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"So…" Ruby's uncle, Qrow, rumbled a few hours after their flight had started. Ruby sat up from where she'd been lounging across a few seats while Pyrrha hummed and raised an eyebrow, and the man took both as a sign to go on, "How many missions have you two run?"

"Does helping a crashed ship crew survive count…?"

"No, dummy." Qrow sighed, shaking his head, "It doesn't."

"Hey!" Ruby squawked, "You can't call me a dummy. It's not, ya know… Huntsmanly!"

"Huntsmanly, Ruby? Really?" Qrow shrugged, taking a drink from his flask as if for emphasis.

"You're supposed to be…" Ruby pouted, "It's your job, Uncle Qrow."

"Yeah, well-"

"We are inexperienced, true enough…" Pyrrha admitted genially, cutting the older Huntsman off before he could come down on her younger team-mate. Even if she wasn't entirely sure of their dynamic, yet, she was sure a squabble wasn't a healthy part of it. Especially when she could smell his drink from there, and had caught Ruby's sour looks at the little flask. Quietly, she dipped her head and said, "That's the whole purpose of having a wise, professional Hunter here. To guide us, no?"

"More to make sure you don't end up dead or worse, but… Yeah, pretty much." He shrugged, nodding and turning his flask around a few times in his hand like it was a nervous tic. Looking more closely, Pyrrha could almost swear it had an… Emblem of some sort engraved onto it. He slid it into a pocket before she could really look, though, and the man went on. "Fine. Yeah. Alright… So, we're escorting tax collectors, more or less. Up along a long rout between a few villages, to collect information and tithe-samples for the Kingdom."

"Tithe-samples…?"

"Basically, they say 'we grew a thousand potatoes' and they can send the few hundred they owe with the caravan, right?" Ruby nodded, and Qrow went on, "Well, what if they grew a hundred thousand potatoes? One travelling group can't haul ten thousand spuds all the way through. It gets worse for miners, quarriers, and the like- Imagine, trying to haul twenty tons o' stone along with an inhuman amount of vegetables and ore-metals?"

"It'd be a nightmare, by horse and cart." Pyrrha hummed, "And sending trucks and Bullheads could be expensive. Especially if a season went well and they need to wait for more to come."

"Or," Qrow nodded, "If a season went bad, and there's not enough to justify the expense in Dust. So, ahead of taxes, they send someone to appraise everything so it's more fair, and they can send what they need to pick everything up a week or two later. After Vytal."

"So we're…" Ruby furrowed her nose, thinking and looking for the right word before she settled on, "Tax scouts?"

"I believe the term is 'auditors', Ruby." Pyrrha chuckled, shaking her head, "Although 'tax scout' has it's charm, I suppose…"

"Y-Yeah…?" The smaller girl chuckled, scrunching in on herself and smiling nervously.

"Mhm." She turned when Qrow rumbled and the man had narrow, sharp eyes for her. He relaxed a moment later, mostly, but those sharp, angled features seemed to hold a more hostile edge, now. She ignored it as he said, "We meet the guy running the caravan, and make sure no one dies while he does his job. Only a few towns need a hit, and, well, they should have records on hand. So shouldn't be long. If it is, we snag a bounty on any Grimm nearby and head out."

"Sounds like fun!" Ruby chirped before Pyrrha could respond, bouncing energetically in her seat. "I wonder what we'll find…"

"Most of the same we've fought already, I'm sure." Pyrrha chuckled, "But we can always hope for something more… Interesting, I suppose."

"I mean, we can't go on a whole stinking trip and not fight something big and-"

"Landing in five, aprox." The pilot cut in, voice crackling over the internal speakers and cutting Ruby off. "Weather is clear, and ground-coordination says we're green. Setting down at a designated landing site just a bit outside town. Grimm have been sighted, so keep an eye out for disembarkation, but it shouldn't be too long a walk after that."

After a second, Qrow gave Pyrrha a look and cocked his head and said, "Well? Going to respond?"

"Ah, r-right." She nodded, standing so she could reach the intercom switch and stammering in a sudden, surprising bout of nervousness, "R-Right, we'll keep an eye out when we, ah, land. Thank you?"

"You're… Welcome?" The pilot answered while Pyrrha sat and Qrow laughed into his hands.

"I've never done that before…" She defended herself, cheeks hot.

