"Lots of running... not fun." Haru groaned out as he panted, leaning with his back against a tree.
"It's DEAD, we killed and it's dead now." Ruby called out, and she collapsed backwards into Haru's lap with a happy sigh.
"I'm out of ammo." Yang said as she looked at her gauntlets, and she noticed that she was completely spent of her ammo. That Deathstalker had been a tough one, the moss on it showing it had survived many battles and only strengthened. She didn't have a single bit of ammo left on her, though she didn't need it as much.
"I have about a 5th of my ammo." Pyrrha said as she checked her own ammo, she didn't use her ammo very much in battles so she still had a good amount of it.
"Out." Ruby said with a pleasant tone to her voice, not all that worried about the situation now that she was together with her twin again.
"Nearly full." Weiss stated as she looked at her weapon, though she was slowly recovering from the complete loss of her stamina, of which she was not nearly as "full" as she had ammo.
"I use... a sword... no... ammo!" Jaune asked out, still attempting to catch his breath.
"I have most of my ammo." Blake said when she looked at how well off she was, and was pleasantly surprised to see she didn't have nearly as much of her reserves gone as she thought she had.
"I'm spent... Blake, anything around us?" Haru asked Blake as he wiped the sweat from his face. She looked around the area, before she shook her head, and he sighed in relief.
"Anyone have anything to say?" Yang asked with a look around, she didn't quite trust Blake's sight as much as Haru seemed to trust it.
"Rule One: Nobody leaves the group alone, not even to go to the bathroom. Rule Two: 3 people need to stay awake at all times. Rule Three: You hear something, you wake people up right away. Rule Four: Nobody make out with anyone in the woods, people who make out in the woods, die in the woods." Haru said with a light tone to his voice near the end.
"Oh darn, and here I wanted to make out with short, pale, and bossy over there." Yang mocked with a grin on his face. She yelped when Ruby pinched her thigh, and she looked at the youngest sister with surprise. She was more surprised when Haru punched her in the arm, and she rubbed her arm lightly in surprise.
"Pale skin, paler than hers." Ruby said as she pointed at herself, who practically glowed in the moonlight.
"Pale skin, as pale as Ruby's skin." Haru said, pointing to Ruby, even though he himself seemed to have an unreal glow about him in the moonlight.
"Hey! I am not bossy... or short, I am average height!" Weiss said with a huff to her tone, while Jaune looked away from her. It was obvious Yang wasn't the only one who thought she was bossy, while Blake was looking at Pyrrha for a moment when she saw the young woman lean against the tree, and place her hand on top of Haru's hand with a small smile on her face.
Well... that is certainly interesting. Didn't know she had a thing for the innocent type. Blake thought with a slight smile on her face. She wouldn't have thought somebody as famous as Pyrrha would be dating... and her line of thought was cancelled when she noticed that Pyrrha took her hand off of his hand moments later when he didn't even seem to notice what she had done.
She took that back, Haru was simply oblivious to a girl's feelings.
"I like pale skin." Jaune said with a light sound to his voice, looking at Weiss with a slight smile on his face. He was instantly the subject of multiple looks from every pale skinned person in the group... basically, Jaune was being stared at by everyone. Blake and Pyrrha had pale skin, but their skin was closer to olive pale, so it was a little bit darker than the more pale of the group. They didn't stick out nearly as much in the dark.
"So, when are we splitting up this little group?" Weiss asked as she looked at the large group.
7 people was 5 too many for the groups to really form.
"She has a point, most of us already have teams." Blake said with an awkward look towards Ruby, who was her own partner for this test, and more than likely her partner for the next few years.
"This is a teamwork test right?" Ruby asked Haru, gaining everyone's attention. Haru nodded and patted Ruby on the head, while everyone seemed curious about what he knew.
"That much is obvious, but... what else could you be referring to?" Yang asked with a raised eyebrow, with Haru sighing.
"Ozpin is setting the teams against each other. He placed a few supply sets to make the teams go for them, people who would be panicking when they realized they didn't have enough packed. There is only one golden prize, so people will fight each other and run themselves dead looking for it. Basically, since the start of this test he has been forcing us to separate, and forget that the Grimm are the enemy... Not other humans, nor Faunus." Haru said seriously, and he was genuinely surprising everyone but Ruby around him. He would often tell her the importance of teamwork, so she had prioritized that above everything else.
"Well, I'm ashamed at not seeing that sooner." Pyrrha noted, with Blake nodding nearby. She should have seen that from the beginning, it just made so much sense.
