3366/A Brave New World

A Brave New World
Date of Scene:	10 November 2015
Location:	Remnant <REM>
Synopsis:	A field trip to Forever Fall takes a turn for the obvious. Multiversal Elites show and get shown how fighting monsters is done. Special Guest Star: Glynda Goodwitch, and Team BOCC (Pronounced Boss)
Cast of Characters:	Tomoe, 675, 715, 821, 823, Yuuki Konno, Yang Xiao Long, 910

---

Yang Xiao Long has posed:
    Glinda Goodwitch. Professor at Beacon and chaparone to a good 20-30 students. They're all mostly sticking with their Teams... or what they hope to be their teams, as Initiation has been postponed for a good while due to the new... arrangements being made with the Multiverse. Education must continue, so temporary teams have been assigned in the interim. "Alright students! Your assignment today is to collect five jars of sap from deep within the Forever Fall Forest. Be aware that the Grimm here are highly dangerous. For this reason, I will be providing assistance should any of you become endangered, however, I am only one Huntress, so you must learn to rely on each other. Remember your training, and you will make it back alive."

    Yang stands on the deck of the airship, listening to the Professor, but also looking out over the vast sea of autumn hues spanning for several square kilometers in all directions. The ship is heading for a hillside that looks to have been carved out for such purposes as to disembark an airship.

    As the students file out onto the rock, they're given a case full of empty jars, and a 'tapping kit' to extract the sap. Ruby, Yang and two others have been assigned to the same team, it's not official, but maybe it will be, Initiation is a fickle thing, after all.

Kenji Kawasaki (715) has posed:
     Fighting weird monsters is basically the Shinra Organization's job. Sure, TECHNICALLY it's protecting Japan from the supernatural so that its citizens can continue living a peaceful life without knowing the True Nature of the world beyond their simple mundane existences. But Kenji feels that "fighting weird monsters" is a better way to describe it.

     If he really wanted to justify it, he could justify it was pre-emptive research. Finding out what kind of monsters are out there that MIGHT threaten Japan is just as critical as fighting the ones that DO threaten Japan, especially if finding also involves beating them up. He'll probably have to take notes on it later and do (ugh) a report, but that's life as a rookie. He'd have to do the reports even if Ms. Xiaomu and Mr. Reiji were here anyway. He's using his Shinra clearance and Union identity, largely because, well, with Shin's face in his head, Kenji kinda wants to beat something the hell up. If Beacon's not okay with his qualifications...

     At least there's cute girls. Whatever the status of his relationship may be, there will always be cute girls to appreciate, which generally makes any given situation a hundred percent more palatable.

     Kenji has volunteered also to help with medical duty, thanks to his unique ability to teleport. Teleportation, he's fairly sure, isn't *super* common roundabouts, and he might actually wind up doing some good besides punching horrible monsters (which, again, is always a good thing).

     Kenji waits until the group is off the boat. A moment later, he reaches out and his hand bursts into flames.

     "Kojin Shintai!"

     Kenji shoves his burning hand into his chest, and bursts into flames. The flames burn along his black leather coat and pants, scoring them white. They burn up his hair, turning it orange. His eyes burst into flames as he lifts off from the ground, hanging in the air under his own power as a circle burns its way into his white tanktop - the only bit of black on his otherwise-white body, like ashes ritually-painted. The ashes take the shape of a stylized flame insignia.

     "OK," Kenji says, his voice resonant with crackling flames as he cracks his knuckles, "Good to go. Just keep anything explosive away from us and everything should be cool."

Ruby Rose (910) has posed:
Ruby Rose arrives along with the other students of Beacon Academy and disembarks with them. As she gets off, she is handed a sapping kit and several empty jars to complete the task given, and she looks down at the supplies while also making her way over towards her sister. "Five jars of sap, coming right up! Yang, do you want to give me a hand with...one of these? The box of jars or the sapping kit? We should probably keep two of us on working the trees and the others on guard, what do you think?"

Xiao Li Yu (823) has posed:
     Remnant.

     An intriguing new world.

     Having heard vague tell of it, Xiao Li Yu decided to take a break from her endless research to step outside and see what exacly this 'Remnant' had to offer. Of course, rather than stop by Beacon Academy like a sensible person, she struck right out on her own, intending to explore by herself. And her initial foray has led her to this place.

     Well, Solo exploration was the plan until she spotted an airship coming in from the skies above. "Ohhh?" The researcher intoned, inclining her head above to take in the sight. "They seem like students." She mused to herself, folding her arms into her sleeves. "....Well!" Suppose she may as well have a look. Carefully, Xiao approached, keeping a safe distance as she observed the embarking Beacon students. What were they up to?

Yuuki Konno has posed:
    Ever since finding out about the Multiverse, Yuuki's been on a real kick of exploration and discovery. She'd been doing so for years across the uncharted expanses of various MMOs, but there's a certain deliciousness to adventuring in 'real life'. It's something forbidden to her by her condition, which makes it even more appealing than the virtual worlds she's lived in for the past three or so years. And of course given her age and condition, schools have a special fascination. She jumped at the chance to see this 'Beacon Academy'.

    Of course she's not entirely good at staying put. Stillness isn't really her thing. She agreed to stay out of trouble while Yang's out on her school assignment, but that's a very vague statement. It could mean don't do anything improper, or unsafe, or... well, or don't get caught. Can anyone blame Yuuki for thinking that using her faerie wings to follow the airship at a distance wouldn't be any trouble? It's not like a forest full of monsters holds any terror for her. She's been handling THAT sort of trouble far longer than any student at Beacon has, most likely, even if only in virtual worlds.

    For starters, she remains high and fairly far back. A small faerie person is a lot harder to see than an entire airship, so she can stay well outside spotting range easily enough.

Cirra Constantine (675) has posed:
    Unlike /certine other people/ from Alexander Academy, Cirra is here above board and dressed in her Alexander school uniform. Which tends to get glances from other students, as most are not yet fully aware of whats beyond the portals.

    Not her silver hair though, thats pretty normal in Remnant it seems.

    When ordered to break into gropes by Glinda Cirra looks around and frowns, then sighs. "None of the other Alexander Academy students came. May I attach myself to one of the existing groups of four?"

Tomoe has posed:
Tomoe had been talked into coming along by Yuuki she had been curious about Ruby and Yang too. It hadn't taken much to convice her to come along. She was however not in the towering form of Tomoe the Iron Lily. To day it was Eisen Blumen who was barely five feet tall without her lifts, bright red hair and high tech armoured suit. She'd not been flying today though she'd debated it but needed to walk in another pair of shoes. She had to admit this was the oddest school assignment she'd ever seen as she tailed along after the Students. She was here to help, learn and ride shotgun if it was needed. Said shotgun was slung across her back and didn't look like much compared to the local weapony but the redhead woman seemed to be in a good mood.

"So what can this sap be turned into something to put on pancakes or some other breakfast bakery good? So what we getting the teaching staff some sort of treat?"

She's saying it good naturedly as she looks over to Yang and Ruby.

"This seriously is not like school back home. Then again there's few predators left that could threaten a human."

She pulls the shotgun off her back cradling it.

"I'll take watch then."

Yang Xiao Long has posed:
Yang grins, and hefts the bigger box of jars up onto her shoulder. "Sounds good to me, Sis." The other two nod agreement too, one moving to relieve the smaller girl of her remaining burden. "I'll carry this. Me and Onyx'll sap the trees, you two stand on guard duty?" he says, lugging the container. "Ready when you are!"

    Kenji's transformation gets a few 'ooos' and 'wows' from the group, Glinda watches from behind her glasses. "Interesting, no Dust signature... these Multiversal skills will take some getting used to."

    The assembled students file off into the woods, some spotting the lone figure of Xiao Li Yu and moving over. "Hey, it's dangerous out here, come with us we'll protect you!" says one of the students, hefting a greatsword over one shoulder. "Did you get separated from a nomad train? I heard there were a few passing through this area."

    Noone spots Yuuki, though several spotters are on the lookout for Nevermore, they're pretty big creatures though, so a small speck is overlooked as a small specimen not worth bringing up.

    Cirra would spot a group of three hanging back from the rest. A short girl with no visible weapons, a tall male with a spear, and a stocky man with a big hammer. "Well this is great, where'd Primrose go?" "Didn't you hear? She got sick eating something from the cafeteria yesterday, the nurses took her off physical activities until the end of the week." "Well that's just great, now what're we gonna do?"

    Tomoe gets a dour look from Glinda. "Huntsment and Huntresses are the only people capable of going outside of the cities with any form of safety. It is our task to not only protect the cities from the Grimm, but provide such a valuable service as collecting commodities that fall outside of the safe areas of the Kingdoms.

Archer (821) has posed:
    Like most situations... this was something of a familiar sight. One he wasn't particularly happy to see at that. But then again... grim times often called for equally grim measures.

     ...

    That didn't mean he had to like it though. Children becoming soldiers was never something to be taken lightly in his mind.

    Watching from the sidelines out of curiosity to see the differences in this world and how it trained aspiring warriors, the scarlet-clad form of Archer likely would stand out easily from his surroundings. His arms are crossed and he has taken to leaning against a tree like a casual bystander.

    Aside from him, though standing as opposed to leaning on a tree, Archer's Master was watching the scene with her hands tucked into her coat-pockets and a look of appraisal on her face, watching the students with varying degrees of interest to see what they could do. She'd performed a rudimentary study on this world's equivalent of abilities - a 'Semblance,' if she recalled correctly - that was used in conjunction with their weapons.

     As they aren't natives to the world of Remnant, the two might be apt to stand out in their scarlet-colored clothing, despite the local foliage having a predominantly red tint to it.

     In fact, based on their shared attire attire, the Servant's steel-grey eyes and the woman's fair skin and dark hair, one could possibly mistake them for the relatives of a certain Beacon Huntress-in-training who also wore predominantly red-on-black clothes... though the nature of Archer - stoic and impassively observant - might be too much a contrast against the two huntress siblings to be seen as anyone related to them.

     "Not quite the standard training regimen, collecting jars of sap" Archer noted openly from his spot against one tree, eyeing the class offhandedly. "Then again, perhaps surviving the attempt is part of the test, depending on how many of these 'grimm' are present in the woods."

