45

Chapter 45:

"You know this thing?" asked Weiss, risking a glance at Ruby, though it took her eyes off the Ursa Major they were facing down for a fraction of a second.

"It's a Duba," said Ruby. "It's an Ursa Major's Ursa Major."

That was something of an understatement of the sheer fearsomeness of the beast bearing down on them. It was like an Ursa the way a tiger was like a house cat. It was easily twice as large as any of the Ursa Majors that had preceded it. Compared to the Ursai's bulky, lumbering bodies, the Duba's build was sleeker, lither; sporting a powerful, densely muscled torso, with a sloped back. Its limbs were long and graceful, especially in comparison to the stocky build of a typical Ursa, giving it an appearance that was somewhere between a bear and a big cat.

Its paws were definitely Ursa paws though, massive and broad, each finger and toe sporting curved, bone-white claws that might as well have been swords, given their length. The thick, black, wiry fur that covered its body was interrupted by white, spiky vertebrae, which seemed to protrude directly from the skin of its back, forming a spiny ridge along the line of its backbone. More white plates covered the front of its forelimbs, below the elbows, almost like gauntlets.

And then, there was the mask. Like all Grimm, the Duba's face was covered by a mask of white bone, from which a pair of eyes glowed a malevolent red. The mask was stretched to fit the creature's slightly elongated muzzle, but also extended down to cover its lower jaw, almost seeming to enclose its entire head like a helmet, albeit with a hinge to allow it to open its mouth, displaying a maw of fangs that rivaled its claws in their fearsome length.

The Duba didn't walk towards them so much as it stalked. In comparison to the lumbering movements of an Ursa, the Duba's were smooth, graceful...undeniably predatory...like the approach of a hunting cat.

The tension in the clearing rose to a fever-pitch. They already had to contend with a full three Ursa Majors. But this new monster was in a league of its own.

"Weiss, can you handle this Ursa?" asked Ruby.

Realizing what her teammate had in mind, Weiss swallowed nervously. "I'll have to," she said grimly.

"The others should be here soon," said Ruby. "Just hold out for a little bit."

"Sure thing," said Weiss, focusing her attention on the Ursa Major before her.

Ruby vanished in a blur of red petals, darting beneath a swipe of the Ursa's paw, and rushing straight for the Nandi Bear. The beast immediately noticed her approach...and let out another roar.

The roar was so powerful that the air ahead of the Duba's mouth distorted and rippled. The sound carried a force of its own, one that halted Ruby's charge in its tracks, leaving her feeling almost as though she'd slammed face-first into a solid wall. Stumbling and reeling, Ruby barely noticed as the Duba's limbs bent slightly, those powerful muscles straining and tensing. Those terrifying claws sank down into the ground, giving it traction. Then it pushed off, rushing at Ruby in a blur that rivaled her own speed.

Seeing it bearing down on her, Ruby darted to the side, barely escaping a swipe of that massive paw. She was fortunate, as those enormous claws tore through the earth, ripping a deep trench where Ruby stood, sending dirt and stones scattering everywhere.

As though that were a signal, the assembled Ursai went on the attack as well, roaring and lunging for the humans that stood before them.

Dove and Pyrrha jumped to either side as the Ursa they faced charged forward, trying to bull them over with the sheer bulk of its body. Jumping and going into a flip, Dove lined up his sword and fired several shots into the monster's body as it barreled past. However, his bullets didn't seem to do much harm. On its other side, Pyrrha spun around, using her turn to add to her momentum, allowing her to sling her shield, which flew unerringly at the back of the Ursa's head, slamming home, and causing it to lurch forward, as the sharpened edge of the shield threatened to sever its spine. Still, the Ursa ducked down, and the shield ended up bouncing away.

Meanwhile, Jaune held up his shield, using it to deflect the powerful swipes of the Ursa that menaced him and Cardin, shifting his shield to minimize the force of its impact. He was reminded of Team RASP's training session in the Emerald Forest, where Ruby had left him an Ursa Major to fight against. Once again, he found himself unable to find a proper opening, not while the Ursa continued to flail away with its paws. Remembering how he'd killed one last time, Jaune braced himself for a swing of the Grimm's right paw, raising his shield and using it to tank the Ursa's swing directly, bringing its swinging paw to a stop, even as Jaune's legs threatened to buckle beneath the force of the blow.

