliff, dragging a nevermore with you, and decapitated it at the top. And then, when Beacon was attacked, you ran straight up Beacon tower and petrified that wyvern."
"You also jumped into that mecha's cannon arm in Argus to disable it, while it was charging up a shot," Yang added.
"Don't forget dangling yourself in front of that Leviathan, when you didn't even know if you could get your silver eyes to work," Blake said.
"Ok, ok. So I do impulsive stuff sometimes. I don't think that makes me crazy," Ruby said.
"Agree to disagree, Rubes. Hey, what's he doing?" Yang asked.
They had caught up to Troy, who was stopped in front of an ancient, gnarled ash tree. He was chanting something in a lilting, sing-song voice. As they watched, the tree's trunk began to groan and crack. It split and disgorged a knotted club before sealing itself back up again. Troy stopped chanting and picked the club up. "Shillelagh!" he proclaimed, proudly.
"Wow, that was really something," Yang said. "Were you talking to that tree?"
"Yup!" Troy spun his shillelagh in a short arc, and with a crack split a granite boulder poking up from the earth.
"I would say that's a little more than making a club from wood, Troy," Blake said.
"Well, it is a club, isn't it? I can use any old stick laying around, but it's best if I can convince a tree to give me some heartwood. They're stronger, that way. I think I'm able to awaken the trees aura and fuse it with the wood when I sing to them."
"I didn't know people could talk to trees, or that trees had auras!" Ruby exclaimed. "That's so cool!"
"Ruby, your dog has an unlocked aura, which is not at all a normal occurrence for dogs. I'm confident the breadth and scope of things with auras far outmatches our imaginations for them," Weiss said.
"Yeah, but he's the first guy I've seen who can do it!" She stopped suddenly, and in a flash of scarlet Crescent Rose was out, blade ready. The rest of the team, students too, Ruby noted with approval, had also readied their weapons. There was something in the woods… There.
A pair of flaming eyes had retreated into the undergrowth, which was unusual. Grimm almost always attacked on sight. One exception was the old ones, the grimm that had survived decades or centuries. Those grimm were almost smart. Smart enough to avoid fights they weren't sure they could win, at least.
"I think that was an alpha," Ruby said. "Our mission hasn't changed. We just need to keep our eyes sharp."
"What about the town?" Troy asked.
"They've got Professors Slate and Hyde, plus the militia and younger students. I'll message them, let them know what we saw. Let's move out. Remember, eyes sharp."
Now on alert, the team moved back to the path and towards the coast. A few minutes further into their journey, Blake tried to strike up a conversation with Rime.
"So, Rime, do you have a first name?" she started with.
"Yup."
"Do you feel like sharing it?"
"Nah. I prefer Rime."
"Ok, that's fine. Why'd you join the school?"
Rime looked at her with teenaged disdain. "To kill grimm. Isn't that why everyone joins?"
"No. I joined because I wanted to make a difference in the world. Yang is in it for the adventure. Weiss wanted to prove to her father that she was more than just the family name. Ruby does it because she's always wanted to, and because she wants to help people. Sure, some are in it for the money, or fame, or whatever. The job description is to help humanity and the faunus survive grimm attacks. There are a lot of ways to accomplish that. And, one of those ways is killing grimm." Blake smiled at the younger girl, trying to show she didn't mean any harm with her words.
"Do you really think any of those things matter when the end goal is the destruction of grimm? Why does it matter why I fight, if I'm still ridding the world of those monsters?"
"Because if you fight without reason, you're just going to burn yourself out. If you don't know why you're fighting, it's going to be hard to keep yourself going. Sure, wanting to rid the world of grimm is a reason. But why is that your reason? There must be something more to it."
"No, there isn't." Rime stalked up towards the front of the column, away from Blake and her well intentioned conversation.
Blake sighed, and felt fingers slip into hers. Yang gave her hand a reassuring squeeze. "Hey, you can't win them all. But you tried. I feel like that girl has had a pretty rough past. Maybe she'll open up to us, and we can loosen that prickly shell she's hidden herself in. I remember another girl who had some issues opening up."
Blake squeezed her hand back. "Yeah. Whatever hurt her, I hope she knows she doesn't have to face it alone. She needs a friend, more than anything. Hey, do you think your dad sent her with us on purpose?"
