"Hello, Nora's the name, smashing Grimm's my game but I'm supposed to be quieter at least for now-" The ginger girl was cut off by the boy next to her while the girl was waving her hammer weapon around her and saluting herself and Pyrrha. Lie Ren nodded and spoke.
"Hey, does anyone know about those craters, they weren't here when me and Nora had come to do the written exams?" Ren had asked thoughtfully, Blake nodded and explained to them.
"They were done by Kron, he has a devastating semblance, one that he could manipulate his aura and use it to destructive ends. He was training out here A few times in the past."
"Thats... that guy you tree girls were fighting against yesterday, right?" Jaune had asked, pointing at her, Weiss and Yang. Lie-Ren was somewhat surprised by the power of one individual while Nora, was somewhat interested and somewhat busy swing around her hammer.
They stayed here and rested for a few minutes more, the now team of eight before yang spoke.
"Right, so we've been here for only ten minutes yeah, so like… uh, what are we waiting for… let's get them relics and head back." Yang spoke up, punching her fists together to psych herself up, Weiss had begun moving, she spoke too.
"Right, let's get closer." the girl stalked forward, Yang quickly keeping up with Weiss. The rest had besides Blake and Pyrrha had fallen in line and begun trekking through the grasslands and towards the many aligned pillars and broken walls of the ruins. Blake and Pyrrha were last to approach, covering the back. There was some Nevermore's in the distance, but they were far enough that they could avoid them. Walking forward, Blake had jumped up onto one of the structures and walked along the ruined wall before hopping down near to what appeared to be small chess pieces aligned along in A half-circle, some of them were missing.
"Hey, these must be the pieces, Ruby… how about cute pony?" Yang walked forward and grabbed one of the knight-pieces at her sisters smiling nod. Weiss and Blake had caught up as they had scouted out the ruins to the north which appeared to be over some kind of hole or cliff-side. Weiss and she walked around the half-circle before picking the other knight-piece, before they realized they picked the same pieces. Shrugging, Blake pocketed the piece and waited for the rest of the teams of twos to get here. Pyrrha and Jaune had picked one of the rook-pieces while Lie Ren and Nora…
"Look Ren, I'm the queen of the castle, I'm queen of the castle!" taking the other rook-piece.
"Nora… never change." Lie Ren smirked briefly before the assembled team looked towards the where they had come from, where the cliffs were, and Beacon was able to be seen.
"So, I guess we just head on back then-" There was yelling coming from where the forest was, it was getting louder quickly and the group saw two boys being thrown through the trees, the sounds of trees being uprooted or snapped in two was what they had heard besides the screams and Jaune had A bad feeling in his stomach.
"G-Guys, I think we're a-about to be attacked!" Jaune somewhat yelled out, readying his sword and shield, the trees in from of them were parted enough so that they could clearly see what was approaching. The two boys, which was now four as two others had come through the trees further right from where the other two originally were thrown from had ran towards them, seeing their bigger group of huntsmen-to-be were assembled at.
"Alright, guys, let's give these guys some assistance" Ruby said, changing her scythe into its sniper-form and begun firing on the Ursula that were rampaging towards the four boys and their group. Pyrrha had got to another position, Rifle-form and begun blasting at the Ursula that were the first Grimm to leave the forest while Nora had changed her Hammer into… A grenade-launcher, that's cool, Blake had thought.
Jaune had no long-range weapon and decided to wait near the front just encase he'd be needed when the Grimm get into melee-range. Yang and Weiss had set up at the left, Yang began punching towards the Grimm, launching round after round that exploded on impact while Weiss had flicked her blades dust-revolving loader and begun launching Ice dust towards the Ursula.
It seemed that everything was going well, it was then that the trees at the edge of the forest were destroyed and by… A Death Stalker, n-no… two of them. And where the second set of guys had come from, from the right, out came A black and a white of those snake Grimm, what were they called, King Taijitu?
"Ah guys…snake Grimm-" Jaune was interrupted by Pyrrha.
"King Taijitu! And two of them to boot, hey you four, get your relics and come on were got to pull back." Pyrrha had said worried, one of the newcomers from each set of boys had each went to collect A relic from what was left of the chess pieces still arranged on display.