"Well," Ruby puffed up, "I think you did fine."

"Thank you, Ruby." She bowed her head, turning to Qrow with a smile and adding. "It's nice that someone here is polite and understanding."

He just smirked, took yet another swig from his flask, and gave her a little wink. Shaking her head, Pyrrha let him be and stood as the Bullhead turned and its front lifted up in that familiar way it did whenever it was coming in to land. The rear door opened a moment later and Pyrrha shouldered her pack, stepping out into warm sun and the heady smell of crop-fields and forests nearby.

Their landing site was little more than an old, cracked bit of circular gravel and bare dirt barely large enough for their ship. A few little clusters of weed-flowers had sprouted up amongst the rocks and dirt along the edges, which told her people rarely flew into Anselm. There was an old, cracked road a few yards from the landing site, though, and she assumed that was the main means of travel, curving down along the mountainside's natural angles to one side and up gently to another, both of which vanished into the thick trees that grew along the mountainside.

"It's quite nice…" She hummed as Ruby joined her, bouncing past her and over to the road's edge while her uncle sauntered out behind her. She gave the man a look and asked, "You wouldn't happen to know which is the way to go?"

"No, but I can find out." He grunted, waving for her to follow and calling, "You too, Weed. Gonna learn you something."

He lead them to the edge of the road and just into the treeline, where he circled the trees closest to the road, running his fingers along them. They waited for a while until, finally, Ruby started to get impatient and asked, "What… Are you doing, Uncle Qrow?"

"Looking for something. Old mountain travel trick from Mistral, hopped over after the Great War…" He explained, snapping his fingers when he found what he was looking for and waved them over. "Here, take a look. See it?"

It was a little circle carved into the bark of the old, towering maple, with a line leading to an 'N' and another a few degrees off from it that ran longer, to an 'A'. The latter had a number on the line - one - but the other didn't.

"North." The Hunter grunted, tapping the 'N' and then tapping the 'A'. "Anselm. Scouts in the war would carve the direction for north in and the nearest town, fort, whatever for orienteering. Veterans who became loggers, hunters, or, well… Us, they kept up the habit. Find the biggest, strongest maple tree you can, or oak if you don't see many maples, and you should find one of these eventually."

"Clever…" She hummed, "And useful in emergencies, I wager."

"If you know what you're looking for…" He nodded, spotting something else along the wood and frowning as he tapped it. "Guesses what this is?"

Pyrrha stepped around and saw what he'd found. It was a newer symbol, carved into the wood like the first. But this one was a bit smaller and square, with three claw-like gashes along the middle. An 'A' she took for 'Anselm' rested below it, but there were no directions of lines to follow. Why 'Anselm' was placed where it was, she didn't know, but…

She could guess what the familiar symbol meant.

"White Fang…" She hummed, flicking the man a look. "Right?"

"Mhm." He nodded, "Those same veterans? Some were Faunus. Placement of the name is how travelling Faunus know what kind of town they're headed to. Below means it's friendly enough."

"Well…" Pyrrha sighed, "That's good, I guess?"

"Mhm. Better not to have bigots than to have them, at least…" Qrow shrugged, "Anyway, you have your direction, Nikos. Lead on."

"Right." She nodded, turning after a moment of nervous reconsideration.

She'd assumed he was just a drunken old man, someone that had been great, once, and fallen off the proverbial wagon, but… He was actually knowledgeable, willing to go out of his way to teach them, and at least according to Ruby, an adept fighter. Enough to have trained Ruby herself. And Pyrrha had seen the younger woman fight, the headmaster trusting him for this aside. Which only made her wonder what had happened, to reduce him to this state…

Shaking it off, she nodded again and said, "Let's go, then. Ruby, trail behind and keep your eyes open."

"Yep yep!"

"And me?"

"You…" She hummed, unsure for a moment, "I don't know your style, so stay in the center. If Grimm come, then you will help whoever needs to hold while the other comes to help."

"Not bad…" He nodded, "Not bad. Alright, gotcha, little boss."