From there, Jaune lunged forward, stepping inside the Ursa's reach, thrusting out with his sword for its chest. To his surprise, however, the Ursa leaned back, the point of Jaune's sword just barely managing to nick its chest, before it pulled out of reach. Of course, stepping back also brought Jaune within the radius of its swing again, and it unleashed another powerful blow from its left paw. With a yelp, Jaune turned, bringing up his shield to take the attack. However, he wasn't braced this time, and wound up being launched off his feet and sent flying through the air.

Upon Ruby's abrupt departure, Weiss dashed forward, gliding across the ground in a sliding thrust that allowed her to drive Myrtenaster's tip right into the Ursa's chest. However, her blade barely seemed to penetrate an inch, at most, before it stopped. Pulling it back, Weiss unleashed a flurry of thrusts, trying to pierce the wiry fur and tough skin of the Ursa. The beast responded to her attack with an angry slash of one paw, forcing Weiss to retreat. Jumping back, she cycled the Dust-chamber of her weapon, arming it with fire-Dust. Her next thrust sent a gout of flame washing over the Ursa.

The Ursa Major roared with pain and anger, hunkering down and ducking its head. When the flames abated, it was smoking and smoldering, but still very much alive, and very dangerous. Sensing the end to the Dust attack, it immediately went on the offensive, charging forward at Weiss. But Weiss had already begun her next attack. Cycling to a new chamber, she planted her rapier into the ground. There was a ringing noise, and a wave of icy stalagmites exploded out of the ground between her and the Ursa, forming a thicket of spearlike points. The Ursa's own momentum worked against it, causing it to plow into those sharpened points before it could even begin trying to slow down, the spears of ice piercing its hide all over.

But its momentum worked in its favor as well, the Ursa Major's sheer bulk shattering the ice barrier, allowing it to continue its charge, unabated. Weiss gasped, barely managing to conjure a glyph to launch herself up and over it in time. Unfortunately, she misjudged the thrust she needed. Thinking in terms of a regular Ursa, Weiss forgot to take into account the long spines extending from the Major's back. Her glyph-aided dodge took her directly over the Ursa's back, but not high enough to escape its spines. Weiss screamed as their points raked her Aura as it passed beneath her, throwing her into an uncontrolled spin that brought her slamming down into the ground, Myrtenaster bouncing out of her grip.

Not far away, Jaune slammed into the ground from the hit he'd taken, his breath exploding from his lungs in a pained wheeze, the impact stunning him. Still, Jaune forced himself to try and get up as fast as he could, sure that the Ursa would be rushing his way to capitalize on its new advantage. However, as he got up, he could see the beast had apparently lost interest in him...and it wasn't hard to see why. While Jaune had been fighting the Ursa, Cardin had been scooting across the ground, keeping horrified eyes fixed on the beast, as he tried to reach his mace. The Ursa had noticed, and oriented on Cardin, looming over him again.

Jaune sucked in a deep breath, willing himself to move. His first steps were staggering at first. But he quickly managed to reach a proper run. As he did, Jaune raised his sword and let out a loud shout, practically challenging the Ursa. It wasn't very pragmatic, seeing as he was giving up the chance to attack the Grimm from its blind spot. However, he needed to attract its attention, to keep it from killing Cardin. Hearing his cry, the Ursa turned, then let out a roar of its own, falling down on all fours to charge to meet him.

Right as they were about to collide, Jaune leaned forward, thrusting his shield ahead of him. The Ursa rose up, hefting one paw to swing at Jaune mid-stride. However, right as it was rising up, a whirling, green blur flew out from the nearby undergrowth, StormFlower's blade slashing across the Ursa's back legs, right as it was trying to rear up to strike at Jaune. The beast's charge and attack faltered, and it stumbled forward, slamming its head right into the face of Jaune's shield.

Jaune grunted, his legs and arm burning from the impact. Even if the power of its charge had been disrupted, the hit still carried the force of the monster's bulk, along with its forward momentum. But slamming into his shield headfirst had stunned the Ursa. Stepping out to the side, Jaune raised his sword, and brought it down in a powerful slash that took the Ursa's head off. Its legs gave out, and the rest of its body collapsed with enough force to make the ground shake.

Cardin stared at Jaune incredulously, while StormFlower whirled through the air to return to Ren's outstretched hand as he emerged from amongst the trees.

