CHAPTER 3

Standing at a metal plate at the literal edge of Beacon's cliff — "Should have seen that coming from a mile away, to be honest" — Ozpin gave the instructions of the Initiation with Ms. Goodwitch at his side holding a tablet.

"For years, you have trained to become warriors, and today, your abilities will be evaluated in the Emerald Forest."

'Emerald Forest? Ozpin sure has a bad sense of naming things...'

"Seriously? Emerald? Green? You might as well call Beacon Academy the Gray Academy at this point."

"Now, I'm sure many of you have heard rumors about the assignment of "teams." Well, allow us to put an end to your confusion. Each of you will be given teammates... today."

He heard Ruby whimper at the death glare that Ms. Goodwitch gave her while giving her piece.

"These teammates will be with you for the rest of your time here at Beacon. So it is in your best interest to be paired with someone with whom you can work well."

Ozpin then takes a sip from his mug before continuing his speech.

"That being said, the first person you make eye contact with after landing will be your partner for the next four years."

Ozpin confirmed the "eye contact" method of gaining a partner, as Obsidian could briefly hear Ruby's mind shattering at the unusual method.

He wasn't really shocked at this, since he had a way to get said information out of Dad a few days back. Why did the two look so surprised?

"They went out to buy some stuff with Mom the other day, so they didn't hear Dad talking about it."

'Huh. I swear I told them about it—''

"After you've partnered up, make your way to the northern end of the forest. You will meet opposition along the way. Do not hesitate to destroy everything in your path... or you will die."

He could hear someone laughing nervously. It must be that Jaune fellow that Ruby was talking about; mental note to have a talk with the guy soon.

"You will be monitored and graded through the duration of your initiation, but our instructors will not intervene. You will find an abandoned temple at the end of the path containing several relics. Each pair must choose one and return to the top of the cliff. We will regard that item, as well as your standing, and grade you appropriately. Are there any questions?"

So north... Just straight ahead then. Obsidian activated the system and looked at his ongoing Quest.

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NEW QUEST: Survive Initiation!

[DESCRIPTION]

You've made it to Beacon! Congrats! Now to secure your spot in the yearly Initiation. Prove that you deserved to be here!

[OBJECTIVE] Survive Initiation. ( )

[BONUS] Clear the Initiation in under 30 minutes. ( )

[BONUS] Clear the Initiation in under 10 minutes. ( )

[BONUS] Kill 50 Grimm while surviving the Initiation. ( )

[BONUS] Kill all participants of the Initiation. ( )

x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x

10 minutes for the bonus? From the view on the cliff, the forest was rather dense. With his vision, he did an estimation of where the ruins might be from the teacher's point of view, especially with the springboard under his feet primed. So maybe more than 10 kilometers...

If he used his CE and ran like his life depended on it, maybe, but just to be safe, he could definitely clear the Initiation in 30 minutes. The only problem was that he was a unique case when it came to combat.

"And, Mr. Rose, please don't overuse your "Aura" too much. We wouldn't want to cause quite a headache with that particular "Semblance" of yours."

PRING!

With one quick warning by Ozpin, his world suddenly shifts as his vision turns green, his body launching from the cliffs at high speeds into the forests with high speeds.

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Centering his gravity to face forward without free falling like a fool, he sparked the CE in his body as he channeled as much of the negative energy around his skin in preparation for the backlash.

With that step done, he shot out a handful of wires towards one of the thicker tree branches far in front of him, making them loop around the tree branch to secure it before gravity pulled him back down onto the ground.

The tree branch held as he became a pendulum, the momentum from the springboard plus gravity shooting him further into the sky as he detached his wires before firing another handful of wires to continue his speeds.

"Spiderman! Spiderman! Does whatever a spider can!"

'What are you even referencing?'

"Psh, I ain't talking to an uncultured swine."

'Dude, none of your references even exist!'

Before he could continue arguing over weird references that Q loves to make, he was suddenly intercepted by feather-like projectiles, causing him to maneuver himself by attaching wires horizontal to himself to dodge them.

Looping around a tree trunk to stop his momentum without hurting himself, he stood on the top of the tree he latched his wires to as he looked at the perpetrator of the attack. A large crow-like Grimm — "It's smaller than the average size of Nevermores" — squawked at him in the air before it flapped its wings, its feathers serving as projectiles to fire towards him with rapid speeds.

Boosting his physical parameters, he continued to dodge the feathers by hopping onto other trees while his wires flew around the place, disappearing in sight in the chaos. Since the Quest says to get 50 Grimm...

Obsidian's arms suddenly crossed a few seconds later in the middle of combat as the Nevermore Grimm instantly locked up in place, wires hooking around the Grimm's limbs as he grins. Seemingly floating in the air, he slowly walked up to the Grimm, balancing on a wire that's connected to the Nevermore, who tried struggling free with its inhuman strength, but it stayed in place as if frozen without a single room to breathe in its limbs.

"[Thread Imprisonment]. Sorry, that's not going to work; you see, these wires right here are as durable as industrialized steel while its surface is sharp like a blade, and I triple-wrapped you to make sure."

