9

Chapter 9:

Present day:

Weiss and Pyrrha were inundated with a sense of relief as they finally glimpsed daylight again and felt the fresh breeze of the world outside that dank cave on their faces. They stumbled, panting, out into the sunlight, tired, battered, and bruised by their headlong run through the dark cavern, smacking into stalactites, tripping over stalagmites, and generally smacking straight into every conceivable obstacle in their headlong rush to get out.

Sadly, their relief was short-lived, as the walls of the cave behind them exploded outwards. With a ferocious screech and a menacing clattering of its pincers, the Deathstalker surged forth from its lair, having grown so large that it had been unable to fit through the cave mouth it had entered through, untold ages ago. The segmented plates of white armor that covered its back were etched with old scars and scratches, the evidence of past battles. Clumps of moss and lichen clung to its back and pincers, showing that it had been in the cave so long that it had practically become a part of the landscape.

It was enormous, many-times larger than a grown person. The yellow bulb that Weiss had mistaken for a relic was, in fact, the massive stinger, attached to the end of the scorpion-like Grimm's tail, which arced over its head menacingly as it pursued its prey.

Weiss and Pyrrha had no choice but to run. Their weapons had merely glanced off the ancient Grimm's armor, which had only hardened with the passage of time. Weiss hadn't dared employ her Dust in such an enclosed space, not when the dark kept her from seeing which type she was using. And now that the skittering Grimm was out in the open, it pursued the pair with such intensity that Weiss knew that even trying to stop and use Dust against it would be a fatal error.

So they ran, weaving between trees, doing their best to keep ahead as the beast plowed through those same trees, smashing them into matchsticks, not slowing in the slightest.

"What do we do?" asked Weiss, at a total loss for the first time.

"Keep going," Pyrrha shouted back. "We need room to maneuver."

If the Deathstalker were less overwhelmingly powerful, they could have used the close trees to hamper its movements. However, as strong as this one was, the forest would turn to their disadvantage as it smashed through the trees like they weren't even there, turning them into hazards and obstacles for the two desperate humans instead.

Weiss' breath came in ragged gasps. She wasn't used to running so far, not at this pace. The Deathstalker was not a creature that they could hope to keep ahead of at a light jog, Weiss forced to push herself just short of sprint to keep ahead of those snapping pincers.

Finally, they broke through the line of trees and out into the open. Weiss' eyes widened as she got sight of a low, circular stone structure, ruined walls encompassing a section of raised stone, with some kind of objects resting on a series of pedestals within. The temple!

This was hardly the time to think about that though, as the Deathstalker crashed through the trees behind them with an enraged shriek.

"We made it," said Yang, looking around as she took in the sight of the abandoned temple. Just as Ozpin had said, it resided on the northern end of the forest. Stepping up into what had once been the structure's interior, Yang noted the pedestals and the objects that sat on them.

"Chess pieces?" said Blake, her eyes narrowing as she surveyed them. Indeed, there were a variety of chess pieces, one resting each pedestal, two of each kind and color.

"I guess..." said Yang. She frowned. Some of the pedestals were empty, suggesting that the pieces resting on them had already been selected. Unfortunately, there was no way of knowing who had reached the temple before them. What if Ruby already got here? That was a very real possibility.

"So...your sister..." prodded Blake.

"I don't know," said Yang. "I can't tell if she's been here or not."

Blake nodded slowly, not sure what to add. "We have time," she said, "so I think we can afford to wait awhile. It'll be safer to head back if more of us are together in any case."

"Yeah," agreed Yang, looking over the assembled pieces, wondering which one they could take. Finally..."How about the cute horsey," she said, picking up a gold-colored knight-piece.

"That's fine," said Blake with a sardonic smile and a slight roll of her eyes. Then she frowned, her body tensing. Her hand went over her shoulder to her weapon, what looked like a large, gray cleaver with a black handle, with a black ribbon extending from its end. "Did you hear that?"

"Hear what?" asked Yang.

Blake hid a wince, reminded that her faunus traits were concealed beneath the black bow on top of her head. Having an extra pair of ears certainly seemed to give her a wider range of hearing. So she was the first of the pair to pick up the faint sound of screams and the crash of breaking wood in the distance.

Because of that, she didn't hear the softer sounds of vegetation being moved to the side. The foliage almost directly in front of them parted, and a familiar-looking blonde boy and a girl in a ragged, red cloak emerged.

"We...made it..." said Jaune, bending over and bracing his knees, gasping for breath.