"Thanks," said Jaune, panting and sagging, throwing Ren a grateful look.

A pink and orange blur flashed past Ren, Nora flying into the clearing, her feet planted on the head of her hammer, while she held onto its shaft, practically surfing her weapon into battle with a loud whoop of excitement. Her flight carried her in an arc towards where Pyrrha and Dove were trying to hold their own against their Ursa.

Seeing her coming, Pyrrha charged the Ursa from the front, prompting it to rear up and slash at her. Because of that, its head was in perfect position for Nora to slam her hammer into it from behind, sending the Ursa falling forward.

Dove delivered the finishing blow, going into a jumping spin that allowed him to put all his body's strength into an upwards slash to meet the Ursa's descending neck, decapitating it in a manner similar to Jaune's opponent.

The final Ursa reared up over Weiss, who was struggling to stand back up, after taking several hits from its spines. The Ursa loomed over her, raising its claws. But before it could strike, a gold blur flash past Weiss, Yang appearing, delivering a powerful uppercut right into the Ursa's stomach, before following through with a mighty punch that sent it flying backwards. The Ursa landed, rolling onto its back, snapping its spines. Rolling back onto its stomach, it got its legs beneath it, and tried to rise, only to lurch when the blade of Blake's sickle pierced through the back of its head. The Ursa went limp, collapsing to the ground.

"You okay, Weiss?" asked Yang, extending a hand down.

"I'll be all right," gasped Weiss, accepting Yang's hand, and leaning against her, until she'd recovered enough to stand on her own.

Everyone's attention turned to Ruby and the Duba. While the others had been fighting against the Ursa Majors, Ruby and the Duba were locked into a fierce exchange, a maelstrom of black, white, and red. The monstrous Grimm moved with a speed that was utterly at odds with its size, its body and limbs black and white blurs. What was more, to everyone's shock, it was no mindless beast, lashing out or attacking wildly. As Ruby darted in to slash at it, the Duba defended with the bone plates over its forelimbs, or even dodged other attacks. It then counterattacked with incredible speed and power, its missed swings tearing apart the earth, making it shake with each impact.

For her part, Ruby was clearly fighting with everything she had, flurrying bursts of petals scattering around her as she dodged, sometimes appearing in two, or even three, places at once, while dodging the Duba's powerful blows. There was no way she could defend against that kind of force. The raw power of a single swing would allow those sword-like claws to carve right through her Aura, reaching the vulnerable flesh beneath.

"We have to do something!" said Yang urgently. "If Ruby gets hit once, she's a goner."

"We have to be careful though," said Ren warily. "The way those two are dancing around, there's a real risk of Ruby getting hit, if everyone just starts shooting in indiscriminately."

There wasn't much of an objection, nor was anyone suggesting that they try to close in and fight the Duba in melee, the way Ruby was. Even Pyrrha, who'd gone head-to-head with Ruby, was having trouble keeping up. It was one thing in a one-on-one battle, where her opponent's movements were the only thing she had to keep track of. But the introduction of a second participant, one moving at nearly the same speed as Ruby, increased the complexity dramatically. On top of that, there was no way for her to use her Semblance to affect the Grimm directly.

Still, no one wanted to simply stand idly by. Ruby was holding her own for now, but it was clear that she was struggling. The Duba was almost a match for her in speed, and completely eclipsed her in the area of raw power. It was telling that Ruby hadn't unleashed any of her Manifestation attacks, apparently not having the time to gather the power for those techniques. And, while they couldn't be certain, it seemed like the Grimm itself might have had a well-developed situational awareness, intentionally keeping close to Ruby in order to limit potential opportunities for the people around them to interfere.

Jaune's eyes widened, and he noticed something about Ruby's position. Ruby was a blur, but from what he could see, she was an airborne one, apparently using her Shukuchi to skip off the air itself at times, only touching down on the ground for brief instants.

"Nora, Yang, target the legs!" he shouted. "Aim as low as you can, right for its feet."

"Are you sure?" asked Yang worriedly, terrified at the prospect of hitting her sister.

"I am," said Jaune quickly. "Ruby's staying up high. I think she's doing it on purpose."

"Do it!" said Ren decisively, making it an order to his teammates from their leader.