The road wound a bit as it meandered up the mountainside and then down again, into a natural dip the road had followed as it was made. For much of it, the forest remained thick and dark, with only dappled light managing to reach them on the roadside and cool air that blew between the trunks from inside the forest. But, slowly, the trees began to thin out, spacing out further and further with shrubs and bushes and fallen logs and limbs scattered between. Eventually, she made out stumps where trees had been felled, and finally saw her first people - loggers, cutting away the limbs of a fallen oak while a truck got into position to carry it off. One spotted her and waved, and she returned the gesture as she went on.

Beyond that, they reached wider, more open spaces, walking between low terrace-farms held up by thick, iron-reinforced stonework. There was space beside the road to walk, with only their heads able to peek above the terraces on the higher side and a second terrace layer level with the road on their right. Low stone walls ran along the edges of each and, on the lower side, she could see wooden walkways laid out along the insides of the walls and down the middle of the fields, in between half-grown corn stalks on the high side and shorter bushels of flowers on the other - flax, she believed.

And all of it looking down on dozens more levels of the terraces, with a mix of flowers and vegetables she couldn't identify at such a range. Until the farms gave way to the thinner forest, like they'd passed on the way in, and in turn gave way to the full wood. But, with such a view, she could see more settlements along the mountains, curving away from them. And a few down in the vale of the mountains, too, with more traditional fields around them, hugging a wide, powerful river she could see boards on.

A river where she could see… Smoke, further up the mountain, near one of the other settlements. She couldn't make out what was burning, but several dark strands crawled up into the sky from it and made anxiety well up in the back of her mind.

"It's beautiful nonetheless…" Pyrrha murmured to herself, ignoring the smoke and instead looking for the water that had to keep the fields fresh.

"Under 'em." She almost jumped when Qrow spoke from right behind her, so silent she still didn't even hear him now she knew to listen. He paced ahead of her, staring at the wall until he pointed down where Pyrrha could just make out the edge of a pipe under the road. "Snowmelt that fed rivers runs into a water plant at the top, and down through pipes to the town and the crops."

"Ingenious…"

"Desperation breeds innovation." He shrugged, "We're almost there, now. C'mon."

Anselm itself was less centralized than she'd expected, with several circle-squares scattered along the hills between the terraces that each had their own admittedly thin stone wall. Inside, she could see long rows of salt-box houses pressed close against the walls, with tall stone watchtowers in the middle that she assumed kept a lookout on the farms and the town. It was a design she understood easily enough, after a moment's thought - the farmers would be closer to their fields, this way, and if one hamlet fell then the others would still be safe while they waited for rescue.

And, she hoped, took in fleeing people from the fallen hamlets.

At near enough the center of the settlement there was a wide, squat stone building with wide window-walls and ancient seeming steepled roofs. A belltower hung above it, right in the center, and gargoyles ringed the roof's edge. Around it was an open area of low-cut grass broken up by circular sitting areas with firepits in the middle, and a single huge space right in front of the grandest entrance, with stained glass walls and a tall fluttering banner of Vale hanging above it.

"A monastery…?"

"Eh, I'd call it more of a small temple." Qrow grunted, pointing at a man at the far end of the open front area, standing and talking to a robed man beside a half dozen long, wood and canvas horse-drawn carts being loaded and tended by uniformed men and women. "That's our man there."

The man was lightly armored, with a breastplate not unlike the one Jaune had worn when he first came to Beacon and a dark blue hooded coat that hung down behind his legs. He wore a thick, padded black shirt under the breastplate and leather-patched trousers tucked into heavy, metal-capped leather boots. She spotted a handgun in a holster nearly hidden behind his breastplate, but he was otherwise unarmed and smiled thinly through his beard as they reached him and he turned.

"Ah." He said, a faint but somehow still thick accent curling the pale-skinned man's words. "You must be my escort, from Beacon. I would recognize you anywhere, Champion."

"Yes, well…" She smiled, "It does help expedite introductions. To that end, this is Qrow, a professional Huntsman Beacon sent to assist us. And this is-"

"Ruby!" The girl smiled, materializing in front of Pyrrha in a flash of rose petals. "Is that a Sig Ninety Two?"

"You have a grand eye, Miss." He nodded, reaching up to draw the weapon and holding it lengthwise in both hands so she could see it. It was sleek, with a curved grip, black revolver barrel, and a heavy evolver chamber. "EIght high caliber rounds - enough to stop anything smaller than a Giant Nevermore, and cripple anything that big enough to let me reload and finish it."

