3474/Beacon Academy Initiation

Beacon Academy Initiation
Date of Scene:	02 December 2015
Location:	Remnant <REM>
Synopsis:	Or: That thing where teenagers are tossed off the side of a cliff and told to find 'relics' so they can learn at the school proper.
Cast of Characters:	Tomoe, 342, 373, 385, 626, 675, 867, Yuuki Konno, Yang Xiao Long, 910, 917

---

Yang Xiao Long has posed:
    Location: Beacon Cliffs, overlooking the Emerald Forest.
    Line-up: All new arrivals at Beacon, Including Ruby, Blake, Yang, and the others. Ozpin and Goodwitch walk along the row of students, and any offworlders joining in.

    ""For years you have trained to become warriors. And today, your abilities will be evaluated in the Emerald Forest." Says Ozpin, passing off to Goodwitch. "Now, I'm sure many of you have heard rumors about the assignment of Teams. Well, allow us to put an end to any confusion. This will happen. Today." She pauses a moment, flicking a 'page'. "Offworlders will, however, be rated and evaluated on their own skills and merits. Anyone that survives this process, will be given a 'Substitute License' to join Teams on missions, should they request the extra assistance." Ozpin pipes up. "Those of you that are joining the school, your Teammates will be with you for the four years you attend this school. So, it would be best to be paired with someone with whom you work well." he pauses, then continues as if passing on the weather. "That being said, the first person you make eye contact with, after landing, will be your partner for the next four years."

    Some of the students look worried, an orange haired girl turns to a black-haired boy beside her, "See? I tooold you~!"

    Ozpin glances, then resumes speaking. "After you are paired up, proceed to the northern end of the forest. You will meet opposition along the way. Do not hesitate to destroy anything in your path. Or you /will/ die. You will be monitored and graded for the duration of your initiation. However, our instructors will /not/ intervene." He looks at Goodwitch who nods, before continuing. "You will find an abandoned temple at the end of the path which contains several Relics. Each pair must return one of these to the cliff. We will grade that item, as well as your standing appropriately.

    "Are there any questions?"

Terry McGinnis (867) has posed:
    Terry McGinnis looks as he listens and thinks on asking a question but thinks against it for the time, "We can use anyting we have or find agaisnt the Grimm in the forest or anything else there correct?" he states simply as he stands there and looks at Ozpin and Goodwitch as he waits for a response.

'You sure this is a good idea Terry?' comes Max's voice over the cowls inner radio. Terry does nto respond as he is waiting on a reply . o 0 (Wish I had a way to talk to Max and Bruce without moving my mouth) he thinks as he waits for a response to his question.

Blake Belladonna (917) has posed:
     Blake Belladonna is standing on a launch pad with a chunk of the other students, nearest the group like Cardin rather than towards the front by Ruby et al. She croushes a small, slightest bit, well aware that this is probably not going to be a walk down the cliff. She suspects it might be a launch off the cliff. Honestly, she even expects Ozpin to blindfold them, make them dizzy, and then tell them to walk /off/ the cliff. Frankly, at this point, she has no expectations for what is coming.

     She wouldn't be surprised to wake up in Mistral in a few hours, to be honest.

     She has no questions, but she is slightly bored, and considering her options. Nora's likely to end up with Ren and well... Jaune's a nice boy, but....

Nozomi Houken (342) has posed:
    Even with all the offworlders attending, there is one prospective 'Substitute Huntress' that sticks out like a sore thumb in the lineup.

    This is largely because she's standing beside a large, black robotic tiger with sleek armor plating and a pair of swivel-mounted energy cannons on its shoulders.

    Nozomi was admittedly a bit surprised to have Taiga, of all people, recommend something to do. But the notion of a world with a school teaching students how to do a job whose description is roughly 'what he was built to do', seems to to have intrigued the robotiger. Plus, acquiring a provisional offworlder's license to do said job seems like a good idea. So Nozomi Houken stands here because, for once, TIGER wants to be here, and she was surprised (and on some level, pleased) enough to indulge him.

    When Ozpin opens the floor up for questions, the ebon-armored tigerbot lifts one paw, as if raising a hand, and speaks to him in a smooth, deep voice. "Are offworlders permitted to locate one or more locals and work in tandem to complete this test?"

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    Truth be told, Kyra wasn't aware that offworlders could participate in an initiation!

    Therefore, she's lined up with the rest of them, waiting with the rest of the others. She rocks back and forth, her hands behind her back, looking...actually, pretty good considering the horrible fight she was in yesterday. White magic healing on herself did speed up that recovery, after all. "Nope! No questions!"

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
While Ozpin and Goodwitch are explaining orientation, Yuna transforms into her Light Suit - preferably a step or two behind the line of students and guests awaiting their deployment. She steps back up to her designated tile, glancing at the edge of the cliff and the deep drop beyond.

She'd be a LOT happier if Erina was here to help, but Elner flatly refused to let Yuna take any of the rest of the Matrix of Light with her for Initiation. For that matter, even *Elner* isn't going to drop into the forest with Yuna; the little robo-faerie made that clear already.

So Yuna is looking more than a little nervous; the fact that she's not the only one is somewhat of a relief. At least she's not the most outlandishly-dressed person in the lineup, she thinks with a glance at the fully-suited Batman. ... And she probably shouldn't be thinking like that; odds are *he* thinks the Light Suit is weirder than his own bat-tlesuit.

Other people seem to be covering the handful of questions that are coming to her mind, so Yuna just tries to remain slightly tense without stiffening up entirely. She has one guess about how everyone's going to get down the cliff, and she's hoping she's wrong.

Lloyd Irving (373) has posed:
    A school for fighting, with students who craft their own weapons for fighting threats? You bet Lloyd is there. Given that this is some manner of initiation, Lloyd is dressed for combat, in his normal travelling clothes minus his retired red jacket. Instead, he's in a plain black t-shirt. Instead of his normal sword sheathes, he's carrying a pair of his customized gunswords. One of fire and one of light, the twin blades are black and white, about the length of a standard broadsword each and revolver chambers loaded with bullets.

    They rest crossed across his back, and a belt of bullets is sitting on his waist. He steps up next to the rest of the people lining up, glancing over toward Ozpin and Goodwitch with a curious look. Ozpin, he immediately marks as someone he definitely wants to talk to at some point, to get a better feel for his personality. Goodwitch, on the other hand, seems to cause the swordsman to twitch and look away in... panic? She LOOKS like a teacher, and teachers and Lloyd tend to end with Lloyd getting pegged with a piece of chalk. He stares out across the forest, taking a rather relaxed position in line. He glances along the line, spotting familiar faces and natives alike and offering a warm smile to anyone who looks his way. As he does, he examines weapons as well, trying to piece together how they work based on looks alone. That, more than even the dangers facing them in the Emerald Forest, seems to bring more life to his face.

    "Oh man... so many cool things...!"

Yuuki Konno has posed:
    Yuuki, here as her avatar-self as usual, is intrigued by the whole idea of joining the school. She can't attend a school in her own world, which makes joining a school just about the most appealing thing out there due to its forbidden nature. Beacon is cool... it's like a school for MMO players, to become someone who goes out hunting monsters.

    Of course Yuuki might not live to become a graduate, but that's okay. She'll live her life her way, for as long as she can. That means now, she's going to attend as if she has no greater concerns in the worlds or in life.

    She blinks at the explanation. Permanent team? Whoever she first SEES is going to be her partner for four YEARS? Okay, that's bizarre. But hey, she doesn't mind! If that's what it takes to be part of this amazing school, so be it. She thrusts a fist into the air. "Yeaaaaah!" she cries out. Then blinks. "Er, how do we get down into the forest?" she asks, deciding on the spur of the moment to ask. She knows how SHE might do it, but she's not so sure about many of the others. She's not even sure if she's ALLOWED to use her faerie wings... but then, she hasn't been forbidden their use either.

Tomoe has posed:
Tomoe had been curious to learn more and Beacon got her attention more than the sort of post secondary education in her world would offer her and she didn't want to end up beholden to one of her world's militaries as they'd never her her go, and she darn well knew they wouldn't. SO here she was but this wasn't quite what she was expecting as she listen to Ozpin she's come in the form of Eisen again today as those from Becon knew her best. Even if she didn't go to the school she did want to understand things and help out where she could, they did seem to She takes a look to Kyra and then to Yuna then she takes note of all the weapons, she looks at her own, it's just a shotgun, it doesn't turn anything to else, she's also got a large knife in sheath on the small of her back but that's it. Well in for a penny, in for a pound.

"No questions sir."

Ruby Rose (910) has posed:
It's the big day. The really, really big day. The day that Ruby was too excited to sleep for.

Initiation Day.

Ruby double checked, triple checked and quadruple checked her weapon before coming out here. Got food taken care of and made sure to be as well rested as she could for this. She had Ozpin and Goodwitch to impress today and judging by how the last talk went...well, it kind of worked out for her, didn't it?

Ruby is at the starting line, standing on one of the metal panels, the young girl flipping her scythe out and at the ready, seemingly understanding what the goal was and what this metal floor pad would do.

Meanwhile, Weiss is also present, though for her, this was merely a...trivial challenge. She already knew she was leagues better than the vast majority here and this was just a formality. She'd lead her own team, she'd cherry pick the best students to be on it and she, like her family, would dominate yet another market. Weiss also stands on one of the metal panels, her rapier ready at her side. The revolving dust chamber was full, lock stock and barrel and the Grimm in this forest were too stupid to know what just hit them.

Cirra Constantine (675) has posed:
    Cirra Cosntantine is here because the more places she can operate freely - or semi-freely. The better. She's wearing her full Judge armor and is standing with her hands behind her back, practically at parade rest. She however, has guess how this is going to go. There only one good reason to stand on a platform at the edge of a cliff overlooking a forest full of monsters.

    The Judge is however firmly in the 'substitue Huntress' setup. She can't commit to being a full time team member when she aleardy attends another school of a similar sort.

    She nods to Glynda Goodwitch as instructions are given out.

Yang Xiao Long has posed:
    Ozpin indulges the offworlders, ignoring the plaintive pleas of a certain blonde haired, blue eyed boy right at the 'front' of the queue. 'Batman' gets a raised brow, as the farthest end of launch pads begin to flick their occupants into the air, and over the cliffside. "If you do not, then you will die." he says simply. TIGER then gets his attention. "My answer will be the same as for the boy in the full body suit. The Grimm do not care about you, or what you stand for. So, yes. Seek out allies."

    The blonde boy chimes in with his own question, just after Yuuki's. "How are, we getting down into the forest? Are you dropping us off or..." Ozpin says simply. "Now. You will have to use your own Landing Strategy." The boy ahs. "Did you provide parachutes or...?" "No." "Then what is a landing strate---GEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" During this exchange, the pads have been launching their occupants.

    Yang was there too, next to Ruby's pad. She smirks, winks at her Li'l Sis, then puts on her riding shades before her pad flips her into the air. "WEEEHOOOOOHOOOO!"

Blake Belladonna (917) has posed:
     Blake Belladonna is launched into the air. The black and purple lithe figure goes into a neat flip before sliding right down into the trees, swinging out Gambol Shroud in a swift movement and looping around the branch before she lands neatly on her feet in a slight crouch. She stands up, dusts off her shorts, and slings Gambol Shroud over her back.

     Nailed it. Duh.

     She takes a few steps forward, eyes on the ground to keep from necessarily getting a partner, but also seeing if anyone else is in the nearby area.

Cirra Constantine (675) has posed:
    Cirra hunkers down as the pads start shooting students up into the air, and glances over at Kyra, having only imagined what the White Mage/Chemist will think of this. She looks forward again as her pad launches her into the air wordlessly. She pulls her knees up against her chest to keep her profile small for the flight overhead going for as long as possible until she starts to arc down towards the tree tops.

    Cirra's agility is not something she gets to display much in fights against large monsters, but now she gets to pick a tree (the one she's rushing towards) and put out one hand - it only takes a little bit of blood covnerted into MP to reinforce her arm tp grasp hold of the stree's trunk and spin half way around the tree and then kick off with her feet, slipping backwards to plant her feet against the next tree and repeat the process untill she's close enough to - somehow - run down the remaining tree trunk to the forest floor.

    "Brisk." she comments idly as she turns towards the temple objective in the distance.

Nozomi Houken (342) has posed:
    "I see. Thank you." Taiga turns his head to Nozomi and says simply, "On my back. Hold tightly." Nozomi gives a rather nervous nod - she has eyes, after all, she can see what's about to happen - and hastily scrambles onto the mechatiger's back as he stands up. She seems used to this, immediately hunkering down with her head against his back, between the cannons, and clinging tightly. It's good that she does; the force of the launch is easily absorbed by Taiga, but it's still a sudden acceleration that leaves her needing to hang on tightly.

    If you've ever wanted to see a big robotic tiger soar majestically, here is your chance.

    One might wonder how he intends to stop, but that's a silly question. There are trees, and the TIGER is (sort of) a cat. A cat with very big claws, which are very good for 'clawing a tree in passing to bleed off inertia'. It takes a few trees before he can safely cling to a thicker branch and kill the rest of it, but the tradeoff is 'Nozomi doesn't get dislodged and die', so that's probably worthwhile.

    And once Taiga HAS stopped, it's an easy series of hops down to the ground. Once he's landed, his ears begin to swivel this way and that, his head lifted as if to scent the air. "Extending supernatural sensors to full active range. Nozomi, please hold on tightly. As soon as I locate another student, I will be joining them swiftly." Nozomi gives a quiet little nod - only to be jerked to one side slightly as her mount turns and begins running towards the nearest student's sensor signature. This happens to be Blake.

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    Kyra gives a sidelong glance at the blonde boy as he asks about a "landing strategy". In fact, she kind of wants to ask too only to find herself getting a demonstration as the launchers start flinging students into the air. "...oh. /Wow/, that's actually kind of hardcore. Well then!" She seems perfectly fine with these conditions, happy to wait as it flings her into the air. "WEEEE!!"