"Wouldn't put it past him. He can be pretty perceptive, and he did raise two daughters. Maybe he thought we were the ones who could help her." Yang shrugged. "We'll just be there for her, yeah?"
Blake nodded. "Yeah."
"Eyes up!" Ruby called from ahead of them. "Blake, Weiss, two o'clock. Civilian. The rest of us will form a perimeter. Move!"
The team jumped into action. It didn't take long for Blake to see what Ruby had spotted. A piece of bloodstained cloth tied to a branch that poked up from a hollow beneath a tree. As she watched, the makeshift flag waggled at them. She rushed to the tree, Weiss by her side. Together, they dropped to their knees in the dirt and leaf litter.
A pair of eyes stared up at them from a dirty, blood-stained face. A man had wedged himself into the tree roots. His arm had a nasty gash down the length of it, poorly wrapped in a strip of his ragged shirt. "Are they gone?" He whispered in a hoarse croak.
"It's ok, they grimm are gone. We're here to help," Weiss said gently. "Let's get you up."
Together her and Blake extricated the man from the tree root hollow. Weiss tutted at his piecemeal bandage and began to strip it off his wound. He hissed in pain. "I know, I know, but we need to get that cut cleaned and re-wrapped."
Blake pulled out a water bottle and a length of clean cloth. She soaked the cloth and began to clean the wound as gently as she could. He whimpered. "It's not deep, but it is long," she told him. "I'm going to wrap it again now."
With Weiss's help, she got the wound dressed. She handed the man a fresh water bottle, and he drank greedily, drops spilling down his chin and onto his chest.
"Slow! You don't want to make yourself sick," Weiss chided him.
He gasped and bowed his head but didn't vomit. "Th-thank you. I could hear them howling all night, I was sure they were going to find me and finish me off."
"It's ok. Hunters killed most of the grimm last night, and the refugees made it to town. We'll take you there now," Blake said. "Can you stand?"
"Just give me a minute. Do you have any food?"
They gave him some dried fruit, and Ruby came over to check on them. "How's he doing?"
"He'll live. That gash is nasty, but not deep. It looks like his aura kicked in a little bit, but without the proper training it didn't do much. He'll probably want to get it properly cleaned back in Patch, and he'll need to watch it for infection. But he'll be ok," Weiss said.
"Good. I'm glad I have you guys for the first aid stuff, I never know what to do with wounds." Ruby paused, thinking. "We're not that far from town. We'll bring him back, as a group, and then head out again. I don't want to split our forces with that alpha roaming around."
"Sounds good. As soon as he gets his strength back, we can move," Blake said.
Five minutes later, they were moving again, back to Patch. "Isn't the other team going to miss us if we don't make the rendezvous?" Rime asked.
"First priority is survivors. The landing zone and rendezvous will wait. This man couldn't. Until I see you and Troy in a fight, I'm not going to risk splitting our group. We bring him back, and then head back out," Ruby said in a no-nonsense voice she only adopted when she was fully in team-lead mode.
"Ok, just asking," Rime said sulkily.
"Rime, I understand you're anxious to finish the mission. But sometimes missions change or take longer than expected. We'll be done when we're done. And, if you're like I was at your age and you're spoiling for a fight, that alpha is out there and is going to cause a problem unless we take care of it. I'm thinking about hunting it down when we head back out, but remember, that call is mine and I expect you to follow my lead, ok?"
"Got it." Rime lapsed back into silence, eyes scanning the woodland. Ruby watched her for a moment, and then went back to scanning the woods as well.
They got the man back without issue, and the townsfolk wrapped him in a blanket and whisked him away to one of the many pop-up infirmaries that were scattered about. Ruby took the opportunity to let her team take a brief break while they were in town, and then they set off once more.
When they reached the place where they had first spotted the alpha, she called for a halt. She peered in the direction she had last seen the beowolf and came to a decision.
"Right. I don't like the thought of that beast prowling around behind our backs. We're going after it. Blake, you've got point. Yang, back her up. Troy, Rime, you're in the middle. I'll take the rear with Weiss. This is an alpha we're after, smart enough to leave a party of hunters alone. Be on your guard."