"They only made thirty of these… Ruby murmured, tracing her finger along a little bracket that held a long, thin piece of metal, careful not to actually touch it. "Is that the original disassembly drill, too?"

"It is!"

"Amazing…" Ruby cooed, "How did you get something like this?"

"It was a… Gift, after a fashion, from a friend a number of years ago." And Pyrrha and Ruby both were attentive enough to pick up the quiet, distant echo of pain in those words. Gently, he withdrew the weapon, holstered it and sighed. "Nevermind that, though- We've work to do. The Good Father here was telling me about some trouble along the vale."

"A Taurus." The old, robed man nodded, frowning deeply, "There were three, but… Well, a passing Huntress tried her hand at them. She managed two, but…"

"Taurus are tough." Qrow nodded, "Hell of a Huntress to get even two on her own."

"Indeed." The Father nodded, sighing sadly and gesturing at the temple. "Her funeral is tomorrow. I'd invite you to come, but… I mean no offense when I say I want you to leave as soon as possible. I believe you should deal with the beast instead of observing."

"There is no better way to show a Huntress our respects than by killing the quarry which bested her." The Hunter nodded, guffawing after a moment and rapping a gloved fist against his own head. Turning, he added, "Where are my manners? My name is Xavier. Xavier Edelweiss. A pleasure."

Smiling, Pyrrha shook his hand and nodded, "Indeed it is."

"Now that's done…" Qrow cut in, "How long until we leave?"

"Fifteen minutes, give or take." Xavier nodded, turning and waving them off, "You have travelled already. Rest for a time, I will see it done and we will go. Yeah?"

Nodding, Pyrrha turned and padded away to find a spot to sit while Ruby and Qrow trailed along behind her, already talking about how best to handle the Taurus.

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The rest of the day passed by quietly, once they were under way. But quiet did not mean fast by any means. Their horses weren't built for swiftness so much as they were built to be sturdy, strong, and have more endurance than the mountains they walked on. Broad-shouldered and with long tails and shaggy manes, they did their work without even once beginning to slow, between minute long breaks to give them water and oats. All while their drivers hummed quietly, content and used to the slow, plodding pace the horses set.

A pace Pyrrha would have been able to keep up with on foot…

She rode atop the lead cart, sitting just above the rider and keeping an eye on the tree-line as they went whenever she wasn't walking alongside the cart. Eventually, as the forest grew dark and loud with the sound of insects, Xavier called out, "All stop! We rest here for the night."

"Really?" She asked, watching him climb off the seat beside the front driver and stretch his legs. He turned to her and she asked, "We can make another mile at least, can't we?"

"We'd be setting up in the dark." Ruby actually said, before anyone else could, as she bounced past Pyrrha and turned to pet the horses. "Not a great plan…"

"Also," Xavier added, gesturing at a semicircle of open ground ringed by fallen trees and stumps marked out with little red flags, "I found a good enough spot, and may not find one later."

"A camping spot?"

"If it ain't broke, don't fix it, brat." Qrow grunted, clapping her on the shoulder as he marched by. He found a spot at the far edge of the open ground and plopped onto it, leaning against the stump with a sandwich in one hand and a blanket in the other, which he waved at them. "Gnight, all. Don't make too much racket."

"You're not going to help…?"

"Everyone has their own job, on runs like this, Miss Nikos." Xavier answered when Qrow only rolled his eyes and took a drink. He was holding her tent-pack, which they'd loaded into one of the carts, which he handed her. Turning, he gestured at the other workers already unloading their own packs and boxes, picking out spots inside the circle of wagons while the horses grazed, tethered to their carts. "Pick your spot, make your food, make your bed. In the morning, you clean it all up."

"Yeah." Ruby nodded, "We used to go camping all the time, Uncle Qrow just sleeps weird."

"Hey." He grunted, "I don't sleep weird. I'm just lazy. Get it straight."

"Yes, Uncle Qrow." She rolled her eyes, "That's way better…"

"I mean, I think it is…"

"Come on." Ruby grunted, hefting her own pack and smiling, "Let's find a comfy spot."

Their 'comfy spot' turned out to be a little stretch of mostly dirt ground between a pair of heavy stumps, with a huge tree fallen beside them that almost made a wall between them and the rest of the forest. It was so freshly fallen, in fact, that many of the limbs still had leaves. Drying, dry leaves, of course, but leaves nonetheless. While Ruby gathered wood, Pyrrha dug them a fire-pit and got to work on lighting it. With it crackling, they pulled out their shelters and got to work on them.

