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Chapter 20

The Inn that Mikhail had directed us too was a quaint little thing, full of rustic charm and hand-crafted furniture. Thankfully it also came with a fully serviced kitchen which provided us with plenty of much needed sustenance once we had paid for the rooms for the night.

Nora let out a happy little sigh as she lent back, having demolished a stack of pancakes and washed it down with a glass of water. "Oh it's been too long since I've had pancakes." Nora sighed patting her stomach in appreciation as she did so.

Ruby looked at Nora sideways at that. "But you had some the morning before we left your home, didn't we?" She asked, honestly confused by Nora's words.

I laughed at that, and Ren even snorted.

"Like I said." Nora stated firmly, "It's been too long since I've had pancakes."

I felt the smile tug at my lips.

Some things never change.

But on to business.

I turned my attention away from my own plate to focus on the map that had been laid out on the table we were sitting at, and the others returned back to what we had been discussing.

Just where we were supposed to go from here.

"How about we go down this road?" Ruby suggested, tapping at a road that was almost a direct path to their goal. "We could probably stop by this town that the path runs through and get some more supplies in case we're running low, and could even rest there."

Nora shook her head firmly at that, reaching out with a marker to cross it out off the map. "That won't be happening. I just remembered why the name of that town was so familiar." Nora said with a sigh. "That town fell a few years ago to the Grimm, Dad used to use it as a trade route before that. The Grimm practically treat the thing as a nest, only way he could make it through is if mom helped him."

I frowned at that. Yeah that's not going to happen.

"Okay then, how about this way?" I suggested, pointing out a second route that would still let us go through fairly easily. "I mean sure we'll have to make it through this mountain pass, but it seems like it won't be too difficult."

"We won't be getting through that way either." Ren stared, taking the marker from Nora to circle a town that was settled between by two mountains. "Mikhail was telling me about this place earlier. The only way through the mountain pass is through this town, and they're full on isolationist. They don't let newcomers inside unless they've got someone to vouch for them on the inside. "

"Which we don't have." I sighed, letting my head fall onto the table with a thud.

Damn it.

That leaves the final route.

I turned my attention to the map where Ren was currently drawing out the final path, going down a side road, before leaving it entirely, eventually coming to a stop at another town which thankfully had a road leading straight to the harbor where Neptune's family would be residing.

I hoped.

It's a bit of a detour, and we'll need to cut through the forest for a bit and leave the main road altogether before we come to the town as a stopping point.

Not exactly the path that I was hoping to take to get to the harbour, but it seems like life is going to be just as complicated as it wants to be.

Again.

"Alright then if were going to do this, we're going to have to make sure we have enough supplies for our journey through the forest." I said, looking down at the map again briefly as I did so, trying to judge how long it would probably take us.

Let's see…

If we get through with no troubles and no delays at all, it'll probably only take a few days.

But in the unlikely event that nothing goes to plan, we're going to take at least a week going through there.

Which means we're going to need supplies.

"How are you all doing ammo wise?" I asked the group, my eyes flicking to everyone at the table, before tapping on the forest that we would have to pass through. "Enough for a week or so if it comes to that?"

Ruby's brow crinkled in thought and I could see her mouth moving slightly as she went through some calculations in her head. "We used a few clips taking care of that Deathstalker protecting Mikhail's family. I'm sure we'd be fine going through this but we could always use more bullets."

Nora coughed meaningfully, giving the red headed scythe wielder a faux glare.

"And grenades." Ruby amended, Nora stopping her menacing glare as soon as she had been addressed a satisfied look on her face. "I think I saw a place on the way to the inn which should be able to help us out there."

Okay that's one problem dealt with.

"We're going to need food in there as well, I know Jaune's pretty good at foraging when it comes to the forests but I wouldn't want to rely on it when we didn't need to." Nora brought up, the rest of us all nodding at that.

A thought struck me and I turned to Ren. "We're going to need to make sure whatever we bring isn't especially pungent." I stated, thinking back to some of Tob's lessons on wilderness survival. "Things that would strongly stand out of the forest's standard smells could cause the inhabitants to come investigate. If we're lucky it'll just be wolves or something like that. If we're not it could be Grimm."

