User blog:Agent ND/RWBY Fanfiction: Memoirs of a Huntsman-in-Training

Memoirs of a Huntsman-In-Training Professor Port seemed to drone on and on. “Be wary of the spikes on the back of Alpha Ursa.” I nudged my friend beside me, saying, “No dip, Sherlock,” I whispered, “I mean, what are we gonna do, jump on ‘em?” Anyway, let me introduce myself. My name is Odin. Odin Sanchez. Right now I’m sitting in a classroom at Beacon Academy. It’s like college, but for people training to be something called a Huntsman, or a Huntress, if you’re a girl. Huntsmen and Huntresses are the guardians of our world. They protect everyone from the Grimm. The Grimm are creatures of darkness. They feel no pain, remorse, or emotion in general. All they do is kill and cause suffering. It is our job to keep them from doing so. There are four Huntsman Academies. There are academies in Mistral, Haven, Vale, and Atlas. Beacon is Vale’s academy. I’m a first year student at Beacon. My team is comprised of four members: Myself, Christian Cook, Neil Maas, and Shane Cox. The four of us grew up with one another, going through elementary school and Signal Combat School together. Neil and Chris are 18, and Shane and I are 17. The bell rang, and class was finally over. I jumped up out of my seat and almost sprinted to the door. I opened the door, and as I did I noticed someone behind me. It was a girl, a bit shorter than I. I held the door for her. “Thanks!” She said, and walked down the hall. “No problem.” I said. Her name was Ruby. She’s the leader of her team. They’re an all-girl team, codenamed RWBY (pronounced Ruby). Their room is just down the hall from my team’s room. We had known each other for a couple years, as we attended Signal together. The worst part was, I had a crush on her. That was the last thing I needed. School was stressful enough. I didn’t need to be worried about impressing some girl. Speaking of stressful things, I had to study for a test. I fast-walked back to my room, and sat down at one of the two desks in our room, and opened my science textbook. After about five minutes, Christian and Neil walked through the door. “You guys gonna study for tomorrow’s test?” I asked. “Maybe later,” Christian said, “We’re going to get some food. Want any?” “Ahh, I dunno, pizza maybe? You guys should grab a family-sized pepperoni and sausage and bring it back to our room.” “Sounds good to me,” Neil said, “So we’ll get pizza, some soda, cereal, and some Kool-Aid.” “And cookies and milk,” Christian said. “We cannot forget those.” “Jeez dude, didn’t we just get a ton of them like two days ago or something?” I said. Sometimes it seemed like he could live off cereal, cookies, and milk. It’s a miracle he has a high metabolism, or he’d be as round as a bowling ball. “Yeah, so?” “Never mind,” I said with a chuckle. “Hey, are we gonna go or stand here and talk about it?” Neil said impatiently. “Yeah, let’s go.” “Wait, before you guys go, do either of you know where Shane is?” Chris and Neil looked at each other. “No, actually,” Chris said. “No idea.” Neil said. “Seriously?” I groaned. “Now I gotta go look for him. I’m never gonna be able to study.” “Sucks to be you,” Christian said, “I’m sure he’s around.” “He’d better be.” I grumbled. The three of us exited the dorms, I went left, towards the classrooms, and the other two went right, towards the parking lot. I checked Prof. Port’s class, which was empty. I looked around a bit more, and then I got an idea. I climbed the stairs up to the roof, and there he was. He was just sitting on the ground, looking at something. I walked over and sat down next to him. I startled him. He was holding a picture of his mother. She passed away when we were both about fourteen. I was one of the first people he told. I remember my face going white as a sheet. “Heya. Didn’t mean to startle you.” “Nah, it’s fine.” “The guys are going to get some pizza and junk. Study food for the test tomorrow. You gonna join us?” “Yeah, in a bit.” “Ok. Hey, remember I’m here for ya, ok?” “Yeah.” “Welp, I’m headed back to the dorms. Gotta study. See you in a bit.” “Ok, see ya.” On my way back to the dorms, I noticed someone with long blond hair in the parking lot getting off of a yellow motorcycle. It was Yang, Ruby’s older sister. She’s a bit of a badass. She joined me on the sidewalk as we walked back to the dorms. “Hey! It’s Odin right?” “Yeah. How’s it going?” “Pretty good! Just got back from the store with some munchies for the gang. We’ll be up all night studying.” She showed me the bag of snacks. Snickers, Combos, Doritos, etc. “Yeah same. Two of my guys should be back soon from grabbing some stuff.” “Oh, I think I saw them. They were next to you in Professor Port’s class right?” “Yeah, that’s them.” We talked for the rest of the way, and as we walked up to the dorms, I felt a very tight squeeze on my arm. Yang had grabbed me. “Hey, what are you doing??” I said, with hint of agitation and fear in my voice. “I see the way you look at Ruby. If you hurt her in any way, I’ll…” “Woah, hey, wait a second. I’ll admit, I have a wicked crush on her, but I have to focus on school. I mean, I kinda wanna ask her out, I’m just