"Are you okay?" asked Ruby, resting a concerned hand on Jaune's shoulders. "That last pack of Beowolves was pretty big."

"Why are you asking...if I'm okay?" gasped Jaune. "I counted for two of them. You took the rest by yourself."

"I just have more practice," said Ruby with a shrug. "You'll get there."

"Ruby!" exclaimed Yang, finally taking notice of her sister. She moved to approach, only to freeze when Ruby fixed her with a withering glare, the edges of her cloak billowing in a non-existent wind.

"So...I guess this is the place," said Ruby, as she and Jaune headed for the temple, Ruby noticeably not acknowledging Yang at all, though she traded a polite nod with Blake.

They moved up to examine the pedestals, along with the relics resting atop them.

"Chess pieces," muttered Jaune. "I wonder what the significance is."

Ruby shrugged. "If I had to guess, I'd say it's teams. We've already found partners. Each pair has to pick one, there are two of each..."

"Oh..." said Jaune.

Ruby's eyes flicked over to take in the golden knight-piece clutched in Yang's hand...then looked away. Then she pointedly snatched the golden rook-piece that rested nearby. Yang visibly winced at the unsubtle rejection.

Ruby stowed their relic away, then looked over to see Blake, her body tense and her gaze wary as she scanned the tree line. "Something wrong?" she asked.

"Something's coming," said Blake. "And I think it's pursuing some of the others."

"I wonder who and what," mused Ruby, standing next to Blake and taking in the forest. She extended her senses, which substantiated what Blake had said, telling her that something large and dangerous was approaching, an old, determined malice. "It's a big Grimm...and really old."

"You can tell?" asked Blake.

"Sort of," said Ruby. "It definitely feels big." She stepped down from the stone floor of the temple and onto the open ground. Kneeling, she pressed her left hand, palm down, against the ground, splaying out her fingers and closing her eyes. "Too many footfalls...it must be a Deathstalker, a big one."

What the heck does she think she's doing? wondered Yang. Ruby doesn't actually believe that she could be able to tell something like that, just by touching the ground.

"How close?" asked Jaune, coming to stand next to her.

"It'll be here in about thirty seconds," said Ruby. There's something big coming from the other way...but it's harder to tell. Its movements are a lot smoother. King Taijitu, maybe, a big one...or more than one.

Standing up, Ruby turned to face the direction the Deathstalker's vibrations were coming from. "It's here."

Two familiar figures burst from the tree line in a sprint. Mere seconds behind them, the trees exploded into splinters as the massive figure of a giant Deathstalker charged out after them with a ferocious shriek.

Ruby was right! thought Yang in shock. It had to be a lucky guess...right?

Finding themselves on open ground, Weiss saw a chance for her and Pyrrha. She activated her Semblance. A shimmering Glyph, with a stylized, snowflake-design, appeared beneath their feet. Abruptly, the pair of them were launched upwards, the Deathstalker's pincers closing right around where they had been a second earlier.

Pyrrha didn't waste the opportunity presented. Turning in the air, she flipped her body around, switching Milo into its rifle form. She took aim at the Deathstalker's head and fired several shots in quick succession. However, her bullets bounced harmlessly off the Grimm's armor plating.

Weiss swept her rapier around her in a wide circle. Several smaller Glyphs appeared in the air around her, flashing blue, before launching blue-white bolts that arced down at the Deathstalker. Instead of the body, they flew past it to hit the ground, ice bursting up from where the shots impacted, encasing and entrapping the Deathstalker's legs locking it into place. The Grimm shrieked with rage and shook its body, rocking back and forth, trying to break free of its icy prison.

Weiss and Pyrrha touched down. Pyrrha turned to regard the immobilized Deathstalker, but Weiss continued on, not even glancing back at the enemy, instead marching straight up the temple steps.

"Seriously!" exclaimed Ruby, directing an incredulous look. "You immobilized it, but you're not gonna finish it off."

"I'm not wasting anymore time and energy on unnecessary things," said Weiss, giving Ruby an irritated glare. "Our mission is to recover a relic, not to fight."

Ruby frowned and turned, marching towards the Deathstalker.

"Huh? Ruby?" Jaune quickly trotted after her. "Uh...Maybe Weiss has a point." He gave the Deathstalker a nervous glance.

"Once a Deathstalker fixes on a target, it doesn't give up," said Ruby gravely. "This thing will follow us all the way back to the cliffs, if we don't get rid of it now. Something else is coming, and I don't want to have to deal with this at the same time."