    While in the air, she starts casting spells on herself, the first one, of course, being Float. It's not strictly /flight/ but it does slow her descent. She waits on casting this one until she's a little closer to the ground so she can get some distance into the forest. She follows this up with a Protect spell, which reduces the impact as she lands against a tree. The white mage hops down afterwards, sliding deep into the forest.

Terry McGinnis (867) has posed:
    Terry McGinnis looks down the line at the pads and then at his own, "I get the idea," he states simply as he croches and waits for the pad to activate under his own feet. When it does, he pushes up and flips, the wings coming out of his suit as he hovers for a split second and looks at people who are fallign to see how they will land. Shrugging, he looks at the temple int he distance and judges how far then thinks as he looks for Grimms in the forest and drops down in a dive, like a bomb and at the last moment, levels off and glides then lands and looks around for someone to team up with.

Lloyd Irving (373) has posed:
    Flip panels. Well, that answers that. Luckily, Lloyd... kinda has a cheat button for this sort of situation. As he readies up, he sinks down to brace himself. He gives the line one more look, smiling broadly, before... WHUMP!

    His platform flips, and off he goes! However... there's no flash of light. No wings. He's sailing over the forest, before drawing his blades and spinning the chambers in both. As his forward momentum begins turning into down-forward momentum, he spins in the air, lowering his profile and finally flaring his wings outward. He turns himself into a somersaulting motion as he flies, carving at trees and branches to avoid unnecessary damage. He flaps his wings backward as he moves out of his flipping position, feet skidding across the ground as he slows himself, boots carving canyons in the ground. As a cloud of dust puffs up behind him, he straightens up, checking his chambers and making sure he had the right shots ready. Light in the fire sword, fire in the light sword. Type coverage, right?

    Right?

    He takes a leisurely pace, glancing around. He needed a partner, right? Someone was bound to run into him eventually, he guessed. And so he slings his blades back across his back and, with a small flash of light, puts his wings away. "So! Anyone nearby?!"

Yuuki Konno has posed:
    This seems almost unfair. Fun though! Yuuki is utterly fearless when it comes to getting launched into the air like this. She's been flying ever since she first started Alfheim Online with her friends. This is, however, the first time she's been launched under some power other than her own.

    "Wheeeeeee!" she shrieks, lofted into the air. As she hurtles along, she rotates in the air, peering out to see how others might be handling this problem. Also, she supposes, to see who might be setting down where. She could pick her landing point, but that seems slightly against the purpose of this whole expedition. The whole point, after all, is to fit in.

    Yuuki doesn't deploy her faerie wings until she's ready to break tree cover. Some might not even see her wings at all, though those who've seen her before would surely be aware of them. She ends up rocketing through the treetops, speeding and rolling through the branches, maneuvering as little as possible. She'll end up touching down just about where the catapult system would send her, dropping to the forest floor gently and easily.

    With a shrug Yuuki sets off in the rough direction of their destination. Whoever finds her, whoever she finds, it's in the hands of fate. She's not exactly worried, not about dying, not about passing. This is going to be an adventure!

Tomoe has posed:
Tomoe says "I was just wondering how it would really end up... Go...."

That's the last thing she gets to say, the next thing in her mind is? Why didn't she come as her ALO avatar? There's no time for that as Tomoe is launched into the air. Just what sort of school she's getting herself into the ait sher's near by Yuuki as she's also launched ner her but Yuuki's an imp this is almost cheating. However the name of the game right now is not /dying/ which is the most imporant thing.

She ends up rockting towards the tree and she starts to think of how to lose some speed, she shigts grabs hold of a tree, flips about the branch, goes to the next and is slowly sheading speed but as she does so she might be acciently launching herself with at Yuuki! The question is will she get caught or will she end up leaving a Eisen/Tomoe shaped crater in the ground!

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
Oh right, *weapon*. That's what Yuna didn't seem to have ready yet - although to be fair, she was hoping to 'land' empty-handed in case she needs to catch herself. But with everyone ELSE readying weapons, it seems like, Yuna pulls the Matrix Divider out, holding it neutrally - could aim it to fire it like a gun, could swing it like a sword, whatever's necessary in a pinch.

And then she's airborne, before she can think any further about things. It's sort of fun, like a jet coaster ... except, she realizes quickly, without the safety of harness or seat or track or car. She misses the discussion of 'landing strategies,' too, so she quickly comes to a simple decision: make it up as she goes. Besides, she's not TOTALLY unfamiliar with roof-hopping, the trees should provide a halfway adequate substitute for skyscrapers. On the other hand, skyscraper roofs are pretty solid underfoot, and the upper branches of trees ... kind of aren't.

Yuna retains the presence of mind on the way down to try and keep her 'flight' as steady as she can, facing towards the ground and ready to straighten her body out. The Matrix Divider doesn't serve much purpose, except to fire a couple of low-powered bursts once she realizes where she's going - just enough to poke holes in the canopy and get a sense of how far she is from impact. Roof-hopping doesn't usually start THAT high, of course, and she has to adjust -

But adjust she does. Rather than trying to stick the inifial landing straight, Yuna half-rolls, half-jumps, going into more of a somersault that she wanted on her way off the first branch. (It also makes the ENTIRE TREE shake hard enough to send a bunch of birds into the air. Stupid Newton.)

A few more branch-hops later, some of them a lot less graceful than you'd expect from a magical girl, Yuna hits the ground rolling, comes to a halt flat on her back ... then rolls to her side just before the Matrix Divider thuds into the ground where she *was*. "Haaah. I hope the Grimm aren't that rough." She starts getting back to her feet, checking herself for injuries and wondering how badly that ordeal ate away at her battlesuit's defensive reserves. A drifting voice catches her attention, though, and she perks up a bit. "Lloyd, that you?" she calls back.

Ruby Rose (910) has posed:
Ruby Rose smirks towards her sister as the spots the shades, but her turn comes up and off into the flying blue yonder she goes. The sense of speed was, in short, fantastic, as the view from above the emerald forest is unparalleled. As her flying arc starts to head back down, she spots something in her path. Something indisputably in path.

A small, black, completely unaware bird.

She slams into the bird and cleanly dispurses it in a puff of feathers, much to her immediate sadness.

"Birdy no!"

She flips her scythe back into it's rifle form and starts firing at the ground in front of her to slow her descent. With enough shots and a quick switch back to scythe mode, she hits a solid looking tree branch with her scythe and swings around it, killing her momentum entirely.

Weiss is, as she nearly always is, composed while in action. She slows her fall by flipping over once and activating her blue dust to make a temporary platform in the air for herself to leap off of. She does just that and drops a bit more sharply towards the ground, landing like a feather on the ground.

Yang Xiao Long has posed:
    Yang, for her part, is absolutely loving it. She takes a rather sharp turn downwards at the apex of her arc, being quite a bit heavier than some of the others... but that doesn't really matter, as her gauntlets are thrown back behind her, loosing off explosive clouds to propel her forwards. She's beaming like a mad woman, cackling and giggling the entire way before she curls up just as she strikes the canopy. She breaks through the other side, rolls herself, then with a quick few hops against tree trunks, lands with a roll. "Nailed it~!"

    She stands, takes off her shades and starts walking.

    "Hello? Hello!? Is anyone there?" she pauses. "I'm getting bored here!"

    She's distracted by rustling in some nearby bushes. "Ruby? Izzat you?" she goes to investigate, only to be confronted by an Ursa Major. "Nnnnopuh." She leaps to the side, then backflips to dodge a second as it comes out of the brush opposite. "Huh, you wanna play?" she asks, deploying her gauntlets and smirking.

    As for the others, they would likely run into either: Beowolves(Werewolf-like monsters.) Other Ursai(Giant Bears.) or Boarbatusks(Armoured boars that SPINDASH to attack.) Some may even cross paths with the orange haired girl and black haired boy from earlier, the boy fighting a giant, two-headed snake!

Lloyd Irving (373) has posed:
    Lloyd rolls his shoulders, then hears a familiar voice nearby. He smirks a bit, then makes his way toward the voice's owner. "Well, at least I found someone I know I work well with, huh?" he asks, stepping around a tree and spotting Yuna. "Hey there," he continues. He draws his blades off his back again, spinning them into a prepared position. "Might want to get ready," he says after a moment, "This place is very dangerous. Monsters...!" He spots some eyes in the bushes, sinking into an aggressive stance. He can hear the sounds of fighting off in the distance, someone engaging something big by the sound of things. However, he doesn't have time to worry about that.

    Are those... pigs? Nope, not quite.

    As the first Boarbatusk steps out of the bush, Lloyd blinks. "Whoa. That's... an odd looking beast...!"

Terry McGinnis (867) has posed:
    Terry McGinnis looks as he landed and ponders as he starts to move towards the temple. He doe snot cloak himself, although he could and just move without being seen, but that is not what this is about, it's pure fighting skill and survival. He is lucky to have gone against Grimm before, and so knows how to stop them, although that was just the big bear ones, the what were they called....Beowolf's.... But there were also Nevermores and Ursa Majors. At least that is all he knows of. But odds are there are other types of Grimm here.

    He moves quietly as he goes, and tries to be a bat, which he has a few tricks up his sleeve to help him and whoever he teams up with. Luckily he has not used that special batarang that is designed specifically for a single purpose; to summon bats with an ultrasonic sound. He can activate it, and summon any nearby bats and that usually causes panic in people as they see the Batman in a dark ally.

    Looking, he tries to see who is near him and talks, "Yea it is a good idea Max," he says to her. "Plus it gives me a chance to learn more with those in the Multiverse then just in Gotham," he adds to her as he listens and can be seen talking to himself if someone does notice him. But what he does hear, is the noise of a Grimm nearby and stops, finding a tree and moving tree to tree, "Max, gotta go, incoming," he states to her as he moves towards the Grimm or Grimms heading for him.

    As he moves around a tree, he stops and sees a Boarbatusks and then a second one. "Hello," he says simply as he rushes forward and slides to send his foot into the head of the Boar and hopes to crack its mask before the second one can attack and in the same instance as the kick, he sends a batarang towards the other boar and when it hits it, it beeps a few times before there is an explosion.

Blake Belladonna (917) has posed:
     Blake hears a noise, and she wheels around, going extremely quiet... and her eyes land on ... well, that's definitely not a Beacon student, so she feels comfortably to lift her eyes and give Nozomi and Taiga a quick nod, relaxing slightly. She was afraid it might have been Grimm or something. She does hear Yang closer, and she has a brief inner argument with herself.

     Sure, Yang is a antithesis to her personality. She's brash, bold, bright, sunny, warm. She's full of puns and can't ever seem to stop talking. She's quick on her feet and with her temper, and she definitely cares utterly about Ruby. Sure, Blake might regret it down the line but...

     Blake sighs deeply.

     "I think I hear Ursa. Bears, basically. She warns the cat/girl combination softly, before leading them into the bushes nearby.

Nozomi Houken (342) has posed:
    Taiga is a pretty speedy piece of hardware, darting around trees in a difficult-to-follow course and still making good time in his progress towards the nearest student on his sensors. That's not to say, however, that he totally evades any Grimms he happens to run into. Quite the contrary. They're supernatural threats, both to him and Nozomi, and to the actual students of Beacon. And right now, he is in a rare situation; 'weapons free' to engage all supernatural hostiles he happens to come across.

    The practical upshot of this is that he is enjoying himself blasting apart a Beowolf with his shoulder cannons when Blake finds them. "Hello," the TIGER unit greets Blake simply. "You're correct, I believe. I detect more than one large signature matching the profile of a 'Grimm' nearby. Larger than that one," he adds, in regards to the Beowolf he's just taken care of. "I will take to the treeline and provide ranged support, in order to keep the danger to my user minimal. We will follow your lead."

    Nozomi just kind of gives Blake a halfhearted, slightly shy wave. "Ah, h-hey. Nozomi, Nozomi Houken... don't worry, um... if things get too dangerous, Taiga and I can... well, w-we'll be fine, so..." She's at least quite aware that her timid nature causes people to wonder what the hell she's doing on the battlefield most of the time. It's not like she doesn't think it herself.

    With that said, Taiga suits deed to word, and leaps up to a low tree branch, directly above Blake.

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    Humming cheerfully, Kyra hops down from the tree, easily manuvering thanks to the Float spell. It's technically cheating, but magic is a part of her so she personally thinks otherwise. Once she lands, she pulls a pistol off of her hip that turns out to be the Luna's Resolve. Lloyd might have spotted it on her earlier-he'd definitely recognize it since he made that weapon for her nearly a year ago.

    "White mage, LFG!" Kyra calls out to the forest, pausing as she hears Terry's /explosion/ off in the forest. "Oooh." Immediately, the white mage scoots off in the direction of the sound.

    When she arrives, though, she doesn't /see/ the source of the explosion, but she definitely sees the boar-like Grimm it was trying to target. She doesn't waste time in looking for the source, using a tree for cover as she unloads a pair of shots from the Luna's Resolve. The bullets themselves are not normal-in fact, specially crafted by Lloyd with holy-energy aspect.

Yuuki Konno has posed:
    Yuuki has few qualms about hanging out in a strange forest alone, with monsters all around. She'd intended to head towards the temple destination, but got somewhat distracted by the arrival of a pack of monsters. Beowolfs. She rests her hand on her blade's hilt, grinning fiercely on the verge of battle. "Time to fight!" she insists, not having any interest in trying to persuade the monsters otherwise.

    Yuuki draws her blade, and what follows is little shy of a ballet. She begins carving her way through the monsters, not stopping to finish off any in particular, just trying to keep from being blindsided by an unexpected attack. The fight makes plenty of noise between Yuuki's battlecries and the Beowolfs' screams of pain. She's not... not really overwhelmed, but it looks like she's not doing such a good job of actually killing the monsters before more are drawn to the sound of battle.

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
Yuna grins in relief as Lloyd approaches, and pulls the Matrix Divider back out of the ground. "Been a while since we actually fought side-by-side, hasn't it -"

Lloyd senses the monsters' approach before Yuna does, but the blonde reacts just as quickly, shifting her weapon into a ranged-mode grip. "At least we won't be boared to tears," she jokes.