Troy looked nervous yet eager, and Rime had perked up for the first time all day. The experienced members of RWBY all fell into line with the students safely in the middle of them.
Blake, with her heightened sense of hearing and light-sensitive eyes, moved ahead of the party, searching for tracks. Her ears twitched in annoyance every time one of her companions stepped on a branch or rustled a pile of leaves. They traveled deeper into the woods, and the trees rose ever higher around them, old, hoary, foreboding. Blake paused now and again, searching the forest floor for spoor, and then moved on. The foliage overhead thickened until the light dimmed and everything was colored with shades of grey.
Blake stopped and raised one hand to her companions. The group came to a halt, silent and waiting. She motioned at Yang to move forward and pointed at the ground. A pool of blood, dark in the light, soaked the leaf litter. Something, or someone, had been gravely wounded here. Yang locked eyes with the students and deliberately mimed arming her gauntlets. They got the cue and readied their weapons as well.
A howl suddenly split the air, bone-chilling in its intensity. A chorus of howls answered it, echoing from every side. The first beowolf materialized as if it had sprung from the very shadows themselves. Maw gaping, it lunged for Blake. She sidestepped and deftly thrust her sword into the nape of its neck. It crashed to the ground, essence smoking away into nothingness as it died. While Blake dispatched the first, six more pairs of snapping jaws lunged at the group.
Yang, already in a fighting stance, ducked under the beowolf attacking her and hammered into its jaw with a left hook. As she made impact, she fired her gauntlets shotgun, and the beowolf's head disintegrated into black gore. She sidestepped, footwork immaculate despite the uneven, leaf-strewn terrain, and punched a second beowolf in the temple with her mechanical arm. There was an audible crack as its neck snapped.
Weiss, reflexes as sharp as ever, had retaliated with a lunge of her own. With a time-dilation glyph propelling her forward, the first beowolf died with her rapier thrust deep into its skull via its eye socket. She ripped the sword free and flashed past another, cutting its throat while momentum still carried her, Myrtenaster shining in the gloom. It staggered, coughing, as its essence bled away into the air, and then collapsed.
Ruby, Crescent Rose a shining blur as she spun the scythe in a killing arc, decapitated the last two grimm in one motion and returned the weapon to her shoulder. It smoked gently as her kills dissipated into the shadow from which they had sprung.
The entire encounter had lasted less than ten seconds, and the students had barely had time to react. Troy was looking at the huntresses, wide-eyed and admiring. Rime even looked grudgingly impressed at the speed and efficacy with which the older huntresses had dispatched their enemies.
"We're not done yet. Stay ready," Ruby said, scanning the dark woods. There. A pair a blazing eyes, ever watchful, melted away once again into the dark. She itched to use her semblance to go after it, but knew she shouldn't rush ahead of her team. "We're getting closer. Let's move."
They continued onward, deeper and deeper into the forest. Every few minutes, they would catch a glimpse of their quarry, always just at the edge of their vision.
"This feels weird, Ruby," Yang said as they navigated a rocky ravine. "Like it's leading us somewhere."
"She's right, I'm sure this thing wants us to follow it. I've never seen a beowolf act like this," Weiss said.
"All the more reason we should take it down. A grimm that can think like this is a bigger threat than a pack of normal beowolves. If I get the chance, I'm going to engage it. Be ready to follow me in." Ruby had drawn a bead with her sniper rifle on two occasions as they followed the alpha, but both times it had vanished behind a tree before she could fire.
As they clambered out of the ravine, they found themselves abruptly in a clearing. The sun shone high overhead, illuminating a tumble of huge, moss-covered boulders. A small stream trickled past, clear water burbling over smooth stones. Blake moved forward, scanning for signs of their quarry. She climbed onto one of the rocks to get a better view, shading her eyes from the light.
Yang leaned against another stone, taking a drink from her water bottle as she did so. Rime threw herself against the same stone with a huff, sliding to the ground with her back to the mossy boulder.
"This sucks. We've lost at least an hour chasing this thing. The further we follow it, the further off track we go. Are you sure we should keep chasing it?" She looked at Ruby as she said this.
Ruby looked back, her gaze even. "I'm sure. The last thing we need is a grimm of this intelligence waiting for us to get distracted while we help a group of people, putting those people at risk. No, we're not able to actively look for survivors. And yes, this is taking longer than I thought it would. But as long as we keep it occupied, we know it isn't hunting anyone else. And once it's dead, we can return to our mission."