Weiss watched them go, then sniffed dismissively. "Dunce," she muttered under her breath. Turning back to the pedestals, she chose to snatch the gold-colored rook piece from its place. "Come on, Pyrrha, let's go." She paused when Pyrrha didn't move to join her. "Pyrrha?"

"I'm going to fight," said Pyrrha, hefting her weapons and starting off after Ruby. "She's right. We need to finish this or it will keep following us. Besides, we're the ones that woke it up in the first place."

Weiss grimaced and held her tongue, biting back her impulse to berate Pyrrha. Well, Ozpin didn't set a time limit, so I don't think it'll matter if we lose a little time on this. She looked ahead at Ruby, who had reached behind herself and was now drawing her sword, the blade gleaming a lovely rose-red in the sunlight. That dunce is going to get herself thrashed. We'll let her distract it and move in for the kill afterwards.

"Stand back, Jaune," said Ruby. "I need room to move."

"Okay," said Jaune, backpedaling.

"Ruby! Wait!" shouted Yang, shaking off her shock and confusion and taking off after her sister. "You can't fight that-mmph!" Her voice was cut off as Blake's hand clamped over her mouth.

"Don't distract her," said Blake gravely, "or you might actually get her killed." Secretly, she wanted to see for herself what Ruby could do.

Ruby approached the Deathstalker at a leisurely walk, her sword extended out to the side. The scorpion-like Grimm shook and, with a crackling noise, the ice restraining it gave way. It shook off the remaining, clinging pieces and surged towards Ruby with a shriek, reaching out with its pincers.

Ruby raised her sword, and abruptly swung it down and across her body, cutting through the first reaching claw, right where it met the arm. The Grimm screeched with pain, and lunged with its other pincer. However, Ruby's sword swept up in a curved arc, before she sliced down in the opposite direction, cutting off the Deathstalker's other claw in the same manner as the first, sweeping her blade upwards and out, leaving a figure-eight-shaped arc of red in the eyes of everyone watching.

The Deathstalker snapped its mandibles and its forward-most legs bent, lowering the front half of its body, even as the rear legs extended. The golden bulb of the stinger rushed straight for Ruby's head and pierced right through it with enough force to punch clean through her body and smash into the ground.

"RUBY!" screamed Yang, fighting free of Blake's grip. Even Weiss and Pyrrha blanched at the sight of the red-cloaked girl being impaled.

Jaune merely sighed and relaxed a little.

The red cloak suddenly dissolved into a flurry of crimson petals, almost as though it had been a decoy. Ruby reappeared just a few steps back from her previous position. At the same time, Ruby transferred her sword to her right hand and unleashed a back-handed slash across her body, slicing off the Deathstalker's stinger. The Grimm reared back with a shriek of pain, flailing its stumps.

"She got it!" gasped Weiss.

"It's not over," said Pyrrha warily.

It was true that a Deathstalker's pincers and stingers were its most prominent and formidable weapons. However, even divested of them, the Grimm didn't cease to be a threat. The clicking mandibles on its head were capable of biting a person in two and, failing that, it could still crush a person beneath its immense bulk.

That was what it aimed to do as it scuttled forward determinedly, seeking to bull Ruby over, then crush her frail body beneath its mass of chitin. Ruby merely smirked though, transferring her sword back to her left hand. In the same movement, she drew the first two fingers of her right hand back along the length of the blade, gently brushing them along the flat of her sword.

A chime, a single, echoing, lingering note filled the air. It was hauntingly beautiful, as though someone were running their finger over the rim of a perfectly-tuned crystal goblet. There was a spark of light, midway up the length of the blade. Then the entire blade of the sword suddenly blazed with crimson light, streaming off the blade in waves, the musical sound it was making increasing in volume.

Ruby went into a jump, turning her body sideways and going into a spin, allowing her to bring her sword up and over in a downwards strike. Her cloak flared out around her with the motion, seeming to merge with the blade of her sword as she swept it downwards in a tight arc. "Kazebara!"

A sweeping arc of red flashed out along her blade, passing through the Deathstalker's body. The Grimm suddenly split in two, perfectly bisected by the strike as Ruby completed her spin to land on her feet, her cloak flaring out behind her, landing right between the severed halves of her enemy, which released sprays of red particles in the air, seeming to shower Ruby with red petals from all sides.

"Incredible!" breathed Pyrrha, her eyes wide in amazement.

Blake didn't bother trying to hide the smirk on her face.

"She hasn't shown that one before," said Jaune with a small chuckle.