Then she opens fire, trying to weaken the Boarbatusk - the first one, at least; she doubts it's alone - so Lloyd can finish it off. "With all that armor on its head and back," she comments between shots, "we may need to flip it on its back or something, expose the belly!"

She's keenly aware that Elner isn't helping her out; normally the robo-faerie would keep tabs on enemies for her, at least a *little* bit. Right now, though, it's just her and Lloyd - which is exactly the point: Yuna needs to learn not to depend as heavily on the Matrix of Light as she tends to.

And speaking of Elner, once every student had been launched, the robo-faerie flitted over to 'watch' over Ozpin's and Goodwitch's shoulders. The assistant headmistress may have been offered a datafeed from Elner's sensors ... but more likely, she probably doesn't even NEED the extra data.

Tomoe has posed:
Tomoe comes in for a crash landing as Yuuki was quite busy with a bunch of Beowolfs she leaves an impact cratter but soon is pulling her now wireframy like form out of the hole in the ground. She shakes her head a bit as her body takes it's natural shape once more and she hears the sounds of battle she then sees it's Yuuki. It doesn't take long for Tomoe to home in on Yuuki aka Zekken and she would find one of the Beowolfs taking several shotgun blasts from behind.

"Hey Zekken you can't have all the fun alone, right?!"

She falls in trying to give Yuuki ranged support as she does so but there's always likely to be more monsters lurking out there.

Ruby Rose (910) has posed:
Ruby Rose lands with a soft *Paff* on the ground before immediately sprinting and looking around the woods for any signs of the students that were flung out with her. "Yang! Yannnng!"

She inverts her thinking after that, remembering some of the others that were with her up there. Who else did she know at school? There was Jaune...that blond haired guy. He's nice. He's funny.

But he's not terribly good in a fight.

Well, then there's Blake, All dark and mysterious. She likes books. I like books. But I don't think I can hold a conversation with her. Then of course there we some she'd seen up at the cliff. There's Cirra. Cirra's nice. Cirra's strong. But how heavy was her armor? Did she even fly that far? Then there was that guy in the black suit. He's super mysterious too. I can certainly appreciate the color choice but...is there a such thing as being too mysterious?

This would need to be poked at later.

There was also a purple girl. She's purple. She has wings. That's neat. But will she be mad about birdy? Let's hope she didn't see that. It's not a particularly proud moment. Lastly, at least to her recollection, there was also a red guy with swords. Swords are super cool and having two swords is better than no sword, but how many people own swords? Was it at least a gun?

Better yet, would he be INTERESTED in making it a gun?

Also poke at that later.

But that's everyone I can think of minus Yang and who else...?

Ruby skids to a stop as a white figure walks into her path and and stares at her, Weiss looking stunned that the girl who had practically exploded due to her ineptitude arrives at her doorstep. Weiss sneers at her and turns away, walking into the brush.

Cirra Constantine (675) has posed:
    Cirra continues to walk through the forest, it's quite... "Too quite." she pauses to look around for a moment.

    A Beowoulf leaps out of a tree, descending on the Judge with claws raised, but Cirra ducks and rolls to the side, sprining back up to her feet with her Judge Blade instantly materializing in her hand. She stabs the weapon into the creature's side and pulls it out in one stroke, but more of the creatures appear from the undrebrush of the forest, rushing the Judge. "Tch." she leaps backwards and switch her sword for rifle mode, and fires a pair of exploding crystals into their ranks. "You seem to have me at a disadvantadge." she says while backing up from the remaining Grimm as they stalk towards her.

    Cirra turns, and with her Judge Blade back insword form, she slices a large wedge out of a tree.

    People elsewhere may hear the cracking of wood as a tree falls in the woods onto a group of Grimm.

    cirra does not stick around to find out if it finished them off.

Yang Xiao Long has posed:
    Ozpin glances at Elner, offering a little nod as he looks at his Scroll. There are several video feeds, but the 'cameras' aren't exactly obvious. Tiny little microdrones or something along those lines. They show the pairs as they form. The boy and girl with the Snake. Lloyd and Yuna, Blake alone, Yang alone, the blonde guy and a red headed girl. Tomoe and Yuuki, et al. Goodwitch thanks Elner, though the data feed she has is pretty comprehensive already.

    Yang asks the Ursai nonchalantly. "Hey, you haven't seen a girl in a red hood around have you?" They Ursai roar. "You coulda just said 'no'!" She backflips, then blasts herself forward to knock one away then uppercuts the second Ursa as it lunges at her, and fires backwards to provide more momentum to a spin kick to knock it staggering. She then has to duck and backflip again to dodge a lunging swipe. "Heh, you guys couldn't hit the broad side of a b---" her joking manner evaporates as her eyes go blood red. "You... YOU MONSTERS!" She explodes, blurrs forward, and performs a sick 'Beat Rush' combo on the offending Ursa, pummeling it so much it explodes into black smoke as soon as it hits the floor from her last strike.

    The second comes charging up. "What!? YOU WANT SOME TOO!?" she challenges, clearly not exactly sane right now.

Lloyd Irving (373) has posed:
    Lloyd chuckles, shaking his head a bit. "That joke was terrible, Yuna," he says, even as he starts laughing harder. Then he shakes his head and returns to reality. As Yuna opens fire on one of the Boarbatusks, Lloyd nods. "Armored heavily on the top and front," he says, "Good note! I got this!" He lunges forward, aiming one blade forward and spinning his chamber. As it clicks into place, he roars, "Stalagmite!" and pulls the trigger.

    A brown magic circle appears beneath the Boarbatusk, before a massive shockwave pulses through the area. A spire of stone rockets up from below, the swordsman hoping to punch sharply into and through the pig monster. He skids to a halt, rounding on the next and spinning his cylinders once again. "That one's yours, Yuna!" he says, "I'll set it up! Cyclone!" He pulls the trigger on his other blade, a green circle appearing under another Boarbatusk before the wind begins to swirl around it. It wouldn't be long before the Grimm would be lifted into the air, leaving it open for Yuna to finish it off.

Yuuki Konno has posed:
    Though her expression was solemnly serious when Yuuki dances with Beowolves, a fierce grin escapes her when she's hailed by Eisen. "Iron Lily!" she greets cheerfully, raising her sword in a moment's salute. She kicks a Beowolf while her sword's raised, then vaults over another one, stabbing as she spins about. "Or is it Gun Bunny Lily in this mode?" she teases.

    Either way, Yuuki makes her way towards Eisen at speed, slashing only to keep the Beowolves at bay as she charges through. "Looks like it's my turn to tank for you!" she says agreeably enough. She's not exactly used to tanking, but she's got plenty of experience in groups. The principle's easy, and she puts up a wall of sharpened steel between Eisen and their closest-range foes to let the other VR Girl relax her defense somewhat to begin pouring out the damage.

Terry McGinnis (867) has posed:
    Terry McGinnis looks as the gun fire arrives and he spots Kyra and nods, "Kyra," he states simply as he says as he looks as he stands up after sending another kick to the boars head, "Hit the white plate over their heads. Ddestroy them to take them out," he adds as he grabs the tusks of the Boar and uses them as handles as he pulls and lifts it over him as he bodyslams it ino the ground. Hopefully the slam is hard enough to crack or destroy the mask of the boar and if not, he'll punch it till it does crack.

Blake Belladonna (917) has posed:
     "Right." Blake says, giving Nozomi a nod.

     She continues rustling through the bushes, but basically watches Yang challenge a pair of Ursa Major. She sighs, deeply, to herself. This is going to be one interesting partnership. With that decided, she waits, biding her time for Yang to charge one of them before she jumps at the other one, creeping closer ever so cautiously.

Tomoe has posed:
Tomoe can't help but laughing at Yuuki's comment.

"Good to see you and maybe I am. I should get one of those even items and go full out battle bunny casino girl? Then again that might be a bit too silly wouldn't it!"

She does not mind not being the tank for once she's got some pretty good firepower there. Tomoe may be entirely serious about this too. For now the gunshots keep coming and she's witching to some sort of mini grenades that a shotgun is able to fire, the spaz-12 just lets losse with the strnage rounds tht will explode on impact. With Yuuki covering her she's able to just open up fully and not have to entirely worry about her own defence for the moment.

Ruby Rose (910) has posed:
Ruby Rose takes a step towards Weiss as she walks towards her, her expression faltering somewhat. "But...we're supposed to be team mates..."

Weiss angrily storms off, angry at her luck. Of all the lousy people that could have stumbled upon her, it had to be her. Surely the academy could...make an exception. Maybe the second person she comes across might do. She ends up spotting Jaune, the blond dork from earlier, pinned to the tree by a spear. Weiss looks up at the literal personification of luck and turns away again with a grumble in her voice. She passes by Ruby, who looks OVERJOYED to see her, throwing her hands up in the air in greeting. Weiss grabs Ruby's hood and drags her back by it, her brows furrowing.

"By no means does this make us friends."

Ruby however, couldn't be happier. "You came back!"

It isn't long before the two of them disappear into the brush, leaving Jaune to fend for himself...at least for the moment.

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    "Oh hey!" Kyra would wave but she has both of her hands on the pistol. It was always a little different using that or the Psyber Special since those firearms had 'recoil', which sometimes threw off her aim. "Wait, are you sure you want me to shoot the /armor/, it's kind of-"

    She watches Terry lift the boar and as he does, Kyra notices that it doesn't seem to have any of the bone white plating on its underside. Acting quickly, she takes advantage of the time that Terry pulls it into the air to fire off another pair of shots, this time at the boar's belly, using that small window of opportunity while its exposed.

    "Our eyes have met!" The chamber of the Luna's Resolve shifts to the fifth bullet, "That means we're /teammates/, right?"

Nozomi Houken (342) has posed:
    True to his word, Taiga moves through the trees smoothly, keeping pace with Blake. When they finally come upon Yang and her unbearable peril, he decides to do what Blake is doing, and waits silently.

    For about five seconds.

    He's a cat. A cat that can fire shoulder-mounted energy cannons infused with magical power. Of /course/ he's going to take a couple lazy potshots at Yang's target, hobbling it so that she can pummel it easily.

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
"That works too," Yuna notes with a grin as Lloyd impales the first Boarbatusk with a rocky spire erupting from the ground beneath it, then sending the next one flying into the air. Yuna shifts the Matrix Divider to a melee-mode grip, watching the Grimm get launched into the air - and then charging into the eye of the storm. When the whirlwind abates and the Boarbatusk falls, she's ready to thrust the Divider straight up into its belly -

Coupled with a flaring discharge of concussive, focused radiance, which should be enough to blast the monster apart, or at least blow it open so it'll expire the rest of the way without posing a further threat.

She's keeping her eyes open for more of those creatures, though - and not just from the same direction the first two came. "Wonder how big these things come in packs of ..." She lowers the Matrix Divider, getting ready to shoot at more Grimm if they show up.

Cirra Constantine (675) has posed:
    Cirra can hear a few of the Beowulves are still after her. She turns sharply and looks for a position to - No. There a redheaded girl directly ahead of her.

5tThe Judge turns hard and as she pases PHyrra "Excuse me -" and leaps upwards grabbing hold of a tree branch to swing up on top of it and turns around, pulling out a Law Card. "The. BRIAR!" and stabs it through with her blade.

    A patch of crystal throns grow up in the path of the beowulves, snaring them in place while she fires her sword rifle at them, aiming to finish them off.

Yang Xiao Long has posed:
    "Unorthodox... but they seem quite capable so far." says Ozpin, watching 'Batman' and Kyra fighting the Boarbatusks. "Hopefully they figure out the weakspot, or are strong enough to break through the thick armour." replies Goodwitch, then switches to another feed. "I feel sorry for him though... being stuck with /that/ girl." the feed shows Ren and Nora, as the former wanders off from the downed King Taijitu, while the latter prances about and likely sings some kind of song. "As for that Arc boy... I still wonder how he even got into this school in the first place. His documents are all in order, but..."

    Yang glares at the Ursa, which rears up, roars... then jerks oddly as something slams into it from behind, as it's staggering from the energy cannon fire. It slumps over, and Blake is stood there, sheathing Gambol Shroud over her shoulder.

    Yang sorta deflates a bit... but smirks regardless. "I coulda taken 'im." she says, stepping around the smoking corpse of the Ursa, then clapping Blake on the shoulder. "Thanks, though." she offers, beaming happily. "And thanks for the assist too!" she calls in the general direction those shots came from.

    Meanwhile, Jaune dangles. "Hey! Wait! COME BACK!" as Weiss disappears with Ruby. "... Who'll get me down from here...?" he asks, slumping a little. "... Jaune..." comes a familiar voice, Pyrrha appearing from the underbrush. "Are there any spots left on your team?" she asks teasingly. "Oh har har..." comes the instant reply, though the blonde does look relieved and Pyrrha is smiling rather genuinely, should anyone come upon them. Cirra's appearance and subsequent BRIAR-ing of incoming Beowolves gets both her and Jaune in fighting position... though Jaune's combat stance is more 'slumped on the ground after falling out of the tree'.

    Boarbatusks generally travel alone, or in two-groups. Beowolves travel in packs up to the dozens, and Ursai come in duos or trios, generally.

Blake Belladonna (917) has posed:
     Blake makes eye contact with Yang Xiao Long. This is the second worst decision she's made in the past half a year.

     Or so she briefly thinks, before giving the sunflower a tiny, rare smile.

     "Hello. There's a visitor with me too. Up in the trees. Nozomi, her name was. So, I guess this makes us partners. Off to the temple, then?"

Terry McGinnis (867) has posed:
    Terry McGinnis looks and nods as he sees the underside, "I'll flip, you hit," he asks Kyra as he nods, "Yea, teammates," he states to her. "These have weak undersides, lets use that too our advantage," he comments as he waits for the second one to charge him and when it does, it roars as Batman jumps grabbing the tusk and pulls back hoping to raise it up to allow Kyra a clean or as close to a clean shot to the creatures soft bottom. and he thinks for a moment as he wrestles with the Boarbatusks.

