Jaune and Pyrrha have seemingly gone the wrong direction and are talking amongst themselves.
"Jaune, do you happen to know where we're going?"
"Y-Yeah…! Actually, I'm just as lost as you to be honest…"
"Maybe we should head back the other way since-"
Pyrrha's sentence was cut short when they noticed Cardin and Russell speaking to each other. The two pairs look at each other and Cardin has a wide, obvious fake smile. He trots up to the two and wrapped his arms around their shoulders. Jaune was none the wiser and Pyrrha had a uneasy look on her face toward him.
"Oh, hey~! My partner Russell and I think the ruins are inside that tunnel. Although, we wouldn't be able to defend ourselves if any animals came from behind. So we were discussing if we should split up or not, but it's a miracle that you guys showed up. One can go into the cave and the other stays outside to protect the entrance."
"I don't think that's a-" Pyrrha interrupted.
"If you say it like that, then we'll go first in your stead. This is how Huntsmen should work right, Pyrrha?" Jaune asked while picking up a branch and wrapping it with cloth from his jacket's pocket.
"I guess…" Pyrrha courteously said.
Jaune then soaked the branch with some rubbing alcohol from a small bottle from the same jacket pocket as well.
"Uh, does anyone have some to light this up with?"
Rolling her eyes, Pyrrha obliged and lit it up with her javelin's blade and a piece of flint she had in one of her arm bracers.
"Good luck you two!" Cardin waved them off.
"You sure the ruins are really here?" Russell whispered.
"Who knows."
"But what if they die in the cave?"
"Eh, we'll just wait for half an hour and then head out."
"WHOOOAAAA!" A loud noise coming from their left.
This jolted the two boys as they noticed Nora and Ren from a distance as they rode the bear. Following after, the King Taijitu was hot on their tail and this prompted the two to run along with Nora and Ren. As they all ran through between the trees, the King Taijitu gained more ground. Coincidentally, the horde of scampers managed to get in the King Taijitu's way and attacked the giant snake Grimm. The four students continued to tread ahead and further the distance from it.
At another place, Daniel had already made it back to the ruins and perched up on a tree near the open field. He had also noticed the Nevermore as well and was going to be tempted to shoot it down, but through his scope, he noticed two distinct blobs.
"...Are you kidding me…? Ruby…?! She got partnered up with the heiress, wonder what Ozpin was thinking." Daniel thought to himself.
Back in the cave with Jaune and Pyrrha, the two are having a calm disagreement with the plan they followed from Cardin.
"Jaune, I don't think this is a good idea. I highly doubt Professor Ozpin would make the ruins be in something this out of place for people to find."
"I mean you never know, he always has that mysterious aura around him that leads me to think he made it more abstract."
"I'm more worried that we'll just end up getting lost here."
"Can you please at least humor me, I made the torch and I don't want to waste the emergency supplies I had on hand."
Pyrrha looked uneasy but heeded with Jaune's words. The two make it further into the cave and a large shimmering light hits them which excited Jaune.
"That must be the relic!" Jaune said with full confidence as he gave Pyrrha the torch.
"Wait, Jaune I think we should-"
He grabbed ahold of the glowing object until their eyes managed to adjust. They then notice multiple dimmer lights and a giant stinger that Jaune was holding.
"ARGHHHHH~!" Jaune shrieked in fear.
The stinger lifted him up and Pyrrha booked it out of the cave as she dropped the torch. She managed to make it out of the cave entrance before a giant scorpion Grimm called a Deathstalker broke through the cave entrance. Jaune, still holding onto the stinger, was panicking with all his might as he cried out to Pyrrha.
"Pyrrhhhaaa! Help ME~! DO SOMETHING!? AHHHH!"
"Whatever you do, don't let go-!"
Not a second later, the Deathstalker flung its stinger around in attempt to get Jaune off it. Losing his grip on the stinger, the Grimm jerked its stinger forward which sent his body ragdolling through the air. Pyrrha winced in embarrassment at the Deathstalker with a nervous smile before she skedaddled toward the forest.
