The Emerald Forest

For some reason, it seemed like Jaune was the only one who didn't expect to be thrown off a cliff at about 9 in the morning. Everyone else just seemed like they were born to be flung off a cliff for their tests.

A crow, unsuspecting of the flying objects in the sky, happily flew over the forest. But then it was slammed by a short girl in black and red and dropped out of the sky in a heap of black feathers.

"Birdy no!!!!" Ruby called after the poor bird.

However, she didn't have time to mourn for a bird she sadly smashed right through. She shot several times from Crescent Rose, reducing her momentum, and as she got closer to the treetops she brought out the scythe form and clipped it onto a thick branch on a tree. She spun around the branch once and then used the momentum to launch herself off.

Meanwhile, other students were using their own separate means to stick a landing.

Weiss formed several black glyphs in her trajectory, each of which displayed the Schnee snowflake emblem within a circle. She passed through all of them and was slowed down by quite a bit. She then formed a white glyph of the same image and landed on it. It's positioning in the air along with some force generated by it allowed her to launch off of it and land on the ground safely.

The young man called Ren used the sickle-like blades attached vertically under the barrels of his pair of green fully automatic pistols to spiral downwards around the trunk of a large tree by sticking his blades into the wood. He brushed off any dust that may have gotten from that clean landing off of his outfit; a dark green, diagonally-buttoned, long-sleeved tailcoat that is red on the inside and has black and gold trimming and pink cuffs, with the trimming going down the right side of his torso, forming a black collar, and going around his waist. Beneath the tailcoat suit he wore a black long-sleeved shirt, and he was wearing light-tan pants and black shoes on his legs. Dust could get anywhere on his outfit. He heard the sound of shotguns firing and looked up to see a blonde young woman fly overhead.

Yang cheered as she flew over the treetops, using the shotguns in her gauntlets with explosive ammo to keep her in the air. As a number of treetops that stood out appeared in her path, she fired in different directions and occasionally spun, dodging all of the trees. She continued cheering and laughed at the excitement this gave her. She rolled up into a ball, her back facing the trees below, and fired off again, sending herself down the treetops, into the canopies. "Woohoo!!" she cheered, as she popped out of one of the canopies, her sunglasses miraculously still on, and hopped down tree trunks. She grunted as she rolled on the ground and immediately got back up and ran, the rush of excitement still fresh. "Nailed it!"

Pyrrha placed her bronze Amazoan* Dipylon-style shield in front of her as she fell. It broke through several tall trees, slowing her down enough to roll onto a tree branch to land. As she did, she placed her shield on her back and pulled out her javelin/spear, bringing out its rifle form and checking her surroundings, prepared to shoot at anything hostile.

The only thing she found, though, was a sobbing Jaune Arc falling through the sky, a great distance from her. She smirked at the sight and changed her weapon into its javelin form and formed the stance of a javelin-thrower, pulling it back with her right arm. Determining the trajectory required, she moved herself and raised her left thumb, setting it in line with the javelin. She then threw it, firing the trigger at the same time to give it an additional boost, along the determined trajectory. It flew towards where Jaune was going to land, and…she heard the sound of it piercing a tree just as the two fell out of sight and heard a shaky "Thank you!" from where the sound had come. She sighed in relief as she heard Jaune's voice. "I'm sorry!" she called back.

Ruby grunted as she stuck a superhero landing; right knee and hand on the ground, left knee bent, and left arm raised to the side. She took a breath, and then got up and ran with urgency. 'Gotta find Yang. Gotta find Yang gotta find Yang gotta fiiind…' "Yaaaaang!!!" Ruby called out. "Yaaaang!!"

'Ugh, this is really bad!' she thought to herself. 'What if I don't find her? What if someone else finds her first? Well…there is Jaune…he's nice. And funny!' Ruby smiled at the thought of the hope that she could have someone else as a partner, but then frowned when she remembered something else. 'I don't think he's very good in a fight, though…' She imagined him sobbing as he was being chased by Beowolves.

'Oh! What about Blake? So mysterious…so calm…plus, she likes books!' Ruby gave an excited smile as her hope returned, but then her hopes were dashed again with another realization. 'Then again…I'm not sure I'll be able to hold a conversation with her…' She shook her head, getting rid of the thought bubbles she was creating.

