Team SWRZ - Volume 1 - Chapter 19 - Blast From The Past!

Zorina Teufel heaved a sigh for perhaps the fortieth time within the hour. Not that she counted, but one of her teammates, Watchet Amin, did. Thanks to the class assignment set up by Professor Lilith Hale, Team SWRZ got separated into odd pairings. While Zorina and Watchet stayed back at Haven Academy, their partners were out into the forest.

While the team improved fundamentally over the past couple of weeks, they still weren't necessarily close. Zorina, for example, didn't know how to communicate well with Watchet. Since the two weren't partners, she never needed to interact with him that much. Watchet had an air of mystery around him, which she wished she had while dressed up in her outfit. Something about how he carried himself rubbed the young woman the wrong way.

His speech patterns, excellent posture, and even his never-ceasing smile bothered her. No matter what happened, Watchet never showed many outward expressions of emotions. It was as if he wore a mask that would never leave his face.

That scared her.

Sure, Zorina wore a mask. But she felt that it wasn't to the extent of Watchets. Zorina wore her mask to bring out another side of herself. Meanwhile, she determined that Watchet wore his to hide something more sinister inside himself.

Oh, how much she missed hanging around Rowan. She couldn't wait for her partner to return so that Watchet could return to Schwartz. Somehow the males on the team were far more compatible despite their differences in personalities and possibly morals.

"You have been sighing a lot lately," Watchet noted as the pair headed for their next class. "Care to let me know what is on your mind?"

Perhaps the most caring member of Team SWRZ, Watchet, made it his mission to connect with his teammates on a personal level. Should a single member show any signs of distress, it wouldn't take long for Watchet to notice. It brought comfort and yet also discomfort to the others. More so Schwartz and Zorina.

"Oh...uh...y-y-you see...uh..." Zorina fumbled with her words, having a hard time holding a conversation with the young man. Even with the barriers known as the man's shades blocking off the windows to his soul, she couldn't make direct eye contact with him.

"Separation anxiety?" Watchet concluded, figuring he hit the nail on the head once his teammate perked up. Zorina was an easy read for him. Her body language and expressions gave away almost precisely what she was thinking. "Worry not, Zorina. Schwartz and Rowan will be back right before you know it."

"What kinda assignment do ya think they're doing?" Watchet and Zorina turned their heads to the left, spotting classmates Emma Asulf and Ilma Aden from Team WEIS approaching them.

"Your partners were chosen to participate, as well?" Watchet noted.

"Yeah, good riddance. Maybe I can do nothing all day for a change." Ilma brought her hand up to her mouth and yawned. As the laziest member of her group, Ilma found it pleasant that the team leader was gone. It meant she could sneak out and skip classes without suffering through Wei's scoldings. Or so she thought. Even with the team leader absent, her teammate never allowed her to escape.

"Wei won't be happy if he hears you say that," Emma warned her teammate.

"What? You going to tell him?" Ilma responded. "This is a gift. Everything's always so tense and serious whenever he's around. That guy needs to learn to relax."

"Or perhaps we all need to learn something from this..." Watchet brought his hand up to his chin, taking the situation very seriously from the beginning. Out of all the teams, why choose separate partners? The answer was simple enough. "The instructors wish for us to deepen our relationships with the other members of our team that we are not perhaps familiar with."

"I'm already familiar enough with Ilma," Emma sighed as she reached out and grabbed the back of Ilma's jacket the moment the young woman tried to escape from the conversation. Watchet wished to say the same about Zorina, but that was far from the case. Despite his warm demeanor, she always avoided him. He couldn't imagine why. "We'll see you guys around,"

Emma dragged the reluctant Ilma to their next class.

"Amusing vessels..." Zorina muttered.

"Come along, Zorina. We should not keep the professors waiting," Watchet said. The silver-haired woman offered no resistance and followed after her teammate.

"On your left!" Rowan Cassidy called out to her partner, Schwartz der Hund, from the safety of a tall tree. The young Huntsman in training quickly dispatched the Ursa Grimm that tried to attack from his blind spot. While he had an impressive talent for combat, Rowan saw him as nothing more than a battle junkie—someone that thrived in chaos and mayhem. She doubted that Schwartz even cared about completing the class assignment as much as he wanted to kill the most Grimm.

From her perspective, Schwartz only saw the battlefield and nothing else. Perhaps his talk with Professor Lilith Hale didn't sink into his thick skull.

She wasn't too far off the mark. Schwartz only saw the battlefield. However, he took no joy in fighting wave after wave of Grimm. Schwartz saw it as a chore instead. If not for the snide remarks made by Wei Tian earlier, he wouldn't have cared who killed the most Grimm in the assignment.

But since Wei always walked around like he was the best damn student in the entire school, Schwartz wanted to give that prick a reality check. He'd prove to that White Tiger Faunus that he was far from the best. Not while he was around.

"Fifteen, sixteen, seventeen," Schwartz counted the number of Grimm he'd slain. He was losing precious daylight. At his pace, he'd never kill ninety by the end of the assignment.

"Schwartz, we should head back," Rowan dropped down from the tree, landing gracefully on her feet. She indicated to the descending sun with her finger. "Sun's going down. We should head back to the extraction point."

"Damn it!" Schwartz begrudgingly sheathed his swords. Every fiber of his being told him to continue. Staying inside the forest and killing more Grimm sounded enticing. But it wouldn't do him any good. That much he knew."I'll never hear the end of it from that Wei bastard!"

"What is it with the two of you? I'm all for healthy competition, but your desire to beat him is detrimental." Rowan stated. She was there when the two rivaling students first met one another. Sure, Rowan found Wei insufferable, but that didn't mean she wanted to always pick fights with him. She essentially summed it up as a macho male kind of thing.