Swallowing nervously, Yang cocked back her fists, then began to pump them forward and back, using the motion to launch fiery bolts from Ember Celica. Beside her, Nora collapsed her weapon into its grenade launcher form, and began to fire her payload as well. Streaks of orange and pink converged on the melee, exploding against the ground in the area around the Duba's paws.

The monster roared in pain, its movements faltering slightly. Cunning and capable it might have been, it was still a Creature of Grimm, when all was said and done. Its nature as such drove it to immediately retaliate against the ones that had caused it pain. Abandoning its attack on Ruby, it turned about, sweeping its paw down and slamming it into and through the earth, sending a shockwave tearing across the ground at Yang and Nora, who dove aside as the wave of earth and rock rushed through where they'd been standing.

That faltering of its attack gave Ruby an opening. She darted back, her cloak scattering still more petals through the air around her, Ruby herself going into a rapid spin. In less than a second, the petals had congealed into several orbs of red, which glowed and crackled, their color intensifying into a brilliant violet.

"Hibana!" The bolts of plasma shot down at the Duba from above, exploding across its body, making its entire form jolt as the beast let out a bellow of rage, immediately wheeling back towards Ruby again.

Seeing her opportunity, Pyrrha charged forward, Milo and Akouo raised. Behind her, Weiss swept Myrtenaster in an arc through the air around her, a quartet of small glyphs forming in her vicinity, which then fired bolts of blue energy at the monster. They flew past the charging Pyrrha to explode against the beast's hide, icy crystals growing out from where they landed.

Pyrrha jumped, cocking back her right arm, Milo transforming into its javelin-mode, with Pyrrha cocking back her arm in preparation to throw. The Nandi Bear, its attention diverted by Weiss' attack, turned to face Pyrrha right a she let fly, firing Milo's rifle to accelerate the javelin's flight. At the last second, the Duba turned its head, so that Milo's blade skipped off the curved surface of its bone mask.

Frantically Pyrrha used her Semblance to call her weapon back to her hand. At the same time, the Duba surged towards her, one paw raised, ready to drive those massive claws into Pyrrha's body. Pyrrha brought up her shield to defend, but knew that the sheer power behind the incoming blow was going to send her flying.

Then, seemingly out of thin air, Ren appeared on the Grimm's back, having approached completely unnoticed. He brought the blades of his StormFlower down, driving the points directly into the flesh at the base of the monster's neck, angling his weapons so that their barrels pointed directly at the back of the Duba's head, right where the white plate of its bone mask ended. Squeezing the trigger sent magenta bursts driving into that weak-spot.

The Duba bellowed in pain. Instead of trying to thrash and dislodge its unwelcome passenger, the Duba displayed that frightening cunning an older Grimm was known for, opting to simply throw itself over backwards, trying to crush Ren beneath its bulk. Ren managed to pull StormFlower free, but was too slow to throw himself clear. Fortunately, he was saved by a black ribbon that had wrapped around his wait, Blake pulling him out from under the Duba, mere fractions of a second before it would have crushed him beneath its bulk. Ren managed to land a short distance away from where the monster was already getting back to its feet.

The interventions had ultimately amounted to no more than a few seconds cumulatively. However, those few seconds were all that Ruby needed. Still in the air above the Duba, she brought the first two fingers of her right hand to the base of Akaibara's blade, running them along the length of the blade's flat, all the way to the tip. With a loud ring, her sword blazed with crimson light, the air gathering around the blade, as Ruby took it in both hands, raising it over her head. Not needing any prompting, Weiss created a black glyph directly below Ruby, which turned red as it sucked Ruby through it, Ruby kicking off with her Shukuchi to accelerate even more, practically becoming a streak of crimson light as she descended.

At the last second, the Duba became aware of the impending danger, turning its head towards the source of the threatening sensation its honed senses perceived. It saw the descending streak of red and shifted its body, preparing to dodge. Its legs tensed, and it was about to launch itself out of the path of Ruby's strike.

But then a sword stabbed right through one of its hind legs. With a loud shout, Dove drove his weapon in with all the strength he had, punching right through the flesh above the Grimm's ankle, so that the blade of his sword emerged from the other side. Dove continued to push, until he'd brought the hilt of his weapon up against the Grimm's flesh, then started pulling the trigger, pumping bullets into the beast's leg at point blank range.

