Among the students, Yang was easily the most outgoing person with a big heart. Which, she also had big guns with her shotgun shots flying through the air.
The Nevermore started to circle back to Yang on the pillar she was on. It had attempted to consume her. Though, she predicted this and jumped straight into its mouth; stopping it from closing its mouth with her arms and legs.
Taking an opportunity, she managed to free an arm before screaming,
"I! HOPE! YOU'RE! HUN-! GRY!"
She had fired shots at its mouth and managed to disorientate it enough to head into the cliffside. Yang jumped out of it and the Nevermore crashed on top of the ruin building against the hill. Weiss would follow up by rushing forward with a piercing strike while Yang retreated.
As the Nevermore recovered and tried to fly away; Weiss entrapped its tail in a wave of ice. The Grimm struggled to get out while Weiss jumped back to the rest with her glyph. Furthermore, on the goal-shaped columns, Blake threw her pistol to Yang for her to stick it into the column. Simultaneously, the two girls tighten the black ribbon and Ruby used a gravity Dust shot to propel her toward it. Standing on the underside of the scythe, her momentum on the ribbon was put to a halt with a black glyph.
"Think you can make the shot?"
"Hmmph, can I?" Weiss sarcastically said.
"...Can you-"
"Of course I can!" Weiss exclaimed.
With a stoic face, Ruby cocked in a new round as Weiss released the glyph to hurl Ruby at the Grimm. In addition, Ruby fired off the shot to give her enough momentum to lock its neck with the blade of her scythe. She landed on the cliffside with Weiss having summoned multiple glyphs for footing. Cocking a new round, Ruby fired another shot while running up the cliff and repeating the same action. Pieces of the cliff crumbled as she dragged it up. By the end of the run, she cleaved right through its neck and landed on the top of the cliff.
The three girls looked up to where Ruby was, winded, and gave a satisfied smile for their well-earned victory. Ruby had landed in a heroic pose with her scythe behind and looked over to where the bridge group was. Daniel gave a simple wave to Ruby as she waved exaggeratingly back.
"Not bad… Not bad at all…" Daniel murmured to himself.
Back on the Beacon Cliff, Glynda and Ozpin had witnessed the entire charade and commended the students quietly. Glynda would then bring up,
"There really shouldn't have been any Grimm in the forest, Professor Ozpin. Those ruins should have been able to repel them. Although, I suppose that it was only a matter of time before they ceased working."
"No… this is more foreboding than mere chance."
"Also, what should we do with that Minute Man trainee?"
Ozpin did not respond and only gave a sheepish smile. Glynda rolled her eyes as she seemed to understand as she walked away from him.
With everyone winded from their fights, except Daniel, they head for the evacuation site. Ruby had used her scythe's shots to slow her descent to meet up with the rest.
Daniel had gone ahead of the rest to check for any more Grimm in case they missed some. Traveling from the ruins to the evacuation site in a matter of ten minutes. The journey there was not the farthest due to it being close to the relic podiums. Other Minute Men and paramedics were there to his relief.
"We heard about the Grimm being present so we got any student who arrived here out as fast as we could."
"The trainees I was with took care of them from what I could tell. The youngest took down a Nevermore."
"...Are you lying?" A Minute Man trainee skeptically asked.
"I mean, there are bones lying on top of a cliff. Including an injured student who seemed to gashed baldy from a Deathstalker. Got the man good on the leg."
"Get the stretcher ready and some bandages ready!" A paramedic exclaimed.
"Considering that Professor Goodwitch informed us that the threat has been taken care of. This year's Huntsmen are probably going to be the next golden age if they're able to do that on their first year."
Daniel waited around until the students finally arrived with the paramedics rushing over to Russell. Cardin dumped the Punk Rocker onto the stretcher and the paramedics swiftly wrapped the injury.
"Looking at your Aura, it should be healed up in about a month at least. So make sure to get some proper rest." A paramedic stated as he read something on his scroll tablet.
"You better make it to the closing ceremony!" Cardin demanded.
"Lay off your partner. He's injured!" Another paramedic intervened.
The rest of the group got checked for injuries and get the pass to head back to the school. Meanwhile, Russell had flown away in one of the Bullhead along the paramedics.
Getting a notification on his scroll, Daniel saw that he and the other Minute Men were to enjoy the rest of the day off. Attached to the same message was the schedule for classes too. Opening his schedule, he noticed that he almost had only four classes that he needed to take.
"I guess taking those in-person courses paid off. Thanks… Dad…" He solemnly murmured.
"Is something wrong?" Ruby went up to him.
"Oh… Um… nothing… Just thought I would have less classes"
"Yeah, right." Yang teasingly stated.
"I actually only have like four classes for this year. Aura theory and control, sparring, psychology, and weapon crafting and upkeep"
"Wait, what!?" Yang shocked.
