Turns out Jaune was right.

It was one week later that they went on their mission to the Blacksoil forest.

Oobleck had alerted them (at seven am, no less) that they were to be ready by ten and on the bullhead out to Blacksoil Forest by eleven. Thankfully everyone was up by then (albeit most were annoyed) and loaded onto the bullheads to reach the place. Which, as it turns out, was in northern Amora—a large forest that encompassed much of the northwestern part of the isle.

The bullhead, unable to pierce the dense canopy, landed just south of the forest entrance. The group emerged from it rather quickly, Ruby immediately scoping in and aiming around the place, searching for any grimm. Remember, Ruby. The grimm here like to hide. Be careful, and don't die. No pressure.

Oobleck, meanwhile, drew his thermos. "Alright, everyone! Keep your eyes out for any hidden grimm threats! This is a standard extermination mission, so kill any grimm you see. Other than that, this objective will mostly be your own. However, I must advise restraint in regards to fire dust. Wouldn't want to collapse the entire ecosystem, now would we?"

Nora pouted at that, shifting Magnhild back to its hammer state. "No fun allowed on these missions."

Ren placed a hand on her shoulder. "Maybe next time."

Pyrrha made her way forward, spear at the ready as she pushed apart plants. "Any idea what we should be looking for?"

Jaune shrugged, cutting away at the plants ahead of him with Crocea Mors. "If I had to guess? Camouflaged grimm, maybe a geist or two? Something that would dodge attacks rather than just let itself get hit like a beowolf or ursai."

Jaune was proven wrong in literally two seconds when a beowolf emerged from the treeline.

BANG!

Ruby smirked. "One down!"

Oobleck shook his head. "A rookie mistake, Miss Rose. You should've tracked that beowolf back to its pack, that way you'd have—nevermind, there's the pack."

Ruby turned, eyes widening as she saw several dozen beowolves rush out toward them. Coco turned, spinning up her minigun. "Blondie! Get down!"

Jaune and Yang both dove to the ground.

BRRRRRRT!

Seven beowolves fell in just a single burst, with several more damaged as Coco pulled her gun in a line across the forest. She actually also felled a few small trees in the process as well. Yet the beowolves, not accustomed to 'tactics' or 'loses' simply kept charging.

Pyrrha leaped over Jaune, blocking a beowolf strike as he got up to his feet, slamming her spear into its shoulder. Jaune, meanwhile, swung down at the other shoulder, cleaving the beowolf's arm clean off. Pyrrha quickly capitalized on this, converting her spear to a sword and swinging right, Jaune catching on and doing the same from the left, decapitating it.

Ruby, meanwhile, fired thrice into the crowd, killing two and wounding another as Weiss slammed her rapier into the ground, creating a sheet of ice across the foliage—causing three beowolves to slip and fall in front of Blake. Who, without much hesitation, slammed Gambol Shroud into the back of each of their necks.

Yang did a push-up into a jump off the ground before shadow-boxing at the beowolves in front of her, killing two before a third finally managed to slam into her, knocking her back down. She simply pulled back her legs, kicking the beowolf about six feet into the air before firing three shells into its torso—causing pieces of it to rain down around her.

Nora, bereft of her grenade launcher, simply rushed in with her hammer, slamming it into two beowolves and launching them into a third, cracking a rather large tree in the process. Ren dashed forward, firing into the four before leaping onto their backs, slamming his palms into each of their skulls—a pulse of aura flowing through them before they promptly exploded—sending the bullets, too small to harm any of their auras, flying out into the nearby beowolves.

Velvet and Coco, meanwhile, rushed forward. Velvet pressed her camera box, creating a hard-light projection of Coco's minigun. The two shared a look before firing into the crowd down the center, lighting up the forest in a blaze of minigun fire as a good dozen beowolves fell.

By the time their guns went silent, the forest was looking significantly more devastated, with several trees destroyed, cracked, or otherwise damaged. Though, on the bright side, there were several dozen grimm corpses rapidly disintegrating as well.

Jaune sighed as he cut away another branch. "The universe just loves proving me wrong, doesn't it."

Ruby rolled her eyes. "You make it too easy."

The group made their way through the forest, heads on swivels as they got deeper and deeper into the place. Though, unbeknownst to them, something was watching, staring them down as they inched deeper and deeper into the forest. A figure stood far from them, staring at a red world with black tints, with each human outlined in white. They held up a large, bone whistle to their lips.

Screeeeeee!