Ren nodded, bring out his scroll and quickly tapping a little note to himself. "I'll keep that in mind. Shouldn't be too hard to plan around. Nora, you happy to help me get the food?"

Nora broke out into a broad grin, practically bouncing in place. "You betcha Renny!" Nora squealed, grabbing her partner in a head lock as she did so, to which he didn't even attempt to resist, submitting with a long-suffering sigh that I had long grown accustomed to.

Ruby apparently hadn't and tried her best to muffle her giggles behind her hand.

"But what are you going to be doing Fearless leader?" Nora asked, still holding Ren in place under her arm as she did so before she jumped away with a squeal one hand going down to clutch at her side as a smug looking Ren leaned back into his chair.

In response I reached a hand into my coat and brought out a roll of bandages which was looking decidedly on the depleted side. "Kind of running a bit low when it comes to my medical supplies after I patched up Mikhail." I said, absently realising that I could probably grab some more elements for some tonics as the apothecary as well. "So I'll go restock our medical supplies then we'll meet up again back here?

The others agreed and we all stood up from the table, Nora shouting out a hearty thank you to the cook who nodded in appreciation, working away at a large bowl of noodles of some description before we left and split up, Ruby going one direction and Ren and Nora hurrying off in another.

I walked over to where I had spotted the apothecary and pushed the door open, the light tinkling of a bell announcing my presence.

"Be with you in a moment!" A voice cried out from behind the counter, as I entered the store, my eyes scanning over the interior.

While the inventory inside was by no means as extensive as those that had been within Vale or Beacon's own stores, from what I could see of the stuff they had it was of good quality, most likely local herbs and plants that had been cultivated nearby.

Movement caught my eye and I turned to see a faunus woman make her way out from a closed door behind the counter, her eyes lighting up as she saw me. "You're one of the huntsman who helped Mikhail and his family into town." She marvelled, a happy smile on her face, "Well how can I help you?"

"I was wondering if you had anything in the way of bandages?" I asked, pulling the meagre remains of my supply from one of my coat pockets. "Sadly running a little low at the moment."

The woman nodded, turning and walking off purposefully. "I think I've got some in the back., just let me go check."

While she moved off to search for the item, I returned my attention to the various herbs and plants in front of me.

After looking over them for a few more moments, and having a closer inspection of one or two that seemed to be more promising, I grabbed the ones that I deemed useful for our journey and brought them over to the counter.

"I'm Elena by the way." The shopkeeper called out as she wandered back through the door to the store proper, a bundle of bandages held in her hands. "These up to your fancy?"

I went through the pile of bandages, taking care to examine them for any sign of tears or degradation and was happy to find that they would work perfectly. "These would be wonderful thanks." I said with a smile, grabbing a few lengths of bandages and adding them to my pile.

As Elena ran up my items and I handed over the Lien for them she called out to me as I made my way to the door. "You wouldn't be heading through the forest by chance would you?" Elena asked, almost cautiously.

I stopped for a moment, quickly contemplating just why she might have been asking before I replied. "It's a possibility. Why do you ask?"

Elena shook her head. "Something strange has been going on there lately. Things aren't where they should be, and one of the boys in town said he saw a tree move." She shivered. "It's like you're being watched, even when there isn't anything there."

I frowned at that. "As in the tree got up and walked away?" I said neutrally, despite how bizarre the situation sounded.

If Beacon has taught me anything, its that it is a weird and wonderful world that we live in.

Practically anything could happen at this point.

"The townsfolk didn't believe the boy, thought he was telling stories." Elena revealed, shaking her head. "Right up til when the woodsman went to go chop it down and never came back. And when people went to go find him, the tree was gone."

I frowned at that.

Typical suspect for things like this is always the Grimm.

But what kind of Grimm steals trees as well?

And these trees were by no means small things, most of the houses and buildings here in this town were tiny in comparison to those trees.

Maybe a baby Goliath, but there's no way one of those things would have wandered off without the rest of its herd shaking the land in search of it.

Either way, it was a mystery.

And yet, something about it seemed familiar.

My mind seemed to be reaching for something, something I'd heard from Tob or maybe Peter.

I wracked my brain for a few more moments before shaking my head.

The answer wasn't coming to me.

Guess I'd just have to keep an eye out.