'Ugh! Okay, who else do I know in Beacon…Yang, Jaune, Blake, and…' she then skid to a stop as she heard a twig crack and ended up meeting the last person on that list and the last person she would want to partner up with; Weiss. They both stared at each other for a second, and Ruby froze up. Weiss simply spun around and walked in the other direction, back into the shadows of the bushes.

'Huh?' thought Ruby. 'What just happened? That was Weiss, right…no, it couldn't have been. My eyes might be playing tricks on me. I mean, it was pretty dark, and I couldn't tell…' She looked in the direction she saw Weiss again to find her gone. "Okay, now I just need to find Yang, and quickly, before…" Ruby's chain of thought was interrupted as she remembered what Yang had told her in the locker room. "Ugh…I can't run away like this!" she shouted after a moment of thinking. "That was definitely Weiss. And she is definitely my partner now. Whether she likes it or not." she said to herself as she chased after Weiss.

'No way, no way, no way! My partner is not going to be that kid! She couldn't have seen me…yeah, I walked away before she could recognize who I was, right…?' Weiss looked down at her bright and white outfit and came to a realization. 'I guess not…but she must've had the same thing in mind if she didn't call out to me. Which means we're definitely not partners, right!?'

"Oh, hey, Weiss!"

Weiss looked up in horror at the tall, blonde and scraggly young man nailed high up on a tree trunk with a familiar-looking red and gold javelin. Jaune grunted as he tried to pull it off.

"Hey, um…you mind helping me down? I'm pretty sure this is Pyrrha's weapon, you know, since I got stabbed by it before, heh…" he said, laughing nervously.

Weiss turned around and walked away again.

"Hey! Wait! Come back! Weeeiiiiiss!!!" Jaune called after her, but in vain.

'I have the worst luck.' Weiss thought to herself. 'Come on, there must be someone else better than those two. Why did I have to meet them first, anyways…' As she was thinking, she noticed a large portion of the ground around her get darker under a shadow. She turned to see a large black, shadowy bear with a white mask on its face and white protrusions all over its body that resembled bone. Underneath its 'mask', it had lava-red eyeballs flaring in rage. It was a Grimm. An Ursa Grimm.

It slammed its paw down in the position Weiss had been standing. She had used a white glyph to slide her away from harm. She pulled her Multi-Action Dust Rapier, which she named Myrtenaster, from her waist sash into her left hand. The rapier was silver-gray in color and had four prongs on its hilt, encasing a revolver-like chamber that was used to hold raw Dust. Currently, all six slots in the chamber were filled with vials of different colored Dust. A trigger was placed under one of the prongs, with a Dust Exhaust Port placed on the blade of the rapier opposite to the trigger.

She poised herself, ready to strike the Grimm down with a flurry of fencing thrusts, with her left hand, holding Myrtenaster, placed in front of her face. She spread her feet, pushing down on her forward foot, the left one. She bent her back forward slightly and turned her face to the Grimm. "What wonderful timing. I'm in a bad mood, and I found just the thing to take out my anger on."

She flicked her wrist, causing the chamber to revolve and lock in on a slot with White Dust. She pressed down on the trigger, and wind flowed out of the exhaust port with great pressure. "No hard feelings."

She launched herself forward with a glyph imbued with wind pressure. Suddenly, a few more Ursa leaped from the bushes behind her. Noticing this, she continued her charge and thrust her rapier outwards towards her original target, blasting a hole the size of her torso in its stomach. She then turned behind her and thrust again, leaving a hole in the head of the Grimm that had been directly behind her. She then spun and made a wide slash through the movement that sliced through the other two Grimm that had supported the ambush on her. The three corpses fell to the ground, evaporating into a black smoke. Weiss scoffed at the dead Grimm. "Is this the challenge the Headmaster was talking about?"

Suddenly, her foot had been grabbed by a large paw. She turned to see the Ursa she was originally attacking still alive and pulling at her foot. She turned as much as she could with her foot locked in its orientation and thrust her blade downwards at it. As soon as she did, several more leaped from the bushes around her, albeit smaller in size. However, they had surrounded her from three sides and she couldn't escape to the fourth. Weiss only had a moment to react in fear before they clawed at her. But before they could harm her, a storm of red rose petals rushed through where she was, and a red, oversized gardening tool was swung in a wide arc in front of her, killing all the Grimm present.

