Chapter 13: The Emerald Green Forest Pt. 1

(An: Sorry guys, I was in an accident recently and my right arm got nearly torn off. Kinda hurts, especially when you have homework with one hand. Try to update more later.)

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(3rd Person POV)

A view of the Emerald Forest appears, where Yang is walking and looking around for any signs of being on the right track.

Yang: (calling out) Helloooooooo? (not seeing a shadow quickly pass by) Is anyone out there? Helloooo? (stops and raises her arms) I'm getting bored here! (hears a rustling in the bushes behind her and turns) Is someone there? (the rustling continues as Yang comes over and peaks inside) Ruby, is that you?

A low, inhuman growl is heard, and Yang's head rises up as she stares at the creature.

Yang: You're not Ruby!

Yang quickly rolls to the side as an [Ursa] charges out of the green. She gets up and activates her gauntlets, [Ember Celica], staring at the monster before another [Ursa] runs out behind her. She leaps over it, and its companion runs at her again, only to get knocked back by a fiery punch. The other [Ursa] and Yang charge at each other, and Yang manages to get under it and deliver several punches and a roundhouse kick to send the creature back.

Yang: You guys wouldn't happen to have seen a girl in a red hood, would you? (the [Ursa] merely growl at her) You could just say "no".

One of the Ursa stands on its legs and swipes at her twice, Yang barely dodging the attacks.

Yang: (laughing) Geeeez, you two couldn't hit the broad side of a ba...

Before she can complete her insult, a single strand of her golden hair falls in front of her face and lands on the forest floor.

Yang: You... (closes her violet eyes, then opens them to reveal red, making the [Ursa] look at each other confusedly before Yang screams) You monsters!

An inferno surrounds Yang for a moment, and she rockets forward, unleashing a devastating combo of flaming hits and blows on the offending Ursa, making it fly through several burning trees. The other [Grimm] runs over but stops short at Yang's gaze while a tree falls to the ground behind her.

Yang: What! You want some, too?!

The Ursa rears up and prepares to strike... right when a whirling noise is heard and the [Grimm] makes a befuddled noise, falling down a second later to reveal Blake with her own weapon, [Gambol Shroud] in the beast's back.

Yang pants in exhaustion while Blake recalls the weapon back to her hand, sheathing it on her back and smiling. Yang, now purple-eyed again, speaks to her new partner over the smoking remains of the monster.

Yang: I could've taken him.

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Weiss Schnee wan now in a heavy predicament, deflecting the swipe from a [Beowolf] with her rapier, [Myrtenaster], and getting pushed back into the middle of the beastly circle. She holds out her sword as she goes through her dueling motions and practices.

Weiss: (thinking) Remember your training, Weiss. Head up, shoulders back, right foot forward — not that forward! — slow your breathing, wait for the right time to strike, and... (brings her rapier up, the revolver spinning) Now!

Weiss dashes forward with her loaded weapon at the [Beowolf] in front of her, just when Ruby suddenly appears between the two in a blur of rose petals and a swipe of her Crescent Rose scythe, landing a hit on the monster.

Ruby: Gotcha!

Weiss widens her eyes and screams as she quickly has to stop, swinging the sword in a random direction and creating a line of fire that sets a nearby tree ablaze, followed quickly by the rest of the forest around the clearing.

Ruby, distracted by Weiss' mess-up, is barely defended when the same Beowolf scratches at her weapon, knocking the younger girl into the heiress.

Ruby: Hey, watch it!

Weiss: Excuse me! You attacked out of turn! I could have killed you!

Ruby: You'll have to try a lot harder than that...

The duo holds their arms as the pack of [Beowolves] whine and growls around them. Ruby reloads her scythe just as a flaming tree falls near them.

Weiss: (grabbing Ruby's arm) We have to go!

She leads Ruby out of the blaze as it engulfs the grass and sets the Grimm to running back the way they came or suffering in the fire.

Ruby and Weiss stop after getting a safe distance away from the smoke and flames. Weiss leans over and pants as Ruby looks behind her.

Ruby: What was that?! That should've been easy!

Weiss: Well perhaps if you had exercised even the slightest amount of caution with the placement of your strikes, I wouldn't have set the forest on fire!

Ruby: (scoffs) What's that supposed to mean?

Weiss: I'm just surprised someone who talks so much would communicate so little during an encounter!

Ruby: Well, I'm sorry you need my help to win a fight. I'm just fine on my own!

Weiss: Well, congratulations on being the strongest child to sneak your way into Beacon. Bravo!

Weiss begins to walk off on her partner yet again. Ruby, with an agitated shriek, unfolds Crescent Rose, slices a tree down to the stump, refolds it back, and follows her partner as the tree crashes behind her. Neither notice the large dark feather floating onto the fallen trunk behind them.

(linebreak)

Meanwhile, across the Forest, Pyrrha, armed with her spear/javelin [Miló] and her shield [Akoúo̱], and Jaune was making their way through the bushes. Jaune hears a noise far away and turns his head.

Jaune: Did you hear that?

Pyrrha: Gunfire. It seems some of our comrades have encountered the enemy.

