*Volume Intro*
The episode starts off looking over the tops of the trees before lowering to show Yang. "Hello!" Yang calls out, but what she didn't see was a flash of black moving across the screen.
"Blakey, were you following me?" Yang asks with a teasing voice.
"Normally if one were asking that question, their voice wouldn't usually be full of mirth," Blake retorts wittily, causing Yang's grin to widen.
Yang continues to walk through the forest calling out to whoever was near. "Is anyone out there? Hello! I'm getting bored here."
"You have no idea how boring it was. I was walking around for so long with nothing happening," Yang continues.
Yang hears a rustle from a bush, and turns her attention to the noise. "Is someone there?" She spreads the brush apart, asking if it was Ruby. Only to be met with growls as she comes face to face with a beast. "Nope," she says, popping the 'p'.
Jumping back as an Ursa lunges at her. She gets in a ready stance, but another Ursa makes itself known. Yang dodges that one as well, and sends the first flying with one punch as proceeds. The other takes as much damage when Yang uppercuts and a kick to the stomach. "You guys wouldn't happen to have seen a girl in a red hood would you?" She says, starting a little small talk with. One of them stands on their hind legs with a growl, "You could just say 'no'."
Of course Yang of all people would be the one to have a conversation with a grimm midfight. And looking at it from a spectator's point of view, it was honestly really funny to watch.
The first Ursa goes to swipe at Yang time and time again, but can never seem to manage to hit. Yang gains more distance from them and gives a laugh. "Geez, you two couldn't hit the broad side of a…" Yang trails off, as a piece of her falls down in front of her in slow motion, landing on the ground.
"Uh oh," Ruby says to herself. They're in for it.
"Those Ursai can rest in pieces," Jaune adds. Nora and the others doing the same as they were about to witness Yang's utter fury.
"You…" Yang speaks in a gruff voice, her eyes then turning a deep crimson from their usual lilac. The two Ursa look at each other in confusion, not realizing it was their death day. "You monster!" Yang yells, blasts of fire forming around her as her anger is shown. She blasts off with her gauntlets, and lands a massacre of bullets and punches on a single Ursa. As a result, it goes flying through a barrage of trees, destroying them in the process. The second stands on its legs, facing Yang. "What? You want some too?" She yells angrily.
The sound of flesh being sliced could be heard before the grimm falls on its stomach motionless. Behind it, Yang meets Blake once again. Blake brings Gambol Shroud back to her and gives Yang a smile. Yang's eyes are back to normal, "I could have taken him," was Yang's response as the Ursa's body begins to fade away as black dust.
"You have great timing, but I still could have taken him." Blake never doubted for a second that Yang couldn't.
"Seeing that, no one's saying you can't, Yang." Ruby says, voicing Blake's thoughts.
A beowulf slashes Weiss backwards, making the transition to show Weiss' current fight that was cut off from the last episode. "Remember your training Weiss," she thinks to herself, "Head up, shoulders back, right foot forward, not that forward!" She chastises herself.
Weiss facepalms herself, wondering why she's thinking all of this when it should have been memorized at the time. Just her standing there for a few moments could have gotten her killed.
She moves her foot a little further back, "slow your breathing, wait for the right time to strike." The camera is very focused on her eyes. "And, now!" She yells, going for a thrust at the beast. But, out of nowhere comes Ruby, attacking the exact beowulf Weiss was planning to go for.
"RUBY!" Some were shouts of worry while others sounded like they were scolding the reckless child.
Weiss gained a look of panic and directed her aim elsewhere, blasting the grass with a line of fire, making it blow up the tree. Ruby looks at the leafless tree with wide eyes before being thrown back by a beowulf's claws.
She gets knocked back into Weiss, who Ruby decides to retort at. "Hey, watch it!"
"Excuse me? You attacked out of turn!"
"There. Are. No. Turns. In. A. Fight!" Weiss yells at herself.
Ruby also wasn't feeling so great herself. She could have gone for any of the other beowulves, but she just had to go for the one Weiss was targeting. She could have also very well warned Weiss too.
"I could have killed you!" Ruby rolled her eyes at the heiress, "You'll have to try a lot harder that." All around them came growls from the grimm as the two readied their weapons. Ruby added another cartridge. A creaking sound could be heard before a flaming tree crashed down in front of the two girls. "We have to go!" Weiss grabbed onto Ruby's arm and ran off with her, leaving the grimm to howl and burn in the fire.
Weiss and Ruby stopped running when the distance was far enough. A column of smoke was seen and the receding howls of the grimm echoed in the distance. "What was that?! That should have been easy!"
"It really should have but we sucked at communicating back then…" Weiss says as one of her hands is covering her eyes out of both of their stupidities.
"Well, perhaps, if you had exercised even the slightest amount of caution and the placement of your strikes, I wouldn't have set the forest on fire!" Weiss yells angrily, pointing to the damage that was done. Ruby scoffed, "What's that supposed to mean?"
"I'm just surprised that for someone who talks so much, would communicate so little during an encounter." Ruby had her arms crossed with a large frown. "Well, I'm sorry that you need my help to win a fight, I'm just fine on my own!"
"Well, congratulations on being the strongest child to sneak your way into Beacon, bravo."
Jaune flinched in his seat, Pyrrha turned to him with a comforting smile. However, the flinch didn't go unnoticed by some participants in the audience, who gave him a suspicious look.
Weiss began her journey deeper into the forest. Ruby gave a loud, frustrated cry, bringing out her scythe and slicing a tree in half, as she followed behind her. The tree gave a loud thud as it hit the ground.
Falling in front of the camera was a large feather, finding a landing point on the cut tree. But the feather's width is larger than the trunk itself.