Now on the Nevermore's body, Weiss was actively freaking out as she held onto the it for dear life. Her fear exacerbated as Ruby was acting non-chantly about the matter.
"This is a terrible idea!"
"We're fine…! Stop worrying." Ruby trying to reassure the heiress.
"Do you think the situation right now is fine?!"
"Well, yeah, we got away from those weird squirrel creatures."
"And we're on the very thing you suggested that we walk away from the Nevermore."
"You know what, why don't we just jump then!?"
This caused Weiss to blink multiple times, not processing that Ruby had already let go of the Grimm.
"WHAT, are you insane?!" Weiss exclaimed before her mind caught that was not there anymore, "OH, YOU INSUFFERABLE LITTLE RED BI-"
Daniel had been keeping an eye on the whole ordeal as he saw Ruby let go from the Nevermore and now hurling down to Remnant.
"Oh, you dumb little-"
"Brace…"
"Huh?"
He then got distracted by the multiple Grimm roars, shrieks of scampers, and people crying out. Blake and Yang were as distracted as well and the bow girl pointed up to the sky. To which she looked up to see Ruby plummeting down.
"HEADS UPPP!" Ruby screamed at the top of her lungs.
"Ruby!" Yang cried out as she positioned herself to catch her.
At the last moment, Jaune bisected Ruby's fall with his launch and hurled toward where Daniel was. By the time Daniel had noticed the two students cannoning toward him, he instinctively dropped his gun. The ball of kinetic mass collided with Daniel and knocked him out cold.
Ruby saw stars going around as she was snuggling up Daniel's chest with her back.
"W-What was that…? Why d-does my back feel weirdly cushioned…?" Ruby attempted to awake from her daze.
"Ahem…"
The signal was enough to get her out of her daze and she saw Jaune hanging upside down from his foot on a branch.
"Hey, Ruby… I see you're enjoying your seat…" He said with a hint of jealousy.
Ruby turned around to realize she was cushioned by Daniel and shrieked in embarrassment.
"Did you your sister just fall from the sky?!" Blake questioned.
"Uhh… Why did she-"
Interrupting Yang's sentence, from the forest a bear cry could be heard in front of the pair. Out emerged Cardin and Russell first with Nora and Ren following after. The bear that Nora and Ren had been riding on collapsed as they got out into the clearing.
"Aww… it's broken…" Nora frowned while patting its head.
Ren meanwhile had been dizzy from the entire ride and only now stumbled back up in a tired manner.
"Nora… Please… Don't ever do that again…!"
He tried to look where Nora was, but nowhere to be found until he saw her scurrying over to the ruins. The sight irritated him as he used every fiber of his being to lift himself.
Cardin and Russell ran as fast as they could to the ruins and Nora blitzed them over the ruins to grab a gold castle. She playfully grabbed it from its podium in a cutesy manner.
"I'm queen of the castle~! I'm queen of the castle~! I'm queen of the castle~! I'm queen of the castle-"
"NORA!" Ren yelled out.
"Hehe, coming, Ren~!" Nora said as she slid off the gold castle piece off her head onto her hand.
Russell tried to pick out one of the relics but Cardin brushed him aside and picked out the black bishop piece.
"Since I was leading the pack, I get priority." Cardin smugly stated as Russell groaned.
Blake and Yang were still bewildered by the events unfolding as they continued to stand on the steps of the ruins. The bow girl finally blurted out something,
"D-Did that girl just ride on a bear?"
Yang tried to speak, but was interrupted by something from above. Prior, Ruby, in a clear panic, was checking all around Daniel's body to see if something broke and his overall being. Jaune on the other hand was trying to figure out how to get unstuck from the branch. He does this while sulking over Daniel getting cared for by a cute girl, but realizing that he was out cold, mulled over it.
"HOW COULD YOU LEAVE ME!?"
This caught Ruby's attention and she looked up to see Weiss only hanging now one of the claws of the Nevermore. Jaune finally got himself unstuck from the branch and managed to catch onto the one Daniel and Ruby were on. He climbed back onto the branch while Ruby yelled up in a whiny manner,
"I said JUMP!"