Rather than full tents, Pyrrha had opted for 'lean to' tents, with thick canvas on their backs and sticking out a foot and a half on the sides at the base. The tops of the sides were a couple inches shorter, tapering up along thick aluminium rods with a little flap that hung over the open side and a spare rod. That one was for them to prop up if it was raining, for a bit more protection. The bottoms of the lean-tos were thicker, with thicker frame-poles that kept it smooth and steady as she sat down, watching Ruby set up their little cooking tripod.

As the smell of salted meat and potatoes filled the air, Pyrrha relaxed and sighed, "You were quite right, Ruby…?"

"Hm?"

"This was a grand idea." She sighed, leaning against the stump behind the flexible back of her tent. "The fresh air, the quiet, the work… It has already been an exercise in distracting me, as you'd suggested."

"I'm happy to hear that." Ruby smiled, a touch of anxiety creeping into her voice before she added, "I-I've enjoyed it, too. It's nice, just… Getting to actually work. Ya know, together?"

"Mhm." And there it was once again. Ruby's rather poorly hidden ulterior motive - Pyrrha was not nearly inattentive enough not to notice the foot or so behind Ruby's tent that Ruby had left empty to be ever so slightly closer to her, after all. But, ignoring it, she asked instead, "How ready to face this 'Taurus' do you feel?"

"I mean…" She shrugged, the gesture almost invisible in the darkness. "S'our job. It won't matter how I feel if it shows up, and… Well, feeling anxious is liable to make sure it does. So if I did, I wouldn't, you know?"

"I suppose…" She nodded, "But I meant more… Do you have ideas to deal with it?"

"Well…" The younger girl was quiet, for a bit, as she thought. Finally, she said, "If we want to deal with it, then from what I remember, the easiest way is to make it mad. Taurus are supposed to be fairly smart, for Grimm, but their tempers are legendary."

"But how do you make a Grimm angry…?"

"Hurting it." Ruby answered quietly, "There's four of us, so… We surround it, pepper it at range, and wait for it to get angry and charge. From there we just… Hit it 'til it dies?"

"Ah." Pyrrha chuckled, "Poetry."

"Oh, bite me…"

"I'm sorry, you want me to bite you?" Pyrrha asked teasingly, just a heartbeat before her mouth could quite catch up to her brain.

"I-I'm sorry?" Ruby squeaked, suddenly red enough that Pyrrha could actually see it in the firelight. Nervously waving her off, she hopped up and rushed over to the food cooking, stammering out, "N-No, I meant… Uh, that's what this stew is saying! Mmmm, doesn't it smell awesome?"

"That it does." She rolled her eyes, "Let's eat and turn in for the night. Who knows what tomorrow will bring…"

"Yep yep." Ruby stammered in a nervous tone that told Pyrrha she could have suggested Ruby head out to hunt the Taurus on her own that very moment and she would have done it to escape the embarrassment. Still, she spooned a bowl of food out for her and offered it over. "Here ya go. I have salt and pepper if you need it?"

"Pepper sounds grand." She smiled, "Thank you."

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The next morning was just as quiet as the day before it had been, albeit with a darker, greyer sky that rumbled threats of distant thunder to accompany the misting rain already washing over them gently. Most of it was beyond the mountains, however, and Xavier promised that the worst of it would break against the mountainside. Which, according to Qrow, was normal for the area. The true storms broke on the outside of the mountains, leaving the land there rougher and more ragged, pitted by crags and ravines swamped in stockier trees suited for the environment. But for the most part, this side only caught the rain and chill, which blew down the mountain almost refreshingly.

Almost, but not quite, without her Aura to keep the chill off her damp skin.

"Here." She looked down at a little thermos Ruby was offering up to her, jogging alongside the cart. Pyrrha raised an eyebrow as she took it, and Ruby explained, "Soup! Nice and warm. Keeps the shivers away, you know?"

"Aura does that, too…"

"Yeah, but this is less wasteful." Ruby shrugged, "Tastes better, too."