"Thanks for the heads up." I said gratefully, inclining my head to the woman, her dog ears twitching as she bowed slightly in response.

I made my way back to the inn, still contemplating on just what this tree stealing Grimm could be.

Our journey through the forest thus far had been fairly uneventful.

At my best guess we were about half way through our journey to the town of Green's End, and we hadn't come across anything particularly difficult.

Sure we'd come across a few Grimm here and there, mostly Beowolves, Creeps and the odd Boarbastusk but between the four of us we made short work of the Grimm.

And we'd come across nothing that could have stolen one of these massive trees.

Knocked down, possibly but by no means transport without leaving ample evidence as to who was behind it.

This led to our current situation with the four of us following the river which would veer off just before Green's end would come into view, currently deep in conversation.

"And I'm telling you we need to come up with a name for the team!" Nora cried out, even as Ren and I shared a quick glance at each other before sighing.

"Nora we've talked about this…" Ren started to say but Nora continued on anyway, utterly ignoring her partner's words.

"So I've been thinking about it and I think we should be team Junior!" Nora finished finally, looking at the three of us expectantly as if expecting applause.

Ren groaned audibly and Ruby let out a sound of displeasure, something to be expected as our youngest member rarely liked being reminded of that fact, and being in a team titled "Junior" was not going to help that at all.

I looked up from the map in my hands briefly and met Nora's eyes. "Nora I don't think that's the best name. Maybe something else?" I suggested, returning my attention back to the map.

"What!?" Nora squawked, affronted by my words turning to the others for support only to deflate when she found there was none to be had. "I'd like to see any of you guys come up with anything better then." She grumped, kicking a stone into the river idly as she did so.

"What about team Ranger?" Ruby piped up, both her hands pulling at the straps of her backpack, "Would that work?

I pondered it for a moment.

R N J R.

Ranger.

It fits.

Not perfectly but then again this is coming from the girl who led team Ruby with a W.

Nora seemed to take exception to this however and proceeded to pounce on the hood wearing huntress, the two of them comically flailing about for a moment.

Something pricked my ears and I turned my head, trying to catch sight of whatever had caught my attention.

My eyes flickered over to the river as something caught my eyes, the water rippling for a moment before halting.

What was that about?

Maybe an odd sandbank or rock formation under the water?

I slowed to a stop, ostensibly taking a look at the map in front of as I kept my senses peeled for anything out of the ordinary.

Nothing.

Maybe I was hearing things.

I shrugged going to move forwards again, going to put the map away before I froze.

There it was again!

"You heard it too?" I heard Ren say quietly towards me, taking care not to make any indications that he was aware of the change.

I nodded minutely, straining to look out of the corner of my eyes as I continued forward, trying to see if there was anything out of place which could have made that noise which had me on edge.

And still there was nothing.

For a moment I thought perhaps it could have been some kind of semi-aquatic Grimm hiding in the river that was nearby, but the water was too clear and the river too shallow for that to be an option.

Unless it was invisible.

I shook my head at that.

I swear ever since that fight with Neo if I can't see my opponent the first thought that goes through my head is 'they must be invisible'.

I mean honestly just bec…wait a second was that there before?

The sand bank that had been just bordering the river on both sides, had appeared to have moved.

Not much but it was in a decidedly different shape then it had been before, and it seemed to have extended slightly towards us.

I put a hand on the back of my head scratching it absently and titled my head towards Nora. "Hey Nora," I said lightly, sounding for all the world as if I was just asking how her day was going. "There's something hiding in that patch of sand over there. Would you mind shooting it with Magnhild?"

Nora blinked for a moment in confusion before realisation sunk in and she nodded, Ruby's hand drifting down to Crescent Rose as she did so.

Then Nora spun, her grenade launcher practically teleporting to her hands as she unleashed three rounds at the sand bank, the sand flying up into the air and the water in the river rippling from the shockwave of the consecutive blasts.

As she did so the rest of us readied ourselves for battle, my sword held at the ready in my right hand, my shield gantlet ready to be deployed at a moment's notice. Ren pulled his upgraded Stormflower from where it rested behind his back, levelling both guns at where the sound had been coming from. Ruby deployed her weapon as a scythe with a flourish, her legs bent slightly ready to rush off in an instant with her semblance with needed.