"I'll… explain it on the Bullhead."
The rest head onto the other Bullheads prepared for them to arrive back at the academy. Daniel had dragged Jaune to be in the same Bullhead with him as Weiss was disgusted with him.
"So which classes don't you have compared to ours?" Pyrrha asked as she hopped along with Jaune on the Bullhead.
"Let's see… Oh, Dust Application, Camping and Survival, Grimm Anatomy and Biology, Hunter Regulation and Law, Mercenary Economics, Public Relations, Repair and Construction, and World History."
"That's basically all the classes we would take at Beacon!?" Yang exclaimed.
"So how did you manage to get those out of the way ahead of time? Wouldn't everyone do that then?" Ruby curiously asked.
"It's a lot more of a hassle than you think. I had to pay out of pocket to even take those classes and have to be approved for academies to take in. Plus, you need to attend them in person… Gosh, the amount of travelling I had to go through to attend them…"
His comment made everyone in the room empathetic since he had such an agonizing look in his eyes. Yang then nudged at Ruby,
"Hey, if you manage to bag him, you'll be set…!"
"Why would I want to kidnap him…?!" Ruby whispered back.
The sisters bickered around with each other but Ruby yielded earlier from exhaustion.
"So… It's been a while, Daniel." Pyrrha stated.
"And it's only been a half a year since then. Your family doing alright at Argus?"
"Argus? That's where my older sister Saphron lives there!" Jaune interjected. "Also, how do you two know each other?"
"The two of us were participants in the Mistral Regional. I only really participated in it for money." Daniel said while scratching the back of his head. "I've ended up in third place at the regional three times."
"But you could have easily-" Pyrrha trying to add on.
"Easily dismantled by Arslan and Prryha." Daniel stated lightheartedly. "The others I've faced against weren't that skilled."
Ruby nervously chuckled and Yang caught on to it. Yang pried for more information,
"So how long have you two really known each other?"
Daniel and Pyrrha looked at each other for a second before looking back at Yang,
"Three years." Pyrrha replied.
"We didn't really talk much until the second year. Since she and I were too busy with other things like me taking courses and her dealing with being an upcoming star. We primarily share a similar fairy tale that we've liked."
"Which one is that?" Ruby's ears perked up.
"The Light's Journey."
Everyone, except Pyrrha, looked dumbfounded by the answer and he clarified,
"It's not a popular book here in Vale, it's more local to Argus."
"Besides that, so you're pretty good at fighting huh?" Yang trying to rile up, "But I mean, you got knocked out pretty easily thanks to my sister and Jaune."
"Yang!" Ruby clearly embarrassed
"Yeah, and was just snuggly-" Jaune getting smacked on the back from Ruby, "Oww!"
"...Well, that was just an unexpected turn of events. I'm decent enough at sparring."
Pyrrha eagerly wanted to say something, but ultimately kept her lips sealed.
"Then how did you get recommended to be a Minute Man?"
"I used to be a well-known caravan escort, haven't been doing much of it ever since…" Daniel trailing off solemnly. "I-I was just too busy with my c-courses… y-yeah…"
The atmosphere turned dark; no one wanted to speak and no further conversations ensued. The Bullhead landed gracefully with the others following suit. About an hour for the ceremony to start so the students had some free time.
Getting off the plane, everyone went to either hangout or get their luggage in their newly assigned dorm rooms. Daniel was about to re-board the Bullhead to head back to Vale before Ruby stopped him.
"Yes…?"
"C-Can I…" Ruby looking for the words to say, "Look at your weapons!"
Flabbergasted by the sudden request, he started balling out laughing. Ruby got worried that she had done something and started to panic before he clarified,
"Hahaha…! N-No, no, that's my bad…! Whew…! I did say that I would show you them. Come on, there's a bench right over there."
With glee in her eyes, she briskly walked over to the bench as Daniel followed behind. He could feel a radiant light protruding from Ruby shine so brightly. Sitting on the bench first, she motioned vigorously to hurry.
"Alright, alright, here!" Daniel said while he pulled out his pistols.
He handed them to her and she was ecstatically geeking over the two pistols.
"Ooooh…! Slotted slide, double undercut, beaver tail undercut," Ruby listing off as she unloaded the magazine and racked the slide, "quick release controls, good weight on the springs…"
She took one of the pistols and aimed it outward as she observed the iron sights.
"Bright green iron sights, textured grip, and…" Ruby stated as she pulled the trigger, "light trigger. Also, you have this in 10mm!?"
Taking the bullet she racked out of the chamber of the pistol, she analyzed the bullet before commentating,
"What bullet type is this? I've never really seen this kind of bullet"
"For a weapons geek, you don't know what bullet that is?"
"I focus more on the broad stroke on a lot of weapons. I'm not particularly picky with my ammo!"