Not having the strength to hold, Weiss's grip failed her, and she was now plummeting toward Remnant. Seeing an opportunity, Jaune readied himself for a running start.
"Uh, Jaune, what are you doing-"
Without missing a beat, Jaune ran as fast he could on the branch and swan-dived with his arms out. At the same time, Weiss managed to land perfectly in Jaune's arms which made him ecstatic. Until he realized they were still mid-air to which, the two plummeted to the ground. Weiss managed to land on Jaune's back, but overall unappreciative of his save.
"My hero…" She said sarcastically.
"M-My back…!" Jaune cried out in pain.
All Ruby could do was wince at Jaune's pain while Cardin and Russell laughed hysterically at his misery.
"Was that a Nevermore?" Blake confused.
With everything that had unfolded, Yang's anger burst out in a ball of fury along with her hair on fire.
"I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE! CAN EVERYONE JUST CHILL OUT FOR TWO SECONDS, BEFORE SOMETHING CRAZY HAPPENS AGAIN!?"
Upon hearing Yang's roar, everyone stared at her silently as the fire sprouting from her hair calmed down. She then took a deep breath as she brushed her hair behind her to get rid of the last embers from it. Ruby checked on Daniel one more time before dropping down from the tree and rushing over to Yang; elated to see each other,
"Ruby!"
"Yang!" Ruby cried out as she tried to hug Yang.
"Nora!" Nora popped out inbetween the sisters.
They stopped in place from the Ginger's sudden appearance which irked Yang for a little moment. From a distance, Pyrrha emerged out of the treeline from the same direction Jaune was thrown from.
"Jauuunne!" Pyrrha exclaimed as she continued to run from the Deathstalker right behind her.
"Pyrrha!" Jaune yelled back as he was rubbing his lower back.
A claw strike was inches away from Pyrrha as she managed to jump out of the way to avoid the attack. Afterward, she flared up her aura to slice through multiple trees that temporarily pinned the Grimm. However, the Deathstalker took another swipe at her with its other claw and Pyrrha used her shield to block. The force from the attack careened to where the rest of the group was standing.
Blake and Jaune immediately aided her back up with Weiss worryingly looking if she sustained injuries of some kind. The Deathstalker freed before pausing to be drawn to Daniel's location on the tree and bolted to him.
Yang dryly quipped, "Great, the gang's all here now. Now we can all die together!"
"Not if I can help it!" Ruby took it as a challenge before realizing the Deathstalker heading in Daniel's direction, "Wait, it's going after Daniel!"
"Ruby, wait!" Yang trying to catch Ruby from running off.
Ruby bursted in a sprint with Crescent Rose out in its rifle mode to fire a few shots. This distracted the scorpion beast as chips of its carapace chipped, but still persistent. Now transformed into its scythe form, she used the rifle round to propel herself forward ready to strike it. Just as the Deathstalker reached Daniel's location, it noticed Ruby in time and swiped her away with its claw.
"Don't worry! I'm totally fine!" Ruby winded from the strike as she got up.
She stared right back at the Grimm and fired some more shots at the carapace which managed to gouge one of the eyes. Achieving switching targets from Daniel to Ruby. Yang had already ran after her, but the Nevermore in the sky noticed Ruby being alone. It fired down an artillery of giant feathers causing Ruby's cape to be stuck and Yang's path blocked. Young huntress tried her hardest to pull her cape away from the giant feather, but to no avail.
"Ruby, get out of there!" Yang managed to regain her footing to tread through.
"I'm trying!" Ruby desperately pulled at her cape.
Back from the group, Weiss had realized the situation was dire and prepared a glyph infused with lightning dust. Getting into a ready stance to lunge forward and the other's taking notice.
"Can someone rescue Daniel from that tree!?" Jaune cried out while pointing at the tree.
"Daniel?" Pyrrha shocked by the name.
"I can mask him from the Grimm, but I need someone to go after him to pick him up!" Ren stated.