But nothing happened.

We stood there, waiting for whatever threat that I was sure was there to reveal itself but nothing came out of the sand.

"Maybe it dodged?" Ruby suggested, her silver eyes scanning the surroundings for where it could have hidden.

"I don't think so." I said aloud, not sure of just what was going on. "I j…"

I cut myself off as something huge rushed towards me, exploding out of the sand in front of me with incredible force.

With a thought my aura surged and a kite shield formed out of my gauntlet to block.

But even without my last second block the sheer strength behind the blow knocked me off my feet and I was sent tumbling through the air, only avoiding slamming into one of the nearby trees by luck as I contorted and slammed my legs into the ground, skidding to a stop, using my sword as an impromptu anchor to keep myself from going any further.

Alright, didn't see that one coming.

The sound of gunfire filled the air, a sure sign that my friends were fighting whatever it was that hit me.

I looked back towards whatever the hell it was that had just tried to knock me into next week.

And found a large arm, devoid of any fingers outstretched where I had been.

One made entirely of sand.

"What the?"

The giant sand arm moved and seemed to support itself on the solid earth, as if going to push itself up and suddenly the sand surged behind it, stray particles falling like a waterfall as a roughly humanoid shape pulled itself upwards, coming to stop as it towered over all of us.

I swallowed a swear, and made my way back towards this latest problem, gripping Candidus Mors tightly as I did so.

Damn, this thing was as big as the Prometheus unit, and if that punch was any indicator had a hell of a lot of force behind it's swings.

But seriously though, a sand golem?

Since when was that a thing?

"Look at the top!" Ruby's voice cried out as she continued to sink rounds into the being's sandy form, the bullets seeming to shoot straight through the body without making so much as a dent in the beast, the holes caused by the bullets passage, seeming to seal themselves shut a moment later.

I directed my gaze upwards for a moment and through the trail of sand falling down from it's…I suppose that would be the golem's face?

And partially hidden behind that sand, I saw it.

A Grimm mask with a bright yellow eye the shape of a diamond in the centre of it, which was focused squarely on us.

"Oh you have got to be kidding me." I grumbled under my breath even as I dodged to the side as it tried to crush me beneath it's sandy arm once more, the ground shaking from the force of the blow.

I lashed out with my blade and it cut through the sand as if it had been a hot knife through butter, the deep furrow causing a grin to spread across my lips.

I knew my luck wasn't that bad.

Only for it to be wiped away as the wound I had caused, closed itself in an instant, causing seemingly no damage at all.

I stand corrected.

The realization hit me like one of Yang's uppercuts, as the memory I had been trying to reach for the past few days screamed into the forefront of my mind, as the realization of what had really happened to that tree.

The boy hadn't been lying.

The tree had quite literally, gotten up and walked away.

With a little help.

"It's a Gheist!" I called out, trying to alert the others to my discovery. "A Grimm that possesses inanimate objects!" I had to stop from replying as I rolled around another massive blow, circling around the enemy in an attempt to flank them.

"What the heck is a Gheist?" Nora squawked, scrambling to the side as it slammed another mighty blow into the ground. "So it's in the sand?"

"No it is the sand." I yelled back, lashing out with my sword again into the back of one of it's legs only to frown as the sand around its legs rushed upwards, to repair it instantly as well as almost seeming to grasp for me before I flung myself backwards. "It takes on the objects properties and uses it to attack its foes."

"Okay so it's a Gheist!" Ren shouted out, still blasting away ineffectually with Stormflower, drawing the Grimm's attention towards him. "How do we kill it?"

"Uh, give me a second here, just trying to figure that out." I called back my mind frantically scrambling to remember what Tob and Peter had told me about the time they fought one. "Okay, the one I heard about possessed stone and made a stone golem, but when they shattered it, the Gheist mask detached and then they could kill it."

"So we've got to find a way to destroy the body before we can kill the Grimm itself." Ruby concluded, slicing off one of the Grimm's arms with a gunfire assisted swipe that carved through its shoulder.

This time the wound didn't regenerate, the whole arm rapidly reverting back to nothing more than normal sand, which collapsed to the ground haphazardly.

"Alright!" Ruby cheered in celebration, as she landed with a thump next to Nora, the loud slap of a high five filling the air.