Weiss looked down to see Ruby kneeled down in front of her, holding her red scythe, standing over the evaporating body of the Grimm that had grabbed her foot.

"You-"

"Yeah, me." Ruby cut off Weiss before she could finish. "If I'm being honest, I didn't want to partner up with you. That's why I pretended I didn't see you back there. But there's no point in running away from it, because I'd just be lying to myself, and I've realized that doing so won't help me become the Hunter I want to be. So I've decided to just accept it." Ruby stood up in front of Weiss and planted the other end of her scythe into the ground, in a position where the blade was looming over them. "That's why I'm your partner now for the next four years, whether you like it or not!"

Weiss scoffed, but before she could reply, a horde of Grimm stepped out of the shadows to her left.

"That's…a lot of Grimm…" said Ruby, somewhat surprised. Weiss let out an exasperated sigh that almost sounded like a grunt. "Ugh. Fine. Prepare yourself."

Ruby looked at her with surprise. Weiss, her focus still on the Grimm, continued talking. "I don't think I need to say this, but you better not slow me down."

Ruby smirked while turning to face the Grimm herself. "You took the words right out of my mouth, princess."

***

"Jaune?" Pyrrha had walked through the forest for quite a while in search for Jaune and her javelin, which was probably still attached to his clothes.

"Hey! I'm over here!"

Pyrrha heard a hopeful cry from further inside. She followed it and found Jaune still nailed to the tree trunk, hanging from her javelin. Pyrrha smirked before she said something to him. "Do you…have any spots left on your team?"

"Very funny, Pyrrha." he said, grumpily crossing his arms. Almost immediately, though, he smiled back down at her. "So, uh, do you mind helping me get down?"

After bringing him down in a rather unconventional way, Pyrrha asked Jaune, "So, did you meet anybody while you were hanging up there?"

"Well, I met Weiss, but she walked away without saying anything. That girl really dislikes me, huh…"

"I think 'dislike' would be an understatement…no offense, though!"

"None taken." Jaune said, unhappily. "What about you?"

"Oh, I didn't meet anyone."

"Then…I guess that makes us partners now, huh?"

Pyrrha gave him a soft smile. "Right."

"Helllooooooooooooo? Anybody thereeee?" Yang had been wandering the Emerald Forest for around 15 minutes and nothing had happened. She hadn't been this bored since she was 12. "Hellooooooooo!? I'm getting bored here!" she shouted again, hoping to find somebody. She scoffed, saying, "How can they call this an Initiation? This is so uneventful. I haven't even found a partner! Ugh!"

Yang then heard a rustle in the bushes behind her. "Somebody there?" She parted the bushes, hoping to find a person crouching behind. "Ruby, is that you?" She then heard a snarl, and her eyes shifted to where it came from. "Nope."

She leaped and rolled to the side as the bear-like Grimm, an Ursa, charged out of the bushes onto the clearing. As she recovered, she pulled her arms backwards, causing her Dual Ranged Shot-Gauntlets, Ember Celica, to extend into their active battle mode. They extended all over her forearms, acting as golden arm guards, with the chamber of 12 shells of ammunition now exposed, save for the outer side, which the arm guard was covering. A silver barrel was concealed in the front of each the gauntlets, aligned between the knuckles of the index and middle fingers. She cartwheeled backwards as the Ursa charged again, regrouping with another Ursa. It charged at her again, and this time she cocked her right arm backwards and spun her entire body counter-clockwise to drive her fist into the Ursa's gut. As she thrust her fist, she also fired a shell from the shotguns in her gauntlet, enhancing her punch by exploding upon fire and pushing the Ursa even further back.

She positioned herself back, with her left arm extended downwards, right arm bent at her side, knees slightly bent, leaving her squatting slightly. The second Ursa charged at her, and she rushed forward, driving an uppercut with her left hand through its chin, combined with another shell fired from her shotgun, propelling it into the air, and then jumped up and fired a shell from her right arm, which was extended in the opposite direction, and she used the force from this to kick the Grimm in its gut with her left leg. She then backed up a little.

"You guys wouldn't happen to have seen a girl in a red hood, would you?" Yang said to the Grimm, smiling at them. The two Ursa growled at her. "You could just say 'no'!" she said, as the one to her right charged at her. She avoided one of its swings by stepping back and avoided a second by flipping backwards. She laughed at their attempts to pummel her.