     "They're probably no older then I was in the Grail War" Rin mused, seeming a touch remorseful as she speaks about her past in comparison to them. "Granted, I'd like to think these kids actually choose their path as opposed to mine being set for me back then."

     "Who knows?" Archer shrugs, not really alleviating Rin's concerns as opposed to giving her a new contrast to consider; "Duty and responsibility, to family and innocent alike, can make many choices for one that they would attribute as being 'their own choice. Especially if one's entire world and race are at stake."

    In all honesty, Remnant reminded him of how he would expect the world to be if Gaia ever truly rebelled against Alaya and forced it into war... and nearly won. Effectively, it was a fight for survival - thus Archer had issue believing many of these students really had much of a choice so much as feeling they were obligated, as opposed to Rin's belief that the students had elected to fight this battle.

    War left few choices... and it had many casualties. Freedom of choice being one of them.

    However, it was because he wished to observe the results of this world that he and Rin were here. In Rin's case, it was to study the conflict and magic of another world in need - perhaps out of sympathy for other young souls forced into war - while Archer's was more errant curiosity...

    ... and perhaps, deep down... a grim fascination with what could make these children struggle so fiercely in a fight they, in his opinion, had hardly any real chance of overcoming.

Cirra Constantine (675) has posed:
    Well that's convient, Cirra muses. She steps over to the group of three. "Excuse me." She interrupts. "If you need a fourth, I'm without a group. My name is Cirra Constantine. I don't attend Beacon, but I'm similarly trained." And just for example, summons her Judge Blade to her hand, holding the wapon flat on the palm of her hand. "If that will suffice."

Xiao Li Yu (823) has posed:
     Oh dear.

     These students were carrying weapons of all sorts.

     How familiar.

     Currently and apparently unarmed herself, Xiao did look very much like someone lost. Despite that, she smiled pleasantly at the greatsword wielding student who spoke to her. "Protect me? How kind of you. I appreciate the offer, but..." Her eyes swept the crowd, noticing a familiar head of silver hair.

     An amused smile formed at that. Looked like SOMEONE ELSE from Alexander Academy was here. She'd say hello later. Maybe. "...Actually, I'll take you up on your offer." She turned away, facing the boy with the greatsword. "What exactly do you have to do? Maybe I can help you." And learn something in the process.

     That's what she was here for. One way or another.

Kenji Kawasaki (715) has posed:
     The Taiyo High Banchou's always known how to make an impression. Kenji grins, a grin that is literally accompanied by blazing eyes, as he hangs in the air. The brand on his chest occasionally pulses faintly with an odd orange light, like it's not ash but embers.

     "Alright, so. Let's do this. Jars, sap, monsters. Pretty straightforward."

     He flits off towards the edge of the party, not actually going into the woods yet, but clearly either impatient to do so or disinterested in the length explanation of Hunters and Huntresses. It sounded basically like Shinra, and he'd already had the We Protect The People From Things They Can't Handle Orientation Packet handed to him by men who were *not* blondes in low-cut tops.

     Kenji hangs near Yang and Ruby for a moment. They're the natives of this world, after all. It takes him a moment.

     "It's kind of funny that we're literally collecting somebody's breakfast syrup" a voice like crackling flames says from around Kenji's chest, "But I guess this is the kind of thing rookies have to do. Remember when you were a raw rookie, Kenji?"

     Kenji's face reflects the thought well.

     WHEN KENJI WAS A ROOKIE

     "SHOOT IT FOR THE LOVE OF GOD SHOOT IT"
     "WHY DOES IT HAVE TENTACLES WHAT GOD DESIGNED THIS"
     "OH MY GOD I SET IT ON FIRE *AND THAT ISN'T MAKING IT BETTER*"

     "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH"

     RIGHT NOW

     "No," Kenji lies.

     "Ha ha. Yes you do."

     "Syrup is a good rookie thing," Kenji mutters.

     Beat.

     "Unless the syrup grows tentacles."

Yuuki Konno has posed:
    Yuuki waits until her friends are away from Glinda before heading down close enough to be spotted. She's not sneaking in on things... well okay yeah, she is. But she's not doing it to hide from Yang and the others! She's only conveniently keeping herself from being a bother to the teachers and others who might feel responsible for her. She's not about to explain to them that she's used to this sort of thing. That would lead to explanations of HOW she's used to it, and what she is, and all that. Really, adults are a bit of a pain with their need to be responsible. She's a lot more comfortable around children, or at least people near her own age.

    Though she's likely to be spotted before she lands, well, it's pretty clear Yuuki's no Grimm. She lacks the mask, and also she's a rather delicate-seeming girl with wings and long flowing hair. More faerie than fairy, but still smallish.

    "Oneesan!" Yuuki calls out. If there's some question who she's addressing, her waving and her eyes would suggest it's Yang. "Is it adventure time? What're you hunting now?!" she calls out, puppy-eager cheer in her voice. "And who's the flaming guy? And... oh! Hello!" she says, descending to the ground with a light step, making her black-and-starry wings vanish. "I really should get some kind of official status somewhere so I can go to these things officially." she notes to no one in particular. "That shouldn't take too long I hope?"

Ruby Rose (910) has posed:
Ruby Rose nods towards Yang's assessment before witnessing Kenji's transformation and blinking with immediate awe. One of the things that this new Multiverse is bringing is all sorts of weird powers and abilities, as well as people. New people. And most importantly, new weapons.

Oh god the new weapons.

But getting to know so many new people at once was a little daunting, not to mention stressful. It'd definitely take some getting used to. Tomoe gets Ruby's attention first, the girl turning towards her and waving. "I've never had it, but from what I've heard, it's kinda tasty. I'm willing to bet the cafeteria just needed a little extra. And 5 jars isn't too many. We'll be done in no time."

She passes a wave towards Cirra before reaching behind her back and pulling out Crescent Rose and unfurls it into it's rifle form. She slides a clip of ammunition out of her pouch and loads it, racking the gun and nodding.

"That'll do it. I'll take point...uh...unless someone else wants to?"

She doesn't pay much mind towards some of the others who are out and about, primarily focused on her team, though the voice coming from Kenji's chest...gets..a surprised expression.

"...Your..fire...talks? Say whaaaat?"

Tomoe has posed:
Tomoe says "I apologise Ma'me. I just come from a radically different world. I didn't really mean anything by it."

She seems to mean it and she's is taking keeping watch as the others start to make ready on tree sap duty. Seriously she's got to watch her mouth a bit it seems but it wasn't anything turly harmful, well the intent. She's quick to recover however she can hopefully get some points back from Glinda.

Cirra shows up and gets a nod from Eisen aka Tomoe.

"If Yang and Ruby have no issue and that's quite the weapon you got there."

She looks at her shotgun for a moment then back to Cirra's weapon. Someone may have a smidge of weapon envy here. Though she may have miss understood whom Cirra was intending to hook up with.

Then comes Yuuki which gets a laugh out of Tomoe for a moment and she gives Yuuki a wave.

"Should have guessed you had a plan, humm Yuuki?"

Ruby gets a reply shortly out of Tomoe.

"Sounds like it was just curious there's a tree back home with sap kinda like this. It's big business to harvest it and turn it into something to put on food."

She's taking another look around something could be very well hunting them, right? So she wants to be on alert for that.

Archer (821) has posed:
    As the students got started in earnest... Archer began observing them more seriously.

     "Trace; On."

    Prana flowed through him, focusing in his eyes, improving and increasing their functionality - distance, clarity, depth-perception; all were amplified in an instant.

     In turn, Rin did much the same, reinforcing her own eyesight with a muttered spell - "Es ist gro�, Es ist klein... Vox got Es Atlas."

     As he observed the student's initial pursuits - some of the ones they note foremost being a a girl in black-and-red and a blonde-haired young woman in mostly yellow, they also took note of some of the elites mixed into the students.

    Upon seeing her, one of Archer's brows rose up in bemused interest at the sith of Cirra Constantine amid the Beacon students, denoting she seemed to have gone for a 'first-hand experience' method, and both Rin and Archer seem to take note of the new form, Master and Servant noting something familiar about the way it behaved - possibly someone they knew in a different form.

    There was also a boy who seemed a master of elemental magics... seeing as he burst into flames, with Archer blinking once in subdued surprise while Rin's eyes widened slightly at the display.

    And she was also left blinking in abject surprise when the flame within him seemed to /speak/. "W... what the...? Is it some kind of spirit familiar using his body as a container, then?"

     "If it is, then it's impressive that he is able to withstand the presence without burning up, figuratively and literally speaking" Archer remarked. w

    Of course... that wasn't the only thing he noticed.

     "Well... looks like we're not the only ones observing today" Archer remarked offhandedly, eyes focusing on the flash of purple he could see darting across the backdrop.

    It had been fast enough before that, without Reinforcement, he had missed her against leaves kicked up into the air by the many students, or at the very least brushed her off as some form of insect at a distance from her wings. But now that he was actually focusing, he could make out what was a distinctly feminine figure to her. A silent observer keeping pace with the Beacon students.

    One he didn't recognize as Union... rather blatantly approaching one of the students - a girl with yellow hair.

    "Should I step in?" Archer asked, seeming to shift in his spot a bit as if ready to intervene.

    However, Rin, her brow furrowed at the newcomer, didn't make any motion to allow his intervention, having not seen the fairy-like girl before she'd appeared in front of Yang but somewhat less concerned about her on observation alone. "She's not attacking anyone... and she looks more like she knows that student. Let's wait a bit to see what happens - though if the teacher thinks action should be taken, I'll differ to her."

    Archer cast a questioning glance at Rin in response to her judgment, though he offered no retort as he resumed his casual observation, keeping watch on the respective progression of the students as well as for errant Grimm.

    At the very least though, he knew she wasn't forgoing the possibility the intruder could be a problem.

Yang Xiao Long has posed:
    Glinda sighs softly to herself, pushing her glasses up, and leaping up onto the top of the hill, taking overwatch. From there, she'll be able to get to any single group that's in trouble easily.

    The greatsword guy shrugs at Xiao Li Yu, "We're out to collect some Forever Fall tree sap. Maybe beat up some Grimm too, there's lots of 'em out here." he says, the two groups clinging together for safety in numbers. They move a bit further out from the mountain, finding a stand of thicker trees with darker trunks. "Here they are!" The group starts to tap and fill jars, the watery pink liquid flowing fairly easily.