Yang's run slowed to a stop, and her arms lowered as she stared in awe at the sight. Ruby's...strong! A number of emotions rushed through her. There was the fear that had always been there, the worry that Ruby would get herself hurt. But that seemed paltry in the face of what Yang had just seen. Where has she been? What was she doing? No longer were those questions perfunctory exclamations of worry. Yang genuinely wanted to know where Ruby had gone, who she'd learned from, and how she'd acquired this strength. Finally, Yang felt shame, the realization that, by talking down to Ruby earlier, still trying to treat her like the helpless little sister Yang had known before, she might have scuttled any chance of getting those questions answered, and learning about who her sister had become.

Ruby sighed, breathing out slowly, and turned on her heel, flaring her tattered cloak out behind her again as she walked away from the dissolving remains of the Deathstalker, sheathing her sword as she went. As she walked past Weiss, she couldn't quite shake her smile at the sight of the thunderstruck look on the heiress' face as she unashamedly gaped at the remains of the Grimm that had been menacing them.

"You're gonna catch flies like that," said Ruby with a giggle.

Weiss snapped her mouth closed, then turned to glare at the back of Ruby's head, furious that she had no space to retort. Ruby had made crushing that Grimm look easy. Weiss was certain she could do it. But to disarm a Deathstalker in three moves, then finish it with a fourth...that was something even she had to admit was beyond her capacity, however much such an admission galled her. Furthermore... "What Dust did you use?" she demanded. "There's no way that could have been just wind-Dust."

"There wasn't any Dust," said Ruby, glancing over her shoulder at Weiss. "I don't use Dust."

"Ridiculous!" scoffed Weiss. "You'd have to be an idiot to try and be a Huntress and not use any Dust."

"Or maybe just willing to work, instead of using a crutch," Ruby retorted.

Weiss bared her teeth and hissed, drawing back as though Ruby had actually struck her. "How dare you?"

Ruby ignored her, already turning south and slightly eastward. Weiss, Pyrrha, and the Deathstalker had come from the southwest. However, there was something else coming from the east, maybe several somethings by the feel of it.

A pair of people emerged from the trees at a run. The one in the lead was a girl with orange-hair, which swept down and out at the back of her neck, just above her shoulders. She took in everything around her with a lively pair of turquoise eyes that seemed to convey all the wonder and enthusiasm of an innocent child, her lips curled up in what appeared to be an almost perpetual smile. She wore a black, high-collared vest over a sleeveless, white top, with a cutout just above her breasts, displaying a small portion of her cleavage through the heart-shaped opening. Gray armor started at her neck, crossing over her shoulders, before meeting down below her breasts and ending at her waist. Below that was a bright-pink skirt.

Her companion stood in stark contrast to her appearance. For all that he appeared to be the same age as everyone but Ruby, his magenta eyes seemed considerably older. His long, black hair was tied into a ponytail that ran about midway down his back, with a single streak of magenta on the left side of his head, matching the color of his eyes. He was dressed in a dark-green tailcoat with black and gold trim and pink cuffs on the sleeves. Loose, white pants finished out the ensemble.

Both of them were running at breakneck speed for the temple.

"Hi there!" chirped the girl as she rushed past Ruby.

"What's after you?" asked Ruby as the young man slowed down to stop and bent over, resting his hands on his knees and breathing hard.

"King Taijitu..." said the young man.

"I was afraid of that," muttered Ruby.

"...six of them," continued the young man.

Ruby swallowed. That's worse than what I was afraid of.

"Look, Ren!" shouted the girl from up in the temple, having picked the remaining knight-piece up off its pedestal and was now waving it proudly. "I got us a horsey."

"Nora..." groaned the boy named Ren, sagging even more.

"Right! Coming," cheered Nora, descending back down the temple steps.

"Uh...At least she remembered the mission," offered Ruby a little bit lamely.

Ren smiled sightly. "There's that," he said with a small chuckle.

"How far behind you are they?" asked Ruby, glancing in the direction the pair had come from.

"A minute or so behind us," said Ren. "They keep tangling each other up and slow their own progress."

"That's good," said Ruby with a frown. Like the Deathstalker, King Taijitu were persistent hunters...though that could be said of almost any Grimm, once they caught wind of their favored prey. Worse still, King Taijitu had heads on both ends of their body, each one behaving independently, so fighting one was like fighting two Grimm at the same time. Six such beasts meant there would be twelve heads to deal with. Ruby didn't like the thought of that.