The Duba's leg spasmed, and it kicked reflexively, flinging Dove back, the force of the move causing Dove to lose his grip on his sword, and sending him flying. Even though he the world around him was a complete blur, Dove could tell that he was about to hit the ground hard. However, at the last second, his body was suddenly surrounded by a black outline, the power of Pyrrha's Semblance latching onto his armor, buoying him up and slowing him enough that he was able to bring his spinning under control, and then land on his feet.

In the meantime, his desperate attack had bought Ruby the last fraction of a second she needed to strike. "Kazegiri!" Ruby brought Akaibara down in a single slash, etching a line of crimson light through the air, seeming to split the world around her in two. She cut clean through the Duba's midsection, before landing in a crouch beside it. The large Grimm let out a single, final roar, then collapsed its upper half falling one way, its hindquarters the other, both halves releasing a shower of red particles that seemed to rain around Ruby. They hit the ground with enough force to send a jolt through the earth that everyone in the vicinity felt beneath their feet. After a few seconds, the Duba joined the Ursa Majors in dissolving into smoky particles.

"Wow..." breathed Yang, sagging, then falling to her knees. "That was a thing."

Jaune went forward to meet Ruby, who was staggering at little. "You okay?" he asked worriedly, seeing that her face was covered with sweat.

"I'll be all right," said Ruby, giving him a shaky smile, while sliding Akaibara back into its sheath. "I'm just coming down off the adrenaline. I'll be right as rain in a moment."

"Good," breathed Jaune in relief.

"That was a good call you made," added Ruby, "telling Yang and Nora to target its feet."

"I saw you trying to stay up high as much as possible, and figured that was what you were aiming for," said Jaune.

"You were right," Ruby replied.

Jaune flinched, then stiffened, when Ruby leaned forward, resting her head against his shoulder. "Uh...Ruby?"

"If it's okay, can we stay like this for a bit?" asked Ruby softly.

Jaune immediately found himself smiling warmly, reaching up to wrap his arm around her shoulders. "Yeah. It's fine."

"Well, I am glad to see that my intervention was not required," observed Glynda, striding out of the trees, her sudden appearance making everyone jump. Ruby and Jaune sprang apart, before joining the rest of their friends in spinning around to watch Glynda nervously. Despite her words, she didn't look glad. Granted, she didn't look angry either, merely wearing the same stern expression that was her trademark.

"Hey there, Professor," said Yang. "W-were you there the whole time?"

"Not the whole time," said Glynda, "but long enough. That was well fought, all of you...especially you, Ms. Rose." Now Glynda actually did smile, her praise and expression making Ruby blush.

Then Glynda's eyes went to Jaune. "Mr. Arc, that was an excellent call by you."

"Thanks, Professor," said Jaune, blushing himself.

"And the rest of you did an excellent job in providing the support that Ms. Rose needed," added Glynda, sweeping her gaze around to encompass the entire group, but skipping over Cardin, who was only now getting back to his feet.

Now Glynda adjusted her spectacles, then addressed the group as a whole. "Very well then, you had all best remember to return to our transports at the proper time. Carry on."

"Wait!" exclaimed Cardin, his eyes going wide with surprise. "You mean, after all of that, we're still going to go forward with this?"

"Of course, Mr. Winchester," said Glynda dismissively. "Seeing as the Grimm are dead, there is no reason to suspend the mission."

"B-but..." protested Cardin weakly.

"Unforeseen circumstances are a fact of life, Mr. Winchester," said Glynda, her tone cold. "Even the most innocuous, low-risk mission can turn dangerous unexpectedly. You had best get accustomed to adapting to dynamic situations, Mr. Winchester, or you will not get very far here." Her eyes narrowed. "Besides, it is not as though you have anything to complain about, since you chose to...sit out...this particular battle."

Cardin's face turned red, burning with shame. Jaune actually found himself wincing at Cardin's embarrassment. He had expected Glynda to skip over addressing what Cardin had done completely. But it appeared that Cardin complaining about the mission continuing, despite the intense battle that had just taken place, had prompted her to address it openly.

Seeing that no one else had anything to say, Glynda turned on her heel and walked out of the clearing. "Don't forget your jars," she added as a final remark.

"Well...that's that," said Jaune.

Pyrrha went over to where the Duba had fallen, picking Dove's sword up off the ground. Walking back to him, she returned it to him, Dove accepting it with a grateful smile.