Cirra Constantine (675) has posed:
    Cirra lowers her rifle as the last Beowulf in the briar is struck. She looks down at Phyrra, who frankly looks much ore experienced then Juan. She pooints two fingers to her helmet visor and then sweeps her arm out in an arc in the directiont he Beowulves chased her from. Hopefully the idea is universal enough to come across that she's signalling there maybe two more out in that direction.

Lloyd Irving (373) has posed:
    Lloyd smirks. "Good work!" he says, "Guess I pulled the lucky card. Though all of the people lined up were pretty strong, it's good to have a familiar face to work with." He offers Yuna a smile, then shrugs. "I've been in and out of action for a long time. It's hard to say, but... yeah, it's been a good long while. I've gotten some new tricks since then. With them and your help, we should make quick work of this challenge." As he turns to look for more Grimm, he shakes his head. "I think they're a small herd. I'm not seeing any others right away."

    He places his swords back on his back, then motions toward where he thinks they're supposed to be headed. The sounds of combat are everywhere now, but they still had an objective to complete, and no way was he gonna forget it. Everyone was capable, after all, and no doubt they had begun to pair off as well. He smirks back at Yuna. "Let's roll out! We need to get to where we need to go."

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
Yuna nods to Lloyd, standing still for a couple of seconds - just listening to the surroundings as well as she can. You'd think a forest would have slightly more ambient noise ... or maybe that's a city girl's thinking when she's out of her element. (Although she HAS been on Equestria enough to be used to the lack of post-industrial background noise.)

She lets Lloyd lead the way; his sense of direction is probably at least as good as hers. "I wonder how big the temple is, or how easy it'll be to miss it if we get lost ... Elner's not going to help me with this at all. It's not the first time I've gone without her support, but ..." She trails off with a shrug.

"So how come you wanted to study at Beacon?" she wonders - genuinely curious what Lloyd's reasons are for being here. She's not trying to distract him from navigating or from watching out for more Grimm; she's staying as alert to the surroundings as she can, too.

Nozomi Houken (342) has posed:
    WhaTHUD. "You are entirely welcome."

    Taiga has no problems taking a long, lazy leap out of the tree and onto the ground, and even lands easily enough that Nozomi is barely jarred. "And I apologize for prematurely ending your enjoyment," the robotic tiger adds. "I had meant to merely disable; I'm still adjusting my output for minimum necessary force against your 'Grimms'. You may call me TIGER," he adds. "And this is my user, Nozomi Houken." It's Yang's turn to get a shy nod, before TIGER continues, "My sensor suite should alert us to any impending ambushes, or packs in our direct path. I will follow your lead, whether you wish to evade or engage."

Ruby Rose (910) has posed:
Ruby Rose is eventually dropped by Weiss, who continues to walk towards her perception of the "right" direction. Weiss has...not had a good day. Or at least this test had gone tha absolute wrong way. She's stuck with Ruby, a girl whom she strongly dislikes, but hey, maybe the other members of the team will make up for her ineptitude. Weiss speaks with Ruby in tow, continuing to pace herself forward. "I will NOT let my mission be delayed because you are too slow. I swear if I get a bad grade-"

Weiss is immediately cut off by a blur of red and rose petals that blow past her, and quite suddenly, the 'slow' Ruby is directly in front of her making a cute cat face, complete with waving kitty-paw-hands. Ruby smiles. "I'm not slow see? You don't have to worry about me."

Weiss looks behind her. "When did-"

"Weiss, just because I don't exactly know how to deal with people, doesn't mean I don't know how to deal with monsters. You are about to see a whole different side of me today Weiss." Ruby grabs her new 'friend' around the shoulder and gestures with a slow hand pan out in front of them. "And after it's all over, you are going to be like 'Wow, that Ruby girl is really...really cool. AndIwannabeyourfriend."

Weiss on the other hand, is rather completely nonplussed, more annoyed with the fact that this girl is STILL talking and now committing the combo sin of ACTUALLY touching her.

Ruby disappears in another puff of wind and inexplicable rose petals, leaving the white girl to wave a few of them off and yell after her.

"You may be fast but you still excel at wasting time!"

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    Kyra's quick to move positions after shooting down the first of the boars following Terry's flipping action. Though still under the influence of the Float spell, which makes her hover off the ground about a foot, she still seems capable of running. It just looks like she's running on air. Somehow she's still able to propel herself forward. "Oh yeah, I noticed! No armor! Didn't even need to use Scan to see it!"

    She seems pretty glad that Terry's already attracted the second boar's attention for aggro purposes. Allowed to concentrate, she's easily able to line up the shots she needs-another pair from the Luna's resolve-directly into the soft, unprotected underbelly of the boar. The Grimm doesn't get to last much longer after that.

    Digging through one of the pouches at her waist, she grabs up another six of the special bullets for the Luna's Resolve. "Awesome. So let's move on. We need to find some kind of ruins at the other end of the forest so...probably this way!" She waves Terry over, heading into the woods.

Yuuki Konno has posed:
    It becomes much easier to fight off the Beowolves in a team, Yuuki can concede. Teams are good, and she likes Tomoe besides. With her own back covered by Eisen's guns, she can also put her blade to more offensive work. It shouldn't be too hard for the VR pair to quickly put down the remainder of the pack.

    After, Yuuki's quick to greet Eisen with a tackle and hug. "C'mon!" she says, pulling away just as quickly. "We need to get through this forest! Wouldn't it be great if we're the FIRST ones to reach the end? We could carve our names on the temple or something!" she cheers. "Man, I got flung SO far by that platform!" she babbles. "Imp bodies are just so light! I mean, I could've just FLOWN there but that didn't seem fair. You had a great landing though! C'mon teammate, let's show them what we can do!"

Tomoe has posed:
Tomoe is not going to quit here she will not even if she's now firing off the last of her special rounds she'll have to hit up GGO later to rearm on those things but there'ds worse things that could be going on, there for her. She's got a very good person sh3e's team up with. Once the last of the pack are down she'll reload and move to hustle after Yuuki.

"We can't delay no can we, and that would be something if we did. Man this would turn heads back home wouldn't it? I betcha I could bench press you in my actual body!"

She makes a face it's in good nhumor as she follows along.

"Yes we shall show them what we can do!"

Yang Xiao Long has posed:
    "You worry too much Glynda." remarks Ozpin. To what he's referring isn't apparent, maybe it's just a general observation on the woman in general. The Assistant Headmistress does look a bit grumpier for it, but lets it pass.

    Yang then grins, and punches the air. "Aaaaaallright! Lets go get us a Relic!" she crows, and starts strutting off in the direction of the Temple. She did get a good view of it from the air, and has a decent sense of direction.

    Pyrrha nods silently to Cirra, turning emerald green eyes out into the forest. The Beowolves come charging out and Pyrrha reacts with cool precision. She uses her shield to deflect a swipe, then slashes across one Beowolf's belly, shifts her weight, then twirls and slams her shield into the same again, knocking it away as it begins to smoke. Jaune, for his part, flails with his sword, making the Beowolf back up a little, thought he doesn't seem able to make contact, so his contribution is that of a 'Big Noisy distraction.'

Cirra Constantine (675) has posed:
    Even a noisy distraction can have it's uses in the short term.

    Cirra seems to apretiate the competence with which PHyrra puts down the first Beowulve, and sights down her barrel at the second one which Juane is ...keeping at bay. Funny, she thought all Beacon students were already expereinced. She tries to get her sights on that second Beowulve but Juange flailing is making a straight shot impossible.

    The Judge lifts her aim, and fires, the crystal shard flying over the Grimm's head and hitting the ground - exploding to pepper it's back with tiny flecks of sharp crystal.

Blake Belladonna (917) has posed:
     "Okay. Come on, Nozomi and Taiga. Thank you for your assistance." She says, politely.

     Blake is polite, if not introverted and kuudere. The lithe faunus walks after Yang, Gmabol Shroud still in her grip, but she expects it to be fairly quiet... she is probably wrong.

Terry McGinnis (867) has posed:
    Batman nods, "Yea," he says as he looks, "This way," he says to her as he gestures. "The temple is this way, but keep an ear and eye out for more Grimm," he adds as he follows along, "Name's Batman," he says to her as he nods and thinks as he wonders for a moment as he heads for the temple with his partner. "I can go up and get a visual to see how far we are," he mentions if it coems to that.

Nozomi Houken (342) has posed:
    Taiga launches off into a run almost immediately, keeping in step with Blake. His ears occasionally quirk this way and that, and every once in a while a cannon will swing around and point in a particular direction, only to return to its forward-facing state seconds later. He is very aware of nearby threats, and if there are any that present a notable obstacle to he, Blake and Yang, he calls them out, and points both cannons at whatever it might be.

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    "Actually, yeah, if you can fly up there and look, Batman, that'd probably save us a lot of time. I was pointed iin the right way before I went running off to check out your explosion." She puts a hand to her chest, "Sounds like you already have my name. I'm not surprised as I /am/ getting pretty multiverse famous these days! Anyway..."

    She wiggles her fingers at Batman and places a Protect spell on him before he ascends to get a better view from above. Following that, she reloads her pistol as she walks along.

Yang Xiao Long has posed:
    Jaune's flailings, with Cirra's own distraction, finally manage to cleave the head clean off of the Beowolf. He looks shocked. But covers it quickly enough with a rather smug expression. "Piece of cake." Pyrrha isn't buying it, but smiles. "Well done, Jaune." to Cirra she turns. "And thank you... ah, I don't believe we have met yet. I am..." she seems a bit hesitant, but this is an offworlder, she couldn't have heard of her... "Pyrrha Nikos. This is Jaune Arc... though I'm sorry, but we made eye contact first..." she says, looking a little... sheepish? Jaune, for his part, sheaths his sword into his shield, and sets them on his belt. "Okay, ladies, lets go find that relic!" he says, trying to put on an air of competance...

    Yang leads the way, though there's no obvious Grimm threats. She reaches a cliff, overlooking a set of ruins deep in the forest. "Looks like the place. What do you think Blake?" she asks, glancing over at her partner and Nozomi with her mechanical 'steed'.

    Amazingly, there's no other Grimm to be fought by most of the groups. The occasional Beowolf, scampering through the underbrush... though they seem to have the presence of 'mind' to avoid heavily armed humans unless with their pack, none engage.

Ruby Rose (910) has posed:
Ruby Rose leaves Weiss' sight for only a few seconds, and in that few seconds some...less than friendly eyes start glaring through the forest. "...Ruby?" Weiss calls out and it wasn't long before enough of them open to show that their little talk had provoked the Grimm in the area. From the bushes step out about a dozen Beowolves, all surrounding her and growling savagely. Weiss composes herself and holds her rapier at the ready.

She trained for this.

Arms out...slow breathing...wide stance...left foot forward. Not THAT forward. Focus and...

She spins the color chamber on her rapier to it's red setting and rushes forward to attack the first Grimm. At about that exact same second Ruby appears in a blast of Rose petals and cleanly carves the Beowolf in half, right in front of Weiss. Not wanting to immolate her 'friend' (which would have been kind of funny admittedly.), Weiss halts herself ungracefully, flinging the fire attack out into the distance and instantly wreathing a poor tree in flames. Ruby, distracted by the fireshow, takes a Beowulf claw to the chest and is sent back into Weiss, knocking her over and nearly tossing Weiss off balance. Ruby shoots a look back to Weiss as she stands.

"Watch it!"

"Excuse me," Weiss says, frustrated. "...you attacked out of turn, I could have killed you!"

Ruby gets to her feet and swings her Scythe outward, reloading a clip into it. She mutters underneath her breath. "You'll have to try alot harder than that."

The Beowolves are quite the fan of dramatic tension as they seemingly patiently wait, though the fire that was tossed out earlier is spreading and fast. Just before Ruby starts to go on the offensive, Weiss grabs her back and points to a tree that very recently fell near them, covered in flames. "We need to go."

Weiss pulls her out of the area as the fire consumes the ground floor, starting to burn the remaining Beowolves who stuck around, though the sounds of distress were clear. A small distance away from the flames the two finally slow down, and while Ruby seemed fine, Weiss was clearly out of breath. Ruby starts up first, exasperated.

"What was THAT!? That should have been easy!"

Weiss, having none of it, sarcastically curtsies towards Ruby. "Well perhaps if you had exercised even the -SLIGHTEST- amount of caution with the placement of your strikes I wouldn't have set the forest on fire!" She points towards the rapidly growing smoke plume for effect.

Ruby retorts. "What's that supposed to mean!?"

The kettle. It boils. "I'm just surprised that someone that talks so much, communicates so little during an encounter."

"Well -I'm- sorry you need my help to win a fight. I'm JUST fine on my own."

"Well congratulations on being the strongest child to sneak your way into beacon." Weiss turns to walk away, throwing her hands up in the air in a manner that showed that she obviously cared. And that she was being intensely sarcastic. "Bravo."

In sheer frustration Ruby takes out her scythe and lets out a frustrated battle cry, slicing a tree in half with ease. She walks after Weiss though and forcibly calms herself down in the process.

And somewhere, out in the multiverse, in a bar, sits a large bear and a blue man wearing a red superhero outfit and a green flat top. Both of them are drinking. The bear holds out his shotglass out towards the man. "Cheers Captain." The other man obliges and clinks the glass against the other, both downing the shot.

It's hard being an environmentalist in media.

Cirra Constantine (675) has posed:
    "Cirra Constantine." The Judge replies to Phyrra. She swings down from her branch and lands on the ground deftly. "And that's quiet alright, I'm only here for the Substitue liscense. I already attend a school similar to Beacon in my world." she glances at Juane, then back to Phyrra who also doesn't seem to buy the confidence, but also seems to be okay with it. She'll just rol with Phyrra's judgement on this.

    "Lets keep going, I've slowed you two down enough as it is."

Blake Belladonna (917) has posed:
     "Looks like it to me." She says, glancing down into the ruins.

     "I ... can see little things? Probably the relics. All you." She shrugs. Blake is easy.