Yang chimed in, saying, "So, fun thought, what if we're being hunted? This is its territory, we're at its mercy here."
"Shh!" Blake hissed. "There's something out there."
The same ear-splitting howl they had heard before the last attack rent the air again. They all readied their weapons, and Rime got back to her feet. As they scanned the trees at the edge of the clearing, a rumble shook the earth. Blake, from her high vantage, swore softly as she was forced to adjust her balance.
"Blake, down now!" Weiss suddenly yelled, moving away from the rocks. Blake leapt down at once, landing gracefully next to Yang and Rime. The rocks they had been clustered on and around were rising from the ground, groaning and quaking as they did so.
Ruby stared, comprehension dawning. Those weren't rocks, they were a carapace. The biggest deathstalker she had ever seen was heaving itself from its long slumber in the earth, dirt trailing from its claws as it raised them to the sky. It chittered in a basso rumble as its tail rose ponderously behind it, considering the tiny figures before it. Mandibles clicking, it whipped its tail forward lightning fast. Yang threw herself in front of Rime, and the stinger hit her square in the chest. She flew backwards, aura crackling as she smashed into a tree.
"Yang!" Blake screamed, emptying a clip from her pistol in futile rage at the monstrous creature. The fusillade of bullets rattled harmlessly against its stone-like shell.
Rime stood frozen, looking up at the towering scorpion. A crushing pincer snapped towards her and was deflected into the ground with a mighty crack from Troy's club. "Move!" He yelled at her while falling back himself.
She stumbled into motion, drawing both of her blades as she did so. She slotted them together and they clanked and whirred as they combined into her zweihander. Eerie black runes glowed down the length of it as she activated her semblance, imbuing the sword with her essence.
Weiss, who had been the first to realize what was happening, was now engaged in combat with the alpha. It had struck the moment the deathstalker had risen, all rending claws and snapping jaws. The creature stood at nearly double the diminutive woman's height, covered in a bristling thicket of bony spines, with razor sharp claws several inches long at the ends of its forepaws. Weiss and the alpha fought with inhuman speed and ferocity, movements blurring together in a symphony of violence. It took all of her speed and training to keep up with the monstrous, bipedal wolf, darting from glyph to glyph in a lethal dance around her foe. She stabbed it again and again, but the thick bones on the alphas hide kept turning her blade aside.
Ruby took all this in in an instant, and a plan formed in her mind. She saw Yang rising from the splintered tree trunk, hair aflame, eyes the red of coals. She saw Blake, agile as a dancer, staying in front of the deathstalker, its claws crushing her shadows one after another as she bought time for the students to get back. She saw Weiss and the alpha in their danse macabre, a flurry of furious blows back and forth.
"Checkmate, high impact!" She yelled at the top of her lungs as she shifted into a storm of rose petals. She flew to Weiss first and merged with the other woman, who had responded instantly to Ruby's call and leapt toward her, propelled by a glyph. The storm of petals, now a mix of snow-white and rose-red, flashed to the deathstalker that was still trying to crush Blake. Weiss materialized, glyph already at the ready, frost coalescing in the air around her, eyes the deadly ice blue of a glacial crevasse. Ruby flew back to the alpha, which had given chase, and she reformed, scythe slashing at the alpha's throat. It blocked the blow with its bone-crusted foreleg and huffed at her like it was amused.
Troy and Rime were indecisive, looking from the deathstalker to the beowolf, weapons half-raised as they tried to decide which way to go. Ruby spared them a brief glance, her eyes silver fire. "With me!" she called.
Behind them, Weiss flew in front of Blake as a pincer snapped at the lithe, elusive woman yet again. Weiss released her glyph and a wall of ice flashed into existence, sending waves of chilled air flurrying through the clearing, and the claw was caught halfway through it.
Blake egged the deathstalker on, keeping in front of its face, firing shots at its eyes when she could. Enraged, right pincer caught tightly in Weiss's wall, it snapped that lethal tail at her, and she phased backwards, once, twice, thrice, leaving charged shadows in the place she had been. As the tail hit them, they burst into ice, and the stinger stuck fast. The deathstalker snapped its mandibles irritably as the ice-laden stinger dragged through the dirt, its tail now bogged down with extra weight.