The huntsmen paused, everyone looking around. Jaune frowned as a shiver ran up his spine, turning around and staring into the forest. Yet he saw nothing, because nothing wanted to be seen yet. "Everyone keep your guard up, something's out there."

"Awooo!"

Ruby's eyes widened as she saw several small, dog-like grimm with bone-skull plates walk out of the forest, slowly encircling the group. She backed up, feeling her sister pressing against her cloak. Oobleck raised a hand as he stood in the center. "Tight formation! Don't let the shepherds get behind you! Their fangs carry a highly debilitating toxin!"

Nora held uper Magnhild. "Kaboom?"

"No, Nora! No kaboom!" Jaune said.

The shepherds kept circling, as if waiting.

Scree! Scree! Scree!

At the three sharp whistles, they at once charged, slamming forward. Jaune and Pyrrha raised their shields, blocking the creatures before stabbing into their vulnerable bellys. Coco and Nora slammed their weapons into the grimm charging them, breaking their skull-plates into the ground beneath them. Ruby, Yang, Ren, and Blake fired bullets into the ones charging them. Weiss, meanwhile, created a glyph that caught the grimm in mid air, letting her stab through it with a single thrust of Myrtenaster. Velvet and Oobleck, meanwhile, were protected in the center.

Thwip!

An arrow flew into the ground just in front of Yang.

Screeeeeeee! Screeeeeee!

Five shepherds dashed from the undergrowth, charging straight for Yang. Blake and Coco fired at them, only for the shepherds to keep charging, undeterred. Yang boxed forward shells into the creatures until, shockingly, one of them bite into the other, holding them up as a shield until they were close enough to leap forward, biting into Yang's neck.

"Ow! Little bastard!"

BANG! BANG!

The shepherd fell as Yang rubbed her neck, two tiny, blood-red pinpricks clear on it.

Screeeeeee!

The few remaining shepherds retreated into the undergrowth, as if called away by the noise. Jaune frowned, staring off in the direction they fled. Something's wrong. Grimm don't normally act like this, do they? It's like they're being controlled by something…a stronger grimm, maybe? But what could control that many shepherds at once?

Oobleck walked over to Yang, holding up a hand. "Miss Xiao Long! Let me see your neck, quickly!"

Yang walked over, craning her neck slightly and wincing as Oobleck prodded it with his fingers. "Oh dear. This is very bad, very, very bad indeed. Just these tiny pinpricks are enough for the shepherd venom to reach your bloodstream!"

Yang quietly gulped, trying not to seem bothered by it. "So? Got any antidote for it?"

"I'm afraid there's no antidote for shepherd venom. It will have to run its course."

Ruby's eyes widened as she dashed to Yang, wrapping her arms around her. "Is Yang gonna be okay? Is it bad? IS SHE GONNA DIE!?"

Oobleck held up his hand. "Relax, miss Rose. Shepherd venom has never been recorded as being lethal. It will however, unfortunately, leave Miss Xiao Long in a comatose state in a few moments."

Yang blinked twice. "Wait, how long untiiiilll—"

Yang fell back, Ruby just barely catching her.

Ruby looked at Oobleck. "Ugh…are we just gonna keep going with Yang like this? Shouldn't we withdraw?"

Oobleck shook his head. "Our extraction isn't scheduled until tomorrow morning. I'm afraid we'll simply have to continue on without Miss Xiao Long's assistance. She'll be awake in a few hours once her aura fights off the venom. In the meantime, we'll need someone to carry her."

Coco walked over, cracking her knuckles. "I got her. Pass her over, Ruby."

Ruby did so, Coco hefting Yang onto her back, her hair flowing over Coco's shoulders. She shifted back slightly, setting her purse on her hip. "Welp, I'm not gonna be able to fire a minigun like this, so unless we get into a protracted conflict, I'm outta commission too."

Jaune frowned. "Oobleck, is it possible that whistling came from another grimm?"

Oobleck frowned. "I…don't believe there's a grimm that's been recorded as sounding like that, Mister Arc. What are you suggesting?"

Jaune sighed. "It's probably stupid, but those shepherds seemed…off. It was like something was controlling them, the way they responded to the whistle. Is it possible there's a stronger grimm in the area? Something's that can control lesser grimm like these shepherds?"

Oobleck slowly nodded. "I suppose that is a possibility. An older grimm, perhaps. Something with more knowledge and experience. Their brains are rudimentary, but...we'll have to keep an eye out."