"On it!" Blake exclaimed as she threw her pistol's blade to one of the nearby trees.
Ren ran up ahead as Blake pulled herself forward to where her weapon was to get to Daniel. Slamming down his hand, a grey area emerged around him and protruded toward the tree where Daniel was. Blake caught up to it by the time it reached him and found Daniel still passed out. Trying to carry him but his size compared to his weight was a overbearing for her to carry reliably.
Nora was on the pursuit as well and caught up with Blake to then offer to carry him herself. Blake noticed his rifle on the ground and picked that up instead before running off with Nora.
"Whoa, you're pretty hefty!"
Daniel only groaned as she hoisted him on her shoulder. At the same time, the Deathstalker had reached Ruby and prepared its stinger to stab her. As the stinger took its strike at Ruby, a blur brushed past her as she braced for the attack.
Surprised by no pain, she opened her eyes to see the stinger stuck inches away from her face. Only to notice Weiss with her rapier stuck into the ground and glacier-covered Deathstalker.
"Weiss…?"
"You're childish, dimwitted, and hyperactive. And don't even get me started on your fighting style. And I suppose… I can be a bit… difficult… but if we're going to do this. We're going to have to do this together. So if you quit trying to show off, I'll be… nicer."
"I'm not trying to show off, I want you to know I can do this. And someone was in danger!"
"...You're fine." Weiss said while walking away from the Deathstalker.
"...Normal days…" Ruby elatedly whispered to herself.
She then processed the stuck Grimm in ice and Yang caught up finally to punch away the quil from her cape to free her. Yang gave Ruby a comforting hug and stated,
"I'm so happy you're okay! Wait, how did you crash into Daniel…?"
"Uh…"
"Guys!" Jaune interrupting their tender moment pointing to the sky at the Nevermore, "It's circling back!"
All six people out in the field make it back to the ruins and Weiss quipped,
"Well, there's no point dilly dallying, our objective is right in front of us!"
"Okay, that's a relief." Jaune sighed.
"Run and live. That's an idea I can get behind." Russelll said with a yorkish accent.
Ruby and Jaune go up to the ruins to grab the remaining relics on the pedestals; Jaune picking the gold rook and Ruby going for the gold knight. Upon picking up the relics, their scrolls ping and the two pulled out their scrolls. A quick look was all they needed to know and the two shared an anxious look. They exit the ruins to bring the news to them.
"Evac is going to be beyond those Grimm, from where we came from!" Ruby stated.
The King Taijitu then emerged from the forest and looked even more furious than last time.
"I mean, we can just rush past them. We already got one of them and the other one injured." Cardin shrugged.
Rolling her eyes, Weiss glared at Cardin, "If you want to die, go ahead."
Rocking on her feet, Ruby observed the monsters coming at them as she pondered on something. Meanwhile, Jaune was doing the opposite and looking around the environment to then catch another site of ruins. It was just beyond where he was standing and exclaimed,
"If we can lure the Grimm over to the ruins, the ten of us plus one unconscious body can possibly circumvent them. Giving us a chance to book it to the evac site."
Blake shrugged, "Better than any plan that I can come up with."
Ren nodded in agreement and looked at the approaching monsters, "It's time we leave."
They all make a run for the temple as the Grimm are fast on their tails. Ren and Pyrrha help defend Nora as she carried Daniel in a fireman carry along with his hunting rifle around him.
Multiple attacks from the Grimm that barely miss any of the students; Blake and Russell being able to dodge while taking potshot slashes at them; Weiss using her glyphs to protrude ice towers to slow down the Grimm on the ground; Yang being able to push Jaune out of the way from another feather artillery with her shotgun blasts; Ren firing at the Nevermore in the sky with his handguns; Pyrrha protecting Nora from a head strike from the King Taijitu; Cardin able to smack one of the quills toward the Deathstalker with his mace.
As they ran over to the ruins, Jaune and Ruby had been observing everyone to make sure they were fine. Especially Ruby, as she had glanced over multiple times at Daniel's limped body. Although, the plan eventually backfired on them when they reached the other ruins.