Then Dove turned to Cardin. "Are we done here?" he asked flatly.

"Yeah..." said Cardin, his expression becoming pensive. "We are."

"Good," said Dove, walking past him.

Cardin stood there for a long moment, before his gaze drifted to Jaune, who was once again allowing Ruby to lean against him, pressing her face into his shoulder. Finally, Cardin let out a slow breath, and turned to follow Dove. A few paces into the trees, he found Dove, staring down Sky and Russel, the other two boys too ashamed to meet Dove's squinty eyes. When Cardin appeared behind Dove, they both took nervous steps back, their eyes widening. Cardin met their gazes squarely, then closed his eyes and shook his head with a tired sigh.

"Let's just get this over with," he grumbled. He walked past Sky and Russel, already heading towards the rendezvous. Dove followed behind him, with the last two members of their team falling meekly into line.

Fortunately, there were no further Grimm interruptions to their field trip. Ruby, cautiously released the rapier wasps from their confinement, even leaving an offering of sap on a nearby tree, almost as an apology for what the insects had been through.

Of course, in their rush to confront the Grimm, the group had left their jars behind. Unfortunately, as soon as they made their way back, they realized that said jars had been left unguarded...something that Nora had realized first. So it was with no small amount of consternation that they arrived back at where they had been working to find Nora already there, rubbing her stomach, licking her lips, not even bothering to try and look innocent.

At this point, the only thing they could do was shake their heads, tap some new trees, and fill their jars once again, making absolutely certain to safeguard their provender this time. However, Nora's triumph was short-lived. By the time it was time for them to leave, she was suffering the consequences of overindulging in her vice, feeling woozy and nauseous. The ride on the bullhead didn't help matters and, by the time they had arrived back at Beacon, Nora's skin was a shade of green that looked distinctly unhealthy. They had scarcely reached their rooms, when Nora had bolted for her team's bathroom, slamming the door shut behind her. A few seconds later, their ears were assaulted with the sound of her being violently ill.

"Serves her right," scoffed Weiss, savoring the delicious (Ha!) irony of Nora suffering from her excess.

"Weiss!" protested Pyrrha, though she admitted to herself, guiltily, that she too felt a certain degree of satisfaction in Nora getting her just desserts (Ha ha!).

"It's not as though she didn't earn it," consoled Jaune, enjoying the sounds of sweet (Yang might have been a bad influence on them.) revenge.

When Nora finally emerged from the bathroom, her skin only slightly paler than usual now. She still looked woozy, but was able to stand up without needing to be supported. Ren decided that her indigestion was more than enough of a punishment for her at the moment, merely asking if she had learned anything, to which Nora nodded wordlessly, a miserable expression on her face.

It would be two weeks before she could even bring herself to look at the jar of sap she had collected for her own use...much less use it.

The mood in CRDL's room was low. The four boys sat on their respective bunks. Sky and Russel glanced evasively between Dove and Cardin. Cardin stared down at his knees, his expression pensive. Dove, on the other hand, was much more relaxed, leaning back casually against the wall his bed had been set next to, arms folded.

"Not going to say anything?" asked Cardin, not looking up.

"Do you want me to?" asked Dove.

"No," said Cardin.

"Then I won't," replied Dove.

"Not even 'I told you so?'"

"You seem to already know about that," said Dove.

Cardin sighed. "What do you want?"

Dove leaned forward. "What I want is for you to get it together. You've blown the first weeks of this year on a petty grudge against Arc. You've wasted time and energy on trying to haze him; put our school lives into jeopardy, because of a bunch of macho-man bull. We're lagging behind as students, as a team, as combatants, and we're on Goodwitch's watchlist.

"I came to this Academy because I want to become a Huntsman. What did you come here for, Cardin?"

"The same," said Cardin softly.

"Is that really true?" pressed Dove.

Cardin closed his eyes. After a long moment, he opened them again. "No."

"Then what?" asked Dove.

"I came here because I wanted to be on top," said Cardin. "I don't want people to look down on me. No one looks down on Huntsmen."

"Don't be so sure," said Russel.

"Huh?" grunted Sky, as all three other sets of eyes swiveled towards the young man with the green mohawk.

"If you think that no one looks down on Huntsmen, you haven't been to my hometown," said Russel.

"What are you talking about?" asked Cardin.

