"Haru... Little Red and the Big Bad Wolf?" Ruby asked as they all ran from the horde of Grimm that were chasing after the group of 5, while Haru looked at her.
"I was thinking Beauty and the Ultra-Beast." Haru stated back to her, with everyone wondering how they were so calm while being chased by a large group of Grimm.
13 Beowolves, 3 Boarbatusks, a King Taijitu, and even a Deathstalker, and plenty of smaller Nevermores.
That was the herd of Grimm that was chasing after them, trying to turn them all into dinner... or just corpses if the Grimm didn't want to actually eat them.
When you were low on ammo, and half of your group were tired, even that relativally small number of Grimm wasn't something you would want to face. Deathstalkers were pretty high on the threat level, while the rest were rather small fries when compared to the giant bone covered and red mark covered scorpion types.
"Is now the time for fairy tales?" Blake asked with a clearly annoyed look on her face.
"We are talking about battle plans... duck!" Ruby called out, and everyone ducked underneath a low hanging tree branch... that was destroyed by the Grimm chasing after them. Yang stopped and kicked one of the werewolf-like Grimm in the face, breaking its neck and sending it toppling into the other grimm at the same time.
Ruby looked at Haru, and the two of them nodded at each other.
Their scythes unfolded, and Ruby jumped on top of the back of his scythe. Haru spun around quickly, before he launched Ruby towards the Grimm. She vanished in a trail of rose petals, before all of the leaves on the trees started to fall towards the ground from their enhanced speed combination. Using his strength to throw her, and then combining the recoil of her weapon with her Semblance let them surpass what her normal speed was.
Ruby WAS a bladed cannonball.
The entire group of beowolves and the King Taijitu were sliced in half in seconds, while most of the smaller Nevermore were taken out just as quickly. Tracking her with eyes became impossible for most of the group, all they saw was Ruby vanishing and most of the Grimm being sliced in half... while Ruby landed on the ground huffing slightly. She was holding her shoulder, having dislocated it when she tried to finish off the Deathstalker... but the thing's armor was too thick for her to get through with a single attack.
She launched herself towards Haru, and their scythe blades connected and he swung her around, before he let her down on the ground.
Together, they both sliced through 4 small Nevermore with ease, while Pyrrha shot 2 of the boar-grimm in the eyes and killed them in seconds.
Yang punched one with an explosive punch, before the thing was knocked into the air. Then she punched it in the stomach with both of her fists and sent it flying back quickly towards the angry Deathstalker. In seconds, their only enemy was the giant Deathstalker... and sadly none of them had an attack that would get past its defense.
Or at least, not attacks they could use at the moment.
Blake at least stalled for time by shooting out one of the many eyes of the Deathstalker, getting it to back off of them long enough for them to turn tail and run again.
Haru and Pyrrha shared a look, before she grabbed his wrist and flung him up into the air. She raised her shield, and he landed on top of it, standing on the blade of his weapon. Haru placed the barrel of his weapon against her shield, and Pyrrha lowered her shield so that Haru was facing a thick group of trees. Haru pulled the trigger, and with a boom he was sent flying towards the trees while spinning. Haru chopped down the entire set of trees, right when the Deathstalker was walking underneath it, and the logs started to rain down on top of the powerful Grimm.
Yet, even that would only hold it for a small time after it was unstunned from being buried.
"Thats not going to hold it long, we need to get out of here." Blake said when Haru rejoined the group, and even though everyone agreed with her they knew that a single Grimm could very well attract more Grimm, and staying in place fighting for too long would end up being their own mistake if they were outnumbered again.
"Where are we going to go?" Yang asked with a look towards Pyrrha, expecting her to have an idea of where to stay.
"I say we head where we came from, if we just killed the Grimm from that area... then aren't there going to be less Grimm there?" Ruby said, looking towards where they came from.
"Good idea, let's do that." Haru agreed instantly, trusting Ruby's judgement.
So with that, they all started to run in the direction that they came from... many of them running around the buried Deathstalker, or jumping on top of it and running over it. They were glad that Grimm stayed stunned for good periods of time, or that they had injured it more than they thought they had.
It wasn't until after they had already passed the Deathstalker that it broke out of the falling trees holding it down.
Haru twisted his body and dodged a grimm that jumped out of the trees, before he sliced it in half before it could touch the ground. Ruby jumped over its corpse before she tripped over it, while everyone else looked around and saw a few sets of glowing red eyes in the woods.
"There are a lot of them... oh my god!" Blake said with wide eyes, covering her mouth in horror when she saw what was happening on the other end of the bushes.