"Geez, you two couldn't hit the broad side of a ba-" Yang's voice faded away as she watched a strand of her hair slowly fall in front of her face and on the ground. "You…" she said, as she sighed with frustration. The two Ursa simply gruntled at each other in confusion.

"You monster!" she shouted, as her eyes suddenly glowed red and her blonde hair began to glow golden, and flames engulfed her for a moment. She was fired up, and so was her Semblance.

She launched forward with her left gauntlet, leaving a burst of dirt behind. As she rapidly approached the Ursa that slashed at her hair, she delivered a powerful hook filled with firepower with her left to its jaw, and then uppercut it into the air with her right. She then launched herself towards it, still in midair, with both of her gauntlets, and released a chain of punches enhanced by small explosions from her shells of ammunition that ended with a powerful punch to its gut ramming it through several trees, destroying their trunks and leaving behind a trail of fire and dirt. The other Ursa ran up to her but stopped and stood on its hind legs when Yang reloaded and turned to it.

"What!? You want some, too!?"

In response, it growled at her. But, before it could swing at her, a blade cut it in its back, killing it and bringing its corpse crashing down. Behind it stood Blake, who pulled her blade from its evaporating body with the ribbon attached to it. Yang took a few breaths as she calmed down and de-activated her Semblance. Blake sheathed her blade and smirked at Yang. There was a momentary silence as the two realized they were now partners.

"Kind of hard to tell which of you is the bloodthirsty one." Blake said, her smirk now wider because of her comment.

"Come onnnnnn, I could've taken him." Yang said, groaning unhappily.

Meanwhile, in another part of the forest, a metallic clang echoed through the trees, originating from a small clearing. Weiss slid back by a few meters from the force of the strike on her blade. She glanced behind her and found Ruby spinning herself and her scythe at impressive speeds, slashing away at every single wolf-like Grimm in range.

'Focus, Weiss! Remember your training!' she told herself. 'Stand straight…shoulders back…left foot forward…slow your breathing…' as she went through a mental checklist, her stance improved until she stood like a professional fencer, ready to cut down some monsters. Her right hand went behind her back as her left extended by a bit, allowing her rapier to be pushed outwards. She flicked her wrist, revolving the Dust chamber again and locking in a slot filled with Dust of a red shade. She then rushed forward, about to release a wall of flames, until Ruby suddenly appeared in front of the Grimm she was targeting and cut it. Caught surprised, Weiss slashed and released a wall of fire towards a tree, setting it on fire. The fire spread rapidly, destroying and falling many trees in the surrounding area. The Grimm wailed as the fire began to surround the pair of students.

Ruby readied herself, reloading her weapon and preparing to strike, apparently oblivious to the wildfire. Weiss stopped her and pulled her up. "We need to go. Now." She then ran, pulling Ruby along.

After running for quite some time from the fire, they stopped atop a hill, out of breath.

"Hey, why did you get in my way?" Ruby called out to Weiss.

"Now who's taking the words out of someone's else's mouth, huh?" Weiss scoffed at her, bossily crossing her arms. "Perhaps if you had even the slightest bit of caution and awareness of your teammates, I wouldn't have SET THE FOREST ON FIRE!"

"Which 'Snow Angel' uses fire to attack!?"

"Jaune came up with that nickname! Besides, I was just using different types of Dust for a more effective fighting style!"

"Yeah, like using fire in a forest!? Your genius is frightening, princess!"

"Ugh!" Weiss slammed her foot down in frustration. "I'm surprised someone who talks so much communicated so little in a battle!"

Ruby crossed her arms and made a sour face. "Well I'm sorry you need my help to win a fight! I'm just fine on my own!"

Weiss narrowed her eyes at her. "Well then, congratulations on being the strongest child to sneak your way into Beacon!" She turned away and walked into the bushes, throwing up her arms in frustration. "Bravo!"

Ruby let out a frustrated scream, throwing her arms down. She pulled out her scythe and cut a tree in half before following after Weiss. As they passed into the thicket, a giant, black feather slowly floated down, landing on the fallen tree.

Elsewhere in the Emerald Forest, Jaune and Pyrrha were walking between several short trees in close vicinity. Pyrrha lifted a branch out of the way but let go before Jaune could pass by. The branch slammed him in the face.