However, running was also a difficult proposition. With their flexible, serpentine bodies, King Taijitu could weave between trees with ease, allowing them to pursue with speed matching that of the Deathstalker from earlier, but not needing to smash the trees in their path. Worse still, King Taijitu were excellent trackers, able to follow from a distance, unlike the Deathstalker, which mostly mindlessly pursued the prey in immediate sight, unless there was a sufficient force of negative emotions to draw it.

"We should get out of here," said Weiss. "Making it back to the cliffs is our first priority."

"No," said Ruby firmly, drawing an affronted "Excuse me!?" from Weiss. "We need to face them here."

"Uh...is that a good idea?" asked Jaune.

"We have room to maneuver," said Ruby. "If we go into the forest and they catch up to us there, we'll keep losing line of sight with each other. That will make it harder to coordinate." That didn't matter as much to her, but she knew it could be critical for the others. Besides, while she'd grown adept at supplementing her vision with information from her other senses, Ruby still wasn't at the point where she could fight without needing to use her eyes entirely.

"She's right," agreed Ren. "The Taijitu will pursue us all the way back to the cliffs. We don't want to have to flee over that entire distance."

Weiss grimaced, seeing that Ruby and Ren had clearly won over the others. Then she growled, and then sighed under her breath. "Fine then," she said. "But we'd better have a plan. I refuse to just throw myself at them willy-nilly, unlike some barbarian."

Ruby ignored Weiss, her mind already pondering their situation. "Ren said they were tangling each other up. Let's see if we can't tangle them up even worse."

The Grimm slid along the ground, moving between the trees with ease, its movements practically soundless. The light from the foliage glinted off the white dome of a skull, from which three sets of red eyes leered out menacingly. A pair of white horns extended from the top. It slithered along on several black tentacles, their number seeming to change from moment to moment, as some emerged from where none had been before and others retracted in entirely.

When Weiss and Pyrrha had stumbled into the cave, the Deathstalker had not been the only thing they'd roused. This Grimm had been even deeper inside. The noise, the fear, and other negative emotions had awakened it, and it made its way out in the Deathstalker's wake. It was smaller, its progress slower, but there was a quality to it that made it seem all the more sinister.

Between its small size and its smooth, nearly silent motion, this strange Grimm completely escaped Ruby's notice as it crawled ever closer to the site of the battle.

Snakelike heads emerged from between the trees with menacing hisses as the six King Taijitu emerged, their serpentine bodies undulating as they slithered closer to their intended prey. Twelve heads, six black and six white, oriented on the group of prospective Beacon students, their red eyes glittering with malice. Fanged mouths opened, and the serpents hissed in a collective noise that sent chills down the spines of everyone present.

"You know, running seemed like a really good idea," noted Jaune nervously.

Weiss frowned, not wanting to show that she agreed with Jaune, especially not with how he'd worded what she would have called an expedited retreat.

"Aww...but we can take 'em," said Nora, reaching behind her and pulling out a gray grenade launcher. "Ren killed one of them right after he landed."

"And then you had to go and wake up an entire nest of them," groused her partner, flicking his arms, a pair of emerald-green guns, with curved blades hanging directly down below the barrels, slid out of his sleeves and into his waiting hands.

Yang frowned, glancing worriedly at Ruby, and cocking her fists. Beside her, Blake drew the large, cleaver-shaped weapon off her back. Grasping a handle built into the back, behind the blade, she slid the gray portion off, revealing it to be the sheath for a black katana. Blake took a ready position, gripping the bladed sheath in her left hand and raising the katana in her right. Beside them, Weiss, Pyrrha, and Jaune all readied their own weapons.

Ruby drew her sword. "If we can get them to tangle up again, we can use their numbers to our advantage."

"You'd better hope this works," muttered Weiss dubiously.

The King Taijitu hissed collectively again and slithered forward, winding and sliding over and across each other's bodies, making it difficult to tell one from the other, looking almost like a single mass of collective coils.

Ruby led the charge, shooting forward, her footsteps leaving flurries of red petals in her wake. She leapt up to meet one of the serpent heads as it lunged at her, fangs reaching. The black jaws seemed to close around Ruby, swallowing her whole.

"Ruby!" shouted Yang, immediately whirling to orient on the head that had attacked her sister. However, she caught a flash of red out of the corner of her eye. Ruby had dodged the Grimm's attack and then used the top of its head as a platform to jump upwards, flying straight into the midst of the serpents' coils.