The Gheist seemed to stand there for a moment, looking down at where it's arm had been a moment ago.

Then another arm erupted from the side of it, black and misty looking as if it was a dissipating Grimm. This new misty arm slammed down, but not into the sand that it had been standing on.

"Oh great." Ren groused, as the Gheist turned to face us again, with a new arm made entirely out of water.

I rolled out of the way as the new limb slapped down where I had been with tremendous speed, the ground fracturing from the weight behind the blow.

Come on Jaune think, think.

Maybe we can try and push it into the river?

Given that it just formed an arm out of the river, I rather doubt that is going to help.

We've got to find a way to turn its strengths against itself.

I turned back to the river for a moment and…

There's an idea.

"Does anyone have something that can solidify the sand?" I called out, trying to see if we had what we needed for my plan to work. "Like Ice dust rounds or something like that?"

"What about fire dust rounds?" Ruby called out, reaching behind her cloak to pull out an ammo clip with some symbol I couldn't make out from here inscribed on the side.

"That'll work!" I called back, rolling out of the way of another attack. "But be sure to save some lightning dust rounds for later. Trust me you'll know when." I came up to my feet again, backing up from our oversized foe but keeping him in my sights. "Nora, hammer and shield."

Nora grinned and reached into one of her pockets and pulled out a very familiar concoction, her own personal supply of shock tonic. We'd all agreed that Nora not having access to the thing which could let her tap into her semblance purely because I was holding on to all of it was stupid.

That wasn't to say I didn't have any, but if a situation arose, as one had now, we might not have time to exchange stuff in the midst of battle.

"I'll draw its attention!" Ren called out and unleashed a barrage of rounds at the Gheist's face, and sprinted off to the side, still firing as he did so.

The Gheist's sand arm went up to try and protect its mask from Ren's barrage even as its titanic body lumbered to the side trying to crush the ant harassing it.

"Nora, you ready to knock this thing into next week?" I called out, dropping low and bracing myself as my shield extended even further with a pulse of my aura.

The bubbly berserker grinned bestially at that, her eyes crackling with pink electricity as she leapt off the ground with a jump that shattered the ground beneath her feet before she landed on the face of my shield hammer first, knees bent and ready to spring off when the time came.

Ren finished circling around the titanic foe, another fist made of sand missing the huntsman by an inch, as Ren used it to mantle forward only for him to have to backflip out of the way of the torrential blast of water that would have slammed into where he would have been moments before.

Oh so it can fire it's limbs as projectiles, that's annoying.

Thank the heavens Ren was holding its attention, that would have sucked if it hit us.

As if by magic, the Grimm turned at that thought, spotting us and raising its remaining arm in the same way it had previously, clearly aiming to fire it directly at us.

Blast.

At that moment something slammed into the Gheist's chest with enough force that it staggered backwards for a step.

Then it exploded in a conflagration of fire dust erupting from the inside of its chest, the Grimm actually collapsing to a knee in the face of this wound.

Thank you Ruby.

"Now!" I called out, bracing myself as I did so.

I heard the click of Nora pulling Magnhild's trigger and with an explosion of pink energy she blasted forward, spinning through the air as she did so to slam into the now far more solid chest of the Gheist, the recoil sending me skidding backwards a step but I held on.

The Gheist on the other hand tumbled back ass over tea kettle, the warhammer slamming the Grimm backwards instead of simply passing through the sand.

I could see it move as it was going to reach back and catch itself, but it had thrown its arm made of water at Ren a moment ago.

And as for it's arm made of sand?

Turns out when it goes for a dip into water it tends to lose cohesion.

And right there, where the explosion had gone off, I could see the mask of the Gheist, writhing inside the rough glass that had once been sand. It was clearly trying to break free of its impromptu prison and try to make itself a new body out of water.

The sound of a rifle being ratcheted met my ears and Ruby walked forward, dropping the empty magazine and reloading it with one that had a lightning bolt emblazoned upon it.

Without any need for further instruction she raised Crescent Rose and fired it into the trapped Grimm, firing two rounds into the dead centre of the Grimm's mask. The lighting dust inside the rounds detonated, and the electricity pulsed in the water as the mask that was the Gheist's true form broke apart into black scraps of shadow before fading away into nothing.