"Blaugh!"

"Jaune! I'm sorry, I wasn't looking…" Pyrrha trailed off as she noticed something unusual; a cut on his face.

"It's okay, just a scratch!"

"Why are you injured…wait, why isn't your Aura activated?"

"Huh? Whaddya mean?"

Pyrrha narrowed her eyes at him. "Jaune…do you know what Aura is?"

He scoffed nervously, trying to hide his lack of knowledge. "Of course I know what it is. Do you know what Aura is?"

Pyrrha relaxed her expression and smiled at him, realizing his lack of knowledge. "Listen closely. Aura is basically a manifestation of your soul. Every living being has an Aura, but it varies in strength and nature between people. Through practice, we, as Hunters, can manipulate our Aura to be our shield, enhance our bodies, and fortify our weapons. All combat schools and Hunter academies train students to manipulate and control their Aura; it is our greatest asset in a fight. It is the fuel behind all of the extraordinary abilities of Hunters, including Semblances, and can allow us to activate Dust more efficiently."

Jaune slowly soaked up the information being carefully explained to him by Pyrrha. "You really are an expert, huh…"

Pyrrha chuckled. "You think so?"

"So, um, what about Grimm?"

"The monsters we fight don't have a soul, thus they do not have an Aura to manifest."

"Quite a relief there…" Jaune muttered to himself.

"They are the darkness, while we, the Hunters, are the light."

"And that's why we fight them…right?"

Pyrrha nodded and continued reciting her teachings. "Understanding both the dark and the light helps us in manifesting our Aura, because every person has a bit of both. Our Aura can be activated by baring our soul outwards like a force, and this allows us to do what I mentioned before: protect ourselves from harm, increase our strength, heal faster, or even channel it into our weapons, tools or whatever else we touch. They can all be conduits for our Aura. Through Aura, you project yourself when you fight. Our control over it is proof of our identity, capability, and skill as Hunters."

"So…it's like a forcefield?"

Pyrrha smirked at this comment. "Yes, if you want to look at it that way."

She then walked up to him and placed her hand on his cheek.

Jaune blushed a little, surprised by her action. "P-Pyrrha, what are you doing?'

"Be quiet, now. Close your eyes and concentrate." Once both of them had their eyes closed, she then recited what sounded like the chants of some sort of ritual. As she spoke, the two were enveloped in a bright glow of light, with the light from Pyrrha glowing a bright red, and the light from Jaune glowing a pure white.

"…For it is in passing that we achieve immortality. Through this, we become a paragon of virtue and glory to rise above all. Infinite in distance and unbound by death, I release your soul…and by my shoulder, I protect thee."

Pyrrha released her touch, causing Jaune to open his eyes and find her seem somewhat tired. "Pyrrha?"

"It's alright." She stood up straight again. "Aura starts off as dormant and unusable and needs to be unlocked either through immense training combined with a strong drive and powerful emotions, or by someone else unlocking it for you with a portion of theirs. I just did the latter."

It was then that Jaune realized that he was shining brilliantly in pure white. He looked down at his hands, and all over himself, being met with a bright light of white that seemed to be flaring out of him.

"All of this shining light is your power, and it's protecting you."

"Whoa…" Jaune was dumbfounded at this sight, feeling strong for the first time in his life. "All of this is my power…"

"And you seem to have a lot of it." Pyrrha smiled as the open wound on Jaune's face closed, almost as if it was never there in the first place.

"Oh, by the way, I saw a cave that looks kind of like an abandoned temple, like the one in the movies. It may have the relics!" Jaune said, excitedly. "Wanna go there? I'm going there!" Jaune excitedly walked off.

Pyrrha followed after him with a concerned look. "I hope you did actually listen to me…"

Meanwhile, in a lush part of the forest, Ren had walked into a clearing that was covered from the Sun by the spread of the canopies above. He suddenly stopped in his tracks, having sensed something behind him. He turned around to find a long and wide black, scaly body looming over him, along with a large black head with sharp teeth jutting out of its mouth and blood-red eyeballs. There were Grimm markings of white and red on the snake's face, seemingly made out of bone. It also sported grey patterns occasionally appearing along its long, slithery body.