Lloyd Irving (373) has posed:
    Lloyd breaks into a sprint. His sense of direction is pretty keen, and with all the chaos he can get a general idea of where they're going even further. He draws his swords, then starts carving through the underbrush. Yes, it was destructive, but he knew that Yuna wasn't going to be able to fly like he could. So he was staying grounded as well. A tree falls in the general vicinity, but he has to ignore it for now. They really needed to start making headway.

    "Just call me the Trailblazer!" he says, laughing as he cuts his way through. Even if more beasties were waiting, he was confident that he and Yuna could take them down.

Nozomi Houken (342) has posed:
    "If the relics have some sort of supernatural signature - magical, psychic, strong 'life energy', that sort of thing - I can locate them via my sensors," Taiga says simply. "Otherwise, your eyes are approximately as good as mine."

    Nozomi, meanwhile, is looking at the ruin itself. "...it's kind of cool, in a weird way," she murmurs.

Terry McGinnis (867) has posed:
    Batman nods and jumps, the rockets in his boots firing and he takes flight as the wings pop out and he looks once he is up and spins as he circles, making a perfect target to those ont the ground who think he is a Nevermore. Once he gets the location and distance, he drops back to the trees and to Kyra, "We are about 2 to 3 miles from it and it is that way," he says a she points towards it. "Other groups are heading int he same general direction," he adds as he heads int he right direction, which was only about 5 degrees off from the way they were heading. "I also did not see any Grimm between us and the temple, so we have a clear shot as of right now," and he starts running.

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
Yuna does her best to keep up with Lloyd; he's in better physical shape than she is, and while the Light Suit helps bolster her physical strength and stamina, it only narrows the distance - it doesn't cancel it out. Fortunately, Lloyd's carving out a path so that Yuna doesn't have to make her own; that helps quite a bit.

She'll just have to ask him why he's studying at Beacon sometime when they aren't navigating through a massive forest crawling with borderline-demonic beasts that want to feast on their souls and/or bone marrow. Staying alert for threats while plowing through underbrush DOES take a fair amount of concentration, and Yuna's just as happy to focus her ears on the sounds of movement that doesn't belong to her or Lloyd or -

"Is that a fire? Lloyd, veer right!" Yuna abruptly calls out, having mistaken the flutter of a scarlet cloak for the flicker of scarlet flames (which isn't actually the color of fire ...)

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    Kyra watches Batman rocket boot himself up into the air with interest, nodding appreciatively. She continues walking, maintaining visual contact with her partner as he flies overhead. Once he drops back down, she stops and readjusts her heading based on what he saw. "Other groups, huh? Well, we better take the opportunity to catch up!" Unzipping the front of her hoodie, she reveals that she has a bandolier filled with syringes underneath. One of them is plucked from the holder, uncapped, and injected into her arm. She shudders a little as the liquid Haste equivalent takes hold.

    "Alright-" she says, her voice speeded up, "-let's go! And try to keep up~!"

    With haste in effect, she now moves at double speed, which is actually probably average Huntress speed since Kyra's not really big on the physical stuff.

Yang Xiao Long has posed:
    Jaune has led Pyrrha and Cirra to some kind of cave. He makes a makeshift torch, and somehow manages to light it, heading right in. "Jaune, are you sure this is the right place?" asks Pyrrha. "Pyrrha, I made the torch, can you humor my for like, ten more meters?" He then trips, and drops the torch in a puddle. "Oh shoot."

    Then, in the darkness, something begins to glow. "Hey, they could be the Relic!" He makes a grab for it, and it shifts out of the way. "Hey, hold still!" Another grab, another miss, then he leaps at it.

    That's when the 'eyes' of the Death Stalker light up. It charges out of the cave, smashing open the rock face and rearing up, pincers snapping. "PYRRHA! IT'S NO THE RELIC! IT'S NOT!" "Jaune, just, hold o---" And then Jaune is thrown into the distance.

Yang Xiao Long has posed:
PREVIOUSLY ON RWBY: "Do you know whatAura is?" "Pfft, yeah! Do you?" "It's the manifestation of our soul. Understanding both Light and Dark helps us to deflect harm." "Like a force field!" "I suppose that's a way to look at it. Now, close your eyes and concentrate." Pyrrha presses a hand against Jaune's chest, and one against his cheek, closing her eyes and focusing her Aura out into Jaune's body. "For it is in passing that we achieve immortatily. Through this, we become a paragon of virtue and glory to rise above all. Infinite in distance and unbound by death. I release your soul, and by my shoulder, Protect Thee."

    Wipe cut to Pyrrha facing down a large scorpion, as Jaune is flung into the distance. "Uuuuh... eheheh..." she holds her weapon ready.. but even she knows she's no match for a Grimm this old and armoured. So she turns and sprints away, heading in the same direction as Jaune was flung, with the Death Stalker snapping its pincers at her the entire way.

    Yang looks down on the semicircular ruins. "Guess we're the first ones here." she offers to Blake and Nozomi, then hops down the slope, sliding down to the bottom.

Yuuki Konno has posed:
    It shouldn't take too long for Yuuki and Eisen to arrive at the destination. They were flung pretty far into the forest, thye fight well together, and both are avatars that can pretty much run for hours just like any MMO character.

    As she spots the ruins below, Yuuki grins. "Last one down!" she cries out. "... and all that!" she adds before vaulting into the slope. She's not going to FLY to get down, but she's happy enough to slide, bounce, or whatever it takes.

Terry McGinnis (867) has posed:
Terry McGinnis listening, Batman looks, "Lets get there, i think things just got a whole lot worst," he states as he runs and jumps, taking flight over the trees as he sees the death stalker, "Whats that?" he say loud enough to probably be heard. "Kyra, big Grimm, looks like a crab and a scorpion hybrid. Armored like a tank.

Lloyd Irving (373) has posed:
    It wouldn't be long before Lloyd's gunblades blazed them a path through the underbrush and into the clearing where the ruins awaited. With a gesture back toward Yuna, he smiles and points with one blade toward them. "Ah ha!" he says, before stepping into the clearing proper, "Found it. Hopefully all those plants will grow back in time. But it couldn't be helped." He wasn't going to leave his partner behind, after all.

    He crosses his blades across his back and strides across the open field, making quick ground toward the ruins. They weren't the first pair there, and it seemed they also weren't the last. Kyra was already there, and he offers a small wave as he approaches toward the congregating students.

Tomoe has posed:
Tomoe is keeping pace with Yuuki for the moment keeping on the ground as she tails along on the ground. She's using the trees and doing her best impersonation of a jungle cat. She loops about one branch and foes flying down right after Yuuki, hopefully she can make it in time without leaving an impact creater.

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    "We're pretty much here, Batman!" Comes the faint voice of Kyra Hyral from the forest surrounding the ruins. Moments later, the still-floating white mage slips out, accompanied by Batman. She keeps her gun, the Luna's Resolved, drawn as she run-floats for the ruins. "Huh, doesn't seem like we're the first ones here either. C'mon we have to grab a-uh-"

    Kyra squints ahead. Chess pieces? "-one of these things!" She breaks through the treeline and scales the single step onto the stones of the circular platform. She swipes one of the pieces-a white queen-though not without OBVIOUS CAUTION. She behaves like she thinks the little pillars are trapped.

    "Hey Batman, where's this crab thing?" She's probably going to find that out in a few seconds.

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
Yuna emerges from the foliage behind Lloyd, looking back at the path Lloyd carved out in transit. "Hopefully," she echoes. They COULD have gone through the forest less destructively - she wasn't lagging behind that badly - but Lloyd was clearly in a hurry ... and, well, the less time they spent wandering around the forest, the better, she supposes. Less chance of running into more Grimm. Letting the Matrix Divider disappear back into her inventory for the time being, Yuna heads down towards the ruins as well, waving to the others. She doesn't call out, though; she's sort of preoccupied with a half-reflexive mental request to Elner to scout the area.

Elner's only interest in 'scanning the area' is continuing to spectate over Ozpin's and Goodwitch's shoulders, though, and the request goes unacknowledged.

At least there are plenty of relics to go around. Yuna studies a couple of the pedestals for a moment, then picks up the remaining white queen, turning it around in her gloved hands as if looking for secrets or surprises. "What 'crab thing'?" she asks, turning to look at Kyra. "Did you or Batman see something on your way -"

She pauses, straining her ears ... and while her relic disappears into Yuna's inventory, the Matrix Divider rematerializes in her hands, blade/barrel starting to glow as she 'charges up' an attack. Just in case something bigger is on its way.

Blake Belladonna (917) has posed:
     So now ignite the flame, let it burn in your heart;
     it is the spark of change, the ember of a brand new start;

     While the JP half of JNPR is now prey instead of predator, Nora and Ren are making their way towards the temple. Staring at her scroll, Goodwitch lets off a little huff, remarking quietly, "Poor boy. I can't possibly imagine those two getting along, still, though..." Her camera changes to Pyrrha and Jaune; "He's probably better off than Miss Nikos." Nora bounces alongside Ren, the two of themapproaching the temple, but not there quite yet.

     Blake shrugs at Yang. "It happens. Probably other Grimm out there, and there's three instead of two of us. We have a unfair advantage." She nods at the other arrivals, politely, wordlessly asking Yang with a raised eyebrow 'so, where's the little red riding hood?'

Ruby Rose (910) has posed:
Things were...not going well for Weiss and Ruby. The forest is a big place and the two had gone through a few sudden changes in direction since they started. Ruby sits in a small clearing with Weiss, toying with a leaf while Weiss paces back and forth, clearly trying to remember where they were headed.

"It's...this way. Definitely this way." Weiss says, walking past Ruby and tilting her head. She shakes it a moment later and steps back in the other direction, looking onward to the seemingly endless forest. "I mean...it's..it's this way!" Weiss doubts the statement immediately as she walks back towards Ruby and stands, shaking her head again. "Alright...it's official...we past it."

Ruby pushes herself back to her feet and tosses away the leaf she had in her hand, looking towards her partner and crossing her arms defensively. "Why can't you just admit you have no idea where we are going?"

Weiss is quick to snap back. "Because I know exactly where we are going. We're going...to.." Weiss takes a few steps away from Ruby and awkwardly points towards the forest in front of her. "...To the forest temple."

Ruby emits a sound of disgust as she turns away from Weiss who reacts accusingly. "Oh stop it, you don't know where we are either."

Ruby turns back, starting to lose her composure. "Well at least I don't act like I know everything."

And so the bickering starts. Again. Weiss shakes her head in disbelief. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means you are a big...stupid jerk and I hate you!"

Weiss turns from her, blowing the comment off entirely and walking forward. "Ugh. Whatever. Just keep moving."

Ruby's not quite done however, walking just behind the other girl and speaking in a mocking tone. "Ugh, whatever, just keep moving, hurry up, wah, watch where you are going." Ruby posture stiffens as she straightens up and stops walking for a moment. "Why are you so bossy? It's all you've done!"

Weiss snaps back, turning back around to walk towards Ruby. "I'm NOT bossy! Don't say things like that!" The two girls stop when they are inches away from each other's face. The bickering continues, the trilogy! Ruby starts up first.

"Stop treating me like a kid!"

"Stop acting like a kid!"

"Well stop acting like you are PERFECT!"

"I'm NOT perfect." Weiss takes a step back from her smugly. "Not yet. But you know what? I'm still LEAGUES better than you." Weiss turns back at that and saunters off into the forest.

Ruby sighs, crestfallen and a little hurt by the verbal exchange of blows. "You...don't even know me."

Yang Xiao Long has posed:
    "I guess we should pick one. How about a cute little pony!" chimes Yang as she snags a a golden horse-like chess piece. She grins, and wanders over to Blake, before blinking as a girlish scream emits across the forest. "Blake, did you hear that? Some girl's in trouble!" Then there's other people here. Kyra and Batman get a grin from the blonde, as do Lloyd, Yuna, Yuuki and Eisen.

    Those that turn their eyes skyward, might spot Jaune tumbling through the air, though he's a bit far off yet. Coming through the forest from towards the mountains, also, is the large crab-scorpion monster, chasing the red haired girl in greek armour from the cliff. Pyrrha leaps over a sweeping pincer snap, then duck-rolls under the other as it makes a closed 'swipe'.

Lloyd Irving (373) has posed:
    Lloyd rolls his shoulders as he approaches the ruins proper, offering a smile as he waves at Yang and Blake. Stepping up to the rest of the pedestals, he glances around. The scream draws his attention immediately. Long-term and well tuned reflexes cause his hands to fly to the normal position of his blades. He looks rather silly for a moment, before he remembers where his weapons are and draws the gunblades from his back. His eyes go skyward, spotting the flying Jaune and, despite his initial instincts, stays grounded. He was a student, and they had done the launching thing. He could handle it.

    What DOES draw his attention is the creature Pyrrha has brought with her. A giant crab... scorpion? Okay, that was something fairly new. Scorpions and crabs he had fought before, but never such a deadly combination of the two. "What the... what is that?!" he asks, before his wings flare outward again. "That thing's massive! Are there more of those things around here?"

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
And that's probably where Yuna's anxiety was coming from. "Batman!" she calls out. "Help the guy who's falling! Kyra, see if you can slow the scorpion down, I forget what magic you've got!" She glances at Lloyd, and - without saying anything - takes a half-step closer to him, ready to close back-to-back if push comes to shove, but otherwise ready to focus on ranged combat once she's got a relatively clear shot.

Which she DOESN'T have at this distance and with the redhead being pursued, but if Kyra's got some magic that can slow the scorpion down - or alternatively, give the redhead a speed boost of some kind - then Yuna could at least try sniping. The Matrix Divider is glowing steadily in her hands now, ready to discharge ...

Yuuki Konno has posed:
    This is likely to be exciting. Yuuki's about to consider her selection of chess pieces. She's not sure what to take, really. A Knight because she likes jumping around? A bishop because she moves freely? A rook... no, not that. She's pretty dangerous but she's no actual tank. And while she'd love to be a queen, her ego isn't quite that high. Black perhaps, because Imps are supposed to be of the darkness. Amazing, the implications of picking a character race based on personal preference. She'd had no idea she was choosing to side with darkness simply because she likes the colour purple.