Rolling his eyes, he responded, "90-grain fire Dust hard casted bullets."
"Wait, isn't that extremely powerful for a bullet? How do you even fire with both hands?"
"It's called being tall and trained. Unlike a gremlin like you." Daniel teasingly said.
"Hey!" Ruby gave him a pouty look as she handed him back his pistols.
"Oh, right, here." He said while giving her his hunting rifle.
Upon first inspection, she believed it to be the run of the mill hunting rifle until further inspection. In awe, she realized it was lighter than her scythe's rifle mode and saw the fluted barrel and bolt. There was a thumb rest near the bolt handle for faster action. When she pulled the bolt back, she felt it was smooth, almost, effortless. However, this awe of hers ended when she saw the Lapua round in the chamber.
"What's this bullet?"
"That's a Lapua round."
"In a rifle like this… So old school too…"
"I mean, yours's is bolt action too. What caliber you rocking?"
".338 win mag, 50 grains of fire and 90 grains of gravity Dust. Mine is still good isn't?"
"Ah, no wonder you're able to move around so quickly. Well, yeah, if you're able to hit your shots right. Gravity Dust may be more potent than fire Dust, but that recoil would be more controlling the weight of an Ursa."
"I do carry mags with pure fire Dust to make it easier on me"
"I'd be worried if you didn't."
She admired the beauty of it as the simple, but complex machining on the gun was captivating to her. After she was done, she handed Crescent Rose to him.
"You don't need to-"
"Don't you think she's a beauty?! Press that button!"
He pressed to which it transformed into its scythe mode.
"Wow, it actually fits you with it's size." Ruby said. "You could give it a test drive, but seeing as you primarily only use guns-"
Without missing a beat, he began to swing the scythe with finesse. There was no flair to it as any spin done with it seemed to be more clearing his surroundings. Ruby could not believe her eyes with the movements he was exhibiting. At some point, he began to implement movements akinned to the functions of her weapon. He would stop and press the trigger, in safety, and jerk the scythe as if it had been shot. Although, the movements of these were rough and compared to his previous fluid motion.
"Are you just trying to mock me now?!"
"No, I thought your movements were similar enough to the basics I learned but I guess not. You're definitely a skilled fighter Ruby." He said as he gave back Crescent Rose.
"...Thank you… Actually, do you have names for your weapons…!"
"My pistols are called Adam and Eve. This hunting rifle… doesn't have one. I'm not particularly a big fan of naming weapons."
"Aw, how so?"
"...Let's say I have too many that it'd be a headache to think names for them. They're nothing more than tools to me."
"But they're like, a part of us too. You surely have a weapon that's personable to you, right…?"
He went back into a gloomy state at her question and faced away from her a bit. Ruby noticed and began to panic.
"I'm sorry, I didn't-!"
Daniel turned to her and ruffled her hair.
"You should treasure that part of yourself. I should be the one sorry for acting like that. Especially when you have to make it to the ceremony soon, don't want to miss the big day." Daniel said while checking his watch.
Ruby frantically checked her scroll and yelped that she had a few minutes before the closing ceremony. She quickly fixed up her hair and rushed off.
"I'll catch you later, Daniel!"
Daniel had a warm smile on his face as she ran off. He looked at the land pad before shaking his head; and walking over to go to the closing ceremony. By the time he entered the Amphitheater, there were cheers and clapping for a team led by Cardin.
"Russel Thrush, Cardin Winchester, Dove Bronzewing, Sky Lark. The four of you retrieved the Black bishop pieces. From this day forward, you will together as team CRDL(Cardinal). Led by Cardin Winchester."
Upon hearing his name, he stepped forward and gave a smug smile to Ozpin and then to the rest of the crowd. After gloating himself for a little bit, Ozpin had started to call for the next pair of teams. This was when CRDL left the main stage.
"Jaune Arc, Lie Ren, Pyrrha Nikos, Nora Valkyrie. The four of you retrieved the gold rook pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as, Team JNPR(Juniper). Led by Jaune Arc."
Nora slapped his back while Pyrrha laid a proud hand on his shoulder. Ren bowed slightly to Jaune as the young man nervously smiled at their encouragement. However, there was an uneasy look on his face that Daniel noticed.
A few more teams were left to go through as it seemed that Ruby's lateness pushed back her team's schedule slightly. It was not until the last team was to be announced that she arrived on stage.
"Lastly, Blake Belladonna, Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, and Yang Xiao Long. The four of you have retrieved the four gold knight pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as, Team RWBY(Ruby). Led by Ruby Rose."
The girls' immediate reactions followed: Weiss was shocked with a hint of exasperation; Blake perked an eyebrow; Yang looked hesitant before putting on a proud face and hugged Ruby.
On the other hand, Daniel noticed Remnant's soul telling him to prepare for war.