The scene changes to show Jaune and Pyrrha walking through some bushes. A thud was heard in the distance, causing Jaune to go wide eyed. "Did you hear that?" Jaune asked, Pyrrha turned to him, "Gunfire, it seems our comrades have already encountered the enemy."
The two continue on, Pyrrha pushing a tree branch to get through. She lets it go, but ends up hitting Jaune instead.
"I'm very sorry Jaune," Pyrrha rapidly apologizes.
"Jaune! I'm sorry!" Pyrrha says, apologizing. Jaune's hand rubs his face, waving off her apology. When his hand is lowered, it reveals a small cut on his right cheek. "It's okay, just a scratch." He proceeds to get up.
"Why didn't you activate your aura?" Jaune lets out a noise of confusion.
Shocked faces came from all around the room. "You didn't know what aura was?" Jaune scoffed and waved the question off. "Of course I do now," but Jaune finishes with a tiny voice, "After Pyrrha had to explain it to me."
"Your aura."
"Guzuntight."
A few snorts were heard around the room.
"Jaune," Pyrrha says seriously, "Do you know what aura is?" Jaune scoffed at her question, "Of course I do, do you know what aura is?"
"Aura is the manifestation of our soul."
Pyrrha's voice is now off screen, as it now shows Ren walking through the forest.
"It bears our burdens and shields our hearts. Have you ever felt like you were being watched without knowing someone was there?"
"Uh, yeah."
Ren's eyes are cut in a slanted rectangle, giving it a mysterious showdown vibe. He looks around, and behind him arises a large snake grimm. The snake coils in front of him, attacking, its bite transitioning back to Jaune and Pyrrha.
"With practice, our aura can be our shield. Everyone has it, even animals."
"What about monsters?"
"No, the monsters we fight lack a soul."
Ren does acrobatic-like dodges as the grimm continues to strike again and again.
"They are creatures of grimm."
The snake lands a hit with its head, Ren being thrown back from the impact, but he easily rights himself.
"The manifestation of amininatity."
The snake coils again, but this time, in a way to trap Ren. Ren brings out his weapons as the snake's coil increases in height, though Ren escapes with merely a jump.
"They are the darkness, and we are the light."
Ren rapid fires, and lands a hard kick to the snake's head. It screeches in pain and rears back, falling down for the count.
"Right, that's why we fight them."
Ren lands a slice to its neck, it reels back and hastily makes it way back around. Ren jumps in the air in time to avoid its fangs, resulting in the grimm to take a hard hit into the earth.
"It's not about why, it's about knowing."
Ren comes down and uses the blades on his weapon to stab the head of the snake, ultimately seeming as if it were dead as the creature lets out a pained cry.
"Understanding both dark and light helps us manifest our aura. Everyone has some of both."
Behind Ren emerges a second snake, just as big but the only difference is its color; white. Ren looks to see the whte snake approaching him with an angry screech, its mouth wide, showing off its fangs.
Ren avoids it, and watches as both snakes stare down at him, the black snake ready for round two. The two snakes hissing menacingly at the boy.
"By bearing your soul outward as a force, you can deflect harm."
The two attack in unison, in a spiral-like formation. Ren is shown running along the length of the black grimm, sliding along its scales as he openly shoots at the both of them.
"All of our tools and equipment are conduits for aura."
The white grimm lands an attack, sending Ren backwards, as he loses his grip on his weapons in the process.
"You project yourself and your soul by fighting."
The black grimm has its opening, going for the kill with Ren putting his hands up in defense. The screen goes black as it goes back to Jaune.
"It's like a forcefield!" Jaune yelled excitedly.
"After everything, that's how you respond?" Yang asks, sounding as if she were on the verge of bursting out. Her outburst is put on hold as Blake elbows her in the ribs. Ruby didn't hold back though and let her chuckles be heard. With Weiss' sigh.
"Yes, if you want to look at it that way." Was Pyrrha's only response.
The screen goes back to Ren, who was holding the black grimm off by his fangs, using his aura to his advantage. And when using that aura, he broke both of the snake's two largest fangs. The black snake screeched in agony, but didn't hold up, going for one last strike before Ren used one of its fangs to stab it right in the eye. He force palmed the tooth deep into the eye, giving a blast of energy, causing its head to explode.
Ren didn't waste any time when running to finish off the second, who opened mouth wide open.
Pyrrha walks forward into Jaune's space. "Now, close your eyes and concentrate." Jaune obliged with uncertainty, "Uh, okay?" Pyrrha smiled and did the same. Her irises, only seconds later, were reduced to pricks before closing once more. Both Pyrrha's and Jaune's auras glowed. Pyrrha's giving off a red and Jaune giving off a white.
"For it is empassing that we achieve immortality, through this we become a paragon of virtue and glory to rise above all. Infinite and distant and unbound by death, I release your soul and by my shoulder protect thee." Pyrrha's glow faded as she leaned over in what seemed to be exhaustion. "Pyrrha?" Jaune calls to her worriedly. "It's alright," Pyrrha reassures him. "I used my aura to unlock yours, but the energy that protects you now is your own." Pyrrha smiles as the cut on Jaune's cheek heals. "You have a lot of it."
Jaune looks down at himself as the glowing fades, "Wow."
The camera goes back to Ren who is seen standing atop two dead snake grimm. He sheathed his weapons back into his sleeves and brushed himself off. A bird noise comes from above him as Nora makes herself known, hanging upside down. Ren chuckles at a smiling Nora, "I still don't think that's what a sloth sounds like." Nora responds by booping Ren on the nose. The screen goes black, making way for the outro, the only difference is that it shows a silhouette of Jaune and Pyrrha.
The group felt like that was a nice episode. Besides some of the students' more dumb moments earlier in the year. But, they've all grown, still doing so.