Showing the Grimm his hand, with each finger on the glove holding bundles of wires, the Nevermore suddenly reignited its efforts to break free as if hypnotized by the gray hue of Cursed Energy flickering on his hands.

"Seriously though, the world is out to get me. No Aura to protect myself from any attack, and now my only way of combating the Grimm attracts them like a moth to a flame."

"We get to have a more versatile power system though, so I take that as an absolute win."

"That is true though; I can't imagine fighting with Aura."

Sparking his CE one last time in this battle, he channeled his CE to his fingers along with pumping more CE into the ten wires, reinforcing them to a higher grade of durability before he pulled as hard as he could. A Grade 2 BODY with its 5% boost accounts for more than one might think.

"And for the finale... [Thread Dismemberment]."

Before the Nevermore could even give out one last squawk, the wires tightened as its black flesh caved in, the sound of bones cracking internally from the wire tightening at every second eventually bursting into a gory black mess with the wires fully passing through the Grimm like tofu.

Making sure to sidestep out of the way to avoid the mess from staining his clothes (Grimm blood is annoying to wash off), he cut the connection of CE from his Cursed Technique and hopped off the disintegrating wire below his feet to a tree branch nearby.

"Grimm number 1, excorsised."

"You demolished that Nevermore rather easily."

'It was a lot weaker than the norm since it was so small compared to its average counterpart.'

Attaching a wire to the tree branch that he was on, he slowly descends down the tree while doing the mental math, massaging his fingers to relieve some lingering stiffness from the wires.

'I hope that we're near the ruins; the forest is too dense to see from above.'

"You should be on the right track. On another note..."

Quartz trailed off as growls emitted from the bushes to his side. Raising his guard with his hands in knife stances, he sparked his CE again as his body reinforced itself using the negative energy surging through his internal organs to amplify his physical prowess.

"Beowolves; two on your left and three on your right. They got you surrounded."

His eyes quickly glanced around him, confirming Quartz' warning. Hound-like monsters poached around him with growls coming out of their snouts, their race's red eyes seemingly glowing in the dark (the forest was so dense that it was as if the day turned dark). Obsidian walked around with his hands up, stalling for time before his fingers twitched.

'On the contrary, they're the ones who are surrounded.'

In an instant, with some flicks of his fingers, a gray wire lashes out from nowhere like a whip as he ducked, slicing the heads of two Beowolves clean off from the whiplash. The sudden surprise gave him enough time to continue with his plan as he reeled his left arm backwards, a set of wires shifting to pull him towards a higher ledge in the form of a tree branch.

Moving his arms and fingers like an orchestra composer, gray wires bent to his will as they followed each command that Obsidian gave, whipping, tangling, weaving around, and binding the Beowolves together tightly into a bundle.

Making sure to add some support in the form of trees to let the bind hold without it snapping, he activated his Cursed Technique, slicing through them like a hot knife through butter. It doesn't use much CE, and it's effective against easy targets. So glad he made this technique with the help of Quartz.

"6 down, 44 more to go."

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"We're at a good pace."

Quartz noted with a hum as Obsidian dodged the claw swipe from an Ursa, using his threads to throw the bear Grimm off balance as he sped up running away from the horde of Grimm that's currently chasing him. He did, however, note that the gunshots that were ringing every so often were getting closer to his location.

"Where even is this temple at?"

He asked the real question here as he barely ducked to dodge a Beowolf that suddenly appeared out of nowhere, strands of his hair getting sliced from his head before he landed a quick 1-2 without the use of CE flowing in his body, stunning said Grimm with the punches back into the horde.

"You have about 70% of CE left."

"How many have we killed so far?"

Quartz' question caused him to open the system's interface with a quick thought.

x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x

NEW QUEST: Survive Initiation!

[DESCRIPTION]

You've made it to Beacon! Congrats! Now to secure your spot in the yearly Initiation. Prove that you deserved to be here!

[OBJECTIVE] Survive Initiation. ( )

[BONUS] Clear the Initiation in under 30 minutes. ( )

[BONUS] Clear the Initiation in under 10 minutes. ( )

[BONUS] Kill 50 Grimm while surviving the Initiation. (39 / 50)

[BONUS] Kill all participants of the Initiation. ( )

x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x

"That's not bad for... 4 minutes of running."

""Man, Patch wasn't this bad when we go out on our runs."

"To be fair, Signal Huntsmen usually clear Patch's sectors every few weeks, so not much Grimm for us to fight against."

He briefly glanced at the watch on his wrist before finding a good place to quickly cull the monsters of darkness behind him. Setting up his trap with his high eye-hand coordination, he blew a breath of relief before waiting for the perfect timing.

"There's at least a dozen of them; we should clear the bonus objective with this."

The ground slightly trembled with the amount of Grimm heading towards him, but he stayed calm with his body ready to react. One second passes, and in the next, one of the Grimms in the front of the horde tripped a set wire on the ground. With a quick tug on his threads, gray wires shot out and sliced off the limbs of over half of the Grimm.

Taking advantage of the sudden chaos, Obsidian charges in with his hands raised, channeling CE into his body to boost its parameters as he excorse each of the remaining Grimm still alive from his trap with high-power punches and kicks that aimed at weak points of the Grimm.