"If you knew this the entire time, why didn't you tell us? Why did you try and TRAP us?" Yang asked with a frustrated look on her face.
"Those traps were for the Grimm, and I was going to pick my own team on my own terms at the end of the night... somebody ruined that. I wanted to work with the people that first understood the meaning of the test... I let my guard down, and that failed." Haru stated with more than a little shame in his voice. Neither Yang nor Pyrrha had understood the meaning of the test, yet he was now officially partners with them.
Ruby understood the test, but she was his twin who he shared a very close bond with. She understood how he thought, so she would understand the test.
"What about the velociraptor?" Blake asked with a deadpan tone to her voice.
"Ruby-Rex went off to hunt or something. She is a clever girl." Haru said with a light grin on his face. Yang took a moment, before she broke out in laughter when she understood the joke that he had made.
"We have... 6 hours until dawn, and a few more hours after that until we should head back to the cliff." Pyrrha said, the joke going over her head, as she looked at the moon. Haru nodded, while Yang calmed herself down and looked around.
"Okay, we need a fire, some wood... actually, who wants to huddle up for warmth? Fire would attract things to us." Yang suggested when she realized her own first suggestion would just end up biting them in the ass.
There was a rustling sound, and everyone looked around and saw a student... an injured student carrying his injured partner. They were both covered in blood, and one of them was knocked clear out. The knocked out one was missing his right leg, while the one still awake was missing an arm at the elbow. Their features were covered by blood, but you could see that the knocked out person was a girl and the one carrying her was a guy.
Haru covered Ruby's eyes before she could see them.
Jaune looked like he was going to throw up.
"Hel-help us... Grimm... packs of them." The boy said with a gruff sound to his voice.
"Packs?" Blake whispered, slightly alarmed by what the boy had said, while Haru helped the girl off of the guy and laid her on the ground. Haru looked at her injuries, and he could feel that she was out of aura... the reason why she even had this extent of injuries. She was quickly bleeding out, and the wound couldn't be more than 2 minutes off in the case of her leg. It wasn't bleeding much, mostly because... she was dead.
She had been dead... for awhile now.
Even before she had lost her leg actually, the clawmark going through her chest showed her heart and how it had been cut rather deeply.
The boy was delusional to think he could help her.
"Can... can you help Bell?" The boy asked with hope in his eyes.
He either didn't know she was dead, or he really was delusional.
"Of course he can, Haru is a great—" Ruby started to say in confidence, while Haru looked down.
"No... I can't help her. Not even I can revive the dead." Haru said as he sucked in the last of his blue dust, before he breathed a fine layer of ice mist over her to preserve her body. The boy looked absolutely devastated, while those around Haru were sad for him. The boy was actually crying now, though he seemed to wobble on his feet before he hit the ground.
Haru rushed to his side and looked over the nearly unconscious boy.
He had lost a lot of blood.
Haru shook his head with a frown on his face, something wasn't right about this.
Haru realized what it was a moment later, before he looked at where they were standing. There were small flowers on the ground, each of them releasing a small amount of gas. Haru created an aura hand that covered his mouth, and he started to call out to his friends as the illusion of the boy and the girl faded away.
They were all knocked out cold.
Haru created 3 more large hands and scooped up all of his friends, before he started to run as far away from the flowers as he could.
This was bad, this was really bad.
The ice dust he breathed in, and his resistance to chemicals had been the only reason he was still awake. Haru rushed to get his friends out of the area, because if he was right then it would be only a matter of time before the ground started to shake and crack, and something came out from under it.
The Grimm those flowers were growing out of.
Shit... of all times... what the HELL kind of Grimm is that? Haru thought as he glanced behind him. He had Jaune and Weiss in one large hand, Yang and Pyrrha in another large hand, and finally he had Ruby and Blake gripped in the last hand he was using to protect his friends. He was being extra careful not to hurt any of them, but the same could not be said for the thing following behind him.
Slowly.
The Grimm that was chasing after him was slow.
That would explain why it used what it used, instead of being high on attacking ability like other Grimm, this one had extremely heavy armor on it and it grew flowers on its back that forced the victims to see illusions, before it would paralyze them or knock them out. Haru could feel that his right leg was slightly numb, meaning that anything that touched the flowers as well most likely went numb.
It just wasn't breathing it in, it was touching it as well.