We stood there for a moment, still slightly out of breath from our sudden engagement, waiting to see if the Gheist would pull itself back together again for another fight.

When a minute had passed we all started to relax our guards, Nora dropping to the ground with a huff, her body shaking as the after affects of her semblance kicked in.

When Nora was powered up she was on top of the world, an unstoppable juggernaut with enough strength and speed to take on damn near anything.

The thing was, as powerful as Nora was, her body wasn't used to moving with that kind of speed, or using that much strength.

I always thought of it as watching one of the kids come down off a sugar rush, one moment they were all over the place, the next they're down on the floor wanting to do nothing more than to sleep until things started making sense again.

Good times.

Ren stashed Stormflower away behind his back and picked Nora up into his arms, who snuggled into his chest with an incoherent murmur.

Ren proceeded to blankly ignore any looks Ruby or I might have given him at that as we made our way forwards once more, aiming to find somewhere suitable to make camp for the night and help Nora recover.

I shared a look with Ruby at that and shrugged, the hooded huntress giggling lightly as we continued on after Ren.

The campfire crackled merrily, providing both ample heat and illumination for us all, our sleeping bags circling the fire as I laid back and sighed, my tongue working at my teeth to get those last bits of food out of my teeth.

That jerky wasn't half bad.

"Okay so you've used Yang's semblance against that big robot," Ruby continued on, our conversation from dinner still going on, "And you've obviously used Pyrrha's to catch that falling airship…"

"Actually in that case it was more like Pyrrha used me." I interjected, scratching the back of my head. "Although admittedly yeah, I'm pretty sure I used it at least passively in the fight against Paris and Amynta."

"Well why don't you use their semblances?" Ruby asked curiously, gesturing back at the way we came from. "Yang's semblance would have worked great against that Ghost."

"Gheist." Ren interjected, taking a sip from his own cup of the herbal tea he had made for everyone.

She wasn't wrong.

Yang's ability to absorb kinetic energy used against her and use it to power up her own attacks would have been incredibly useful against the Gheist, particularly in destroying the body it was hiding in.

"That's because I can't use them." I admitted with a shake of my head. "If I had to guess I'd say that I'd need to actually be in the vicinity of the person to tap into their semblance, or for them to tap into my aura."

Ruby let out a sound of understanding at that, nodding her head.

"Wait why haven't you used Ruby's semblance then?" Nora asked, perking her head up from where she'd been lazing on the ground. "You should have been able to use hers right?"

I started grumbling at that, and I could feel my cheeks start to redden slightly as Ren snorted and Ruby giggled at what Nora was saying.

That had been an embarrassing day.

"What?" Nora demanded, wanting to know just what we were all reacting about.

I sighed, knowing that Ren and Ruby wanted me to say what had happened myself. "I've already tried to use Ruby's semblance." I admitted with a grimace. "It didn't go well."

"It was while you were still reforging Magnhild." Ren informed his partner, smirking slightly as he met my eyes. "And while we were fighting your mother."

"So it turns out Ruby's semblance doesn't come with the ability to comprehend what's going on when your moving at super speed." I continued on, twitching slightly as my mind conjured up just what had happened next. "One moment I tapped into Ruby's semblance and the next…"

"He ran head first into Jorth's armor and knocked himself out." Ruby said, laughing at the memory. "One second standing and the next BANG he was down." Ruby pantomimed to Nora who started laughing herself at the image.

"I was coughing up rose petals for an hour after I woke up." I groused and everyone started laughing even louder at that.

Despite myself, I still found myself laughing alongside them as we all started talking about a whole host of things, like when Ren had backflipped into Ruby's high calibre shot at Jorth or when Nora had painted the forge in glittering pink paint when she tried to upgrade her PPG the first time.

"I'll take first watch." Ren volunteered, propping himself up to sit comfortably as the rest of us went to get comfortable in our sleeping bags. "Jaune, you still want last watch?"

"Yeah that'll be fine." I replied simply to Ren with a nod, before I laid my head down and closed my eyes.

And before I even knew it, I was asleep again.

Where visions of an intact moon and shining white lights filled my dreams.