Weiss started to immediately shout out orders in random unison,
"You, mohawk and bow girl, distract the Deathstalker and Ruby's sister take care of the King Taijitu along with Mistral guy! Pyrrha, protect me as I get an ice wall ready to defend against the-"
"No, Jaune and Pyrrha need to hold the line with their shields and fight the Deathstalker and King Taijitu! Rude guy, you go along with the front to back them up and then-"
"Hey, why are you talking over me!?"
"Weiss, you don't understand how everyone is operating-!"
"I'm trying to get our defense prepared!"
The two continued to bicker as the students defended themselves from the Grimm attacks. Moreover, the formation broke as Russell took Weiss's order seriously and went to try to distract the Deathstalker. He was able to prance around the scorpion creature and started to boast about it. Only to get hit by the stinger with a sizeable gash on his leg that broke his Aura and was waning in strength. Another attack from the Deathstalker almost attacked him, but Blake was able to swing in from her ribbon to snatch Russell and use her clone to push away.
This prompted the group to flee deeper into the ruins and the sight of Weiss's plan failing shook her a bit. They reached a point where they saw a deep crevasse with a tower emerging from it with multiple bridges connecting to other towers to the side. Blake passed on Russell to Cardin, who begrudgingly, took him and threw him over his shoulder.
The eleven students tried to cross over the bridge, but the coming from the left was the Nevermore. It crashed into the bridge which split up the students; On the tower side were Daniel, Jaune, Nora, Ruby, Weiss, and Yang; The entrance side consisted of Blake, Cardin, Pyrrha, Ren, and Russell.
The entrance side was dealing with the Deathstalker and King Taijitu. Blake tried to pounce onto the Deathstalker, but failed as it swiped her away. Pyrrha and Ren give cover fire for Cardin to run away with Russell, but blocked off by the King Taijitu.
"Oh man, we gotta get over there! They need help!" Jaune cried out.
"Let's do this!" Nora said as she pulled out her grenade launcher.
"Yeah, but uh, I can't make that jump!"
"Hold him." Nora said as she threw Daniel at Jaune's body.
Daniel was on top of the poor man and Nora started to transform her grenade launcher into its hammer. Twirling it around, Nora jumped off from the bridge to then turn around and slam down the bridge.
"N-No, wait!" Jaune struggling to get Daniel off him. Daniel and Jaune are sent careening across the bridge as Jaune held onto him for dear life. "No, no, no!"
Nora then stood on the underside of the hammer while pressing a trigger on the long handle to boost herself across the crevasse. With all three flying through the air, Daniel and Jaune conveniently landed next to Pyrrha and Ren; Nora had flown far enough to land a devastating blunt attack on the carapace of the Deathstalker. Though, the scorpion creature soon recovered and attempted to stab with its stinger. She saw it coming and pulled the trigger on the handle again to explode out of the way. The stinger still managed to land the attack on the ground to where Nora blocked it with her hammer. Accidentally, this caused Nora to slide back and crash into the recovering Blake off the bridge.
On Cardin's side, he tossed Russell aside like a sack of potatoes and faced head-on with the King Taijitu. The King Taijitu lunged toward the bulking man which he countered by smacking its head out of the way. Using the flinched state to his advantage, he continued to pummel the giant snake. It tried to retaliate by using its deceased head's body to slam him, but he easily jumped onto it. As he jumped on top of the deceased other half, he bounced off it to deal the finishing blow on the other head straight down. He wore a smug face afterward as its bone pieces shattered on the ground while it dissipated.
At the same time, Blake had been free-falling into the crevasse while panicking a little. She quickly threw her pistol as it fired a shot to propel itself to stick onto one of the pillars. Swinging under the bridge, the Nevermore flew through the crevasse near Blake's path and used her clone to boost herself onto it. She ran across its body, slashing it multiple times before jumping off it. Ruby, having noticed Blake's ribbon, started to brainstorm something. Blake landed to where Ruby, Weiss, and Yang were; An open, broken part of the tower to observe the Nevermore.