    Yang blinks up at Yuuki coming barreling in, and frowns a bit. "I thought I told you to stay out of trouble!" she huffs grumpily, earning a chuckle from the other two people assigned to the temp-team. She's more focussed on the young girl she met that one time that she doesn't notice Rin, Archer, or Kojin speaking.

    "Ah? Oh, Hello Cirra, I'm Bayleaf, this is Ochre and Crimson, we'd... appreciate it." the girl says, "I'm a Dust user, I use Dust directly to attack with. So don't underestimate me because I don't have a weapon!" her clothes flare brilliantly blue in tracery patterns, then cycle through multiple hues before fading again.

    Tomoe just gets a shrug from Glinda. "If you can prove you are more than mere words, I will forget your little indiscretion." she says simply. Yang's group, regardless, heads off in another direction to the others, though they keep at least one other team in shouting range, just in case.

    In the forest, past the trees, furtive black shapes can be spotted moving. They don't seem aggressive, but they're moving /quickly/ whatever they are.

Kenji Kawasaki (715) has posed:
     "My fire is a god. You'll get used to him," Kenji replies with the sound of someone who's explained this before and will probably explain it again, a haggard sort of 'yeah, it's weird, but, you know, it works' kind of tone to the general area - Archer, Ruby, pretty much everybody.

     "Greetings, mortals! I am the mighty Sambo-Kojin, god of the hearth, the forge, the stove, the kitchen, and all places where Man has turned the destructive Fire to pure and noble use."

     "He talks like that to impress people," Kenji sighs.

     "That's because people are IMPRESSED by meeting a god!"

     "And then you get to know him, and you find out that he's a petty asshole, and it really ruins it for you.""

     "Myehmyehmyeh I'm Kenji the monster-hunting secret agent, myeh, I channel gods and don't WANT my fire god partner to wingman me with the pretty girls! Myyeeh!"

     Kenji sputters.

     "I *don't* want you to wingman me! How is my life not complex enough as it is?! What gave you the idea that I wanted *anything* like that? And anyway, how is that wingmanning? You're just talking yourself up!"

     "Your suffering amuses great Kojin! Bwa ha ha ha! Besides," the fire crackles, "Such an impressive god must have an equally-impressive partner! That's science!"

     Kenji raises a hand to his face and rubs his eyebrows. This has the hysterical side-effect of disrupting the fire coming out of his eyes, which parts, much like an upside-down waterfall someone just stuffed a ship through. Except on fire, instead of water.

     That's an important detail.

     As they get deeper into the forest, the black shapes start moving around them. Kenji tenses a bit, so much so that he's forgotten to keep being solid. He passes through a few trees harmlessly, the trees not bursting into flames at all, as one might normally expect of a fire passing through a tree.

     "Shit. You guys see that? That's probably your monsters, right?"

     "It stands to reason that in a world of supernatural monsters, any given horrible black shape in the forest probably is one of those," Kojin confirms.

     Kenji punches his hand into his fist, a grin spreading across his burning face. "Awesome. Let's beat the crap out of 'em."

Cirra Constantine (675) has posed:
    Cirra waves slightly to Ruby as the girl passes. She looks back at the group, So Dust can be used directly like that too. "Your headmaster's probably told you by now that we come from the otherside of the portal. I was wondering, why doesn't everyone use Dust directly like that." she motions to the girl, whom the player is assuming is crimson.

Yuuki Konno has posed:
    "Trust me, this is no trouble." Yuuki grins impishly. "Besides, isn't is less trouble with everyone together? I watch your back, you watch mine, that sort of thing." she adds. "I mean, I don't want to get you in trouble or anything. So I just showed up without permission! No one can possibly blame you." she says. The girl grins at Tomoe-who-is-Eisen. Of course she'll find a way!

    Her attention, once explanation is given, is pretty thoroughly captured by the pyrotechnic displays of Kenji and Sambo-Kojin. The bickering back and forth is kind of amusing, like lovers having a well-rehearsed spat, and it brings the faerie girl to giggles. At least, it does so until the monsters show.

    At mention of the black shapes, Yuuki's giggly demeanor does an abrupt change. The laughter fades, and her brow draws together in a serious frown. Not quite anger or battle-lust, just a certain intent battle-readiness that marks quite a change for those who have never seen her serious before. "And speaking of watching backs, I've seen this scene before." she says, putting her hand on her sword, pausing a moment, then drawing it out with a slow ringing chime. "I don't stand by while my friends fight." she says. "Not unless it's a duel."

Xiao Li Yu (823) has posed:
     "Aha...collecting sap. How novel." AKA how boring. But maybe there was more to it. She followed the collected group along, taking note of their various weapons and statures, and then she observed the process of actually collecting the sap. What a curious color. "If you don't mind me asking what is this sap used for? Fuel? Food?" Those were two very different categories there.

     Deeper into the forest however, she spotted black shapes moving. They were rather quick. Enough for Xiao to pause and narrow her eyes. "Those black shapes are Grimm, yes? I'd suggest hurrying. They're moving awfully fast." Despite saying that however, the girl did not budge a bit. Nor did she take any combat stances or really do anything to prepare at all. She just smiled and watched as if she weren't involved in the slightest.

     Typical.

Archer (821) has posed:
    As they continued observing some of the other students, Archer soon noticed there was someone else he remembered observing during the Shivan War - Xiao Li Yu - with one of the groups in addition to Cirra Constantine. In turn, he couldn't help but let a small, bemused smile cross his features listening to her deadpan reactions to the mission being 'sap-collection.'

    Perhaps similarities in their world to Remnant was a factor in their interest?

     Master and Servant also took note of the fairy-like female appearing to interact amicably with one of the students, seemingly proving herself as not being a threat as opposed to an unexpected friendly face for the blonde. As well as Glynda speaking with one of the others.

    Rin in turn starts taking note of some of their conversations, seeming interested by the claim that 'Dust' - analogous to her own gems as a tool for use in combat it seemed - could be used directly... as well as deadpanning at the seeming argument between the flame-wreathed boy and his contained spirit, which was claiming itself an actual God. Something she wasn't sure she believed or not... then again, she'd been somewhat disappointed by supposedly-divine or above-human existences.

    However... as they watch the students, the observations of Master and Servant become gradually more focused on the steadily increasing, gradually-closing shadow-like shapes in the woods, the bowman once again shifting himself up again as he slowly pulls off the side of the tree, looking over at Rin and Glynda to see if they wish him to intervene or not.

    Rin in turn does much of the same when she takes note of the shadows, glancing at Glynda. "Should we be worried?"

Yang Xiao Long has posed:
    Bayleaf blinks a little. "I guess it's to do with our Aura. I'm not really strong or quick, but my Aura is /really/ good at manipulating Dust." she replies. Ochre hefts the box of jars and his spear, while Crimson lugs the tapping kit and his hammer, saying nothing. Bayleaf speaks up again. "Oh, we better get moving. We figure out that Me and Primrose would stand watch and the guys would collect sap, so, looks like you're on guard duty with me--" she trails off as black shapes come charging around. "Grimm!" her stance changes, and with a quick flourish of gesturs, she launches a great ice spike through a pair of Beowolves that come crashing out of a thicket.

    Yang huffs, tossing the box of jars to the other guy. "Get the sap, I'll handle these things. Ruby, cover me!" her gaunlets unfold, lock into place, and with a snap blast, she hurtles forwards, sprinting to engage right away at point blank. Ursa Major come crashing out of the thickets, one meeting Yang's flurry of fiery fists face first. Each punch punctuated by the cocking sound of a shotgun receiver, and the following discharge of a shell.

    The group around Xiao Li Yu form a perimeter. Four collecting, four protecting. The transform their weapons to their ranged modes, ready to take on the first wave, which turns out to be a small pack of Boarbatusks, small, compact and heavily armoured boar-like creatures. "Boarbatusks! Try and knock 'em over and go for the underbelly!" cries one, as she fires what looks like a sniper rifle at one, before it rolls up into a ball and charges like a certain blue hedgehog.

Ruby Rose (910) has posed:
Ruby Rose looks between Yuuki and Yang in a fairly confused manner and given the situation at hand, she decides to simply ask her sister about it later, as there were a swirl of conversations nearby to keep track of. The fire kid and his pet god get her attention next, particularly when they start up a back and forth. She steps a bit closer towards them and and smiles warmly...or about as warm as you can with a large bolt action rifle in your hands.

"A god in your chest? Wow, that must be...kind of awesome. So does he just hang out with you all of the time? Ooooh, does he taste what you eat? Wait, gods don't need to eat do they? I mean...I guess they could if they wanted..huh."

She starts to ponder more, but the black blurs whirling around her catch her attention. Yang's abrupt rocket-punch-jump forces her to focus on the Grimm type at hand; Ursai. Keeping her distance for now, she starts firing off rather loud looking shots towards the same Ursa Major Yang leapt towards, her bullets doing a good job of slowing the creature down while Yang's blasts, force it back even further. It rolls onto it's haunch and hurtles out a blood curdling roar that rouses at least three more Grimm Ursa starting their charge.

Thanks to Archer's long distance position however, there was another large Grimm that they could likely spot. Whatever it was, it was long, and crept rather silently, weaving in and out of the treets smoothly.

Tomoe has posed:
Tomoe is now being graded more or less by Glinda it looks like. She'll keep with Yuang's group abd sge guves Yuuki an look as well.

"You just can't ever sit still can you Yuuki?"

She seems amused at her friend's sudden apperance. She knew she was about but just how she entered.

"Well come on we can't sitting about. Never splitting the party is a very wise idea."

She then pauses as she notices something and Yuuki speaks up a moment before her. She keeps her weapon ready now and flips off the safety.

"Looks like we got some company, let's ge ready."

Reiji's divine partner always made her tilt her head a bit but it seems the fiht is on.

She leaps bouncing off a tree like it's nothing and oopening fire on the nearsts of the monsters.

"THIS IS GOING TO BE GRIZZLY!"

She made a pun, this could just get worse, and she's not sitting still as she moves, using the forest itself as a means to get about and firing off blasts when she gets an opening to fire.