They keep moving forward, Jaune still staring in the sound's direction as Pyrrha raises a branch to pass by and accidentally releases it right at Jaune's face, flooring him instantly.

Pyrrha: (looking back behind her) Jaune! I'm sorry!

Jaune: (laughs, lowering his hand from his cheek to reveal a gash from the wooden recoil) It's okay. Just a scratch! (gets back up when Pyrrha approaches him)

Pyrrha: Why didn't you activate your [Aura]?

Jaune: Huh?

Pyrrha: Your [Aura].

Jaune: Gesundheit.

Pyrrha: Jaune, do you... know what [Aura] is?

Jaune: (waves the question off, avoiding eye contact) Pfft! Of course, I do! Do you know what [Aura] is?

Pyrrha smiles at him and gets ready to explain as to Ren treks through the forest's tall grass, not too far away from them.

Pyrrha (voice-over): Aura is the manifestation of our soul. It bears our burdens and shields our hearts. Have you ever felt you were being watched without knowing that someone was there?

Jaune (voice-over): Uh... yeah.

Ren stops and narrows his eyes, looking around him while a huge black Grimm serpent rises up from the grass behind him and quickly surrounds him with its large, hissing body. Ren adopts a fighting stance as the snake coils together in front of him and attacks with its long fangs. Nearby, Pyhrra and Jaune begin their walk through the forest as well, continuing their conversation.

Pyrrha: With practice, our [Aura] can be our shield. Everyone has it, even animals.

Jaune: What about monsters?

Pyrrha: No. (Ren leaps to the side as the snake's mouth hit the ground and instantly coming up again to hit a jumping Ren back with its snout) The monsters we fight lack a soul. They are creatures of [Grimm], the manifestation of anonymity. (Ren lands in a crouch position when the serpent encircles him again, and he unleashes his weapon [StormFlower] before jumping up and firing at the creature) They are the darkness, and we are the light.

Jaune (voice-over): (Ren kicks the snake's snout and slashes at its head) Right, that's why we fight them!

Pyrrha (voice-over): It's not about why; it's about knowing. (the snake circles around Ren and tries to bite him again, but he flips over it and drives his weapons into its head, pausing a moment without sensing the serpent's white head behind him) Understanding dark and light helps us manifest our [Aura]. Everyone has some of both.

Ren turns and looks up at the white head as it launches itself at him, dodging it and landing just in time to see the head slither towards him. As it gets closer, he runs at it and leaps onto the head, sliding over its body and blasting the other head.

Pyrrha (voice-over): By baring your soul outward as a force, you can deflect harm. All of our tools and equipment are conduits for Aura. You protect yourself and your soul when fighting. (Ren is unprepared for the white half to hit him with its head, knocking him off as he drops his weapons, and leaving him to merely raise his arms and distantly cry "No!" to the mouth of the black head)

Jaune: (opens his eyes with the revelation) It's like a force field!

Pyrrha: Yes, if you want to look at it that way.

Ren is now holding the front fangs of the colossal snake in his hands, glowing a faint, pulsating pink as he grips the teeth and yanks them from the monster's mouth, causing it to flail away. It attempts to bite him again, but Ren spins to the side and stabs a fang into its eye, rotating his arm to deliver a final blow that drives the makeshift weapon into its skull, which ripples, expands, and blows apart in a dark mess as its headless body falls over its fellow-creature. Wasting no time, Ren runs right at the white head.

Pyrrha: (walking up to Jaune and touching the side of his head) Now, close your eyes and concentrate.

Jaune: (complying) Uhh... Okay.

Pyrrha smiles and closes her own eyes, opening them as her skin glows and her irises shrink before shutting them again. The two stand there, now with Pyrrha glowing a faint red and Jaune a bright white.

Pyrrha: (thinking) 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. (placing a hand on his chest) I release your soul, and by my shoulder protect thee. (Pyrrha stops glowing red and hunches over in tiredness)

Jaune: (still glowing, concerned) Pyrrha?

Pyrrha: (getting back up) It's all right. I used my Aura to unlock yours, but the energy that protects you now is your own. (grins as she watches the scratch close up and vanishes) You have quite a lot of it.

Jaune: (smiling and looking at his hands as the glow stops) Wow...

At the same time, Ren stands on top of the body of his enemy, sliding the weapons into his sleeves and brushing them off before a strange, animal-like noise is heard above him twice. He looks up and meets the upside-down eyes of Nora Valkyrie, his soon-to-be-girl (COUGH) childhood friend.

Ren: (chuckles) I still don't think that's what a sloth sounds like.

In response, Nora gives her friend a "Boop!" on the nose, causing him to smile. Then he frowns for a bit, before sitting up.

Ren: (thinking) Wonder where Alice and Kirito are.

(linebreak)

(Kirito POV:)

Kirito: (sneezes) Achoo!

I rub my nose before sniffling.

Alice: You okay? It's not that cold out.

Kirito: (shaking his head) Nah, it's fine. Go back to sleep.

Alice: (snuggling deeper) Mhm.

I pulled myself closer under the futon, before drifting back to sleep, letting plot protect us from any [Grimm] coming towards our direction.