There was no time for a sigh of relief. Yang felt a surge of air come from her side and saw a stark-white head lunging at her, jaws wide open. Something wrapped around her waist and Yang abruptly found herself tugged out of the reach of the White Taijitu's jaws, which snapped shut where she'd been standing a second before.

"Get your head in the game!" admonished Blake as she pulled on the black ribbon connected to her weapon. Seeing Yang about to be attacked, she'd cocked back her right arm, the blade of her katana folding over on itself to transform her weapon into a sickle, also making the pistol built into its hilt more prominent. Throwing the weapon, a tug on the ribbon had triggered the pistol, the recoil causing the weapon to accelerate and wrap around Yang.

Now Blake caught Yang in one arm, loosening the ribbon and allowing her to retrieve her weapon. "You can't keep freaking out every time she takes a risk, or you're going to get yourself killed."

"B-but..." stammered Yang, her eyes following Ruby as she wound and darted through the undulating coils in a streak of red.

"If you can't stop getting distracted, then sit this fight out," said Blake, stepping away from Yang. "Right now, Ruby isn't the one holding us back."

Blake's words struck Yang like a slap to the face and she winced sharply. It wasn't as though Yang believed that Ruby couldn't take care of herself anymore, not after seeing how Ruby had dealt with that Deathstalker, but it had become a reflex to worry about her, one that had only intensified upon seeing her again after six whole years. It didn't help that Ruby kept throwing herself headlong into danger. If she just wasn't so reckless...

But there was no helping it right now. Yang realized that, if she really wanted to protect her sister, the best thing to do would be to smash the things threatening her. Yang's resolved hardened. I can certainly manage that.

She clashed her gauntlets together, then Yang Xiao Long threw herself headlong into the fray with a mighty roar.

Pyrrha charged forward as well, leaping over the lunging head of the first Taijitu to jump onto its neck and then run down its back. As she did, she slashed down with her sword, only for the blade to skip off the scales. They aren't just tough, they're slippery, she noted with a frown.

A King Taijitu's scales were a formidable defense in more ways than one. They acted as armor, but also fitted together to produce a smooth surface with reduced fiction. The consequence being that, unless a blade or bullet hit dead-on, it was likely to to simply skip off, and the power behind it would be completely wasted.

However, she did succeed in getting the serpent's attention and, as Pyrrha continued to run down its back, the Black Taijitu reared back with a hiss, curling over its own body to chase after her. Pyrrha jumped clear of its reaching fangs and vaulted over a coil in front of her, unable to tell if it belonged to this Taijitu in particular, or one of the others in the writhing mass. The Black Taijitu followed her over. Pyrrha reversed directions, then dove under the very same coil she'd just vaulted across, the serpent behind her twisting to continue its pursuit.

There was a flash of pink out of the corner of her eye, accompanied by a low boom. Pyrrha glanced over to see Nora brandishing her weapon, which had unfolded out into a massive warhammer, the head of another Black Taijitu falling away from her to slam into the ground with a pained hiss. A White Taijitu lunged down at Nora from above, but she spun about, swinging her hammer to catch the beast on the chin. There was another pink flash and explosive noise as the grenade within detonated to enhance the force of Nora's impact, sending the Taijitu's head snapping away with another pained hiss.

After that, Pyrrha had little thought to spare for how the others were faring as she ducked and weaved through the tangle of coils that the mass of six Grimm had become, the Taijitu, whose attention she'd caught, continuing to follow her doggedly, snapping at her heels.

Abruptly, Pyrrha saw another flash out of the corner of her eye, red this time. Ruby darted in from the side and Pyrrha suddenly felt Ruby's arm around her shoulders.

"Hold on!" shouted Ruby, already kicking off, channeling a substantial amount of Aura into her feet. Pyrrha managed to grab onto her as Ruby kicked off, launching both of them away, leaving a trail of red petals in their wake, the mouth of the Taijitu pursuing Pyrrha closing on empty air. A fraction of a second later, the head of the Taijitu following Ruby slammed into it, the two Grimm reeling in pain from the impact.

Pyrrha and Ruby shot clear of the writhing mass, giving them a clear view as Ren and Blake also danced through the forest of coils, guiding other Taijitu, both Black and White, into tangling with one another. The shining head of a White Taijitu reared up over the mass and fixed on the pair before striking.

A shimmering glyph appeared to one side of the girls and launched them out of the way. Pyrrha flashed a grateful look at Weiss, whose expression remained neutral as she turned her attention back to the Taijitu and fired a line of ice into the mass of coils with her rapier, freezing already tangled coils together and making the Grimm hiss in pain.