    She doesn't get to choose though, not yet. Instead she looks around at the scream. Was that girly scream from the formidable warrior woman engaging that massive scorpion competently? She doesn't think that scream really suited someone who was just taking care of business. But then, does that mean it was the GUY? Maybe it was someone else, someone who hasn't been seen yet...

    Either way, she doesn't like the sight of that poor guy tumbling through the air. It's a little too haphazard for her peace of mind, and this is no game. Besides there's that huge raven thing, which looks pretty nasty actually. Judging by the size, it's probably a boss, which means Jaune's in trouble.

    Yuuki leaps into the air, tiny black and starry wings appearing as she crests the leap. Somehow those small wings let her dart into the sky with rather impressive speed. She might not be able to actually save Jaune outright. She's a bit light to carry a passenger while airborne. But she could brake his fall enough to keep him from injury, probably. Or if someone else is better-suited to the catch, she can buzz the giant birdie, keep it busy for a time.

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    "Oh, hey guys! You made it!" Kyra sounds kind of relieved. She'd feel kind of bad if someone actually /died/ during Initiation, especially if she was near enough to actually help. "We-" she trails off as Jaune goes flying by and then Pyrrha comes in followed by the giant scorpion that Batman mentioned earlier.

    "Oh shit, it's a Deathstalker!" By sheer coincidence, there is actually a species of giant scorpion by the same name native to Kyra's world.

    Stuffing the artifact in a pocket, Kyra flips her left hand over, expelling a flask from her Matter Manipulator. "I don't have magic for that, but I DO have a mixture! Heads up, don't get it on you!"

    Of course she'll give a warning before she hurls that flask at the Deathstalker. Kyra has a very good throwing arm, after all, and the contents of the flask release a sticky clear substance when the flask smashes open. It's a specially mixed type of glue that is quick to harden when exposed to air. The amount is, unfortunately, small so it probably won't slow the Deathstalker down for very long.

Terry McGinnis (867) has posed:
Terry McGinnis Batman looks and nods, "On it," he says s he flies down towards the guy falling and grabs him, "Hang on," he says as he grabs um...whatever his name is, Terry knows it begins with a J and sounds like a girls name, he thinks. But he angles down and lands on the ground as he places the guy there, "Careful," he says simply as he looks at the DS. "Um... Big crab scorpion thing ... Lot of armor.... anyone see a weakness on that thing?" he asks as he jumps into the air and flies for it. "Anyone a heavy hitter? Set up and hit that thing. For the rest of us, keep it busy and away from the heavies," he states simply as he thinks for a moment and shrugs, . o 0 (It will get his attention,) Terry thnks as he has an idea.

Ruby Rose (910) has posed:
Weiss and Ruby walk in silence for what seemed like an eternity. There wasn't much point in talking to one another since they had both very clearly been frustrated at one another's antics. It seemed like that might be how things were rolling for awhile before a huge avian-shaped shadow passes overhead. Weiss clearly ignored it but Ruby looks up with awe...but then..excitement.

"Birdy YES."

Weiss turns back to look at Ruby, still annoyed that she was having to drag this girl along. "What are you babbling about now?" Ruby smiles and points up towards the large Nevermore. "That..." She turns her head down to look at Weiss. "...is how we figure out where we are going."

Weiss tilts a brow in response to that. "Uh...we can't exactly ask it to-"

Ruby sneaks in close and seemingly explodes with excitement. "We're gonna RIDE it!"

Weiss facial expression flatlines. "That...is a terrible idea. Clearly, terrible, awful, stupid, childish-"

Ruby's eyebrows waggle before she grabs Weiss underneath the shoulder, activates her semblance and rockets both of them up into the sky with a small shockwave of rose petals, flying high above the canopy of the forest. The two crest the top of thier jump right above the nevermore and Ruby grabs onto the back of it's neck, while Weiss panics initially before grabbing onto it's back. It's pretty clear where the forest temple is now and that they, luckily, happened to be heading straight towards it.

"Ruby!" Weiss calls out to her, cutting through the heavy wind of flight like pestering knife. Ruby closes her eyes in heavy annoyance. "I told you this was a TERRIBLE idea!"

Ruby looks at the girl behind her. "We're fine! Stop worrying!"

Weiss looks over the side of the bird and clings on a bit harder. "I am SO far beyond worrying!"

Ruby smiles, hopeful. "In a good way?"

"In a bad way. In a very bad way!"

Ruby grumbles. "Okay then, why don't we JUST jump!?"

There wasn't a force on this earth that could escape Weiss' iron grip on this bird. "What are you, insane!?"

A brief pause in the conversation forces her to look up and see a suspiciously absent space where Ruby once was. Feathers ruffle indifferently in the wind, offering no assistance to the now lonely rider on the Nevermore Express. "OH YOU INSUFFERABLE LITTLE RED-"

Ruby free falls towards the Forest Temple, spotting her sister and Blake just hanging out in front of it. This was going to be super cool. She was totally going to nail the landing and look super cool in front of everyone and nobody would doubt her abilities, her poise, her fashion sense and most importantly, how this was going to cement her social status amongst her classmates.

THis was going to RULE, clearly.

"HUZAAAAAAAAAAA-URK!"

A very..very unfortunate blond haired boy slams into Ruby's side, sending the both of them flying into the canopy of a nearby tree with a heavy *THWACK!*, rattling the poor thing down to it's very roots.

Blake Belladonna (917) has posed:
     Blake smirks. "Sure." She says, very easily. Blake hears the scream as Yang turns, but her gaze is caught by something else in the sky, her eyes narrowing at the black speck in the distance. There's no way... Oh yes there is way. However, her attention is diverted even as she gently says Yang's name, staring at Pyrhha and the... Death Stalker.

     Blake, staring at the chaos: "... did she just run all the way here with a Death Stalker on her tail?"

     There is yet /another/ crashing noise, a Ursa coming from the forest, but there's a flare of pink energy. It crashes to the ground, Nora Valkyrie rolling off of the creatures back, pouting slightly. "Awww... it's broken!" Ren darts up behind her, and pants, breathing heavily, "Nora... please don't do that again... Nora?"

     Nora has darted into the temple and has grabbed the White Rook piece, dancing with it, singing to herself brightly: "I'm queeen of the cast~tle, I'm queeen of of the cast~tle~"

     Ren: "NORA!"

     Blake, then making things worse: "... did that girl just ride in on an Ursa?"

Tomoe has posed:
Tomoe is enjoying the whole affair to be honest but she's not at risk as badly as others might be and she knows it. Still she's here and she reaches the chess pieces and she looks over she seems intent to let Yuuki pick.

"Your call on what one we bring back we shouldn't be too long..."

There comes the scream and she knows there's something else going on and she sees someone getting some unintened air time as well.

"Lets go."

She then chases after Yuuki to go lend what support she can and she pulls not her shotgun, but her pistol as she opens up with it on the Nevermore trying to aid Yuuki and poor Juane.

Yang Xiao Long has posed:
    Yang blinks. "I..." as Ruby comes falling from above, Yuuki slows Jaune down, and Ruby goes flying off into the trees.

    She blinks again, as Pyrrha comes crashing out of the treeline, dodging the splash of the Slow-item as the Scorpion rears up and aims to slam its tail down, sending the red-head tumbling into a heap at Yang's feet.

    "...I..." As Nora rides in on an Ursa, then appears nearby, before vanishing away again.

    "UUURRRRGH!" Yang explodes. Literally, a plume of red flames erupting around her as her eye seethe a boiling hot red. "I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE! WILL EVERYONE JUST CALM DOWN FOR TWO SECONDS BEFORE SOMETHING /CRAZY/ HAPPENS AGAIN!?" Tick tock tick tock... BING!

Lloyd Irving (373) has posed:
    Lloyd blinks, then glances back toward Yuna. She had Batman and Kyra in motion, and now it was his turn. With the slowing agent thrown, Lloyd flies toward the Deathstalker, spinning the chamber in one of his swords. "I think I can back you up there, Kyra!" he says, before taking aim. "Icy Tornado!"

    He pulls the trigger, and a white-blue glyph appears beneath the scoricrab. It's not a spell he's good with, but icy winds begin to whip around the creature in an attempt to slow it down. "Get outta there!" he calls to Pyhrra, before he moves back toward the rest of the group. If there was one big beasty...

    He glances up, spotting the Nevermore that had brought Ruby and Weiss into the picture. "There are sure to be more..." he finishes, his words lost in Yang's fiery outburst. "Well..."

Yuuki Konno has posed:
    Yuuki doesn't even stop, because right now stopping seems a pretty darn bad idea. She'd barely begun to aid Jaune before this weirdo in some kind of black panther suit flew - actually FLEW! Without wings! - in to scoop Jaune up. Fine with her really. Saving people is cool and all, but there's nothing like a good boss fight to keep things exciting.

    She doesn't stop mostly because stopping in front of a giant flying bird would hurt like hell. She spins around it, keeping mobile. The Nevermore tracks her before finally deciding to swat her out of the air. She isn't there, of course. She rolls as it makes its attack pass, deftly avoiding the claw. She's not quite so lucky when it fires a hail of feathers at her though. It doesn't slow her or even draw a cry of pain. It just streaks her body with red slash-marks... her virtual-world equivalent of aura.

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
Oh right, thinks Yuna; Yuuki brought her wings from Alfheim, ergo, she can fly. For short durations, anyway. Not something she'd like to depend on as a tactic for pitched battle. There are also more monsters here than she thought: the flying Nevermore, a less-than-lively Ursa ...

Well, two main threats at the moment, and the Deathstalker seems to be handled. Plenty of combat-ready students, though. Yuna shifts her aim to the massive bird, radiant power crackling around the Matrix Divider as she pushes more of a charge into the weapon. "HEADS UP!!" she shouts as a general warning, and pulls the trigger while she has an opening - and during a brief moment when both Yuuki and Batman are clear of her line of fire, Yuna fires that accumulated charge in a single blast, aimed to knock the Nevermore out of the sky. If she can.

Blake Belladonna (917) has posed:
     Ren's hand grips Nora's shoulder. She freezes mid-motion, her mouth closed. Blake, next to Yang, very quietly, subtly enough she might not even be heard, counts down from three.

     Then, Blake calmly points in the air at the falling red thing. "Hey, Yang? Isn't that your sister?" She asks, very very softly. "And isn't that Weiss? She's totally going to fall."

Ruby Rose (910) has posed:
Ruby Rose has seen better days. She hits the tree trunk and sits for a moment, reassessing what the heck just happened to her. She was going to do something ultra rad...and then a blond hand of social fate suggested otherwise. Luckily, it didn't hurt much at all, and it was nothing to regain her bearings and stand up on the tree branch. She leaps from it and rolls into a landing next to the few others that were gathered.

Weiss has also seen better days! As the nevermore takes shots from the students down below, Weiss, now realizing she was immediately in the line of fire, lets go of the bird, plummeting to the ground below.

What valiant soul would save her?

Tomoe has posed:
The Nevermore is proving to be a very big problem at this point given the amount of attention it's getting and it's not yet been dropped. Which says something about just how dangerous that thing really is. She's just laying on the pistol fire as she bounces about not wnting to get cuaght in any of the crazy attacks but she has to wonder did she bring the wrong avatar today? Maybe she di either way seeing the others in action is a hell of a sight to see and she's frapsing the entire /thing/.

Yang Xiao Long has posed:
    The Death Stalker is basically a living tank. There doesn't seem to be anything that can pierce that armour. The Slow-effect does make it easier to dodge, but it's going to take more than the group has to dent the reinforced plating on the battle scarred, giant monster. It's an Ancient, reinforced, and very experienced in fighting Huntsmen. It uses the heavy pincers to block shots that might crack its carapace, but is being kept at bay well enough.

    The Nevermore roars. It's a big, heavy flier and relies on building up speed for attack runs, so when it's forced into a 'dogfight' with Yuuki? It breaks off its run, and climbs, seeking to get an altitude advantage before wheeling around in a long arc.

    Yang, for her part, slumps and looks at the ground.

    Jaune, seeing a chance, leaps up from where he was deposited, up onto a tree branch, showing uncommon agility compared to how he was before, and LEAPS to catch Weiss in a bridal carry. "Nice of you to, drop in." he says suavely... before gravity makes itself known again and he and the Ice Queen fall to the ground. Jaune lands first, and Weiss lands atop him. "My back..." groans the blonde.

Ruby Rose (910) has posed:
Weiss lands ontop of the blonde boy in a very bored manner, not paying much mine to his broken ego and nearly as broken spine. "My hero."

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    Kyra, notably, gets /nowhere near/ the Deathstalker. In fact, she's been very avoidant of melee combat since this entire initiation thing started. She keeps her postion on the stone ruins, sometimes slipping behind pillars if she thinks she needs the cover. At least it gives her a very good vantage of how the fight is going against the two monsters.

    Nevermores are problematic because they flew. Kyra's prior experience against one involved being launched into the air by an Autobot. The Deathstalker, though, that's /new/ and it looked pretty tough.

    Casting a hand in its direction, Kyra summoned up some basic diagnostic magic: "SCAN!" it reveals pretty much what she expected. It's strong, old, and doesn't really have any obvious weak points like the boars did. "Well that's a problem. GUYS IT DOESN'T HAVE ANY WEAK POINTS AND IT'S PREPARED TO TAKE A TON OF PUNISHMENT!" Kyra warns, dumping something else out of her matter manipulator.

    If the Grimm were more biological, Kyra would be going for the flesh-eating bacteria. Instead, she opts for an acid flask and launches that at the Deathstalker, trying to concentrate the corrosive liquid on the Grimm's face. Chemicals are harder to resist, after all.

Terry McGinnis (867) has posed:
    Terry McGinnis looks as he sees someone falling and sighs, as he banks and heads for her. As he moves, he sees the guy he got and blinks as he lands and looks at the DS, as he runs for it and then just disappears from view as he activates the cloak of his suit. Moving, he jumps and lands on the back of the creature, . o 0 (No metal to lock onto) he thinks as he turns and studies the creature to find a weak spot or something. Not seeing one, he shrugs and ponders just annoying the beast.