I woke up as Ruby shook me away in time for my shift keeping watch, the indistinct memories of my dreams growing more blurry by the second.

Thankfully the watch was utterly boring, with no interruptions of any kind and I even managed to put together a half decent breakfast for everyone to wake up to.

Nothing that smelled as good as say cooking meat over a flame but we were still in the forest, and the risk that such a smell would attract the local wildlife was too great to ignore...

As dawn arrived I gently shook the others awake, the prospect made easier by the fact that there was already food waiting for the more difficult to rouse members of our party.

After consuming our altogether satisfactory meal, we packed up our impromptu camp after a quick consult of the map we were up and moving again, aiming to reach Green's End by the end of the day.

And thankfully we were making good time, the terrain becoming far easier to traverse as we came closer to the settlement.

I folded up the map and slid it into a pocket on my coat, assured that I wouldn't need it any longer for the short trip into Green's End.

Had to admit, I was looking forwa…

My nose twitched.

What was that smell?

"We should be coming up on the tow…" Ruby started only to stop midsentence as I halted in place, my eyes narrowing in concentration.

I'd thought I'd just been imagining it for a moment but it was still there, in fact it was getting even more obvious as we moved forward.

I felt the hair on the back of my neck rise up.

That isn't right.

"Weapons at the ready everyone." I said quietly but firmly, pulling my sword from where it was resting on my back.

It was a testament to what we'd been through so far that everyone got their weapons out before they even thought of asking as to why they were doing so, their eyes up and scanning their surroundings.

"What is it Jaune?" Ren asked lowly, his hands gripping tightly to Stormflower as he did so.

I breathed in deeply one more time, hoping that I had been wrong but it was still there.

"There's smoke in the air." I said simply, indicating to where we were heading. "The smell of burning wood, and just faintly, burning flesh."

The expressions on the faces around me became far more serious at that and we started moving forward again, moving at a far faster pace then we had been before.

"It isn't the Grimm." Nora called out, the beginnings of a plume of smoke just beginning to become visible through the foliage. "We'd have been able to hear them by now."

"Maybe a fire broke out in the village." Ruby suggested, ratcheting a round into Crescent Rose as she did so.

I nodded in acknowledgment at the possibility but at the same time, something told me that it wasn't just that.

My eyes caught sight of something shooting up into the air, a high-pitched whistling sound making sure that no one missed its passage as it climbed ever higher before it erupted in a conflagration of green energy, a firework erupting in the darkening sky.

Signal flare.

And if they're using Valian signal codes, and I don't see any reason why they wouldn't be, there's only one reason why they'd send up a green one.

I felt my lips turn downwards into a scowl, even as my grip tightened on the grip of Candidus Mors.

"Bandits." Ren said lowly, a dark expression on his face.

Without another word we all sped up, sprinting towards where the flare had been fired.

Inside the town proper, people that were decidedly not the townsfolk scurried back and forth, all well aware of the timeframe that they were operating on.

"Get it all loaded up into the carriages, I want us all out of here before the Grimm arrive." The man roared at his subordinates, absently wiping the blood dripping from his machete onto his already stained pants. "I want us back in on our camp by sundown tonight."

The people within earshot let out sounds of acknowledgment at that, pushing the roughly gathered stuff into the carts.

While there were certainly some bodies in the streets, they clearly hadn't killed everyone.

"Please, you don't have to do this." The elderly man pleaded, bleeding from a gash on his forehead as he was dragged towards the open door.

"Shut up." The bandit said rolling his eyes, roughly dropping the man in front of the house before kicking him inside of it. The man bowing over in agony as he coughed and wheezed. "Are you sure I can't take at least one of them, you know for some fun on the way?" The bandit asked, even as another bandit slammed the door shut and started hammering some planks into place over the door, thoroughly blocking it.

The leader of the Bandit group growled under his breath again. "No Pem, we can't." The man growled, his brow twitching as he did so. "Prisoners attract Grimm, Grimm attract attention, and attention brings problems so no, there will be no prisoners." The leader glared at the old man who had just been thrown into the building in particular, the green flare that was fired off having been done so by him.

Now they were on the goddamn clock before some goddamn do-gooders showed up.