Archer (821) has posed:
    As the creatures known as the 'Grimm' make their presence known at last, Archer's gaze narrows at the sight of the beasts first-hand, observing their unrestrained primal fury with a measure of discontent at the fact that these things were expected to be beaten back when they seemed stemmed by nature itself... though also with some minute interest as he mused on what part of nature it was exactly that they originated from. Or perhaps if it was some form of perversion of the system.

    Rin in turn grits her teeth in more open concern, glancing to Glynda with a half-questioning expression. "Is this the real part of the test? To see how they react under pressure while defending an objective? Like they would if defending innocents from these things?"

     Archer in turn remains largely impassive - while a flash of prana pre-emts the materialization of his black western-style bow in one hand, gaze focused on the large shadow moving in the backdrop of most of the other Grimm... he doesn't seem to plan on actually intervening unless told he should, seeming content to see their abilities first before he decides on whether it's necessary.

    In turn, the bowman also works on scrying the assorted weapons, though most of them were sadly not something he could reliably trace due to a majority being a hybridized cross between a melee weapon and a firearm, the latter of which he was unable to replicate.

    Still, their functionality was certainly interesting to say the least.

Cirra Constantine (675) has posed:
    At the call of Grimm, Cirra spins around as the Beowulves launch out of the thicket. The Judge Blade is swung diagonally upwards to catch one in the chest. "Tch." she looks sideways at the Boarbatusks appear and start running amok as well.

    "I'm going to obstruct their path, while I do that, get to their weak point." She pulls a card from thin air between her fingers and holds it out as magic circles etch into the ground beneath her feet, The. BRIAR!" and uses the point of her blade to slam it into ground. Crystaline vines spreading up from the ground to try and impede the Grimm with their thorny limbs.

Yuuki Konno has posed:
    Yang has never seen Yuuki in action. Well, that's okay. No one here has, save Tomoe. Yuuki doesn't bother trying to tell these fighters what to expect from her. She's just going to act, trusting to speed to let her react to what the others are doing and to let her own style speak for itself.

    Yuuki advances on an Ursa Major. She makes no effort to hurry, to move anywhere in particular but forwards. So long as the great bear-Grimm can't get past her, she doesn't really care what it does.

    "I don't have enough time to waste sitting still." Yuuki calls out to Tomoe, allowing a faint grin to settle on her face before she returns her focus to the Ursa. She's not even going to attack first, unless it for some reason tries to get around her instead of attacking her. She holds her obsidian blade one-handed before her squared-off body, her focus locked on the beast. When it swipes, she moves. She's just not there, moving with blurring speed, ducking under the swipe, moving to one side, then simply unleashing cut after cut with that blade. No single strike is super-powerful, but she draws strikes up and down its forelimb, across its hindlimbs, across belly and sides and muzzle, painting a blurring trail of streaks of red. Or, if these creatures don't bleed pixels like the ones she's used to... in streaks of flowing shadow.

Kenji Kawasaki (715) has posed:
     Kenji is evidently used to people smiling at him with heavy weapons and not intending to hurt him. This is unsurprising. He works with Reiji and Xiaomu, the patron saints of Unpleasant Smiles While Handling Weapons. Comparitively Ruby is downright tame. He grins back at her and shrugs.

     "He sub-lets my soul, I guess you could call it. He can split up with me, but he doesn't, usually."

     "You don't leave the party while it's still rocking. No, I don't need to eat, but if we ate like this I could taste it anyway. That's important, as I am god of the kitchen, and thus a phenomenal cook. My opinion makes or breaks restauraunts! I shatter the long-held dreams of men and women alike!"

     Yang goes diving in. Kenji doesn't waste time, either. He goes screaming through the trees, able to make really good headway on them and Yang by virtue of not having to stop for the bark. The merged teenage Agent of Shinra just passes right through them!

     As he spirals towards the Boartusks, he hears Yang's shout, and vanishes *under* the ground.

     A moment later, Kenji comes up directly under the boartusk, both fists literally on fire. He shoots upwards like some kind of flaming uppercut, setting up a shot for others before he vanishes back underground to do repeat the process.

     Kenji is apparently really used to being the set-up guy.

     Curiously enough, the set-up guy is usually the straight man in comedy...

Xiao Li Yu (823) has posed:
     "Mmn...how fearsome."

     Xiao watched as the group she was with went into some kind of combat formation, split between two sides. Impressive. These kids were well trained. Maybe she didn't even need to do anything at all?

     ...Nah, that was boring.

     And so, with a smile, a blue aura gathered around her form. She didn't bother to mutter any spell names or incantations. She just watched. And once that grimm that was rolling towards them got close enough, she raised her foot a tad, and then stomped.

     Immediately, ahead of the vanguard, a pillar of ice shot up, fashioned into a vague slope. Should to grimm continue on it's course, it might end up rolling straight into the air. "Try to shoot it's underside once it's airborne, will you?" She suggested casually, ever smiling, ever not panicking.

     These creatures had such fascinating designs though. She hoped she could take a few pictures after. Maybe collect samples if they persisted. But that was for later.

Ruby Rose (910) has posed:
The bear group decides they're going to help out their brother in sap-collecting arms and all rush forward into Yang's group. The first Ursa, the one that had a few bullets and punches lodged into it moves to attack Yang again, rearing itself up onto it's hind legs and bringing both of it's claws down to smash the blonde girl into the ground.

Of the three charging Ursa, one does indeed split off to attack Yuuki, raising a paw to bring down against her side. It stops when it realized that it's target was gone and it seemed to have...several slash marks all across itself. It starts to crumble but sheer force of will keeps it from falling in defeat. It turns towards Yuuki again, this time charging forward in a shoulder tackle meant to knock her towards the ground.

Bear number three Beelines straight for Ruby but is immediately sent airborne by Xiao's ice pillar. A slowly quieting roar is all that is heard of the bear that dared to enter orbit without a vehicle.

The fourth bear takes up it's flying brethren's target and charges Ruby, claws and fangs ready. With a flip of her hands, the Crescent Rose transforms again, this time into it's Scythe form. As the charge comes closer she rolls out of the way at the last moment, forcing the bear to turn with a slide as it keeps it's opponent in it's sights.

Ruby Rose (910) has posed:
The slithering shape that Archer spotted does seem to be drawing closer, but it's clear it's in no hurry.

Yang Xiao Long has posed:
    Glynda looks over to Rin and Archer. "This is part of their training. If they fall here then they will be useless in a real engagement against truly threatening Grimm." she says. "It is a harsh truth, but all of these young men and woman chose this path. Noone is forced to become a Huntsman or Huntress."

    Cirra's briar patch snarls up the Boarbatusks, allowing shots at their unarmoured undersides. The rolling one joins the Ursa in orbit, the squeals fading away as the shape vanishes into the sky above. Other Boarbatusks come out of the thickets, aiming to take the people collecting sap out!

    Kenji's strike puts him in a bad place, as a quartet of Beowolves leap out from all sides, hiding up in the trees. They snarl and slash with claws sharp enough to rend metal.

    Yang... gets smashed into the floor. she grunts at the solid hit, but rolls out of the follow up strike and kips back onto her feet. She grins a bit. "These guys are tougher than the ones at that farm. Good! I was itching for a real fight!" She slams her fists together, causing a minor flame discharge around her, and dives right back in, an idiotic grin plastered over her face as she deflects and counters the Ursa's swipes with her own strikes.

Yuuki Konno has posed:
    For all the fighting Yuuki's done over her years in VRMMOs, it's been boss fighting that consumed most of her enthusiasm and training. These Ursas aren't particularly nasty, not compared to a floor boss. Their attacks carry the same weight perhaps as a floor boss's typical swipes, but no one of Yuuki's level is going to just stand there and be swatted.

    Yuuki leaps, bounding right up and over the slamming tackle. The maneuver probably wouldn't work if the huge beast hadn't had to lower itself to attempt to shoulder tackle her. She can certainly jump quite well, but her ability lends itself to superhuman speed more than leaping tall buildings in a single bound.

    Still, she IS fast. The beargrimm's likely to not even see her move before it feels her straddling its shoulders. The sword glows violet, blade gleaming like a lightsaber as she brings it up, ready. Then she strikes downward, cutting a series of lines that form a square in the air before her, in purple after-image. Both sharpened blade and 'magic' carve into the beast. Not necessarily true magic as recognized by mages like Rin but more like the power of Dust as recognized by the locals. An enhancement of the strike, powered by will moreso than by technology.

Archer (821) has posed:
    While Rin seems dissatisfied by the response... Archer seems rather accepting of the logic behind it. To the point that he actually returns to his position leaning against the tree, his bow dispersing back into prana. "If you believe that, then I'll abide by it."

    Rin casts a glare at Archer, though deep down she understands the logic all-too-well... and knows that if they really do end up reliant on being saved that they'll be unable to save anyone else.

     ...

    But still... it grates at Rin to see them fighting like this and feel she can't just jump in for them.

    Thus the magi pair keep watch for now - observing the efforts of student and elite alike... and taking note of their abilities, the speed of Yuuki and the power of Kenji being some of the examples, as well as the unique weapons of the Beacon students in action.

Tomoe has posed:
Tomoe is having some effecvt on the bear like mosnter and they don't same to care about the terrible bear pun that she made. Then again these things are souless abberations so who knows what's going on with them. She keeps springing about using a branch like a trapize artist might and is now flying yp into the ait for a amoment. She track Ruby, Yang and everyone else as she keeps moving. She does not want a friendly fire incident after all.

Yang gets going and her comment gets a smirk from Eisen as she keeps moving about and firing at the bear like creatures.

Cirra Constantine (675) has posed:
    Cirra steps in through the briar patch, and it simply parts for her, or anyone else that isnt the Grimm. She swings her sword up, slicing across the Gaor's belly and turns around to watch Yang get...angry.

    THe Shivan steps back and lifts her sword up to convert it into rifle mode, firing shots at passing Grimm.

    "Is she always like this?" she asks Ruby when they find themselves close to each other int he fight.

Kenji Kawasaki (715) has posed:
     Unexpected.

     Not insurmountable.

     The first claw meets a hand far stronger than a human should possess. Backed by eldritch might, Kenji's fist smashes into the claw, stopping it in mid-motion. From there, he spins forward into its reach, moving like a boxer (granted, one who can ignore the laws of physics) to get close enough to punch it in the eye. As he gets into the first one's reach, it shields and isolates him from the second, the razor claws narrowly slicing through the air.