"The people in my town hate Hunstmen with a passion," growled Russel, looking up at the ceiling. "They claim that Huntsmen are just glorified extortionists. They always exaggerate the threats they're up against, charge way too much for their work, and take advantage of the fact people need them to keep the Grimm at bay. Doesn't help that our village is on the Blacklist."

"What's the Blacklist?" asked Sky.

"Basically, we're last priority for Huntsmen," said Russel. "They'll only send someone out if there's a real risk that we're about to be overrun. But Grimm running through our fields, messing up our crops...we can't even post missions for that."

"That sucks," said Sky.

"Eh, it's their own fault," grumbled Russel.

"What do you mean?" asked Dove.

"The village earned its place on the Blacklist," said Russel. "They got blacklisted because they kept lying about the mission levels they were posting, always hiring lower-level Huntsmen, so they wouldn't have to pay as much. If it happens once or twice, it's not a big deal. You can't predict Grimm perfectly, after all. But when the Huntsmen realized that the danger-level exceeded the mission-level that had been posted, consistently, they realized that the villagers had been pulling a fast one. They got a warning from the Kingdom, but ignored it. So they got stuck on the Blacklist instead. Dumbasses still keep blaming Huntsmen for it though."

"And you wanted to become a Huntsman?" asked Cardin, shocked.

"Not at first," said Russel. "But I was outside playing once, and was nearly run over by a Boarbatusk. This Huntress in white comes out of nowhere and saves me, takes me back home, doesn't even think to ask about money. To me, she was a goddamn hero. After that, I started learning more about what Huntsmen are all about, decided I wanted to be one."

"That can't have gone over well," noted Dove.

"Not at all," said Russel with a sardonic grin. "My parents damn near kicked me out of the house. I managed to talk them around, and they actually covered my tuition for Combat School. But it was a near thing."

"So what do you want out of this?" asked Dove, focusing on Russel.

"I want to become a Huntsman," said Russel. "I..."

"You want to be like the one who saved you," said Sky.

Russel nodded. Then he looked to Cardin. "So yeah...not everyone loves and respects Huntsmen."

"If they do, it's because there's a standard, and we're supposed to uphold it," said Dove. "All this stupid macho posturing is nothing but a waste of time."

"What about you?" asked Cardin, looking to Sky.

Sky sighed. "Family business," he said. "Dad was a Huntsman, decided I wanted to be like Dad, so...here I am."

"And are you like your dad?" pressed Dove.

Sky was silent for a long moment. "Nope," he said, sounding disappointed.

"So now what do we do?" asked Dove, looking back to Cardin.

"What do you mean?" Cardin asked back.

"You were gonna chuck a jar of sap at Jaune, then set a box of rapier wasps on him," said Dove harshly. "I don't know if Arc knew that at the time. But, all the same, when that Ursa was about to take your head off, there he was. Even after all the things you did to him, he was still there when you needed it."

Cardin averted his eyes again.

"That's how a Huntsman is supposed to act," said Dove. "Arc's skills may be sub-par right now, but he's still more of a Huntsman than you are. The way I see it, you can keep wasting time and energy trying to tear him down...or you can build yourself up. Are you gonna keep blowing your time here on adolescent crap...or are you ready to actually be the thing you came to this school to become?"

Cardin was silent.

Dove decided to go for the finisher. "I know where to find Arc," he said.

"What?" blurted out Sky, sitting bolt-upright.

"How long?" pressed Russel.

"The whole week," Dove replied.

The other three boys stared at him incredulously. "And you kept that from us?" demanded Sky.

"Yep," said Dove, not even trying to be obtuse about it.

"Why the hell?" gasped Russel.

"Gee...why do you think?" Dove retorted. "If you'd known where Arc was going on his off periods, what would you have done?"

The other boys didn't need to answer out loud. Following along with Cardin's desires, they'd searched for Jaune with the intention of exercising their frustrations on him, likely beating him into the ground.

"Do you know what Arc was doing, off on his own?" asked Dove.

"Hiding," scoffed Sky.

"Training," corrected Dove. "While you jackasses were busy acting like the bullies from every school-drama on the networks, Arc was busy working his ass off. I've even sparred with him a few times. He's still pretty weak overall, but he's getting better fast, because he's putting in the damn work, all while you guys are doing pretty much nothing."