It rushed past Ren before rapidly coiling back and striking at him with its gaping mouth, displaying its sharp fangs and long, black forked tongue. Ren dodged by flipping and cartwheeling backwards as the snake Grimm lashed out at him, growling as it slammed its head into the ground and immediately brought it back up, leaving a burst of dirt. It closed its mouth and thrust its head towards Ren. He braced his arms out in front of him, blocking the strike. As he flew back from the force, he spun himself in the air and landed on his feet, bent at his knees, ready to charge at it.

However, the Grimm coiled itself around him, rapidly forming a thick wall of black scales. Ren threw his arms down, causing his dual green submachine-gun-pistols with their attached sickle blades (that Nora named 'Storm-Flower', because Ren couldn't do names) to slide out of his sleeves. He launched himself upward and flipped, facing the snake, and fired at its skull. It recoiled and spun again before trying to strike, which Ren countered by delivering a tough kick to its cheek. The kick caused its head to collapse. Before it could recover, Ren sliced at its throat but to no avail, as the scales were thick. The Grimm still felt the pain, though, and slithered its head away before changing its trajectory straight for Ren. Ren, anticipating this, launched himself high into the air just as the Grimm struck the ground where he stood. He landed on its face, driving his blades into its skull.

Before Ren could relax, he sensed another presence rising from the ground behind him. He turned to find another snake, this time clad in white scales and gray bones, thrusting its head at him, fangs bared. He retrieved his blades and flipped to the side before its gaping mouth could catch him. As he recovered, he saw the two large snake Grimm coil back up, shaking in unison. There was no doubt; this was a dangerous Grimm known as a King Taijitu. It had its signature black half and white half, and now both halves were ready to lunge at Ren. The Headmaster was pretty serious about the threats after all.

Ren jumped up as the black half lunged and ran along its body. Once he came across the white half's body, he fired at it, sliding along the curves in the black half's body. In the midst of firing, he was caught off-guard as the white half's head rammed into him, sending him crashing into the ground, his weapons clattering away. Nonetheless, he stood up just in time to react to the black half lunging at him again.

"No!" he shouted as he drove his palms forward, blocking the bared fangs before they could cause harm. A pink glow emanated from his hands, signaling to him that his block using Aura had been successful. The snake hissed and growled as Ren's Aura reverberated against its fangs. Without further ado, Ren gripped its long fangs and ripped them off, breaking some other teeth in the process. The black half recoiled in pain, releasing a hoarse growl that almost sounded like a whine, before trying to attack again. Ren shifted to the side and planted the fangs into its eye, stopping it in its tracks. He then pulled his hand back, his palm open, as he concentrated his Aura into it. A pink glimmer came out from his right hand, and he immediately slammed it onto the fangs stabbing its eye. The shockwave swelled its head and immediately burst it.

Ren turned to face the white half, that was a little hesitant, having seen its other half burst like that. But before Ren could make a move, a short, young woman with fair skin and orange hair came spinning down from the canopies and slammed her giant silver hammer into the white half's head, effectively popping its brains into oblivion on the spot.

Nora stood triumphantly over the white half of the King Taijitu's head, posing like some god of thunder. She then flipped her hammer around and leaned on the shaft, smiling smugly at Ren. Nora was wearing a black vest that ended at her waist over two layers of clothing visible down the middle, with the bottom layer being light blue and a layer of red in between the vest and the light-blue. Her emblem, which displayed a hammer and a lightning bolt in pink, was on the back of her vest. She wore a white sleeveless top with a heart-shaped cut out over the chest and detached white sleeves on both arms from the biceps to the forearms. On her hands, she had pink fingerless gloves. She was also wearing a short pink skirt going from her waist to her mid-thighs and white shoes with pink soles along with pink laces. Finally, she wore armor that began from her shoulder blades and neck and ended near her waist, going down the sides of her vest and top, covering some parts of her front side.

As Ren walked up to her, dusting himself off, Nora made a cawing sound.

Ren chuckled. "I don't think that's what a sloth sounds like."

Nora ignored the comment and bent down, tapping her index finger on his nose, causing him to recoil but also smile. "Boop."