"Time to start getting rid of them," said Ruby. "It'll be tricky."

Pyrrha nodded. Ironically enough, lowering the King Taijitus' numbers brought substantial risks with it. As they were killed, the serpents would begin to dissolve, which would make the jumbled knot their bodies had become less complicated, enabling them to potentially free themselves, which would make them more difficult, even as their numbers became more manageable.

However, they didn't really have much choice at the moment. Ruby and Pyrrha let go of each other. Ruby twisted in the air, her feet pointing towards Pyrrha's body. Realizing Ruby's intention, Pyrrha raised her shield, pressing it against the soles of Ruby's sandals as the girl in red kicked off, launching herself like a rocket back into the mass. The recoil was enough to send Pyrrha flying as well, though she used her momentum to go into a backflip that carried her clear of the King Taijitus and land on the open ground.

A shadow loomed over her and Pyrrha looked up with a gasp to see a Black Taijitu looming over her. It descended with a hiss, its jaws opening wide. Pyrrha, out of position to block, and still recovering from her landing, closed her eyes and braced herself, expecting to feel the Grimm's jaws close around her and its fangs pierce her Aura.

Instead, she heard the scrape of its fangs against something metallic. Opening her eyes, Pyrrha saw Jaune standing in front of her, groaning as he braced himself against the Taijitu, the force of its attack having driven his feet a solid inch into the ground. Its mouth had closed around the rim of his shield, its upper fangs hooked over the top of the shield, while the pointed bottom of the shield was jabbed into the Black Taijitu's lower jaw.

"Not on my watch, pal," growled Jaune, straining to hold back the Grimm and protect Pyrrha.

An angry hiss emerged from the Taijitu's throat. The force pressing Jaune back vanished. At first, Jaune felt relief, but that sense disappeared when his feet abruptly left the ground as the Taijitu reared back and began to swing its head wildly through the air, flinging Jaune about like a rag-doll as he was trapped by his arm, in the straps of the shield wedged in the beast's mouth.

"Whoaaaaaaaaah!" screamed Jaune as the Taijitu snapped its head back and forth, the sharp, powerful movements threatening to dislocate his shoulder, if not rip it clean out of its socket. It wasn't doing his spine any favors either. Grimacing, Jaune grit his teeth and let out a shout, pulling as hard as he could with his left arm to pull himself closer to the the very monster trying to kill him. As he did, he thrust up with his sword, driving it into and through the roof of its mouth, piercing up into its brain...or whatever amounted to a brain in a Creature of Grimm.

The Black Taijitu jerked sharply, then went limp, its jaw going slack and releasing Jaune as its bulk began to fall. Jaune wailed as he fell, and struck the ground with a yelp of pain, bouncing and sprawling out. Then he yelped again and rolled to the side as the limp, lifeless head of the Black Taijitu slammed down where he'd been laying.

"Owwww..." he groaned.

A shadow loomed over him and Jaune felt a momentary rise of panic, only to relax when he realized that it was just Pyrrha. She leaned over and offered him her left hand, which Jaune took with his left, allowing her to pull him back to his feet.

"That was grand," said Pyrrha with a relieved smile. "Thank you for saving me."

"N-no problem," stammered Jaune, relatively unused to being in this position. While he might have wanted to be a knight in shining armor, more often than not, it was the girls (namely his sisters) who were saving him. "That's one down, at least."

Pyrrha nodded and the two of them turned to face down the remaining Taijitu. As they did, they heard a low bursting sound, like a gunshot of some kind. They caught an orange flash and turned just in time to see a White Taijitu's head snap back as Yang caught it with a tremendous uppercut, a burst of orange fire from the barrels of the guns built into her gauntlets searing into it. Then Nora descended from above with a whoop and brought her hammer down on the head of the same Taijitu, triggering a pink explosion. The beast's head deformed from the successive blows, and it fell to the wayside, dead.

"I can't tell if that was part of the same one or not," said Jaune.

"There's no way to tell," said Pyrrha. "But it could work to our advantage."

A King Taijitu didn't fully die until both of its heads were destroyed or severed. Until then, its body wouldn't begin to dissolve. If they only killed one head of each, they could keep the survivors from unravelling the knot.

Another head lunged out from the mass, its jaws opening wide, aiming to catch Yang. However, a green and purple flash appeared between Yang and the oncoming serpent as Ren and Blake both crossed in front of it, slashing their blades against its open mouth, drawing a pained hiss from the beast as it reared back, its attack thwarted.