The two women ran around to the now immobilized half of the deathstalker, already moving into their next attack. Weiss summoned a trail of white speed-enhancing time-dilation glyphs up the side of her towering ice wall, and Blake sprinted up them, spinning Gambol Shroud in a tight circle as she did so. At the top of the wall she leapt high into the air and threw her weapon to Yang. Yang, running back into the fray, caught the sickle grip with her right hand and Blake pulled; the dust infused ribbon snapped back in on itself. As Blake began to fall, momentum gone, Weiss caught her with a black immobilization glyph.
Yang, Gambol Shroud pulling her, fired her left gauntlet to gain extra momentum and rocketed towards Blake, hair streaming behind her like the tail of a comet. She flashed past, high into the sky. Blake, Gambol Shroud retrieved, threw it a second time, again to Yang. At the apex of her flight, Yang caught hold of Blake's weapon, and began to fall back to the earth.
Blake snapped her ribbon again as Weiss summoned another line of white glyphs following Yang's trajectory. Yang, pulled by the impetus of Blake and accelerated by Weiss, hurtled to the earth like a flame-shrouded meteor.
Ruby kept the alpha busy, scythe a constant blur of crimson before her. The beowolf blocked every attack, snapping at her with its fanged maw in between her blows. The students circled it, unsure of how to help. "Crack it!" She yelled at them.
Troy's face lit up in comprehension, and his eyes flashed as he twirled his ash wood club and lashed at the beowolf. Rime darted forward at the same time with a massive overhead swing, sword glowing with that strange black energy. Ruby forced the grimm to protect its throat as she again slashed at it with her scythe. Arms now in front of it, the students' weapons both impacted on the bony spines of its back.
It howled in pain, umbral essence smoking from the wound it had been inflicted, and turned on the hunters in training. They fell back, deflecting sweeping blows from its claws as it vented its fury, and Ruby wasted no time in capitalizing on this mistake. Crescent Rose swung forward, catching an arm at the elbow, and she ripped the scythe backward, severing the limb. It fell to the ground, already turning insubstantial.
The alpha roared in pain and turned a baleful eye to her. Her own eyes still flaming silver, she glared back. A sword tip erupted from its chest the same instant a club smashed into its skull. That baleful light went out, and she grinned at the two students as the beowolf went down. Troy grinned back, but Rime was staring at something in the sky.
Ruby turned in time to catch Yang streaking towards the ground like a missile, hair a fiery trail behind her and arm cocked. Her fist impacted the deathstalkers back with a crack like the end of the world. The beast spasmed as its carapace was sundered, shattering the ice in its death throes. As it thrashed, tearing great gouts of earth up and felling trees, Weiss and Blake retreated to stand by Ruby and the students. It finally stilled and started to smoke and hiss as its form dissolved. Then, as they watched, Yang rose from the ruined body of the grimm, fists raised, the very picture of a goddess of war. She loosed a scream of victory to the sky.
"Holy shit," Rime breathed.
Blake rushed to Yang and threw her arms around her, kissing her enthusiastically. Yang reciprocated, wrapping her arms around Blake and lifting her from the ground. They were quite lost to the world until Weiss pointedly cleared her throat. Rime and Troy had both gaped, and then started looking randomly at points around the clearing, clearly unsure of how to handle this public display of affection.
After the women broke apart, Blake asked worriedly, "How's your chest? Are you hurt?"
Yang stripped her shirt off, exposing her well-toned midriff and a spectacular purplish black bruise. She stood in her sports bra, examining the wound.
"I'll be fine, but that's gonna hurt like a mother when my adrenaline wears off." She poked the bruise experimentally and winced.
Blake kissed her a second time, softly. "Don't poke it. You were amazing, now take it easy."
"Hey, you were pretty amazing yourself, flipping over those pincers to buy the kids time to get away." Yang looked deep into Blake's eyes, and it looked like another kiss was imminent.
Troy, who was desperately trying to look anywhere except for Blake and Yang and failing miserably, said, "It's a good thing your aura kept you from getting impaled."