     Kenji crouches and goes flying upwards. He starts punching flame downwards, raining fire down on the two below him. Bolts of flame go smashing down through the trees to ignite the beowulves and leave them unable to fight. A forest this healthy shouldn't be very susceptible to random forest fires, so Kenji isn't particularly worried about that.

     He should in fact have been paying less attention to the surroundings and more attention to the creatures around him.

     It comes out of absolutely nowhere - the third Beowulf, soaring through the air, tackles him from the sky to the ground. There's a meaty *thump* as Kenji hits the ground, hard, kicking up sand and dirt. The second Beowulf comes charging over, teeth wide, as the first one rears back to claw through him.

     "Fat fucking chance!" Kenji roars.

     Suddenly, every single part of him is on fire. The fire roars, like an out-of-control bonfire, the claws come sweeping in.

     It doesn't protect him from getting a very nasty set of gashes across the chest, but it does in turn give the beowulves a very fat burst of fire to the face. Kenji phases directly downwards through the ground, coming up on the other side of them.

     "K-...Kojin."

     "Right!"

     The fire around Kenji's right hand seems to solidify. It hardens around his arm like a glove - a glove with two burning eyes and four 'arms' projected in front of it. The fire races along his body into the glove, setting it alight with lines of flame.

     In the center of the four arms, fire builds. It builds and builds and builds, spinning furiously in the air like a miniature sun.

     Kenji brings his free arm up as the Beowulves turn around.

     "KOJIIIIIIIIIIIIN...!"

     Kenji slams his hand down on his arm.

     "CAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNOOOOOOOON!!!!!!!"

     The backlash is titanic. The miniature sun expands, a ball of fire that goes shooting straight through both Beowulves and into the woods. It clears a path, most certainly, because nothing else can happen when a god-powered fireball goes screaming through the woods - no matter how safe they are, they'll probably burn. It gouges a scar in the landscape, searing dirt and ground black as it passes, digging into the earth as though it was a physical object.

     The Beowulves are probably not happy to be caught in it.

     Kenji wobbles as the Kojin Cannon breaks apart, the fire returning to his eyes. Taking a deep breath, he grits his teeth and shoves a burning hand onto his chest.

     It's a good thing he grit his teeth.

     He's cauterizing his own wounds.

     Apparently, either he or Kojin felt it was bad enough to do so. And those claw marks looked deep, too. Cauterizing might just be a temporary patch. It's certainly not regeneration.

     Nonetheless, as he burns his chest shut, Kenji remains standing. It's a testament to his sheer, stubborn willpower, if nothing else.

     He removes his hand from his chest and waves it, as if putting out a match. Then he takes a deep breath.

     "Fuck these things," he murmurs.

Yang Xiao Long has posed:
    "Crimson Behind you!" cries Bayleaf, as she forms another gesture sequence... but it's too late, as a Beowolf leaps onto and savagely mauls the hammer weilding member of the team. Ochre steps in and swats the thing away with his staff, which quickly changes into a machine gun that guns down the staggered beast. "Damn it, his Aura's gone below the safety line, we have to get him back to the airship!" Ochre goes to pick the stout guy up, only to get swatted away. "Finish the assignment, I'll be fine." he grouses, staggering up as the minor cuts along his chest seal under a softly glowing light. "Take more'n a Beowolf to keep me down." None-the-less, Crimson's Scroll tells a different story, his 'aura percentage' is below 20, meaning he wouldn't withstand another hit like that.

    Yang jukes, rope-a-dopes, then gathers up, leaping and uppercutting at the same time, twirling as fire wreathes her right fist in a rising dragon uppercut that would make Ken proud.

    Xiao's group dodge around the Boarbatusks, or tank the rolling tackle-charge, using their enhanced strength to knock them back. The weaker members move to take the kill-shots, proving that combined arms is the name of the Huntsman game.

    The Kojin Cannon leaves a big earth-scar, but amazingly, none of the trees catch fire. The ones that were directly in the path release a /really/ sweet scent, as the sap within was vaporized into an aerosol. It's /really/ apetizing, perhaps the reason it's being gathered at all.

Kenji Kawasaki (715) has posed:
     No rest for the wicked.

     Crimson's allies shout about his state. Kenji looks up from his just-closed wounds. His chest is on fire, and not the cool spiritual kind, or the cauterized kind, but the kind where every breath hurts. He might've gotten an even deeper hit than he'd expected.

     "H-hey, kid...are you okay?"

     Kenji chuckles. It hurts. "No. B-but I'm trying to be cool."

     "...for the girls, huh?"

     "S-sure."

     "...heh. Okay. I'll admit it. You're a little bit cool right now."

     "Thanks."

     Kenji vanishes in a burst of flame, leaving smoke in his place. He reappears in the middle of the fight next to Crimson - the only warning Crimson gets is a burst of flame and smoke, and suddenly there's Kenji, hooking an arm around the guy.

     "You're really...probably not gonna like this," Kenji warns him, "Don't...don't throw up on my shoes."

     Before the next strike can come, they vanish in another burst of smoke, reappearing at whatever standby medical site the school has set up, probably the air car. The burst is probably extremely disorienting, and probably more than a little vertigo-inducing for anybody who isn't the flying semi-spiritual guy.

     "Shintai break," Kenji manages, and suddenly he's not on fire anymore, and his leather coat and pants are black, the ash emblem is gone, his eyes aren't on fire, and no voice is talking but his own. Kenji wobbles for a moment before falling backwards onto the medical cart.

     Hey...Kenji.

     What?

     There is a non-zero chance that you were pretty cool right there.

     Hooray.

     You go ahead and rest. I'll make sure you don't die.

     Thanks.

     Kenji's eyes roll backwards into his head as slips into blissful, restful unconsciousness, leaving Crimson to his own devices, and hoping the medical staff knows how to treat gashes as deep as the ones on the Shinra agent's chest. If not...

     ...well, if not, hopefully Shinra is fast-responding.

Ruby Rose (910) has posed:
Yang's bear roars savagely at her before committing to another heavy slap from one of it's paws before it's lead into a very long-winded attack that earns it a grade A Shoryuken to the face. The bear is sent flying into the air, head tilted up the whole time as it hits the ground in a mighty *WHUMPF*. It's tongue rolls out of it's mouth and it's form starts to evaporate at her feet.

Yuuki's bear was pretty heavily wounded as the fight continued, but when she leaps on top of it's shoulders, it's fat arms couldn't really reach up tha way normally...and then the sword came. After that attack the Ursa Grimm slowly starts to slump, it's legs slacking and it's weight forcing it forward. Within a second or two it falls flat on it's face, it too starting to evaporate into nothingness.

Crescent Rose sings as Ruby's bear was back in her face, the girl parrying the bear's attacks with the sharp end of her scythe. Sensing an opportunity, she swings the weapon up and throws the offending paw aside and leaps into the air, just above her opponent. She swings the scythe down to lean the bladed end underneath the Bear's neck. Ruby pulls the trigger then, the recoil sending the blade through the Grimm and decapitating it cleanly. The girl rides the bear down to the ground and leaps off of it as it begins to evaporate, turning to look up towards Cirra with a grin.

"Yeah...Don't worry about her, she can handle her own really, really well."

The large slithering creature abruptly stops when that huge blast of fire wizzes past it, it's frontend leaning up...clearly sensing...something.

Archer (821) has posed:
    Grimacing openly, Rin finally throws caution to the wind and proceeds to run over to where Kenji and Crimson are post-flaming teleport, looking them over to assess the injuries. If nobody else takes an active role in healing them then she will pull out some of her gems to try and suppress the damage - if not, she'll simply stay on standby.

    Archer in turn keeps his eyes focused on the shadowy presence approaching from the woods, still on standby himself for any actual battle that requires his attention... though in the meantime he's taken to occupying himself by observing the students and their abilities.

    They'd handled themselves relatively well so far, he had to admit that much... though whether it was their own spirit or an 'inherited will' was something he couldn't be sure of.

    As well as whether it would succeed in overcoming whatever it was that was coming.

Yuuki Konno has posed:
    Yuuki jumps free as the Grimm evaporates. She sees nothing at all weird with this. In her experience monsters explode into pixels and vanish. This isn't pixels, but black smoke that vanishes is much the same thing. She'd probably actually be much more weirded out by a monster that actually bleeds and leaves a corpse.

    Landing lightly, the Imp looks around to see the other bears similarly dealt with. This is a competent group, it seems! More than merely competent actually. Top-tier raiders, if she's any judge of such a thing. And with the battle essentially over, at least for now, the smile returns to her face.

    "Hey, well done!" she says, to everyone fighting in their current little group. Her special regard however, perhaps surprisingly, is for the one she'd never seen fight before. Or perhaps that'll come as no surprise. "That scythe is INCREDIBLE!" she gushes. "What, it's some kind of gunscythe?" Yuuki asks, bounding over to check the weapon out. "How does that even WORK? Where did you get something like that! I want one!" she says cheerfully. Okay, the last bit's probably not really true. She wouldn't mind one, but it's completely different from any weapon she's ever had any experience with. She wouldn't fight with it, she'd just flail around with it and feel awesome doing so, right up until she stuck it into something she shouldn't. But that doesn't mean she won't admire it!

Cirra Constantine (675) has posed:
    Cirra turns to look as Crimson gets badly wounded and scowls. If Landon were here that would never have hap-

    Succesfully incensing herself, Cirra turns around rushes, runs straight up the side of a tree before pushing off, flipping through the air in an arc that brings her down right behind the Beowulves. THe Judge Blade converts back into a sword and slices, through the air at the backs of the Beowolves. Fortunatly, someone teleports Crimson away.

    "Tighten up, we can't risk them getting through again."

Tomoe has posed:
Tomoe sees the bears are no longer an issue but there's something else sinling about waiting for them from the looks of it.

"Not bad at all and a combo weapon like that? I seen people use one of the other but not something that's both."

She seems in good spirits but there seem to be something else lurking around.

"Yuuki keep frosty there's something else about I think."

She takes this moment to reload her shotgun, putting in fresh shells and leaving the empty casings on the ground, which if anyoner pays attention to? Explode after a moment into shards of light and there's nothing left in the wake of that.

The wounded student is handled and now she's making ready for what will come next.