Dove focused on Cardin. "How tired are you of losing to someone in the ring, just because you can't even bother to take him seriously? How quick do you want to be left in the dust by Arc, because he keeps training, while you've been doing nothing but flexing your damn muscles? Are you gonna look at what happened today, and just go back to the same old same old? Or are you actually going to do what really needs to be done?"

Cardin clenched his jaw. "Fine..." he groaned. "You win."

Dove sighed, leaning back again. "Thank God," he breathed.

Cardin groaned. "I suck as a leader," he said.

"Yep," said Dove, not even trying to deflect.

"You want to be the leader?" asked Cardin.

"Nope," Dove answered. "Ozpin made you leader, so you're stuck with it. You're already leading this team, you just need to do it right...and lead this team in the right direction."

In a sense, Dove could see why Ozpin had made Cardin leader. For all that he was bullheaded, and had a tendency to hold grudges over stupid things, Cardin did have some promising qualities. He had a natural charisma, something that had swayed Russel and Sky easily enough. He could be decisive, sometimes. Right now, he just wasn't using those qualities of his in the right way.

It would be an uphill battle, but Dove truly felt like things were finally turning around for Team CRDL.

The weekend went, more or less, like usual. The fervor over their sparring match had died down a little, since the interview, but neither Ruby nor Pyrrha still felt comfortable with the idea of going into Vale just yet, particularly Ruby, since she didn't want to expose Ashley to the press, and all the pressure that had come along with suddenly finding herself an informal celebrity. In the end, the two had to content themselves with keeping touch over their scrolls, filling each other in on how their respective school lives were going.

Ashley apparently hadn't made much headway in making friends at school. While she hadn't been targeted by bullying or hazing, despite being the only faunus in her class, there was still a distance between her and her human classmates that she found daunting. Reminded of her own experiences as an outsider who'd immigrated into the Mibu, Ruby offered what advice she could, though she couldn't be sure that Ashley would find anyone like Miyu or Setsuna among her classmates. But there was hopefully someone there that Ashley could connect with.

Aside from that, the weekend had proven to be fairly uneventful. It had been a surprise, a pleasant one actually, to hear from Lisa, of all people. She'd sent a message, which Glynda had passed on to Ruby, that she'd successfully headed off an attempt by her network to set up an interview with Taiyang. Though they were reluctant to let go of such a juicy gossip piece, Lisa was continuing to cajole her peers and higher-ups into finding other stories more worthy of coverage, rather than continuing to hound a pair of girls who would like nothing more than to drop straight back into obscurity.

It was touch and go. Pyrrha's parents, and her agent, hadn't been happy about Pyrrha's remarks about not caring whether or not her sponsors abandoned her. Worse still, her parents were livid that Pyrrha had publicly spoken about their attempt to get her to withdraw from Beacon. It wasn't long before another call came over the CCT. While she still answered it, Pyrrha ended the call the very second her father began to berate her over her "ungrateful attitude." From then on, she denied every subsequent call that came in from her parents, finding herself beginning to empathize with Jaune and Ruby's own family troubles, when it came to having parental figures who stubbornly refused to see anything but what they wanted.

It was all the worse when Pyrrha was abruptly called to Ozpin's office, only to find that she had, somehow, submitted a formal withdrawal form for Beacon, a form that Pyrrha knew she hadn't even looked at. Ozpin had suspected as much, with Pyrrha placing her manager, Holly, at the top of the list of suspects for performing such a move. Suspecting that this might not be the last time someone tried something of this nature, Ozpin declared that Pyrrha would not be permitted to withdraw or transfer from Beacon, unless she came directly to his office, and told him so, to his face, and got the necessary paperwork to fill out directly from him, terms Pyrrha was glad to agree too.

Once the weekend was over, things went back to normal, with one surprisingly pleasant wrinkle. Team CRDL had changed their tune. No longer were they going around, trying to catch Jaune when he was on his own. In fact, they didn't bother with him at all, instead focusing on their own training. While Cardin, Sky, and Russel never apologized to Jaune for their treatment of him, there was a sense that they had genuinely buried the hatchet this time. Much to Ruby's relief, there was no sign that Cardin was interested in resuming his romantic overtures towards her either.

The excitement over Ruby and Pyrrha's sparring match aside, it looked as though their life in Beacon had finally settled down, leaving Ruby and the others feeling a sense of hope and optimism about the time to come.