"Mhm…" Pyrrha nodded, taking the soup-thermos and taking a long swig of fine potatoes and beef that warmed her right up in a way Aura… Couldn't quite match. Handing it back, she hummed and said, "The things you don't learn in Academies…"

"Yeah, well…" Ruby shrugged, "Dad always said some stuff you can only learn out in the boonies."

"The boonies…?"

"We kind of live out in the middle of nowhere- Uh, gimme a second." In a flash of petals, Ruby vanished, flitting around the back of the cart and over its roof to land beside Pyrrha. Getting more comfortable, she held out her Scroll and said, "So, we live out in the woods on our island. We garden and hunt and stuff, because… Sometimes it's hard to get to town, you know?"

"Your father taught you about the soup, then?"

"Mhm." She nodded, "He always liked to say 'a touch of comfort on the road keeps the beasts away'."

"Wise man!" The cart-driver called back, holding up a little baggie of nuts and meats. "A little spot of ease helps when the road is rough… First thing ya learn, when you spend enough time out and about like this."

"Indeed." She smiled, chuckling and guessing, "Jerky and nuts?"

"Jerky, nuts and muffin butts." The man laughed, "It's an old… Wait a second."

"What's wrong?" Pyrrha asked as the cart in front of them came to a stop and Xavier stepped off it, one hand on the weapon in its holster. Frowning, Pyrrha dropped off her own cart with Ruby right behind her and turned as Qrow joined them.

"Spotted something up ahead." The man grunted, "C'mon. Let's see what."

"Right…"

What Xavier had spotted turned out to be a trio of uprooted trees fallen haphazardly into the path, with thick woods on either side that their carts would never navigate. The ground where their roots had been ripped up was ragged and muddy, but it at least looked natural enough. It wasn't as if they hadn't passed fallen trees on their way, after all. Up the caravan, she could even see a few of the cart-drivers climbing out, carrying axes and battery-powered saws to clear the trees, but Xavier didn't have any eyes for them. Or even for the fallen trees themselves.

Instead, he and Qrow both were scanning the tree-line when they joined him.

"Mister Edelweiss…?" Ruby asked quietly when neither of the older Hunters spoke. "What's up?"

"Bad feeling…" He answered quietly, "We should spread out, and-"

"Grimm!" The heard a heartbeat before a bestial bellow ripped the air apart at the end of their caravan.

Pyrrha turned as the monster charged from the woodline, swatting one of the drivers aside with a meaty arm and dipping its head to tear through the cart behind him with enough force and power that the straps holding the horses pulled them up and sent them flying into the trees, too. Turning and roaring, the monster leapt to crush a second cart just as the driver pulled it away, driving it into the trees in an effort to evade the Grimm as Xavier fired an incredibly placed shot straight into its bare stomach.

All it did, though, was draw its attention to them as it straightened, muscles curling and coiling all along its body.

The Taurus was nearly twelve feet tall and, unlike most Grimm like it, almost entirely unarmored. Only its face and the front of its head was armored in the distinctive bony-white plating Humanity's enemy sported. The armor was cracked and pitted in places, but intact, with two long tusks that curled along below its jawline that were dyed almost completely blood-red, like its eyes. Two more horns, long enough to reach past its shoulders before they curved forward sprouted from the sides of its huge head, and long claws reached out from its fingers as it stomped its hooves on the door and shook its head, bellowing another hearty roar.

"Got its attention." Xavier grunted, "You three deal with it- I need to get my people out of the way."

"Got it." Qrow grunted, "C'mon, kiddos-"

"I'm going down the center." Pyrrha cut him off, drawing Milo and Akuou with flicks of her hands and marching forward. "Flank it, and aim for its legs. Understood-"

"That's actually-"

"Got it!" Ruby chirped, rocketing off to the side and running along the roofs of the caravans, Crescent Rose spinning in her arms. On her other side, Qrow only sighed and turned, running off into the treeline and vanishing into its darkness.

The Taurus turned as Ruby slipped past it and Pyrrha frowned, shifting her spear to her rifle-form and peppering its flank as it turned, watching her warily. Half the shots missed, whistling off into the distance as Pyrrha shifted back to her spear and rushed it, but enough struck that it turned on her when Ruby slipped into the trees like her uncle had, breaking line of sight. Roaring, it charged to meet her and Pyrrha slid her shield onto her arm, gripping her spear in both hands and waiting until-

In a flash, Ruby appeared behind the Grimm, spinning through the air with Crescent Rose held across the back of her waist as a brace. The heavy blade bit deeply into the Grimm's back, carving down through its hip. Ruby landed beside it as Qrow appeared, too, dropping down from above like he'd been waiting in the very sky to do it, his greatsword biting down into the monster's back as it stumbled and sank to a knee.