A figure watched from the distance, slowly trekking through the tree tops as their eyes trailed to the central figure. Their white glow was larger than the other. Older, more experienced. They raised a finger, pointing at them. "Anata ni wa jigoku."

They flexed their left hand out, revealing a long, serrated blade coming from their elbow down past the tips of their fingers. They dragged their other hand along it, leaving stains of black blood that fell to the ground. And from that black blood emerged tiny, ant-like grimm with large, bulbous white thoraxes that began scuttling towards the group of huntsmen.

The group, meanwhile, made their way deeper into the forest, slaying a few smaller groups of grimm here and there. Until, eventually, Oobleck held up a hand. "This is far enough for now. Everyone, take a brief respite and drink from your canteens or other provisions. Mr. Arc, Miss Belladonna, you two are on watch. Guard the perimeter."

The two nodded, the group setting up in a small clearing as Jaune and Blake guarded the outskirts. Ruby, without hesitation, grabbed her water bottle from her backpack and downed about half of it, plopping down on the ground. "Man it's hot out today."

Weiss sat next to her. "You're telling me. If it weren't a horribly untactical move, I'd use some ice dust just to cool off."

"Can you do that? Please please please!"

Weiss shook her head. "No, I will not use my very limited dust supply for a minor convenience. It may very well make the difference between life and death out here."

Meanwhile, Nora, Ren, and Pyrrha sat on the opposite side of the clearing, closer to Blake than Jaune who was guarding the other side. Nora downed some water as Ren ate a protein bar. Pyrrha looked between them before breaking the silence. "So, everyone enjoying the trip so far?"

Nora nodded. "Yeah, it's been great! Nice views, great places, everything's going great!" her eyes flicked to Ren. "Well, almost everything."

Pyrrha sighed as her eyes trailed to Jaune. "I know what you mean."

Nora frowned, eyes flicking to Jaune before trailing back to her. "You know, Pyrrha, Ren and I were talking about going to one of the beaches down south. It's not that far from the hotel—only a little time if we catch a cab. Maybe you and Jaune wanna come with?"

Pyrrha's eyes widened, her cheeks tinting pink at the thought of wearing a swimsuit in front of Jaune. Or, a thought that brought even more pink to her cheeks, Jaune without a shirt on. "Oh I, I'm not sure."

Nora's eyes flicked to Jaune, gesturing at him. "I dunno, you might wanna hurry up and decide."

Pyrrha turned, eyes widening as she saw Jaune and Ruby talking, casually discussing something about X-ray and Vav—that one comic series she tried getting into for Jaune's sake but could never really understand all the hype about. Though, it was rather clear what Nora was getting at: Either Pyrrha took some seriously bigger steps, or she was getting left behind.

"I'll ask him later."

"Now, Pyrrha."

Pyrrha gulped, taking a breath before nodding, making her way to Jaune and, by extension, Ruby.

"I'm telling you, X-ray is way stronger than Vav."

"Vav can just shoot X-ray once and he's slowed the rest of the fight. Then it's over."

Pyrrha cleared her throat, drawing the eyes of the two. "Jaune, there's something I'd like to ask you."

Jaune looked over, brow furrowing. "Huh? Yeah, of course. What is it?"

Pyrrha cleared her throat. "Well, Nora, Ren, and I were planning on heading to the beach after we get done with this mission. Would you, um, like to accompany us?"

"Yeah, sure, sounds like fun."

Pyrrha's eyes widened a bit as she nodded. "Oh, okay. Um, great! Great."

She promptly turned back, slowly walking back to Nora.

Ruby turned to Jaune, brow furrowing. "What was that about?"

Jaune shrugged. "Dunno. Pyrrha just gets like that sometimes."

Oobleck, meanwhile, was sitting against a tree, drinking from his thermos. He smiled as he stared at his students, all talking amongst themselves, despite the genuinely serious danger they were in just being in this place.

He paused as he felt something crawl on his hand.

He looked down, thinking it was a bug.

BOOM!

Oobleck shouted as an ant slammed its massive white thorax onto his hand, exploding into a stinging, white acid. He saw dozens of others charging towards him, leaping into the air propelled by other's explosions. Before anyone could react, he'd been hit in the chest, hands, and his face with the acid.

He fell to the ground, screaming as he clutched at his face, trying to rub the acid off only to get more on him as he writhed in pain. Jaune dashed over, pausing just above him before realizing he had no idea what to do.

Oobleck writhed for a few seconds before suddenly going still, his head lolling to the side.