Ruby Rose (910) has posed:
Ruby Rose exhales when the Ursa Grimm finally all vanish and it's clear that she's got an admirer next to her. She swings the scythe back up onto her shoulder. "Yep! It's a High Caliber Sniper Scythe. One part rifle, one part sniper rifle, one part Scythe and one-hundred percent DESTRUCTION. And I made it myself. It took awhile because there's alot of moving parts but the Crescent Rose is one lean mean, slicing and gunning machine."

The slithering shadow in the darkness makes it's intentions known as it files into the cut into the earth from the fire attack that gained it's attention in the first place. Using that as some sort of make-shift highway, it rockets towards the group at hand, a loud hiss rolling through the area. It parts through the trees, now close enough for everyone to take a good look at it. It's a snake, as big around as a bus and as long as several of them put together. It's got several sharp fangs in it's mouth and blood red eyes. The charging half of the snake is white but filters to black..for some reason? It's coming in quick and making a beeline towards the students group, blasting through any tree silly enough to be in it's way.

Wasting little time it punches over a tree and sends it directly at Tomoe before opening it's mouth; it's maw far more than large enough to swallow any one of the people present whole.

Ruby's eyes go wide and she immediately ceases her conversation as the huge serpent slams into her, mouth first, seemingly engulfing her whole, the creature too fast to dodge. Weirdly, as it passed by the others, the snake didn't seem to have a tail...but instead, another Snake attached to it. The other end of the snake swings outward, it's length wide enough to sweep over dozens of trees at once and attacking the entire gathering at once, either forcing everyone to jump, block or get hit by this wide arc, the black snake head seemingly ready to chow down on some humans.

Yang Xiao Long has posed:
    Combined forces bring the Boarbatusks and Beowolves under control. The remaining ones tense, turn to look towards the deeper forest, then snarl before scattering into the underbrush. Something /big/ is coming, Grimm don't just scatter like that without a reason.

    "You done with the sap yet? The Grimm scattered... that's not a good sign." says one of the people around Xiao Li Yu.

    Yang ejects the spent casings from her gauntlets, reloading with a practiced toss and slam, loading red shells with orange tips.

    It's about this time that the King Taitiju comes crashing through the forest and goes straight for Ruby. Yang's eyes go wide. "RUBY!" Anyone close to her would feel a massive wash of heat radiate, and a growing growl rising in her throat. "LET GO OF MY LITTLE SISTER YOU MONSTER!" she yells, her hair exploding with flames, glowing a mighty golden hue.

    She kicks off from her position, cratering the ground as she full on deadruns at the snake-like Grimm, swinging her fists and firing off explosive packets of Dust with each swing. These seem even more powerful than they should be, as the blonde's rage channels all the damage she's received so far into each strike, adding it to her own strength.

Yuuki Konno has posed:
    Yuuki grins at the description of her new favorite weapon, like a kid admiring a toy a friend got for their birthday. "This is my sword." she says, gesturing with the violet-tinged straight blade. "It's a sword!" she adds brightly. It's nothing special, nothing fancy. It holds elemental powers, but it doesn't transform or spit bullets.

    When the giant snake makes its appearance, Yuuki goes solemn and serious once again, raising her blade. There's few things Yuuki is too slow to dodge, and this snake seems no exception. She was right beside Ruby, more or less, admiring the scythe. She dodged one direction and expected Ruby to dodge the other. In horror she realizes Ruby wasn't quick enough, and she abruptly reverses direction, heading back for the giant beast's head. The black head, that is. The one that seemed to swallow her new friend.

    The Imp girl lacks Yang's raw power and doesn't even try to blow through the giant serpent. Instead she leaps the snake's body, reversing course once again to follow it, aiming for the black head of the snake. She sees, probably, what's going on. If Ruby's not actually swallowed, she should be able to see it if she reaches the right position. If she's being clamped down on by snake jaws, likewise. If Ruby's actually swallowed... well, Yuuki can probably see just where in the great beast's throat the girl finds herself. She lacks the power to cut through a boss in a single hit with her sword. Even her ultimate attack doesn't slice so much as pierce. But she'll certainly TRY to help rescue Ruby! Repeated slashes, as heavy as Yuuki can manage, should discourage the serpent. If possible she'll strike deeply somewhere tender, such as the thing's throat or eye, to try to get it to roar. Or whatever snakes do. To get it to release, in any case. A lot depends on what's really going on, and how much Yuuki can see once she gets in position.

Tomoe has posed:
Tomoe sees the tree falling she rolls leaps up into the air doing a back flip as she does so. Lands on the tree and then leaps off it again before tree hits the ground again. Ruby's in troubl and she can tell eve as she's up in the air. It's maw is huge and she does have some ideas about how to handle it but there's the issue of well Ruby. She now can't use her plan to give it a grenade bon bon.

She'll shoulder her shotgun in the air even as she drops towards the monster ahd pulls the knife from her back out of it's sheat. She drops towards the things head intending to land on it and drive the blade into something vital like one of it's eyes or it's brain, if it even /has/ a brain.

Cirra Constantine (675) has posed:
    The Snake crashes through the trees, and Cirra shields her face as wood and leaves splinter in every direction. Her eyes widden as she sees Ruby get swallowed whole, and then Yang has ...frankly /apropriate/ reaction to the situation.

    Worse still the snake has /two/ heads? One on each end... How the heck does it even p-

    "Bayleaf!" she points at the things second head. If it's allowed to move, it could catch Yang when she's foncused on beating the other one senseles. "Keep it distracted!" She moves, zig-zaging through fallen trees and leaps upwards, burning just a little bit of her own blood to enhance how high she can jump. She slashes the Judge Blade at the second head as she sails past.

Archer (821) has posed:
    As he watches the fights, Archer takes interest in the functionality of Crescent Rose and Ember Celica, seeming intrigued by the design and transforming structure of the weapons wielded by the huntsman sisters.

    However... all bets are suddenly off in Rin's eyes wide with shock and horror as Ruby is seemingly swallowed whole by the creature. "Goddamnit, that's enough! I didn't come here to watch people die for a training exercise!"

    She kicks off forward-

     "/Es ist gro�, Es ist klein... Vox got Es Atlas!/"

    And much like Yang, she begins swinging her hands and feet out in a series of swift martial arts' punches, kicks and strikes, hitting with enough force to shatter stone - and like Yuuki, she aims for the creature's weak spots, intending to try and make it gag and spit up Ruby if it actually did get as far in devouring her as she feared it had.

     Archer in turn... actually, he doesn't do anything immediately, instead glancing toward Glynda for a moment with an impassive expression. Kanshou and Bakuya have materialized in his hands, though he has not joined the battle, instead watching beside Glynda like a fellow observer - observing and apprising the efforts of everyone else, it seemed.

    Or perhaps just waiting for the perfect moment to deliver his own strike.

     However, he does ultimately speak - "Every child has to face their tests... especially those who must face the battlefield at a young age." He glances to Glynda at this part, as if her response is more interesting to him then the scene before them. "Though I believe my Master is correct in this instance that there are times intervention is needed... but then again, they are your students. If my Master acted harshly, I apologize... but if you wish, I too can join the battle. It depends on if you think they have shown you what you wished to see or not, I suppose."

    He seems to be waiting for Glynda to enter the battle or comment before he does anything, as if wanting to see how long she will continue to observe... besides, he is confident that his Master entering the fray will likely help even the odds a bit.

    if not... well, he didn't really take long to involve himself. And if they were in /true/ danger after this point... he wouldn't hesitate to jump in.

Ruby Rose (910) has posed:
Ruby Rose , surprisingly enough, is okay! The King Taitiju had indeed gotten the girl into her mouth, but before it could snap down on her and likely deal impressibly serious damage, one thing got in it's way.

Cresent Rose.

Ruby jams the Scythe up in it's mouth and prevents it from biting down, but this unfortunately meant she was going for quite the ride at this speed...or would have if not for the others.

Yang's attacks slow the creature down, as the gauntlet-shots make it wince and react in pain. It thrashes for a moment, the white head flailing around and throwing Ruby out of it's mouth and sending her straight at Yang.

Tomoe's got a rough ride if it lands on the head, as the Snake's bone mask would make stabbing it quite hard, but it's eyes were indeed a soft point. The knife slides right in, forcing the snake to convulse again. This poses a small problem for Yuuki, for as much as her sword swings were actually doing, it was only forcing it to move. Eager to throw these two attackers off, the Giant Serpent rolls over quickly to throw Tomoe off and to flatten Yuuki for getting so close.

Cirra's attack is actually met with some resistance, as the blade couldn't get a good cut into it, but it did deal enough damage to get the Black Head's attention. After it finishes rolling, the darker half snaps at Cirra, seeking to eat her whole like it tried with Ruby.

Ruby Rose (910) has posed:
Rin would find that blunted physical attacks wouldn't work terribly well, but if they are capable of shattering stone, then the scales that it was made out of would show sign of breakage. Maybe striking the same spot repeatedly might be the trick? Unfortunately, it would be hard to test that theory, since she too was in range to be rolled over.

Yang Xiao Long has posed:
    Bayleaf gasps as the Taijitu breaks out of the forest. Cirra's command. She closes her eyes, gestures as her clothing cycles to dark blue. She gestures forward, and suddenly, a triangular glyph appears around the still attacking head's neck. It then shatters, sealing the thing's entire head in a block of ice, causing it to lose momentum and crash down inert for the time being.

    Glynda watches from her perch. "Your, 'Master', acts correctly here, the King Taijitu are not to be taken lightly." she says. "They have proven themselves vastly capable, far better than expectations." she unfolds her arms and makes a gesture. She leaps down, as splintered debris forms a platform under her feet, and entire trees lifting up as giant spears.

    The remaining students form up and open fire, giving the creature far more targets to worry about. Their weapons fire bullets with multiple hues of trail behind them, some yellow, others blue and green, red. They all keep moving so the snake can't get a solid bead on them.

Yuuki Konno has posed:
    Get close in on the boss, flurry slash, then jump away before the boss can retaliate. This is the very foundation of Yuuki's boss-fighting strategy. She's a bit frustrated in this though, since she's on a timer. Ruby's in that thing's mouth, and it's going to swallow her whole if they can't stop it!

    She waits inside, still trying to carve the Taijitu's head open. Not the bone mask, but the flexible skin and scales of the neck. Well, that part of the neck that's right next to the jaw. Snakes are a whole lot of neck after all.