The Headmaster and Head Professor stood atop Beacon Cliff, watching the visual data from the tablet Scrolls in their hands. Professor Goodwitch turned to Ozpin. "The last pair has been formed; Lie Ren and Nora Valkyrie. I can't possibly imagine how the two will get along…although I'm sure Miss Nikos has it tougher." She changed the view from Ren and Nora to Jaune and Pyrrha. "I don't care what his transcripts say; that Jaune boy can't be prepared for this level of combat. I guess we'll have to wait and see." She then changed the view to Yang and Blake wiping out a pack of wolf-like Grimm. "Aside them, it seems Yang Xiao Long and Blake Belladonna are doing quite well together, despite being polar opposites."

"Well, you know what they say; opposites attract." replied Ozpin, his eyes unmoving.

Glynda looked up from her tablet and spoke her doubts yet again. "What was that about? Any other student they meet should be considered an enemy? That's just going to get them killed."

Ozpin didn't shift his eyes from his tablet. "Consider it a psychological test. If they still choose to work together under those rules, they'll truly have what it takes to be Hunters. After all, in the real world, the Grimm will always be a common threat that humanity must unite against."

Glynda pondered this before glancing at the Scroll he was so focused on, and gave a dry chuckle. "Quite concerned for our early bird, are we?"

Ozpin was caught by a bit of surprise, but returned his gaze to the screen, which displayed Ruby sitting on grass, randomly picking up and dropping leaves out of boredom, while Weiss unintentionally paced back and forth behind her, trying to figure out which direction to go.

"It's definitely this way!" she said, for about the fiftieth time.

"I mean…this way! It's definitely this way." She walked in the opposite direction, pointing at it, repeating those words for the fiftieth time as well.

Fed up, she stopped in front of Ruby. Ruby looked up at her and proceeded to stand up while she spoke. "Alright, it's official; we passed it."

"Why can't you just admit that you have no idea where we're going?"

"Because I know exactly where we're going!" Weiss said, attempting to uphold a reputation. This failed in front of Ruby though, because she saw right through her and made a sour face as Weiss walked in front of her.

"Ugh!" she said, frustrated.

Weiss, offended, dove right back into her heiress-attitude. "Oh, stop it! You don't know where we are either!"

Ruby turned to her and said, "Well, at least I don't pretend like I know everything!"

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"It means you're a big, stupid jerk" she stomped her foot, frustrated, "and I hate you!" she said, jabbing a finger at Weiss's face with an angry expression.

Weiss simply rolled her eyes, raised her head in frustrated exhaustion, and turned away. "Ugh! Just keep moving."

Ruby started imitating Weiss. "Oohh, just keep moving! Hurry up! Wah, watch where you're going!" She gestured a crying baby with her hands as she said the last line. She then put her arms on her hips, returning to her regular voice. "Why are you so bossy?"

Weiss turned to her with a mean look and stomped her foot. "I'm not bossy!" she said, walking up to her. "Don't say things like that!"

"Stop treating me like a kid!"

"Stop acting like a kid!"

"Well, stop acting like you're perfect!"

"I'm not perfect!" Weiss said, bobbing her head to her sides to add in a pinch of attitude. She then stood up straight, walking backwards. "Not yet. But I'm still leagues better than you." After dropping that verbal jab, she turned around and walked away again.

Ruby made a sad frown to the heiress's back. "You don't even know me…" she muttered, before following her.

The sound of flapping distracted them, and they both turned to see giant black wings rising over the trees, not far from them. The pair looked at each other, and Ruby gave Weiss a mischievous smile. "I have an idea."

Meanwhile, Yang and Blake emerged from trees on top of a hill and looked down to find a circular stone floor with a broken ring of stone colonnades and a stone wall surrounding it, along with fallen columns and stones covered in moss littered around it. There was a ring of stone pedestals without moss placed on the floor that each displayed an object that was too small to identify from their height.

"Looks like this is it." Blake said.

"Well whaddya know, we already made it!" said Yang, as cheery as ever.

They walked down the hill and onto the stone floor of the ruins of a temple. As they got closer, they noticed distinct shapes.

"Chess pieces? Could these actually be the relics?" Blake wondered, confused.

"Well, there are quite a few missing, so I think this is it." Yang picked up a dark-yellow-colored White Knight chess piece. "Kinda anti-climactic."

"I know, right? Now all we have to do is get to a cliff preceded with stone structures…" Blake trailed off as she realized the chess piece Yang had picked up. "Why the Knight?"

Yang looked at the piece, and back at Blake. "What? I like this cute little pony."