It was a large black salamander it would seem, but about 90 percent of the Grimm's body was covered from head to toe in thick white armor. It had bright red eyes filled with hate peeking out from under the armor, and it was about 12 feet long and 4 feet tall. On its back were the same flowers that had been releasing the venom into the air.
He could easily escape this creature... but he NEEDED those flowers.
This was a new kind of Grimm, and collecting the poison it released could greatly help people... and his friends might need an antidote for it. Haru groaned to himself as he extended his arms, before they placed his friends in a nearby spot that was for the most part hidden from the Grimm that was trying to sniff him out. Haru pulled his arms back into his body, before he unfolded his scythe and looked down at the Grimm.
The Grimm looked back up at him.
"I am going to call you a Floramander." Haru said to the newly named Floramander, basically he wasn't being all that original with the name. He just combined floral, the flowers on its back, with salamander and got the name. Haru jumped down from the tree, before he swung his scythe and was knocked aside when the tail of the Floramander swung quicker than he was expecting and lashed him across the chest. He smacked against a tree, before he noticed that the end of the tail was bladed slightly.
He would have to watch that, he didn't want to be hit by that when he ran out of aura.
Haru dodged a tail swipe by ducking under it, and he looked for any weaknesses in the armor of the creature. Running towards the Floramander, Haru spun around and increased the speed of his swing, before he smashed the blunt end of his scythe into the side of the Grimm's head. It was knocked over on its side, and Haru was able to see something... it had a softer, black underbelly.
Still spinning around, Haru turned his scythe around and stabbed the Floramander through the torso with the tip of his scythe coming out of the top of the floramander.
Now he understood... the Grimm itself used the flowers as its major form of combat, paralyzing its victims by hiding underground with its flowers growing out of the ground. Then when the people had breathed in enough of the poison, it would come out from under the ground and kill them with its tail. The Grimm lacked enough speed to be that dangerous on its own, so instead it used natural enhancements to be a Grimm that used traps.
Haru started to pick some of the flowers off of its back, before he stored them away where he kept his at the moment empty ammo bag.
Haru went over towards his hidden friends, before he thought about how he would wake them up.
He had only been unaffected because of the ice dust he had inhaled into his body, which seemed to have neutralized most of the poison.
He was out of ice dust at the moment.
Haru looked at Weiss, and her weapon that had multiple types of dust stored in it... even ice dust. Haru mentally promised to pay her back, before he grabbed her weapon and removed the vial of dust he needed from the holder on the weapon. Haru unscrewed the lip of it, before he looked at it closely for a second. It was close enough to the purity of the dust that he used for smoking, but it was blended with something else to make it even more battle oriented.
She had some SUPER high quality stuff.
Haru dumped a little of it in his mouth, before he inhaled it into his lungs.
The poison was weak to being frozen, so he would freeze the poison and suck it out of everyone's lungs. It seemed like it was the kind to attach itself to flesh, since it had yet to come OUT of their mouths, showing that it was some heavy stuff. Haru opened up Weiss' mouth, before he pinched her nose closed.
She was SO going to be angry at him for this.
Haru placed his mouth on her mouth, before he forced the ice mist inside of her lungs and VERY carefully controlled it so that ONLY the poison was being frozen. Weiss seemed to seize up, before he started to suck the poison from her lungs. Haru stopped kissing her, before he gagged and started to spit black ice on the ground.
Ice tainted by the poison.
Weiss coughed, before she moved a little and started to shiver. She then opened her eyes with a groan and looked around, while Haru inhaled some more dust and crawled over to Jaune.
Yes, even Jaune needed to be treated. Jaune, despite not really being somebody that Haru knew, was still a person that deserved to be saved. That was why Haru only... barely hesitated to pinch Jaune's nose, before he did the exact same thing to Jaune that he did to Weiss. Weiss on the other hand looked at the scene happening with wide eyes, a large blush on her face. She didn't even notice that Haru was using her dust to do this. Instead, she was more concerned with the... strange action going on.
More so when Haru started to spit out some black ice, and Jaune started to cough and awakened slowly with a groan.
Haru continued to spit, even after all of the ice was out of his mouth. Haru sucked in more dust, before he applied the same treatment to Blake. The girl tasted of tuna, for some very obvious reason.
"What happened?" Jaune asked with a groan, wondering what was hurting his head so much... and why his entire chest felt so cold.