"Ah come on!" Pem whined, kicking the door as he did so. "We can kill them when were done with them. Vernal's group always has pris…"

The bandit leader spun on his heel at that and surged over to Pem who suddenly realised that he had just ventured onto dangerous ground and went to say something before his massive hand clamped over Pem's mouth and lifted him bodily into the air.

"Did you just say that witch's name," The brute of a man said softly, this quiet conversation far more frightening then anything that he had said before, his presence like a physical thing as he towered over him. "In front of me!?" He finished, his voice descending into a bestial growl.

With a practiced flourish the bandit leader unsheathed his machete and slammed it into Pem's stomach before he ripped it to the side with such force it almost seemed to explode out of him.

Pem let out a choked sound behind the impromptu gag that was the other man's hand before he was dropped roughly to the ground, his blond hair rapidly being dyed darker by the pool of blood forming around him.

All the other bandits stopped what they were doing at this and turned to face the macabre scene, remaining silent so as to not pull their leader's attention towards them.

"Does anyone else have anything to say about my decisions?" The man bellowed, his voice echoing throughout the town, the only other sound the crackling of fire and the whimpering cries of the prisoners. "Any complaints about the way I run things?"

"No Cutter!" The remaining bandits all bellowed out, quickly doubling their pace so as to avoid drawing his ire towards them. Several bandits made their way over to the building with the barred entrance and pulled out containers of various shapes and sized before they began splashing what was inside of them on the walls, staining the wooden exterior with a shiny greenish tint.

Cutter glared out at his men for a moment longer before grunting and turning his attention back towards the task at hand.

Cutter's attention successfully diverted again, the other bandits restarted their conversations once more, one bandit collecting a handful of lien from a scowling bandit. "Never bet against Pem being an idiot man, oldest trick in the book."

Yea, yeah" The bandit grumbled, bending down to pick up the crate full of food. "Why couldn't we have just stayed in Anima man? We could have made a killing over there." He asked her friend under his breath, everyone still wary of Cutter's raised ire.

"Because, you moron, the Branwen's are expanding again. And ever since that Vernal chick took the reins, they can't be fucking beaten." The other man said from inside the cart, pulling the crate that was handed to him next to the others and strapping it into place. "So we got the hell out of dodge and came here."

The bandit went to continue on with her conversation before a blur of motion moved passed her and she felt something feather light dance over her throat. "Wha-hurk!?" The woman gurgled, a spray of blood hissing out from the slice across her throat that seemed to appear as if by magic, and crumpled to the ground, painting her friend crimson with the arterial spray as she did so.

The man screamed, stumbling backwards away from the dying bandit only for his cry to be cut short.

The bandits all dropped what they were doing at that and spun, pulling their weapons free and levelling them at the cause of the sound.

From behind the carriage a man walked out, with a look on his face that was too cruel to be called a smile, and too genuine to be called a smirk. "Well, well, well." The man said loudly, stepping forward with a casual gait as he did so, his yellow eyes looking over the scene before him with bemused disinterest. "Looks like I've stumbled across a bit of vermin trying to take what's not theirs. How adorable." The man said dramatically, expressing the crowd before them as if they were a group of idiotic toddlers rather than a war band of bandits that had just slaughtered their way through a village.

The man's attire was strange to be sure, a brown trenchcoat worn open to reveal a number of vicious looking scars upon his crest, and both sleeves pulled up to reveal leather bracers. He had knee length boots made of the same leather and pants made of white cloth held up by two different belts. His hair was brown, and braided into a long single ponytail that reached down to about his waist.

"Do you have any idea who you're messing with?" Cutter roared, flourishing his machete in a menacing manner as he did so. "Huh!?"

The skinny man in front of him giggled at that, his soft laughter becoming more and more maniacal as he continued, his yellow eyes sharp like knives as they stared at the bandit leader.

"Well I have to say, I've never seen something like you before." The man said casually, pushing a strand of his hair out of his eyes as he did so.

Then Cutter choked, his words gargled as the points from the blades on the new man's wrist blades slammed into his throat, the sheer force behind them penetrating his aura as if it wasn't even there.

All the other bandits jumped back in shock at that.

They hadn't even seen the man move.

"A talking corpse!" The man marvelled, giggling as he pulled his wrist blades fell from the dead man. "Praise be to the Goddess!"