    As he moves, he runs forward and once he is around the neck, the cloak drops as he pulls out blue batarangs and throws them at the neck and eyes of the DS. When the blue Batarangs hit, they give off an electric charge as Terry runs forward, he jumps to the side of the Death Stalker.

    Terry will fall to the ground and roll out of the way as best as he can, even going under the creature if he has too.

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
The most powerful blast Yuna could charge, and the giant flier barely reacted to it? Then again, thinks the blonde, that *IS* an incredibly massive bird; she could probably disappear into its feathers, and if it were roasted, even Yuri might get stuffed trying to eat it ... assuming it's even edible.

On the other hand, she's pretty sure the cliff that marked both the start and end points for the Initiation is south - behind her - while the monsters are arranged to the north. Right? So technically, if the students being initiated are headed south, 'destroy anything in your path' does NOT need to apply to the oversized Grimm.

"Any pairs who dont' have a relic yet," Yuna calls out, "may I suggest grabbing one and putting this place behind us?" But with that said, she actually vaults up to one of the taller chunks of still-standing ruins, balances there, and opens up on the Deathstalker with a series of moderately focused shots - a second or so in between blasts. They won't have the focused punch she tried to give the Nevermore, but when it comes to balancing rate of fire against damage per shot, this is about where the curve peaks out.

She's still keeping an eye on the Nevermore, though. Odds are she's a REALLY tempting target right now, especially if it DID notice the shot from her.

Blake Belladonna (917) has posed:
     "She's falling." Ren remarks quietly.
     Nora goes oooo as she eyes the Deathstalker. That looks like fun!
     Ren groans.

     Blake looks at Yang. "Well, partner, suggestions on what to do?" She asks, casually unsheathing Gambol Shroud from the metallic plate on her back.

Tomoe has posed:
Tomoe is going to break off from the Nevermore, Yuuki seems to have that handled the flyer very well. She hears what Kyra's saying and hopes her spell has some work, for nwo she's got the shotgun out, and the explosive rounds loaded into the spaz-12. She's ready to fight but as she's about to fight she's hear swhat Yuna's saying.

"That's a good idea I'll get something for Yuuki and I!"

WIth that she'll bolt to grab one of the relics she's just going to grab the first one she can spot and then get back to the party, she doesn't want to split long.

Ruby Rose (910) has posed:
Ruby Rose spots Yang from a small distance and lands a massive hug upon her back. "Yang! Jeez, where have you been? I've been looking all over the place for you!" She passes out a glance towards the utter chaos that completely surrounds her. "...and the gang's all here! Good! We all made it!"

Weiss gets up from the throne she'd so comfortably landed on and goes to join the others, noticing the Giant Scorpion that seemed to be taxing several others. "What's going on? Where'd that thing come from?"

Yuuki Konno has posed:
    Yuuki could grab a relic, she supposes... but why? So long as these massive monsters are being a threat to any of them, running away's not an option! Besides, fighting like this is a lot of fun!

    She finally draws her sword. It's a tiny little thing, no bigger than one of the Nevermore's great talons. So be it... most bosses she fights, their weapons are bigger than she is. She salutes the huge bird as it wings away and turns to do a massive strafing attack.

    Yuuki darts lower to the ground. Not to get away from the beast, but to help lure it towards the mass firepower of those who are ground-bound. Make it easier for them to shoot. She could possibly keep up with the Nevermore but that'd probably be a bad idea. What with people all shooting at it, she'll be better off jousting instead so they can time their attacks. It's all about teamwork, and Yuuki's quite used to the come-and-go of distraction and diversion.

    When the Nevermore returns, Yuuki's able to avoid its feathery strike and the talon strike as well. Having seen the attacks now, she's not an easy target at all! She does lead with her sword though, scoring a long but shallow cut on the great beast as it flashes by.

Yang Xiao Long has posed:
    "Yeah, the gang's all here. Now we can die together!" quips Yang, then sighs a little. "We got what we came for, right?" Yang thumbs at Yuna, her eyes turned back to normal as she hugs Ruby close. "She's right, we should just get back to the cliffs and get outta here. No need to fight these things." she suggests.

    The Deathstalker chitters in annoyance at Batman's electrical attacks, skittering backwards a little to try and get at him with its pincers. Kyra's acid flasks strike at the carapace. They fizz a little, but that armour is both thick, and very dense. What weakening the acid has managed, probably won't be enough, though the positioning, just along its back behind the multiple eyes on the front...

    The Nevermore screeches as it hurls its spear-like feathers, then hooks with its talons at the little Imp girl. The spears strike into the ground in a long 'carpet bomb' fashion, and it seems it /did/ notice the strike from Yuna, as the feather spears are aimed to intersect where she's stood! The giant bird pulls out of its dive, sporting a new wound to go with an older scar. Hey, isn't that the same Nevermore from the farm?

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
Fortunately for Yuna, she picked a 'perch' which provides its own shelter; as the Nevermore swings around on its attack run, Yuna shifts her aim skywards for two more shots, then drops down behind the chunk of ancient architecture she'd been standing on, dismissing her weapon and 'summoning' her kite shield, Shugoseiheki, for extra protection. Which is good ...

Except for two details. First off, large feathers are also heavy - maybe not REALLY weighty, but they have to hold their shape in flight, so it's not like they're fluffy or anything. That means that they carry a lot of impact, so despite her shield, Yuna can still get knocked on her ass.

The other thing is that nothing is protecting the ruins, and any chunks that the Nevermore's feathers slice off when they converge where Yuna WAS standing have a roughly evne chance of sliding off on top of Yuna.

Summary: She maybe could use some help before her cunning plan bites her in the ass. Can't run away if she's flat on her back or buried under rubble, after all.

Lloyd Irving (373) has posed:
    Lloyd drops back down to the ground, wings still at the ready as Yuuki engages the Nevermore. Yuna seems to have the right idea, though, so he takes the frontlines. "Alright, if we're bailing, now's the time. Everyone know the way?" He raises his blades, then narrows his eyes. "Everyone! Leave the beasts be! We need to get moving to complete our task!"

    As the feathers fly in, Lloyd moves quickly, attempting to get between Yuna and the flying feathers. "GUARDIAN!" he bellows, a green force field erupting around them. As the field holds, Lloyd keeps focused ahead. "Move, Yuna! Get everyone moving!"

Terry McGinnis (867) has posed:
    Terry watches the creature as it tries to throw him off, but Terry was already off. . o 0 (No weakness that i can see) he thinks. "Kyra, lets get out of here, if we stay, we are good as dead," he mentions to her and others near by them.

Tomoe has posed:
Tomoe does get her hand on a relic she's not even looking at it too harfd as she pops it into her inventory in a small flash of light. It's time to get going and she moves to catch up with everyone else. She catches back up with the rest of the party and agrees.

"We got the relics it's time to get out of here. I'll be the last one out."

She keeps her weapon ready for all the good it will do.

"Students WE ARE LEAVING!"

She gets moving but she's hanging back a bit using bit os the terrain however to vault her self along!

Ruby Rose (910) has posed:
Weiss watches a few of the fights going on and shakes her head dismissively. "Blondie's right. We should just go. Our objective is right in front of us." Ruby takes a step forward and grabs a golden knight chess piece and holds it for a moment before slipping it inside of her pocket.

"Yeah. Let's just go. Our mission is to grab an artifact and make it to the cliffs. Fighting them doesn't have a point." Ruby turns away from the others but beckons them onward, stopping ontop of a very conveniently placed rock while she waits for people to grab their piece. She calls out towards some of the more distant participants while pointing at a very prominent looking cliff area.

"Hey guys! Let's just get our artifacts and go! We aren't supposed to fight these!"

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    "You don't have to tell me twice, Batman!" Kyra agrees, more than a little distressed that the acid flask didn't have all that much effect at all on the monster. They mentioned a cliff ahead, maybe they could lure it over it?

    She doesn't linger behind any longer and takes off after the others.

Blake Belladonna (917) has posed:
Blake disappears. Feasibly. There's still a Blake there, but after a few seconds, it explodes into dust and disappears.

     Anyone else can catch the shadow mistress down in the trees, heading for the cliffs. Bye.

Yang Xiao Long has posed:
    The blonde guy nods. "Run and live. That's an idea I can get behind." He wanders up, and snags the other Rook piece, shares a nod with Ruby, then starts running with the others.

    Yang watches Ruby for a second, before hauling ass after her and the others.

    It wouldn't take long to find more ruins, a giant structure build above a large, fogwreathed chasm. The Nevermore flies overhead, circling around and hurling more feather-spears as it dives down on the group. The Deathstalker, after shaking off the Slow, charges in after them as well.

Yuuki Konno has posed:
    "Hey, don't worry about me!" Yuuki calls out cheerfully, apparently not in pain from her clash with the Nevermore. "Tomoe and me can cover the retreat. We move pretty fast so as soon as everyone's clear we'll join you!"

    She is, mind you, fighting defensively. Stinging the Nevermore enough to hold some degree of aggro perhaps, but seeking to help control the fight rather than to dominate it. She has no desire to disobey the Huntresses that have all the experience with these Grimm. They might not really know her capabilities, but that's okay. She's not really here to show off either, preferring to go along and to be helpful. And... well okay, maybe to be a BIT showy. It's fun being spotlighted too, and few would choose to be Hunters or Huntresses if they didn't want to excel.

Ruby Rose (910) has posed:
Weiss wastes very little time as she sprints ahead, and when the others insist on covering the retreat, Ruby turns to head out herself, sprinting towards the cliff to keep up with the others. She eventually crests ahead of the pack and makes a beeline for the stone bridge that links the land to the stone temple out there. Ruby calls out behind herself, towards the back of the pack.

"Hurry! I don't want you to get left behind!"

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
Lloyd's Guardian spell is *much* better protection than either the antiquated architecture or Yuna's kite shield; she scrambles back to her feet with a quick, "Thank you!" to Lloyd - and once the Nevermore's feathers have stopped flying, she breaks into a sprint, heading south along with everyone else, her shield dismissed once again in favor of greater speed. She's trying to do a head count along the way ... without a whole lot of success, though. Hopefully partners are paying attention to each other; she's certainly making sure she knows where Lloyd is relative to her.

Then they reach the chasm.

Yuna's first thought, somewhat predictably, is to wish Erina were present - but she crumples the thought up and dumps it out as soon as it forms. There are a couple of other flyers in the group, but probably not enough to go around. Better to sprint across while the structure is still standing, and hope it doesn't collapse while she's only halfway across.

She starts sprinting, keeping half an eye to the sky above. Do Grimm actively bear grudges ... ?

Lloyd Irving (373) has posed:
    Lloyd drops his Guardian spell with a chuckle. "No problem, n--" Before he can get another word out, Yuna's on her way. With a slight laugh Lloyd is in the air a bit behind her. He has the advantage of flight, so he uses it to keep tabs on his partner. Not only does she have their relic, but they passed or failed together. And it seemed that Yuna was going into this without her normal allies, so he needed to be ready despite her combat skills. He keeps his blades at the ready, soaring over the newfound ruins before looping around. He blinks, then shakes his head. They needed to keep ahead of the Deathstalker. The Nevermore was going to be a wild card, but he'd worry about that when the time comes. For now...

    ONWARD!

Yang Xiao Long has posed:
    Well, it seems the Nevermore holds a grudge, at least. It comes barreling in, utterly ignoring Yuuki as it swoops down, aiming to take the bridge, and everyone stood on it, out in one go! It slams into, and through the stone, without slowing down, using the momentum to climb again and come around for another pass. This leaves the party split, with some trapped on a little spit of bridge, with a very upset Death Stalker bearing down on them. Pyrrha, Ren and Blake are stuck here(With whoever else) While Jaune, Nora, Weiss, Ruby and Yang are on the structure itself.

    Yang wastes no time, and gets higher on a pillar, firing explosive bolts into the sky as the Nevermore wheels around. Even local weapons seem to serve just to piss the thing off.

Tomoe has posed:
Tomoe Says "Yuuki's right get going we'll handle this! Trust us we'll be fine."

She keeps her shotgun ready and fires off the explosive rounds even as she's falling back she doesn't want to see people getting left behind and she seems dead serious about it. There's something she's said to operation commanders she's dispoable compared to everyone else. She'd one of the last ones going out, She fires more explosive rounds but then the bridge goes. So she's stuck with the Deathclaw and openfing fire on it with all the microgrenade rounds she has.

"How does a creature have a hide like a battle ship!?!"

Ruby Rose (910) has posed:
Ruby and Weiss are far enough along on the bridge that they are unaffected by a portion of it's collapse. Ruby watches the swooping Nevermore and brings back out the Crescent Rose, slinging it into it's Rifle form and firing off a few shots at it's back, merely in retalliation. Weiss channels her rapier's talents, flinging a few ice spears at it for good measure.

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
Yuna barely makes it across to the central pillar in the middle of the cavern before the Nevermore takes out the bridge; she rolls along one segment of stone, leaps to another, and two more jumps carry her to relatively stable footing. For now.

She winds up near Yang's position, and re-conjures the Matrix Divider. Rather than just scattering firepower into the air and hoping to get lucky, though, Yuna shifts back to 'high-powered sniper' mode: taking her time, building up a charge, and then trying to deliver it as precisely as she can. She's consciously trying to lead it with her shots, and aiming for the monster's head as much as possible; the inside of its beak HAS to be more vulnerable than the outside or the feathers. For that matter, hitting it in the eye would probably be nicely effective, too.

Too bad that hitting the Nevermore in its eye would require a *LOT* more precision than Yuna herself can muster.

But it's a thought, and maybe it's a thought worth sharing. "Try to hit the bird in its eyes, if your aim's good enough! Otherwise just concentrate as much fire as we can on its head, especially when its beak is open!"

She fires a blast, and starts charging for the next even before her first shot has hit (or missed).