Haru spat more black ice on the ground when he finished with Blake, and at first she didn't look like she was going to wake up on her own... so instead Haru slapped her lightly in the face and she SHOT up holding her cheek in pain... before she groaned and held her head in annoyance when she felt a rather large headache.
"Sorry about the cheek, I panicked." Haru said with slight truth, he had just hoped that he had gotten everything out of her.
"I am... why am I so cold?" Blake asked first thing when she noticed that she was shivering, and then she realized that Haru... was already moving towards Ruby without hesitation.
"Incest too?" Weiss muttered, speaking for the first time since being woken up when she saw Haru kiss his own twin sister. Jaune looked at the kiss awkwardly, while Blake figured out what had happened.
Haru was doing something involving some kind of poison, extracting it or something similar.
She was proven right when Haru started to spit black ice on the ground, and Ruby started to move around a little. The effects of removing the poison were just as quick as the effects of the poison itself it would seem, or maybe even quicker.
When did we get poisoned? Blake thought to herself when Haru started to kiss Pyrrha... with a blush on his face. Ruby started to groan and roll around holding her head, the headache possibly being a temporary side effect of having the poison removed from them. Haru quickly stopped "curing" Pyrrha and looked at the last person that needed to be cured.
Yang.
Haru looked at how much dust was left, before he sighed in relief. The dust was only barely depleted, so Haru inhaled some and tossed the vial to Weiss, who caught it in surprise and looked at her weapon.
"I would yell at you... but it seems I owe you a thanks first." Weiss stated to him as he started to fix Yang up next. At this time, Pyrrha silently sat up and began to shiver more than a little. Ruby looked at Haru kissing Yang, before she threw her hands up in the air.
"Finally! I have been waiting for you two to kiss and make up for SO long now... though I didn't expect ACTUAL kissing to be involved." Ruby exclaimed excitedly, while Haru sent her a side glance and started to suck the poisoned ice right out of Yang. Blake on the other hand started to gather up the black ice that was on the ground, and inspected it for herself.
"He did the same thing to you Crater Face." Jaune told Ruby with some amusement in his voice.
"So?" Ruby questioned with a raised eyebrow. She saw nothing wrong with that, though Weiss looked at Jaune with a dull look.
"He kissed you too." Weiss explained to Jaune, while Pyrrha sent a death glare at Jaune. Jaune froze, before he looked like he was going to throw up.
"No! My first kiss was suppose to be with a pretty girl... not a GUY!" Jaune screamed, while Haru started to spit black ice at Jaune, hitting him in the face a few times. Jaune was knocked to the ground, while Haru wiped his mouth off.
"It wasn't pleasant for me either, Vomit Boy." Haru told Jaune, using the boy's own nickname instead of his given one. Yang shot up in surprise, before she shivered and covered her chest with her arms.
Okay... the ONE time I go without a bra, and my nipples get hard enough to slice through glass... just great. Yang mentally complained when she felt how hard her nipples were with her arms. She was cold, her head hurt, and... she breathed out deeply, and saw that her breath was a little misty.
Everyone's breaths were misty.
"Does anyone remember what happened?" Haru asked as he leaned back against a tree, before he spit out a little blood onto the ground. It was too dark for anyone to see the color of his spit, but Blake had noticed it. She raised an eyebrow, wondering if he was okay, but figuring that if he could move then whatever it was must not be that bad.
I hope he is okay. Blake thought as she looked at him, while Haru groaned in pain and held his ribs.
Okay... broken... that Grimm must have done more damage with that tail than I thought. I must have been numbed by that poison to... oh god, it is starting to hurt. Haru thought with a wince of pain.
He had been affected by the numbing effects of the poison, so when he had been hit in the chests he hadn't noticed he had broken his ribs.
NOW though he was cured of the poison.
He was feeling his broken ribs and the pain that came with it in full force.
"I remember seeing a dancing polar bear." Jaune said, telling them the illusion that HE had seen before he had passed out.
"I saw my Dad." Weiss stated rather coldly.
"I was surrounded by cans of tuna." Blake recalled with a furrowed brow, wondering what was going on and what that poison had done.
"I don't really remember." Pyrrha said with a blush, not letting her eyes wander to Haru.
"I saw a mountain made of cookies." Ruby stated the fantasy that she had seen, with Haru and Yang face palming at her.
"What I saw is Rated Ma, so I can't tell anyone with Ruby and Haru around." Yang said with a slight grin on her face, while Haru looked at her with deadpan eyes.
Okay, so only HE saw the illusion of dying people.
That sucked so hard.