The moment now broken; Yang looked over at Troy. "Yup! And that, kids, is why aura training is important!" She poked the bruise again, and again winced.
"Hurt any less that time?" Weiss asked dryly.
"Nope!"
Rime, who was now looking at Troy with something approaching anger as the young man kept glancing sidelong at Yang's abs, asked "What now?"
"First, I wanted to congratulate you two! Was that your first alpha kill?" Ruby asked, looking at the students glowingly.
"Yeah," said Rime.
"Huh?" said Troy.
"Troy! Yes, Yang is very muscular, and attractive. And, if you hadn't noticed, she is also happily taken. Eyes on me," Ruby said, snapping her fingers at the young man while Yang looked on, very much amused by this in-charge, teacherly version of her younger sister.
Troy looked quickly back at Ruby, face flushing crimson. "R-right. Sorry, I"-
"Stow it. Was that the first alpha you had fought?"
Rime looked smug at the dressing down Troy had just received. Troy, eyes still fixed on Ruby, said "Yes ma'am!"
Ruby sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. "It was a clean kill, and I couldn't have done it without the two of you. I know that deathstalker caught us all off guard, but you reacted well and kept your composure. I know that's not always an easy thing to do in battle. You did good."
"Thanks," Rime said. "You guys were the real stars though. I was tired and frustrated, and then I froze, and Yang got hurt because of me." She looked at the ground.
"Yang took a hit protecting you. Any of us would do it, and she would do it again, Rime. The important thing is you drew your weapon and got back into the fight. It's not every day you come face-to-face with a two-story tall deathstalker and a beowolf alpha at the same time," Ruby said, putting a hand on Rime's shoulder.
"Yeah, Rime. And, if you ask me, I'm positive it was that last stab with your sword that killed the beowolf," Troy said, face still red.
"Troy, you're an idiot. But thanks, for knocking that claw away and getting me moving," Rime said, kicking at the dirt. "You probably saved my life, too."
"Hey, don't worry about it! Besides, if you died, I'd miss your pretty eyes," he said. His own eyes widened as his brain processed the words that had just come out of his mouth and he froze, waiting for whatever snide remark he was sure was going to come his way.
But Rime, surprisingly, smiled at this ever so slightly. A faint smile, but it was there, Ruby was sure of it. Gods, are all teenagers this awkward? she thought. And then, Ruby you're still a teenager. Ugh. She shook her head, trying to clear it.
"Thank you, Troy, that was actually almost sweet." Rime said. Then, to Ruby, "How did your team know what to do, when you called out? You said three words and that was it. Weiss switched targets with zero hesitation, and then they killed the deathstalker without anyone saying anything else."
"Well, we have codenames for various team ups. I'm red, Weiss is white, Blake is black, and Yang is yellow. So 'checkmate' is black and white, aka Blake and Weiss. That means I wanted them to use their strengths in conjunction with each other. 'High impact' was off the cuff, but since Yang is our heavy hitter I hoped they'd pick up on what I was thinking, and they did. We've also used that ice tactic against deathstalkers before, to good effect." Ruby shrugged. "We've been fighting together for years, now. We have a level of trust and understanding that only comes with tons of training and practice. We've all saved each other's lives, on multiple occasions. In short, we're a good team."
"You also have to be able to think on your feet, with Ruby as leader," Weiss said, teasingly. "She comes up with some crazy ideas, but she's rarely wrong."
"I like the improvisation though. She yells something like 'freezerburn!' and then I get to figure out how I'm kicking ass with Weiss," Yang said as she pulled her shirt back on. "She makes the call-out and we have the freedom to do with it what we will."
"That's the 'trust and understanding' part she was talking about, dear," Blake said.
"Rime did ask a good question, though. What now? Do we try to backtrack through that?" Yang nodded towards the ravine they had come out of into the clearing.
Ruby said, "We follow the stream. It should lead us to the ocean, we'll figure out where we are from there. Take ten, hydrate and refuel, then we'll head out. I'll keep watch." Ruby stowed her weapon, found a nice tree to lean against while she kept an eye out for anything that may have noticed their fight, and listened to her team talk about the encounter. She grinned to herself as she listened to a blow-by-blow from a very excited Troy. These kids are alright. This mentoring thing is actually kinda nice. I hope everyone is still doing well back in Shade.