"It's a lot tougher than it looks!" Blake said.
"Let's just throw everything we got at it!" Yang getting her shotgun bracelets cocked.
"That'll just anger it even further." Weiss bluntly said.
Looking at the three girls, Ruby exclaimed, "I have a plan!"
Not a moment's chance was given to hear it out. The Nevermore had circle-backed to slam into the upper portion of the tower they were on. Tirelessly, they would acrobatically climb up with their tools and skills. Ruby vocally stated when she landed,
"Yang, distract the Nevermore as much as you can to crash it into the cliffside! Weiss, use the same freezing technique you used for the Deathstalker when it tries to recover! Blake, go to those columns facing the cliff!"
After reciting the plan, the four split off to set it in motion with Yang getting on a tall pillar as she shotgun blasted the Nevermore in the air. Blake readied herself on one of the columns with Ruby and Weiss figuring out how to launch herself at it.
"Weiss, do you have electric or gravity dust on hand?"
"Who do you think you're talking to?" Weiss haughtily said as she spun the revolver chamber.
"Oh, right." Ruby realized her dumbfoundedness while loading up a Gravity Dust magazine. "How many glyphs can you summon?"
While their plan was stirring up, the Deathstalker had stabbed into the bridge with its stinger to make it fall.
"We got to make our stand now!" Jaune cried out as he readied his sword and shield.
"What about Daniel!" Pyrrha exclaimed as she followed Jaune.
"I got him!" Nora picked him up to throw him.
She tossed him at Deathstalker which temporarily stopped it in its place to see him being thrown. Jaune and Pyrrha used that chance to rush up to it and brought back the attention to them. Meanwhile, Daniel fell hard on his face.
Jaune and Pyrrha sync up their defense and retaliation together while Ren climbed onto its stinger. Nora transformed her hammer back to blast it with grenades. The defenders then get pushed back after the grenades connect. At the same time, Pyrrha had fired off her javelin into one of the Deathstalker's eyes. Moreover, Ren had been shooting at the stinger with his pistols. In response to one of the eyes being pierced, it flung its tail. This ended up making Ren careen into the walls of the ruins behind it.
"Ren!" Nora cried out.
After assessing the situation, Jaune noticed the stinger loosely dangling from the tail. Pointing to it, he commanded,
"Pyrrha!"
"On it!" Pyrrha replied as she threw her shield at it.
She cleanly sliced the stinger to let it impale the Deathstalker as her shield seemed to magnetically pull back to her. Writhing in pain, Jaune looked Nora in the eyes before looking over to Pyrrha.
"Nora, Hail 'em!"
"You got it!" Nora exclaimed as she jumped on top of Pyrrha's shield.
The two girls readied themselves with Pyrrha readying herself to shield boost Nora. At the same, Nora sat near the head of her hammer. Pulling the trigger and boosted into the air, Nora was sent hurling into the air. Upon reaching the apex of the boost, Nora gave herself one last blast to push her like a meteorite. She slammed down the stinger which instantly decimated it along with the bridge.
The bridge had catapulted both Jaune and Pyrrha over the Deathstalker. As she went over it, Pyrrha mid-air grabbed her javelin from the Deathstalker before landing gracefully. On the other hand, Jaune fell face first like Daniel. Nora had used another blast from her hammer to send herself up in the air while making the Deathstalker fall in the cravasse. Ren limply went over to the rest before finally falling to floor exhausted.
The three picked themselves up, exhausted as well, and looked over to see the Nevermore being blasted from Yang's shotgun Dust bullets. Coincidentally, this was when Daniel groaned out loud,
"U-Urghhh, w-why am I on the floor?"
Jaune and Pyrrha quickly went to his side to pick him up.
"You're not hurt right?" Jaune asked.
"What..? Did something happen, I just remember something crashing into me…" Daniel groaned.
"Um, I suppose that would you give an answer." Pyrrha said while pointing to the Nevermore in the sky.
"...Okay, where are we?!" Daniel frantically looking around.