"I don't suppose you guys have A strategy of attack. We could flank left and try and outrun them but… we've seen one of those craters over that way and a lot of creep Grimm. "The tallest guy with armor had said, clutching his mace weapon in his hands, wiping some sweat from his forehead. Blake thought he was on to something as the Creep Grimm were much easier to deal with then these, but another person spoke, that being Yang.
"Yeah, nah that's… there almost on us, everyone into position. We're going to have to retreat to the ruins over there" Yang pointed and resumed firing on the two Death Stalker's. Everyone pretty much agreed and begun retreating while the long-ranged fighters moved more slowly to attempt to slow the Grimm down. Blake had watched as the four new boys had also waited at where Pyrrha, Weiss, Yang, Ruby and Nora were inflicting long-range attacks to one of the Death Stalkers now that the Ursula were dealt with.
"Ah… what are they doing?" Blake asked out-loud as three of the four guys had charged towards the other Death Stalker and begun inflicting melee-damage, playing to their strengths as they got into melee-range. The last guy with the mullet had spoken up, firing on the Death Stalker.
"Cardin and the others are going to handle this one, the name's Sky Lark-"
"Talk later, OK change of plans guys, were going to have to get rid of the Death Stalker's before those King Taijitu get any closer." The two Grimm in question were slithering towards the three guys fighting against the Death Stalker. It looked like the one with the armor had gone and done A finisher upon the Death Stalkers head when the King Taijitu had sprung against the three.
They were in retreat again.
"Alright, new plan, Blake let's use that combination attack we used against Kron the other day, but instead of launching you… Ruby, your weapon's the sharpest, yes" Weiss asked, Ruby looked towards the girl, stopping her shooting against the Grimm.
"Yes! Its real sharp, able to cut through even concrete." The girls begun discussing the plan which was to launch Ruby and Weiss at the Grimm with Weiss then speeding up Ruby and her weapon with her glyphs in the air before she would impale the Death Stalker from above. The launching part was to be Blake's weapons ribbons and two of the pillars of the ruins.
"Can you launch me too, over towards the other one."
"And me! It's hammer time!" Nora yelled out while still bombarding the lone Death Stalker with her grenade launcher. It was decided then, Yang, Jaune and Ren had gone after the two King Taijitu on the three boys trail, with that other Death Stalker on A rampage after them as well. The Blake had her weapons wrapped around the pillars and Ruby and Weiss were launched high into the air. She watched as the two girls then enacted the rest and Ruby had sliced clean through the body of the Death Stalker, surrounded by the effects of Weiss's glyphs. The Death Stalker collapsed.
"Got it! right to the next one now Blake, Launch me!" Nora was waiting in anticipation, bouncing on the spot with A happy smile on her face. She readied the make-shift catapult, setting it up for the bubbly girl. Pyrrha had moved into melee-range and was attempting to distract the rampaging Death Stalker, while Lie-Ren had done A good job of dislodging the fangs of one of the serpent Grimm from its mouth. The fight was over fast with the twelve of them working together, the last Death Stalker was 'smashed' into A pulp by Nora and then Pierced through the skull by Pyrrha, Jaune had almost been eaten but had held firm and managed to pierce his sword through the remaining King Taijitu's mouth, the soft flesh easily impaled and killing it instantly through to the brain through the mouth as it lunged at him.
Blake looked on, they had held the more powerful Grimm off and she felt confident about the new path of becoming A huntress she was now on, and because of that cocky monkey Faunas who had taken her hostage and gave her that ultimatum months ago.
"Hmm, now let's get out of here and head on back. "Blake said, Pyrrha had come towards her and nodded while smiling, having just finished talking with Jaune and Ren. The rest of them had all agreed, in their own way and all had varying degrees of smiles on their faces because of their success in defeating four powerful Grimm.
(Cinder Fall-POV)
She stared at Adam Taurus, his beaten-up face looking at her with no small amount of anger. She had achieved what she set out to do in regard to the White Fang's arrogant leader of Vale's branch. Thanks to her new arm, which was hidden by her new longer sleeved outfit, she had toppled the weakened Faunas when he'd returned to one of the White Fang's hideouts which her small Clique knew about. It was there she had… what's the word, 'educated the smug and prideful fool. And just because he killed some weak defenseless man, in the end he was still no match for her, even without her 'rightful' Maiden powers.