    The snake all but rolls right on top of her. Yuuki's perhaps slightly tougher than she looks, but getting squished by a snake wouldn't help her save her new friend! She leaps at the last moment, letting the snake barrel roll into her instead of overtop her. She's smashed flying, but not before she unwinds her body into a fierce backhand blow with all her power behind it. One aimed at the jaw hinge of the snake, to cut into the bone or at least across the flesh and muscle of the snake's 'cheek'. It might not force the creature to release, but hopefully it should weaken the monster's hold!

Tomoe has posed:
Tomoe is very agile but she can't fully tell physics to go away like some in the multivese can, thus she scores a hit on the snake like thing. IT's eye being damage should give everyone else an edge. Whcih was hewr intend from the start but well she's got very personal with a tree as she hits there's a cry of pain and she's taking a moment to get back up, oddly she's not out of the fight from a smack like that. Though there's a strange red glow on her back where she impacted with the tree, to the point her gear had distorted as well. She drops the shotgun and brings out some sort of semi automagic pistolw hich she opens fire on the Grimm with just adding to the barrage from everyone else.

"No body goes home in a body bag when I'm a run, not while I'm still standing!"

Yuuki would be fine like her she's an avatar and kinda not all there, she's more concerned about the Students and others who have come to help them and I'm pretty sure Yuuki gets that too.

Yang Xiao Long has posed:
    Yang keeps firing, right up until sh gets hit by the Ruby Bullet. She huffs as she she tumbles and rolls with the girl, instinctively wrapping her arms around the younger girl and taking the brunt of the tumbling.

Archer (821) has posed:
     Archer watches Glynda take off into the fray... then he gives a short chuckle at Glynda confirming his Master had the right idea. "She has her moments, I suppose."

     What that, he bounds forward into the very himself, dashing for the cut Yuuki had left on it's face to try and stab deep into it's flesh and distract it - while his other blade flies for it's eyes.

    Rin in turn is forced to step back a few paces, aware of a sharp stinging in her hands and feet as she curses aloud - this thing's scales were strong enough to blunt even reinforced strikes??

    Plan B, then.

     Pulling free some of her gems, Rin draws them back -

     "Sechs, in Flu� Ein Halt!"

    And flings them outward, the four stones turning into magic bullets that hone in on the creature's black-head to try and crack that bone-mask a bit - at least enough to make future attacks more successful.

Cirra Constantine (675) has posed:
    The mouth reaches out, for Cirra, the snake fangs glistening as it prepares to come down on the Shivan's head and...

    Freezes solid. And crashes to the ground. "Sorry to leave you...cold." She says to the head and turns towards the white end of the beast. "But your better half needs addressing."

    Cirra moves more quickly and leaps up to grab hold of a tree breanch, swinging herself up into the tree proper and snaps her sword open into a rifle. "Bayleaf, can you restrict the head's movement?" she asks as she takes aim down her rifle, waiting for an answer in the positive, as well as hopefully the act beign done.

Ruby Rose (910) has posed:
Well shit. This officially went south in a hurry.

The Black Head's attack is cut short by it being engulfed in ice, sending it crashing into the earth with a solid *WHUMPF!*. Though the ice is starting to crack already, it would at least be held down by that for a few more seconds. The serpent is also immediately pummeled by all sorts of gunfire, which was hurting it, but not piercing through it's scales just yet. Anyone up close could tell that it was only a matter of time now. But even WITH that, the King still isn't quite done yet.

Yuuki's sword swing cuts through the tender area, which forces it's mouth open in a less than controlled manner. It struggles to turn it's head to face her, clearly angered by her attack and intending to do something, but then Archer attacks. Thanks to him, the snake is completely blinded now, unable to focus or close it's mouth properly thanks to the second blade's penetrating cut. Rin's gem strike smashes into the White Head, shattering most of the bone present up there, knocking the snake senseless even further.

Enraged further than anyone thought possible, the King Taijitu coils itself around the melee fighters; Rin, Yuuki, Archer and quickly constricts trying to smash the lot of them at once.

Meanwhile, Ruby smacks into Yang rather hard, sending them both rolling into the ground. When the tumbling finally stops, Ruby slowly starts to recover, holding her head in pain and looking up towards the Berserk Yang's face.

"Ow-ow-ow...I'm okay but...Yang? I'm okay, I promise okay? It's...just fast." She slowly starts to get up after that, only to see the coiling from the monstrous Grimm...and all the bullets striking it at the moment.

Yang Xiao Long has posed:
    Bayleaf pants a little bit. "I-I'm out of Ice Dust... Fire and Lightning don't work that way on Grimm. I... I could try Energy but..." she looks exhausted, hanging back out of the engagement. Ochre charges in, leaping on a gunshot before aiming to stab his spear down into the cracks of the White head's skull mask. His stab is punctuated by another gunshot, trying to drive the weapon through into the beast's body.

    Yang pants heavily her eyes literally glowing red as she holds onto her sister. She listens, and slowly, those angry red eyes fade back to Lilac. She then HUGS the girl tightly, and says in a soft little voice, "I'm so glad you're safe."

Cirra Constantine (675) has posed:
    That news draws a frown from Cirra, she considers firing at the cracked mask instead, but she isn't a gunner and can't make that kind of called shot. She scans the area visually and spots a Tree half broken.

    "There, bring that tree down on top of, before the second head can get free!"

Tomoe has posed:
Tomoe had been playing support for the moment but the moment that Ruby is out of the beast's gullet? She's springing into action again and she's charing the coiling at the Grim dodging the incomming fire as she goes she's got a plan as she moves towards the snake like monster. She flips up into the air and keeps trying to prevoke it to open it's mouth or when someone else gets it to. Should she get that instant she's going to lob a pair of grenades hopefully down that things' gullet.

"DINNER TIME!"

This might help or she'll make a good distraction for everyone else.

Archer (821) has posed:
    Archer clicks his tongue in annoyance as the snake tries to coil around him, taking the chance to grab Rin under one arm - and if Yuuki doesn't get out on her own, he'll pull her out as well.

    As soon as Rin is on the ground though, she rushes in front of Yang and Ruby, trying to provide cover as she lobs three more gems at the creature's black head to try and weaken it as well.

    With the last four, she throws up a barrier to try and form some attempt of shielding the two students, focused on the immense Grimm with a determined look on her face - the look of someone who refuses to see sisters be separated by any form of harm the way she was from her own once before.

     And as this happens... Archer leaps back

    With a single bound, he's behind the tree Cirra has pointed out, aiming his amor at it - or rather, /through it/, intending to spear it to bring it down... while at the same time having the shot go through the serpent to cripple it or kill one of it's heads, depending on if he strikes his target.

    Even the best archer will miss if he cannot see his target... so he is relying on the others to keep the thing still as the spiral sword in his hand is drawn back on his bow, it's form twisting and warping into a distorted arrow.

     "/I am the bone of my sword./"

    Prana gathers into the weapon - only enough to pierce but not break. He cannot launch a broken phantasm here - not in these woods... but he can fire it as it's simple form; as an arrow that will pierce the tree and carry on to the snake, the tree collapsing after it.

    Perhaps it's too much to hope for that both will hit... but the bowman is willing to, at the very least, be satisfied if just the tree comes down.

    The arrow is ready - just enough power to pierce as far as needed-

     "Caladbolg!"

     -before being let lose to fly towards the tree and bore through it - and if luck holds, it shall bore through the snake as well before the tree falls atop it to finish it.

    At best, the battle will be almost over. At worst, it will have taken a large step towards being done. Either way, a result is achieved.

Yuuki Konno has posed:
    Yuuki gets up, dusting herself off somewhat unnecessarily. It's not like virtual clothing gets dusty. Dirt picked up from the ground will fade as soon as she's re-rendered. Still, habits die hard and there's no point having dirt clinging to her for the rest of my fight.

    The great snake coils around while she's still recovering, however. She looks around as it begins to constrict. GREAT. She can get out easily, but she's not sure of the others. Rin especially.

    Fortunately Archer's up to the task. When he offers her a hand, presumably, to haul her off she waves it away. "Just GO!" she shrieks, and with a moment's effort she sprouts those tiny black wings out from between her shoulderblades.

    Yuuki takes off, leaping and then flying out from the snake's coils, but she makes sure she's the LAST to leave. Some of her co-combatants are flesh and blood, and if they die they die for real. She doesn't have to worry much about that happening. If she's crushed, even assuming she loses all her health, she'll just respawn elsewhere. Probably. Okay so she only has Kirito's word on that... but she'd rather risk her own life than another's.

    She's also going to carve her way out if needed. Her sword may not be the incredible cleaving machine Tomoe or some others use, but there aren't many players in Alfheim Online that can do more melee DPS than she can. Why just fly when you can DPS on the way?!

Ruby Rose (910) has posed:
Ruby Rose looks up towards Yang as she's brought into a massive hug, the likes of which was...fairly common actually. Ruby lets her have it for a few moments before she picks Crescent Rose up and starts pulling away, patting one of Yang's arms. "I told you, I'm okay Yang. There's still a Grimm up and fighting everyone. I have to help.""

She regains her breath and stands up, regaining her posture from the heavy hit. She reaches down to grab the clip in Crescent Rose and disengages it and letting it fall into the ground. She reaches inside of her ammo pouch and pulls out a Cross Clip and loads it in. She racks the gun and pats Rin on the shoulder.

"Thanks for the backup. I'll be back in a moment."

And just as she says that, Ruby is off like a bullet, practically disappearing from sight, a line of rose petals being the only thing that might even suggest where she went..and even then, she quickly disappears into the treeline.

Meanwhile, the Taijitu is not having a swell time. In fact, it's having quite the bad time. Tomoe's grenades blast what little control it had over it's mouth away, the fangs in it's mouth being sent flying out into the trees somewhere. The incoming spear from Orche hits through the mask and sinks in, making the snake convulse in pain again, the White Head trying to buck the wielder off of this Rodeo. The snake completely uncoils when Yuuki start's damaging it from the inside, pulling itself out straight while the Black Head shatters it's ice prison.