"That son of a bitch walks around like he's the best damn Huntsman in the school. I'm looking to prove that's me," Schwartz proudly pointed to himself.

Rowan rolled her eyes, having already expected the typical response from the unruly team leader. Hopefully, he'd graduate from the academy and learn some humility. As Rowan saw, both Schwartz and Wei were far from the best. They had talent, but their hubris would bring about their downfall. It was a lesson she learned a long time ago.

A lesson that she hoped they learned before it was too late.

"You're both first-year students. I believe the four-year students have quite a lead on both of you." Rowan snidely remarked, stopping in her tracks once she realized she didn't recognize the area. "Schwartz, where are we?"

"In a forest," answered Schwartz. "You feeling okay?"

"No, I mean, wherein the forest are we? Does this place look familiar to you?"

"Not at all," Schwartz shook his head. It all looked the same to him: dirt, trees, rocks. Nothing out of the ordinary caught his attention.

"Shit! We're lost!" Rowan complained. "God damn it! Why must they always leave us trapped in forests?! What's with this school?!"

"You about done? Screaming and yelling won't do you any good," Schwartz noted.

He activated his Semblance and ran towards the nearest tree. He slid across the trunk up to the top, searching for any signs of the extraction point. He slid down and informed his teammate of his findings.

"Yeah, I found nothing," Schwartz casually reported, only increasing Rowan's irritation at the situation. As a bandit, growing accustomed to the wilderness was a given. But Rowan was a city girl. She needed civilization, electricity, and running water--she couldn't survive out in the wild for long.

"Great! Great! This is like the trial all over again!" Rowan threw her hands up in the air, practically giving up on the spot. She'd had it with everything, the school, the forest, the Grimm, her team--it was all too much mental stress for the girl to bear.

"Calm down, and we'll be fine. I'm sure Lilith will fire some signal when she realizes we're not back yet." Schwartz selfishly dismissed his teammate's worries and concerns. With the two of them together, he wasn't worried about anything out in the forest. Although, he wasn't sure if he was confident in their skills as a team or only his as usual.

He took Lilith's advice to heart. He tried to deepen his relationship with his team, but some of their actions made it difficult to trust them. Out of all of them, Rowan caused him the most trouble. Something about her rubbed him the wrong way.

She's distant, untrusting, and uncooperative. Despite attending Haven Academy, she does not desire to develop her skills as a Huntress. That raised a bunch of red flags with Schwartz. He didn't care for her motivations for attending the academy. After all, he was there to learn how to kill Huntsmen. But as far as he saw it, Rowan wasn't there for any reason.

"Why are you here?" Schwartz suddenly asked.

"The professor's the one that told us to team up here, didn't she?" Rowan responded, ultimately confused by the sudden question.

"No, I'm talking about Haven," Schwartz clarified. "Why are you here?"

It was the dreadful question that Rowan hoped no one would ask her. She had no interest in the academy or even Huntsmen. She ditched classes, put no effort into the physical combat training, and often complained about being around anyone.

Thankfully, she had an answer just for the occasion.

"My parents forced me to come here," Rowan began stringing Schwartz along with her on a tall tale. "My family has ties in law enforcement, acting, medical careers, etc. Now they want someone to become a Huntress. That duty fell onto me."

"You're not doing a very good job at that," Schwartz noted.

"Yeah, that's the point. I don't want to be a Huntress. I'm just gonna fail all my classes until I get kicked out of this place," Rowan told him. It was the perfect excuse for when she'd inevitably leave Haven Academy behind.

"What are you going to do then?" Schwartz inquired.

"What's it to you? I don't see how it's any of your business," Rowan shot down the young man's questions. She'd had enough with the personal interrogation and wished to find the extraction point. "Now come on, and let's get out of here,"

The young woman cut through a large bush and stepped into an open space, spotting a pack of Beowolves in the area. Unfortunately, the monsters spotted her immediately and rushed her.

"Sweet! More fun!" Schwartz leaped into action and went at the Grimm as a mad dog unleashed from its chains. He activated his Semblance and glided across the battlefield, mercilessly cutting away at the beasts, laughing maniacally. The battle brought him so much enjoyment.

Rowan found it detestable when he exhibited wild and reckless behavior in Huntsmen. People like him were no different from the Grimm. She sat back and watched her teammate dispatch most of the creatures.

However, a King Taijitu slithered its way behind Rowan without her knowledge. It quickly coiled around the young woman and bound her to a tree.

"S-S-Schwartz!" Rowan desperately called out, unable to seize her weapons while restrained.

"I'm coming!" Schwartz responded to the cry and rushed to her aid, but Grimm appeared and blocked his path. "Move it!" He cut through them without much issue, but that slowed him down in the process.

The King Taijitu bared its fangs and lunged at its prey. Rowan closed her eyes and braced for the hit.

"Scatter!" A voice suddenly rang throughout the area. Seven bullets rained down from the sky, leaving a trail of purple light as the projectiles whizzed and struck down the remaining Grimm.

Once freed, Rowan slumped down to the ground. She caught her breath and retrieved her dual pistols from her sleeves, immediately preparing for a counterattack. But it never came.

The Grimm before her vanished into nothingness.

"You okay?" Schwartz came over and checked on his teammate's condition.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Thanks for saving me," Rowan brushed herself off.

"It wasn't me,"

"Then, who?"

"That honor goes to me," Schwartz and Rowan followed the sound of the sudden voice, eventually spotting the owner. The person stepped out into the moonlit area; much to Schwartz's shock and horror, it was a person that he recognized. It was Max Wisteria, the sniper Huntress from Team PWTR.