Lloyd Irving (373) has posed:
    Lloyd wheels around, blinking in panic as the bridge is taken out by the Nevermore. "No...!" he says, before his eyes flicker around and spot everyone that had been in their group. They were all there, and that stops his heart pounding. Instead, there's a matter that now has to be taken care of. Two, really, but he was better positioned and equipped to deal with one. "Bring it on, you overgrown cockatrice!" As Yang takes up the AA position, Lloyd moves in to fill another role: the dogfighter. Bringing his sword up in front of him, he spins the chambers around and lands on fire and light rounds. He falls into a flight pattern behind the massive bird, before clicking one trigger.

    His arm recoils under the force of the shot, a red circle appearing underneath him. "FLAME LANCE!" A massive spear of hellish flames erupts from the blade of his gunsword, rocketing straight toward the Nevermore, adding his own attack to the volley coming from below.

Blake Belladonna (917) has posed:
     The group flees across the chasm. There's a long, single bridge, which is just asking for trouble, and sure enough, trouble happens as the Nervmore continues it strike through, tearing the bridge easily. There's a giant gap between the rest of the group, leaving Blake, Pyrrha, Ren, Yuuki, and Tomoe facing the Death Stalker. Jaune and Nora pause to turn.

     "We can't leave them behind!" The boy protests. Nora nods, as he keeps talking. "But I can't make that jump!"


     "That's not a problem!" Nora says with a laugh, slinging Magnhild off of her shoulder, before flying into the air and then back down, launching the hammer into the ground, sending Jaune catapulting towards the Death Stalker with a shriek. Nora swings Magnhild around before blasting off into the air using one of the grenades in the launcher, slamming down on the Death Stalker before pushing herself back, knocking Blake off of the ledge. Together, Nora and Tomoe unload on the Death Stalker, causing an angry roar as Ren shoots distracting fire to protect the two girls.

     Blake soars into the darkness of the chasm underneath the crumbling ruins, Gambol Shroud's blade biting out into a bit that still remains strong and true as she swings underneath the archways, aiming to fly herself up towards the Nevermore. As she goes, every few feet she utilizes her semblance, so there's a line of Blake clones in the air. At the top of one jump, she launches herself towards the Nevermore, aiming to use it as a stepping stone (and a few hits in), to land next to Ruby.

Yuuki Konno has posed:
    Yuuki's more than a little annoyed at being ignored by the Nevermore, but she gulps as it crashes right through the stone. That... wow. Okay, maybe tangling with something so huge isn't a good idea. Then again, that Deathstalker is perhaps even bigger. Still, it's really more her style of boss battle.

    She could go either way, but the collapsing stone of the bridgeway decides her. Whether she wants to fight a particular battle or not, she's not going to remain high up in the air when people are at desperate risk of being flung into the chasm! She can't help but think getting trapped up here in narrow and deadly terrain was a REALLY bad tactical move, considering they could've used the open grounds to their advantage... but hey, terrain's fun to use too!

    Wordlessly, Yuuki sets down before the Deathstalker, striking a pose with her blade. Probably shoulder to shoulder with Pyrrha, in fact, as a fellow melee specialist who feels confident enough to engage the boss from the front. She dodges a claw swipe then lashes out, her blade glowing a faint violet colour. The blade carves glowing lines into the air, forming a square that intersects the claw. It probably can't cut through such a heavily-armored thing. but it might do a bit of damage. Besides, Yuuki's blade is imbued with darkness energy, an insidious power that not only adds to damage, it slowly weakens the foe as well. Darkness is the element of poison, of damage over time. Not MUCH damage, but the poison should get the Deathstalker's attention...

Yang Xiao Long has posed:
    Yang grumbles. "This isn't working!" she grouses, then hears Yuna's words... She grins, "Alright, I've got an idea! Cover me!" she yells, then starts leaping up the building, trying to reach the tallest part, before ejecting the regular projectile shells, and loading in her High Power ones. She fires a few to get its attention. It wheels around, clawing at Lloyd before turning its attention to Yang. It /is/ taking damage, but it's so big and its defensive ability so high, it's shrugging off most of the damage coming in, though it's wearing down.

    The Nevermore comes right in at Yang, beak open as it aims to gobble her up. The blonde leaps, and jams the thing's beak open, wedging a foot into the bottom, and her left gauntlet into the top, before cocking back her right arm, and pouring shots right down the monsters throat. "I. HOPE. YOU'RE. HUNG-RY!" she punctuates each shot. This has a profound effect, as the Nevermore jerks in mid flight, and comes crashing down at the base of the cliff, groggily trying to get back up again.

    Yang lands on the opposite bridge to the one that broke, crouched as she watches her allies... make it count, guys.

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    For someone with not super great physical stats, Kyra can at least run! She's actually pretty surprised to find that she's fast enough to make it across the stone bridge before it crumbles, though just barely as she stumbles and jumps off the last few falling pieces of stone block. Safely on the other side, she quickly looks over her shoulder at the other half dealing with the giant scorpion. "Ah crap, I can't get over there, but maybe I can-"

    Technically her spells could reach! But she does't get the chance to do that. There are plenty dealing with the Nevermore on her side.

    Finding somewhere to take refuge, Kyra promptly gets to work with the sort of thing she's pretty used to in her field: buffing. Lloyd is the first target of a Bravery, a spell for incresing physical attack damage. She quickly scrolls through the others in turn with the same magic: Yang, Ruby, and so on.

Tomoe has posed:
Tomoe is facing the Death Stalker and things are just not going so well thankfully they have the likes of Nora backing up the team stuck with the Death STalker. She keeps moving but it's clear that she's being almost wreckless by the standards of the students, she doesn't seem to have any sense of surival drive or well as strong as one that one migh expect her ot have but she's got a little gift she's pulls off her combat suit? A string of armed plasma grenades which she lobs at the creature.

"FIRE IN THE HOLE!"

She hopes that phrase is uninversal enough to get the otehrs' attention as she attemps to fade back.

Lloyd Irving (373) has posed:
    Lloyd attempts to swerve out of the path of the Nevermore as Yuna calls out a plan and Yang pisses the bird off enough to chase her. However, the talon rips across his chest, tearing his shirt and scratching across him to boot. He roars out, but suddenly feels emboldened as Kyra's magic seeps into him. He feels like it might be a better idea to try and hit the bird with his best physical tech. And so, as Yang crashes the Nevermore into a cliff face with her meal of explosive punches, Lloyd sails up a bit more before placing his sword in front of him.

    With a smirk, he channels a bit of his own mana into the blades, igniting them with flames. "ULTIMATE RISING PHOENIX!"

    He spreads his swords out and falls into a spectacular dive, his appearence seeming to take on that of the bird's name he has invoked as he falls. Just before impact, he swings both blades into the Nevermore with all his might, crying out before bouncing back and tumbling, landing in a heap near Yang.

    He's slightly smoking and bleeding a bit, but he smiles as he rises to his knees. "That..." he says, smirking at Yang, "was insane. I like your style."

Ruby Rose (910) has posed:
Ruby looks up towards her sister and smirks. She was so dang cool it hurt sometimes. Spotting Blake's weapon, she turns towards her and yells out. "Blake! Can you throw your rope-thingy to me? I have an idea too!" She leaps up onto a nearby column and holds out her hand, ready to take the weapon's ribbon if she got it.

Meanwhile, after watching Yang do the punchy-punchy boom thing, Weiss takes her chance now that the Nevermore was against the wall, sliding forward with the utmost grace as she creates a white glyph underneath herself and leaps, and while the bird is busy swatting Lloyd, she sneaks underneath it and forces an eruption of ice, capturing the bird's tail and feet in ice. This would likely prevent it from leaving the ground, at least without some serious pain and effort. Weiss then backflips off of the bird's perch and lands, skating back to her team members, her job done. Let the heavy hitters land the the heavy hits.

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
Yuna gapes briefly at Yang's frankly suicidal tactic ... but she can't argue with the results, considering it crashes the overstuffed raven into the cliff face and leaves it stunned. Kyra's Bravery buff takes effect while Yuna is still taking in what just happened - and Lloyd follows up with a devastating attack of his own, taking advantage of the fact that he's already airborne.

She takes a split second to consider the 'terrain' - a few pillars that could support somebody's weight well enough for a leap, a few flat segments. Not much for a running start from a high altitude, and if she de-equips the Matrix Divider she loses the charge it's holding ...

Yuna takes a deep breath, offers up a brief, silent prayer to the Queen of Light, and takes the three steps available before leaping out into space, actually spinning around on that last step and letting the Matrix Divider's weight - modest but a factor - help pull her along, rather than dragging her back or down. She still winds up spinning more than she'd like as she flies through the air with something vaguely resembling the greatest of ease, but she's fairly confident in her trajectory once she's airborne. The hard part, landing ...

"HYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!"

She leans out of her spin and thrusts the Matrix Divider ahead of her, trying to impale the Nevermore with her weapon - and once the Divider's past those armor-like feathers and whatever skin is beneath *them*, she pulls the trigger, unleashing all of that concentrated energy.

INSIDE the monster's body, much like she did to the Boarbatusk earlier.

It would probably be even more effective if she'd hit the Nevermore's *torso* instead of practically blowing off one of its wings, but actually hitting the enemy under those conditions has to count for something too, right? Yuna collapses dangerously near the ice after dumping her momentum into that attack, then staggers over to join Lloyd and Yang. Yuna even has the presence of mind to offer a fistbump to the gutsy-as-hell blonde.

Terry McGinnis (867) has posed:
    Batman follows Kyra as he sees the others and thinks as he wonders what he an do as they get swallowed up.

Yuuki Konno has posed:
    Yuuki's original attack, the violet square of slashes, wasn't an end to itself. It's an attack on the Deathstalker's weapon, its claw. Its only real purpose... is to get the beast to flinch.

    Side by side with Pyrrha, Yuuki lunges straight in. Her fencing blade, Pyrrha's spear. Two weapons well suited, if perhaps a bit of weight is added behind them or braced onto them by the actions of other heavy-hitters, to piercing even the shell of an ancient monster like this one if the strikes hit vulnerable areas...

Blake Belladonna (917) has posed:
     Well, she already threw Gambol Shroud at Yang's face, might as well continue the trend. Blake quickly flciks the weapon to the younger girl, bracing the other end of the ribbon carefully. Whatever Ruby's plan is, well, she'll go along with it. It can't be that insane.

     At 'fire in the whole', most of team JNPR manages to hit the deck. Ren, however, is hit, and goes flying, his gun going the whole way. At least he's trying. Between the two, at least, they get the stinger partially cut off, even as its' claws snap out at Jaune and Pyrhha, the pair using their shields to cover their allies from attacks. It also snaps at Zekken, attempting to stab at her with the mostly severed stinger... which is a bad idea as her blade cuts through the last tendons, sending the stinger down into its' head.

     "Nora! Contact! You, cover Pyrrha!" Jaune calls out to Yuuki, even as Pyrrha launches Nora into the air, before she drops back down, smashing her hammer into the Death Stalker and killing it, and also damaging the bridge, sending, well... everyone flying. Yes, everyone. Thank goodness for wings, right? At least everyone'll land safely back at the starting area to these ruins.

Ruby Rose (910) has posed:
Ruby Rose grabs the ribbon when it's tossed at her and ties it down to the column, making a perfectly taut line between them. With that done Ruby unfurls her Crescent Rose out entirely and speeds down the bridge towards the Nevermore using her semblance. And just before she hits the platform it's balanced on, the girl rockets the other direction, taking a flying jump onto the ribbon that was balanced there and bowing it back, drawing the tension wayyy back.

Seeing an opportunity, Weiss watches Lloyd's and Yuna's crazy attacks before catching wind what her crazy partner was doing, creating a black glyph out in front of her to catch Ruby and hold the ribbon tight with tension. Weiss shakes her head goodnaturedly.

"Because of course your plan is insane."

Ruby looks over towards her. "Do you think you can make the shot?"

Weiss smirks. "Hmph. Can I?"

Ruby waits for another tense moment before blinking innocently. "Uh..can you?"

"Of course I can!"

That seals it. Ruby gets ready, narrowing her eyes on the beast. Weiss turns the ribbon loose and sends Ruby flying at it's head whole sale. There was little doubt that a miss here would leave the red girl in a whole world of hurt. Fortunately, the aim is good and Ruby, just after Yuna finishes up, slams into the bird creature, leveling her scythe around behind her to grab the bird by the neck. She lands with her feet on the wall and it looks like she might fall off a moment later, but Weiss comes in handy yet again, creating a line of white glyphs for Ruby to walk on. Seizing this opportunity, Ruby runs up the wall with all of her might, firing the Crescent Rose repeatedly and using her semblance for everything she could muster, attempting to drag the bird up the wall.

Terry McGinnis (867) has posed:
    Terry McGinnis looks at Ruby and blinks as he sees this. Thinking, he moves from his point and rushes to the ribbon tie off and grabs hold of it. Taking the ribbon(s) in his hands, he sets his feet and pulls on the ribbons, adding to it more support as he says nothing. Inside his cowl, Max talks, "Are you crazy McGinnis?" she asks him. "I have not jumped over the gap to help the others yet have I?" he states and Max blinks, "Right, good job there Terry. No doing something stupid." and Terry grins, "Would not even think of it....yet," he responds to max from the Batcave.

    To others, it seems he is talking to someone as he holds on and looks over at the others vs the Death Stalker to see if he can figure a way to get them some help.

Yang Xiao Long has posed:
    Ruby's plan seems to work. The Glyphs hold her feet to the cliff side, and the Nevermore, in a rare display of fear from a Grimm, squirms and caws, flapping its wings as it's dragged up the cliff side. Ruby's shots keep the momentum going, until the hunched back of the creature hits the 'lip' at the top, arresting it's momentum while the sythe continues onward. A final shot from Ruby, seals the Nevermore's fate, and lops its head clean off, sending both tumbling back down the cliff in a growing fog of black smoke.

    Yang looks at Ruby strikes her pose, then glances between Blake and Weiss. "Well... that was a thing!"