Blake shook her head as she smiled at that.

While Yang and Blake had found the actual temple ruins, Jaune and Pyrrha stumbled upon a cave that they thought was the temple ruins. Clearly, they were wrong. But they didn't know that yet.

"Think this is it? I think this is it." said Jaune, not giving Pyrrha a chance to speak.

Pyrrha spoke up after they had already entered the cave and were quite a few meters within. "I…don't think this is it."

Jaune sighed before responding. "Pyrrha, I made the torch. Could you at least humor me for, like, 5 more feet?"

Fortunately for him, their little expedition neared its end within 5 feet as Jaune tripped and dropped the torch. He seemed to have tripped in water, because the flame was almost instantly killed. "Ow.." Jaune grunted, as he got up.

"Do you feel that?" Pyrrha asked, sensing something off.

"Soul crushing regret?"

"No. It's…warm."

Despite that, they ventured a few more feet and discovered a glowing light around a turn in the cave. Jaune jumped in glee. "That's the relic!" he exclaimed. Pyrrha simply looked at him, confused. The glowing shape in front of them seemed like a bud or pod of some sort. It sort of seemed like a stinger, but a little more rounded. Since it seemed harmless, Pyrrha was hesitant to stop Jaune.

Jaune reached for the so-called 'relic', only to miss it as it shifted away from his grasp.

"Hey! Bad relic!" He made another failed attempt, before deciding to just leap for it. He hanged off of it. "Gotcha!" Unfortunately, his brain didn't register what it meant for him to hang off of something moving. Pyrrha did, though.

"Um, Jaune…"

Jaune looked down to see several blood-red eyes and markings glow ominously in the darkness and a hiss that sent a chill down his spine.

In the moments that followed, he let out the most ear-ripping feminine scream he had ever made in his entire life. It was so loud that Yang and Blake managed to pick it up from all the way up a hill, in the actual temple ruins.

"Some girl's in trouble!" exclaimed Yang, seeming concerned. "Blake, did you hear that?" she said, turning to her partner. But Blake was busy looking up into the sky.

Meanwhile, Pyrrha dashed out of the cave entrance as a massive scorpion-like Grimm with bones covering the front side of its pincers, body, and tail, known as a Deathstalker. Pyrrha figured that what pissed it off probably wasn't the fact that a human was hanging on its yellow, glowing stinger, but rather the fact that it was a crybaby manchild of a human who had just released his most threatening move yet; an eardrum-damaging scream that sounded like it came from a pre-pubescent teenager.

As the Grimm emerged, it roared, standing tall on its six legs, with Jaune still sobbing and screaming while hanging off of its tail.

"AHHHH!" he sobbed. "WHHYYYY???" He sobbed some more as it shook him around, and then cried out his partner's name. "PYRRHA!" he sobbed even more when it shook again. "PYRRHA! THIS IS NOT THE RELIC! IT'S NOT!" he called out to his partner, sobbing evermore. "DO SOMETHINGGG!!"

Pyrrha tried calming him down while under the stress of the giant Deathstalker ready to chomp her. "Jaune! Whatever you do, don't let-" Before she could finish, the Deathstalker flung Jaune into the sky. That was his second plane-less flight this morning. "-go…." Pyrrha finished, as she watched Jaune fly high into the sky and then fall back down. Unfortunately, she couldn't nail him to a tree again. She just had to hope he would have a safe landing. Besides, his Aura was activated now, so he would be fine. Or at least, Pyrrha hoped so.

Pyrrha turned around to look at the Deathstalker, which tried maintaining balance on its legs, and repeatedly snapped its pincers together, as it growled at her. Pyrrha simply gave it an awkward smile and made a break for it.

Back at the temple, Blake's attention hadn't shifted from the sky. "Blake…? What should we do?" Yang asked. "Yang…look up…" Blake said, pointing at the sky. Yang followed her gaze as she heard voices scream from the sky.

"-AAANNNNN-"

Yang squinted, trying to make out the black and white blotches closing in on them fast. When she finally made out who they were, she was dumbfounded, her eyes and mouth open wide, filled with shock.

"YOU ARE THE ABSOLUTE WORST!"

"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNG!!!!!"

She saw Ruby and Weiss freefalling through the sky, quickly picking up speed as they approached the ground. At their speed, they were most likely going be to squashed like cockroaches.