Then a red streak shot out from amid the coils and Ruby rushed the rearing head from behind, her sword slashing in a swift arc, leaving a trail of red, and cutting through the Taijitu's neck, severing its head cleanly.

Weiss rushed forward, executing a graceful, sliding lunge that allowed her to plunge her rapier into the open mouth of another Black Taijitu. The Dust chambers around the ricasso rotated, bringing Weiss' selection into play as she launched a jet of fire down the Taijitu's throat. She managed to withdraw her weapon and use a glyph to push herself back as the Grimm's mouth snapped shut, smoke issuing out from between its lips. Then it went limp and fell to earth with a thud.

"That's four down," declared Weiss, landing a safe distance away and looking for another head to target. The body of the Taijitu she'd killed began to dissolve, indicating it was linked to one of the other deceased heads.

However, a wet, slithering sound from behind her drew her attention, and Weiss turned. Her eyes widened and she let out a scream as black tentacles rushed at her.

"Weiss!" shouted Jaune and Pyrrha, turning to see the heiress pulled down by several black tentacles slipping around her body, binding her limbs and rendering them immobile. They rushed forward, Pyrrha switching Milo to its rifle mode and firing several shots at the skull-like mask covering the Grimm's central body. The bullets glanced off it, but they got the thing's attention as the tentacles dragging Weiss towards it halted. Then Jaune rushed in, swinging his sword down to cut through the tentacles holding Weiss.

Pyrrha rotated her grip on her weapon, which shifted into its javelin form. Cocking her arm behind her head, she threw it, triggering the rifle and using the recoil to accelerate the weapon as it flew for one of the unfamiliar Grimm's six glowing eyes. The Grimm let out a wet squeal as the blade of Pyrrha's javelin plunged home, completely seizing its attention, which allowed Jaune to pick Weiss up in his arms and carry her clear of the thrashing tentacles.

"Unhand me, you dolt!" snapped Weiss, pushing herself out of Jaune's arms.

"R-right...sorry," said Jaune, blushing a little bit.

Weiss huffed and turned to face the tentacled Grimm. "I would have been fine," she protested. "I was just startled. That's all."

"Right..." said Jaune, not succeeding in keeping his tone from becoming dubious at Weiss' effort to save face.

In front of them, Pyrrha dove between lashing tentacles to grab the handle of her javelin and yank it free, inciting another squeal of pain from the Grimm. Then it did something unexpected. It fled away from Pyrrha, slithering rapidly over the ground, before bracing its undamaged tentacles under itself and pushing off, launching itself into a leap that carried it straight into the writhing mass of King Taijitu.

"What is it doing?" asked Weiss, somewhat rhetorically, since, clearly, neither Jaune nor Pyrrha had any more idea what this new and unusual Grimm was up to than she did.

Then the King Taijitu froze, their bodies going rigid, their ongoing fight with Ruby and the others completely forgotten. Instead, they all suddenly reared upwards in a single, unified hiss, as though in intense pain. Within, the coils, Weiss, Pyrrha, and Jaune could see the flash of the strange Grimm's five remaining eyes as its tentacles stretched out into the bodies of the Taijitu, seeming to sink right into the serpents' skin, then divide in vein-like lines that spread over their bodies.

The Taijitu were now writhing in apparent agony as their twisted, knotted bodies seemed to merge together, centering around the body of the strange, cephalopod-like Grimm. Then they stopped. Slowly, eight snake-like heads, their individual colors fading into a uniform black, reared up. White bone armor sprouted over the tops of their heads, forming jagged peaks above their eyes and ridged spines along their back. What had once been a mass of, approximately, four King Taijitu had now become a single, massive, eight-headed serpent.

The prospective students froze, gazing up at the merged Grimm in shock.

"A possession-type," gasped Weiss.

"You know what that is?" asked Jaune, still aghast by what had just happened.

Weiss shook her head. "I fought a possession type before, but it was a Geist. Those can only possess inanimate objects. I've never heard of a Grimm that could do the same with other Grimm."

From where she stood, directly in front of the beast, Ruby found her jaw dropping as she gazed at it with horrified awe. The creature was familiar to her, in a sense, as it reminded her of one of the stories Sasame used to tell her at night, about an eight-headed snake that an ancient storm-god had fought.

"Orochi..." she whispered.

The eight-headed beast rose up, its eyes now glittering with unified malice. They reared back, then opened their mouths to unleash an echoing, hissing roar. Then they lunged forward to attack.