"Yes Adam, did you want to say something, and remember, I dare say that you'd remember my mercy... every-time you look into A mirror… but as long as we work together, you and your 'race' will benefit. So, Adam, anything to complain about?" she peered at the bull Faunas, and he looked away, teeth bared, as he breathed out roughly. Emerald, Mercury and Roman were sat around the table, Roman looked more laid-back while Emerald looked ready to fight the insolent fool. Mercury was being himself, trying to chat up the mute girl, who was ignoring him.
"So, your mission was a colossal failure and no, I don't count the killing of the SDC's CEO to be a successful objective, certainly not what I had asked for, there will be more police, more huntsmen within the city looking for your White Fang and 'you'. I assume those transports are no longer there, Emerald?" she asked the girl who had suddenly stiffened up her shoulders before responding.
"No ma'am, the transports had left, one back to Atlas while the other two went on their original flight paths to the outlying towns. We could wait and see if they arrive back to that landing zone, but the cops might still be around there." Emerald said, Roman had smugly added a few words.
"Cops… spending taxpayers hard earned money no doubt" the man smirked but had stopped when he noticed she glare at him, he coughed and took another drag of his cigar. The man then turned to the bull Faunas and smirked before he begun to speak.
"I heard that you had A run-in with that… monkey Faunas, the one who-"
"Yes, you did, luckily there was cameras all around that warehouse. We got some information about the man's abilities. And you no doubt think he's dead-" Cinder was interrupted.
"He is dead! I launched my most powerful attack at him, point blank, that race traitor is six-feet deep, there's no doubt about-" Adam stopped mid-sentence when Cinder interrupted him.
Doubt? here, see for yourself." she turned on her spare scroll or 'burner-scroll' and slid it towards the mad fool. He took it and righted it so he could understand what he was looking at. The screen had a video which was paused, Adam pressed the scroll which then played-back the stolen footage, that of the man Adam had supposedly 'killed'.
"What? I killed him. -" the man clenched his fist and slammed it hard against the table, he forcefully slid her burner-scroll back towards her.
"Whoever he is, he took your attack like it was nothing. And you failed to even achieve your mission. Perhaps one of those other animals sniffing around you would do A better-"
"Don't talk to me like that, bitch. Besides how was I supposed to know he would turn up?" Adam snarled out, starting to pace near the table.
"You know him then?" Cinder heard the… familiarity in his voice, like they know each other, at least it was what she had guessed.
"No. He helped one of my team's incoming to Vale A while back, then when I had told him to join the cause, he mocked the cause by declining my invitation. I was forced to eliminate him then, but the bastard put up A fight and took out two of our Bullheads and almost half my numbers, he then took captive Blake." Adam ground out, pausing his pacing to look towards her.
"Who? Never mind, what I want to know is, do you know anything about him, any family? And weaknesses we can use the next time we go after him." Cinder glared towards Adam, assuring her superiority as got out of her chair before stalking forward. She got into the way of his pacing and grabbed his face, which was still bruised from when she had put him in his 'place'.
"Well, out with it." She grabbed down harder then she intended to but still, he was lucky it was her 'real' hand doing to squeezing… this time. Before the fool in front of her could ground out A single syllable, Roman had coughed which had gathered everyone's attention.
"I know something. Though it might be not what you're wanting." He smugly reclined back onto his chair, one hand holding his cigar while the other was holding onto his cane-like weapon. He then spoke up.
"He doesn't exist." Roman said, pulling out some papers.
"I've had our dear mutual acquaintance do A background check on him, He has clean, 'very' clean files. But if you know how to look… see here, they look too perfect... yes dear, well that' and because they're fake." he smiled smugly and added.
"The man who had these done up, was none other than general Ironwood and he only done them at behest of some other higher-ups… one of those people are dead, being the head of the SDC but also the headmaster Ozpin of the esteemed huntsmen institute, Beacon, as well."
"And… that helps me how? It looks like he's just one of Ozpin's pawns and A strong one at that. That information is useless to me." Cinder snarled and smashed down onto the table with her new hand… on where Adam had hit previously.
"Where going to have to work more covertly…, someone out there who can easily handle you and your soldiers is bad for our plans. Keep an eye out but for now don't engage, instead continue on taking the dust, were going to need more." She glared at the Faunas and walked away, around the table and sat down.
"Your dismissed." she waited for all of them to go before she sighed, Cinder wasn't looking forward to reporting to 'her'.