His Cursed Technique is rather simple. He can create threads or wires depending on how much CE is used on any of his fingers and can only create one per finger, meaning he could create up to a maximum of only 10 up to 100 meters.

If he cancels the flow of CE, the threads will instantly start to fade at a rapid rate. Moreover, he can only control the speed of which the threads are extending from his fingers and the direction of where they go when they initially shoot out, meaning his finger dexterity is key to manipulating his Cursed Technique.

It's, admittedly, not very effective when used against the monsters of Grimm other than a few applications with more advanced techniques that he could do.

Taking a quick second to calm his heartrate down, he opened his system to see his ongoing Quest to check his progress.

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NEW QUEST: Survive Initiation! [updated]

[DESCRIPTION]

You've made it to Beacon! Congrats! Now to secure your spot in the yearly Initiation. Prove that you deserved to be here!

[OBJECTIVE] Survive Initiation. ( )

[BONUS] Clear the Initiation in under 30 minutes. ( )

[BONUS] Clear the Initiation in under 10 minutes. ( )

[BONUS] Kill 50 Grimm while surviving the Initiation. (X)

[BONUS] Kill all participants of the Initiation. ( )

x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x

"Less than 5 minutes left. Grab the relic, and let's dip out of here."

It took another minute of walking to finally see some signs of people. Gunshots, sharp piercings, long blade slashes, lots of melted puddles, burnt trees... From what he's seeing, the person's weapon has a long blade and a gun with a high-caliber or some rapier-esque weapon with Dust as their main source of damage. And the way the environment was so messy with the damages being everywhere in all directions...

"That's definitely Ruby along with some other person."

Quartz mutters with a deadpan tone as Obsidian tries to reason with the guy. His twin wasn't that irresponsible... Well, kind of.

"Come on, Quartz. I mean, It may be someone else who did all this. Definitely the Schnee; they use Ice Dust primarily."

"Her build's too small for a long bladed weapon, and we didn't really see anyone with a blade long enough to do this large of a slash attack. Ergo, our dear twin is the partner."

"Ruby's build is small too. Besides, what're the chances that those two would become partners?"

"RUBY! I TOLD YOU THIS WAS A TERRIBLE IDEA!"

"WE'RE FINE, STOP WORRYING!"

"OH, I AM SO FAR BEYOND WORRYING!"

"... IN A GOOD WAY?"

"IN A BAD WAY! IN A REALLY BAD WAY — "

The shouting softens as the largest Nevermore he had ever seen holding a blur of red and white in its claws disappears from his vision, with Obsidian and Quartz in silence, trying to process what just happened for a few moments.

"... 5 minutes, Ruby! Are you kidding me?!"

Groaning in annoyance, he kicked into high gear and started chasing the crow-like Grimm down with an extra boost from his CE manipulation, with Quartz cackling in his soul.

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"She's going to fall."

Blake Belladonna muttered as the group near the abandoned temple watched the white spot on the Nevermore's claws while said white spot was hanging on for dear life. Ruby dismisses it with a wave of her hand.

"Psshh, she'll be fine."

"She's falling."

Weiss lost her grip on the Nevermore's claw, gravity taking over as she started descending at a rapid rate. Before Jaune Arc could jump in to save Weiss, a gray blur shot out from the forest and intercepted the Schnee, grabbing her in a princess carry whilst midair before landing on the ground with a skid.

Jaune, however, didn't stop his jump and fell onto the ground with a loud thud, moaning in pain.

"Hi."

Obsidian greeted the wide-eyed Schnee with politeness before placing her back onto the ground. Looking around the group, he did the mental calculation before finding out that there was an odd number once Pyrrha Nikos — 'How are we just realizing that Pyrrha Nikos is in Beacon?' — "Honestly thought that she'd be in Haven Academy." — ran into the clearing with a large Deathstalker trailing after her.

Obsidian's attention then shifts to the temple ruins, where there were random chess pieces on altars in a perfect circle inside the ruins. Ignoring his older sister's sarcastic exclaim, he walked to said altars to inspect the chess pieces.

They were gold and silver plated, with some of the other pieces already most likely taken from other teams other than the group before him. Heck, there were only pawn pieces left after Pyrrha Nikos grabbed the remaining high-level piece, a golden Rook, when he arrived at the temple.

Begrudingly, he grabbed a random piece before quickly activating his Cursed Technique the moment Yang screamed Ruby's name, acting more of from instinct since he definitely knew that Ruby was doing something wrong, as the wires wrapped around said twin before she could do something foolish.

With a loud "oof!" Ruby stopped her charge with her weapon and was instantly pulled towards Obsidian with a sudden jerk towards his direction, rolling onto the ground as he keeps the relic into the only zip pocket in his jacket, patting it to make sure that it's secure.

"I recommend we head back to Beacon; we already obtained our relics."

Obsidian voiced out his opinion as his eyes trailed to the larger than average Grimm monsters in front of them. The group looked at the two Grimm, who were getting ready for an attack, and collectively agreed to dip the heck out of there.

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