But the wounds weren't weren't nearly enough to kill it, and it turned as Pyrrha lunged for its throat, letting the weapon bounce off its hardened hide instead and lunging forward, into her strike. She felt its meaty hand crush across her side and hurl her away, through a tree branch and into another trunk she bounced off of, slamming into the ground and groaning as she practically felt bruises bloom along her back. Forcing herself up, she sucked in a deep breath and forced herself to move, stumbling towards the tree-line.

Just in time to see Qrow go flying across the ground, rolling over to come up in an awkward slide.

Then Ruby screamed, and Pyrrha felt her blood run hot.

Rushing out of the trees she turned as the Grimm turned and hurled the girl into the ground hard enough the paved road cracked under her. The girl still fought, though, swinging Crescent Rose around in a weak strike that the monster caught, wrenching the weapon from her grip and slamming a hoof down into her at the same time, hurling it at Pyrrha when she raised her rifle. It knocked her back a step, but Pyrrha still fired, peppering the arm it held up in rifle-shot as Qrow rushed past her, swinging a towering scythe around himself like she'd seen Ruby do a dozen times, lopping off the Grimm's shield-arm and punching down into the ground beside it. It pivoted on the spot, though, grinding Ruby into the ground as it slammed a fist into Qrow and hurled him skyward, trailing Aura particles.

Then it turned back on Ruby, grinding her into the ground while her Aura flickered.

It ducked as Pyrrha reached it and thrust for its knee, forcing its foot off Ruby as Pyrrha turned, hurling her shield into one of its tusks with her Semblance behind it, snapping it off as she came back around with her spear in both hands. The Grimm still managed to turn, though, and her thrust bounced off its chest as it backed away, snarling lowly and lashing out with its only hand. She turned to take the hit, letting it knock her to the side and staggering around it to keep its gaze on her instead of Ruby as an idea came into shape in her head.

Reaching out with her Semblance, she pulled the weapon towards her as the Grimm got between her and it and Pyrrha danced back, ducking wild swings as the enraged monster pursued her. She ducked another backhand and grunted as it charged with its head and turned, slamming its long horn into her head and drawing a squawk of pain from her as stars danced in front of her vision. She stumbled away from it and dropped to a knee, but smiled as she looked up.

"Surprise!" Crescent Rose thunked into its back, spinning like a drill, with the pointed base of Crescent Rose aimed right for the small of its back. It punched out the other side and the scythe-blade following it nearly cleaved it in two as it sailed past Pyrrha and the crippled monster fell, roaring-

Until Milo slammed up and into its mouth, punching out the back as its own weight brought it down on it. Standing, she stepped past the Grimm and frowned, holding out her hand to draw Milo through it and turning as it finally collapsed, trailing smoke.

"Stupid, disgusting animal…" She snarled, turning as feet pattered towards her and a tiny Ruby shaped missile slammed into her midsection. Chuckling, Pyrrha patted her head while the dirt-covered girl laughed and pulled away. "I'm glad you're alright."

"Alright?" She laughed loudly, "I'm great! That was so cool- How did you even do that?!"

"I'm glad you two little love-birds are alright." Qrow grumbled as he joined them, covered in dirt and holding his flask with a frown. Showing off a crack in its leather base, he said, "Bastard ruined my stocks…"

They both just sighed, until Ruby processed what he'd said and flashed away, thumping the man on the arm and squawking, trying to ignore what he'd said and instead rambling, "W-W-Well, it's not like you need to be d-drinking out here, anyways!"

Pyrrha just rolled her eyes and watched them squabble with one eye while she looked past them where Xavier was checking on the first man the Grimm had hit. When he held up a thumb and helped the man limp over to another cart, she let herself relax a bit. The fight, at least, was over, and no one was terribly hurt…

This trip had been a spectacular idea.

XxX-XxX-XxX

Lea :

Yeah, their snippy little dweebs and I kinda love it lmao.