"What... what are you seeing?" Pyrrha asked, having noticed that Blake could see better in the dark than the others could.
"There is another team nearby... they didn't make it. The Grimm got them." Haru said as he looked away from the scene, he could feel what was going on even if he couldn't see it.
Everyone offered their silent prayers to the souls of those that had died.
Ozpin had said that death was possible, and that the test had been made harder than what it was before... They understood that this was a school training warriors, and they were going into a line of work where any mission could be their last... but to know that people died just on the test alone to get into the school was a morbid thought.
"... Come on, let's go." Yang said with a grim look on her face.
Their negative emotions would attract Grimm if they stayed in this area too long, and the grimm that were already in the area were more concerned... with something else at the moment. Nobody wanted to leave the bodies to the grimm to eat, but they couldn't afford to risk trying to retrieve bodies that would only slow them down and cause them to be open targets. Ruby was completely silent while she was running, the most affected by the deaths of their fellow students.
Haru was affected almost as much as her though, despite his experience.
He hated it when his comrades died, he had sent people on missions to die... and this feeling that he couldn't help them was the worst to him.
It didn't matter HOW old you got, or how much experience you had. Death wasn't something easy to deal with, and it was wrong when it was easy. That was why Haru held onto Ruby's hand while they were running, and why Yang seemed to be more... well she had a strong emotion coming off of her. She seemed determined more than ever now, if that was good or bad for him he didn't know.
"This will have to do for now... I will take the first watch. You just stay out of my way." Weiss said as she finished making a barrier out of ice around the camp they were using. She had a full circle of ice spikes all around them, but she wasn't surprised when she saw that a few Grimm were already coming into the area.
Jaune had his sword drawn, but for the most part he wasn't inspiring confidence in him.
"What are those doing here?" Jaune asked, and Weiss sighed in disappointment.
"Grimm are attracted to negative emotions. Anger, hate, fear, disappointment, terror... negative emotions attract them like crazy. They can sense it, they must sense my disappointment... and look at you... your footwork is at the level of a complete novice. You are holding your sword wrong, and you don't have your guard.
"Huh?" Jaune questioned, and Weiss stabbed the ground behind her, and ice sprouted up from it and killed the two grimm that had tried to rush them.
"Your stance, completely disappointing. You are extremely weak, you don't hold your sword with a proper grip. Your knees are shaking, and you don't seem to have experienced even using that sword. I wanted a partner, not some project... I am going to have to put a lot of work into you." Weiss said with obvious annoyance in her voice.
"Project... me?" Jaune asked as he pointed to himself, not sure what to think about that.
"Yes, you. I don't want my partner to be complete trash, so until you aren't trash I expect you to improve under my tutoring." Weiss stated with narrowed eyes, her hands on her hips as she leaned forward and looked at him in the eyes. Jaune laughed nervously, before he looked behind Weiss and saw that the dead grimm were starting to turn into steam and vanish.
"Is... is that normal?" Jaune asked as he pointed at the grimm.
"Shut up." Weiss said as she looked around with a furrowed brow.
Was that gunfire?
"Huh?" Jaune asked, and Weiss slapped him upside the head.
"I said shut up... I heard gunfire. It was coming from that hill over there. Get ready Jaune, we are going to go try and help out whoever is fighting." Weiss said as she started to walk out of the barrier of ice through the small hole in the front of it. Jaune's eyes widened, and now he was able to hear the gunfire now that he was paying attention to it.
"You want to help them?" Jaune asked with wide eyes.
He had not expected her to be so... selfless like that.
"I don't want to... it is my duty. I am here, because this is the place I should be. It is my duty as a huntress to save my comrades when they need saving. Like it or not, everyone in this forest is my comrade." Weiss said with her annoyance still showing... but even with how annoyed she sounded Jaune looked very impressed with what she had said.
Despite being a bit of a bossy, she had a... good heart.
"Let's go then!" Jaune shouted with more enthusiasm, eager to help Weiss out.
"Shut up, don't be so loud." Weiss told him, and he zipped his mouth shut with a grin on his face. She palmed her face, before she dragged it down.
Why... why couldn't she have gotten the Invincible Girl or the Once in a Lifetime Genius?
Why was she stuck... with somebody that didn't even know how to properly hold a sword, or even a simple stance?
She was surprised when she felt something coming closer.
Then 5 people came rushing out of the woods.
Then a giant Deathstalker came rushing out after them.
Weiss felt like pulling her hair out at the roots.
This. Day. Sucked.