Now, angry and full of serpenty passion, the Black Head rears up and prepares to rain down fiery vengeance against all of these human jackas- oh wait tree. Thanks to the precision sniping of a particular archer, the hole blowin in it by the arrow is enough to knock it backwards and slam into the King Taijitu's black neck, pinning it to the ground. It squirms in pain and comedic irony as it's still unable to move.

And to add insult to injury, Rin's gems smack into it's head, bouncing off of it's bone mask hard enough to make a very uncomfortable looking cracking noise.

Yang Xiao Long has posed:
    Yang lets Ruby go, and nods. "Lets finish this." she replies, getting up and checking her gauntlets. Three shells each, plenty left. "I'm good for a Sunshine Special! Set me up!" she calls, running out in a wide arc opposite to Ruby's movement.

    Ochre leaps free, firing the other side of his weapon to dislodge the spear and get clear as the beast. Bayleaf seems to catch her breath, and flows her Aura once again, her clothes shifting to a dark purple. Four glyphs appear around the Taijitu, lashing out with bands of energy, trying to pin it down. "I-I won't be able to hold it for long!" she cries.

    Glynda launches the tree-spears, trying to impale the monster as the others set up their plans, aiming to finish it off if they can't, or pin it down long enough if they can.

Yuuki Konno has posed:
    Yuuki touches down once again. She's hurt, but she doesn't particularly look it since her health bar's hidden except to other MMO players. Certainly she's neither slowed nor showing any injuries to her arms which would keep her from moving or wielding that blade of hers.

    She comes to light between the barrier and the snake, standing guard between the vulnerables and the monster. Her brow furrows into a deep glare. Her blade comes back, ready to dart forward, and it begins to glow violet.

    The moment the snake comes at her, she lunges. The strikes come incredibly fast, the sword piercing so quickly it looks like one long sweep across and then back. It's not two swings though; it's ten. And then her blade comes back one last time.

    Each of those strikes, Yuuki's hitting the tough equivalent of a wall of flesh and scales. She doesn't move forward. If the snake's moving into her, it'll even push her back. But the force behind her strikes, it's immense. It's beyond what such a small body should be able to do, with the elemental energies added to the rapidfire bows. It may not be much against a boss monster, but it ought to be felt at the least. It's her strongest attack, and quite possibly the most lethal sword skill in all of Alfheim Online. It's finished more than one fight too.

    Drawing back for that final strike, Yuuki lunges forward shrieking a battle cry, driving her blade as deep as she can right in the middle point of her two earlier attack series. The magical energy of the sword releases, exploding into the Taijitu in a concussive explosion that releases a cloud of violet smoke, momentarily covering the results of her final attack.

Cirra Constantine (675) has posed:
    With both the tree falling on the Taijitu and Bayleaf managing to grab hold of it, Cirra jumps down from inside the tree and runs towards the giant double-snake, zig-zaging between the trees.

    The white haired shivan jumps up and lands on the Taijitu's back. Cirra clenches the Judge Blade tightly in her hand as...she..starts..to../smoke/?

    Thock black smoke rolls off of her in waves as she consumes her own blood to generate mana, and then put all of that mana into enhancing her strength.

    THE Judge slams the point of the Judge Blade down into the serpents back and proceeds to run straight down it's scaly back as she leaves a trail of black smoke from her Dark Knight abilities.

    It's going to suck afterwards. She'll need orange juice and cookies for the resulting anemia.

Tomoe has posed:
Tomoe is able to do some more damage to the best but she's out of grenades for the moment, she's all riught she's done a pretty good job of not getting crushed but damn this is not the big bad things they are worried about? How crazy is this world? They clearly need all the help they can get, and why not? She can be dispoaable to them she musess and she oesn't mind. She's got her shotgun back out and is laying down the fire on the snake with sold slug shotgun rounds hoping to supress it so some of the more powerful people here to be able to bring the thing down.

Archer (821) has posed:
    Rin mutters another curse to herself, beginning to wonder just what on earth it takes to kill this monster for good. It had taken attack after attack and was still standing!

    Archer in turn seemed to be somewhat irritated by the drawn-out nature of the battle himself - and this time, doesn't bother trying to charge an arrow to full strength as he sees Rin hurl out the last of her gems.

    And, seeing her intent, Archer aims his prank-filled arrow at the gems... and fires.

    The result is the arrow detonating the gemstones in an immense burst of prana equivalent to several grenades going off - though the Servant proceeds to use this to fire several more arrows at the serpent to try and shatter it's armor, intending to use the repeated blast force to attempt cracking it's shell away for either him or anyone else to land a finishing blow.

    At this rate though... they ought to finally be out of the worst of it.

Ruby Rose (910) has posed:
Ruby Rose gets some distance away from the last remaining Grimm and digs her feet in the ground.

This should be far enough away.

She pulls Crescent Rose's blade, making it form more of a hooked spear and less of a Scythe. She needed more blade on this trick. With that done she takes a moment to focus before bolting through the trees as fast as she can, her Speed Semblance going full blast. For as far away as she was, she was quickly approaching the snake head on.

Speaking of said serpent, it is dying wholesale now. Glynda's wooden stakes impale it completely, keeping it to the ground, as well as Ochre's gylphs, which would have no problems keeping it down now. Tomoe's bullets have no problem breaking through it's shattered hide, black mist spraying out from every spot a pellet hit home. Cirra's attack rips through the hide with next to no problem, thanks to the massive amount of damage it had sustained from nearly everyone at this point. Yuuki's blades cut deep, rending off huge chunks of the creature and releasing quite a bit of that same black gas, and the ensuring explosion knocks that entire section's scales clean off. Even in it's death throes, it's still trying to move, trying to attack, trying to...kill...harm..hurt...something! Archer's attack knocks it completely senseless as more explosions pepper it's hide, stripping the OTHER side of it's scales and leaving it very vunerable.

"Yang, do it now!"

The voice is far away but rapidly approaching. Ruby's an incredible blur now, rocketing straight towards the White Head with the extended Scythe, ready and willing. The unhinged jaw is a natural point to strike, Ruby digging her weapon entirely in it's mouth. Letting out a battle cry that would make any valkyrie proud, she starts firing the Crescent Rose to give her more speed as she runs the blade along the side of the creature, running from head to head, careful to avoid anyone who might be in her way.

Knowing Yang has to punch her bullets, she waits two more seconds for her sister to fire off the three shots. In that time she halts herself, spins the Crescent Rose into a standing sniping position and fires off one of her last bullets, sending it back through the snake in the huge swath she just carved into it, dealing a huge amount of damage to the creature and sending black mist flying out of it like the side of a broken dam.

Finish it Yang!

Yang Xiao Long has posed:
    Yang's in position at the Black head, and as Ruby comes slicing up, the blonde elder sister lets out a brilliant burst of Aura. her hair once again gains that glowing golden hue, and flames blaze within the strands as she sets her stance. The Black head opens its mouth in a defiant snarl. "I HOPE YOU'RE HUNGRY!" roars back the punchgirl, heaving both gauntlets forward and firing all six remaining cartridges in tight succession, sending the explosives barreling down the monster's throat. They explode in succession, ripping out gouges from the beast, meeting Ruby's shot in the middle and finishing it off, the entire monster snake evaporating into black smoke.

    PAFF clinkclinkle. Yang's spent shells eject from the rotary chamber, but the girl doesn't bother reloading this time. "Well... That was a thing."

Cirra Constantine (675) has posed:
    With the snake creature defeated, Cirra dismisses her Judge Blade and moves to leans back against a tree with her arms crossed. Despite the way it looks, she's not doing it to look cool.

    It's to steady the rush of lightheadedness that comes from turning your own blood into magic.

Ruby Rose (910) has posed:
The king has left the building...the building being this plane of existance. Between all this and the explosions in it's belly, the poor thing simply explodes itself, flooding the nearby area of the black mist that it was seemingly made out of. Relatively soon, the cool mist evaporates, leaving behind a few bone shards of it's masks and teeth, which also begin to slowly dissappear.

Ruby stands back up after seeing this and sighs, brushing herself off a bit. "Let's...not fight too many more of those."

Yuuki Konno has posed:
    Yuuki's quick to jump back at the start of the sisters' attacks, getting clear so she doesn't slow their assault. Having seen her share of powerful and cinematic attacks, she has a good framework for viewing and judging this one.

    "Cool." is the Imp's verdict. She beams happily, losing that focused scowl of concentration entirely. "Can we do another?" she adds enthusiastically.

Archer (821) has posed:
    As the immense serpent finally evaporates, Rin lets out a sigh of relief, while Archer's weapons evaporate in a haze of prana as he dismisses his projections.

     "It was /something/ to say the least" Archer denotes, glancing between where the monstrosity had evaporated and the rather exhausted-looking Yang. "At least you're still alive. That might be considered an accomplishment in and of itself."

     Rin in turn seems to shoot an irritated glance at Yuuki for her seeming eagerness to face /more/ of those nightmares, the magus' limbs still sore as though she had been hitting brick - which is quite the achievement when one's body is reinforced. "No - I'm with... Rose-san?" she glances at Ruby for conformation of getting her name - minus the look of confusion at the 'san' part - before continuing. "I'd rather not fight those things unless we /have/ to. In the meantime though... I think we can consider this exercise /done/. Any objections?"

Yang Xiao Long has posed:
    Glynda lands, letting her debris platform fall apart. "Agreed. All students, gather your equipment and board the airship. We return to Beacon immediately. Do not leave anything behind, the next scheduled trip is not for three weeks." she doesn't just board the airship though, she actually helps the wounded on board, and assists in carrying gear as some of the students, though unharmed physically, used a /lot/ of their Aura. Bayleaf, especially, looks kind of noodly.

Tomoe has posed:
Tomoe is getting it's a team effort at this point to bring the thing down. She seems prety worn out and the strange red spluges over parts of her body look like wireframes on computer but they seem to be slowly knitting themselves back to appearing normal.

"To think there are swams of these things. Ya we should finish getting the sap and get out of here."

She seems to be of the same mind as GLynda and sahe will help with getting loaded up. She'll help those who can't make it as well, the sooner everyone clears out the better.

Yuuki Konno has posed:
    Yuuki laughs, great pealing laughter that rings out. "I didn't mean today!" she insists. Not that she'd MIND fighting today, but you don't take on bosses back to back if at all possible.

    "Tell you what. I'd happily settle for something sweet. The smell of all that sap is really giving me an appetite!" she suggests.