nervous and-“ “Ok, I get it. It's fine, I’m just messin’ with ya anyway. You seem like good guy, and Rubes seems like she kinda needs someone to talk to other than her sis and her teammates. Besides, I think she likes you too.” “Wow, heh, ok. You really had me there for a minute.” I rubbed my arm. She had a grip like a vice. “Haha, yeah. But seriously though, if you hurt her in any way…” She got real close to my face, and I was a bit nervous again. “Nah I’m kidding. I’m sure you’ll be fine. But just warning you, us sisters look out for each other, you know. Well, I should get back to my room. My team is probably wondering where the hell I am. Catch you later!” And with that she disappeared into the dorm. I stood there for a second, thinking about what just happened. “Well, that just happened.” I said to myself out loud. “What just happened?” a voice said from behind me. I whipped around and saw Christian and Neil walking towards me, grocery bags and pizza box in hand. “Oh, it was nothing really.” “You sure?” Christian said, seeing me rubbing my arm. “Yeah. Don’t worry about it.” The three of us walked inside and up the stairs into to our room. “Hey, did you ever find Shane?” Neil asked. “Yeah, he’ll be here soon.” “Well, he’d better get here sooner than later, or there won’t be much left of this,” Chris said, taking a big bite of pizza. “Well, I’m less worried about the pizza as I am the cookies,” I said with a laugh. After getting some food and settling down, the door opened and Shane walked in. “Man, it smells good in here,” he said, “There had better be enough for me.” “Sorry, we ate it all,” Christian said sarcastically, “You snooze you lose.” The four of us studied until about 10:30, and then we broke out the video games. We each had our own individual TV’s and Xbox’s. We played some Halo 6 and Destiny 2 until midnight, and then we called it quits. The next day was life as usual. Classes, classes, and more classes. The test went fine for me though. As the four of us got back to our room, Neil said, “We have combat training tomorrow afternoon at one o’clock right?” “Oh yeah, I almost forgot about that,” I said. As team leader, I should have been the one to remind everyone else, but it had been a long day. “Better rest up then.” I said, jumping into bed and pulling out my scroll. I plugged in my earbuds, put on some music, and dozed off to sleep. The next day, I slept in until about 9:30, and started prepping my weapon. I had built it at Signal, under the supervision of Mr. Branwen. Everyone called him Qrow though. He’s Ruby and Yang’s uncle. He’s a pretty cool guy. He always had his whiskey flask with him, taking a swig every now and again. He never seemed too drunk though, but you could still tell when he was drinking more heavily. Anyway, I built my weapon under his supervision. I decided to model it similarly to his. It’s a sniper rifle, but with a click of a button it transforms into a sword. Ruby and I actually built our weapons at the same table, and our weapons were very similar. Her weapon is a sniper rifle that changes into a scythe, which she calls Crescent Rose. Qrow’s is a sword that can also be a scythe and a grenade launcher sort of thing. I always felt like there was more to him than met the eye, just like his weapon. You can sort of gauge a person’s personality by their weapon, which Qrow described as an extension of yourself. Using Yang as an example, her gauntlets have incendiary shotgun rounds in them, showing she likes to be up close and personal with her enemy. She has a fiery personality. By the time I was done cleaning my weapon, it was 10:45. My teammates had also been cleaning their weapons during this time. The four of us, weapons in hand, went down to the cafeteria for brunch. Each table had twelve seats, which was enough for three teams. As the four of us sat down at an empty table, team RWBY walked in with team JNPR (pronounced Juniper). JNPR was made up of a two guys and two girls. Jaune and Ren, and Nora and Pyrrha Nikos. I knew Pyrrha‘s last name because she was one of the best fighters at Beacon, despite being a first year student. Besides, she was on the front of a cereal box called Pumpkin Pete’s Flakes or something. Christian was one of the only people I knew who liked the cereal. The two teams sat down at our table. Ruby, of course, had to sit down next to me. I started sweating. Weiss Schnee, another member of RWBY, sat down next to Neil, who was sitting opposite of me. Weiss was the heiress to the Schnee Dust Company, a multi-billion dollar organization. She was quite bossy, as she was used to having things go her way all the time. “Hey Ruby,” I said, trying to keep calm. “Hey Odin! How’s it going?” she said. “Not bad. You guys going to training at one?” I said, attempting (and failing) to keep my voice from cracking. It was a curse throughout my teenage years. It happens from time to time, especially when I’m nervous. “Ignore the voice crack,” I said. She socked my arm jokingly, “Don’t worry about it,” she said, “And yeah, we are. I think it’s all three of our teams, right Jaune?” “What?” Jaune said, not having been paying attention to our conversation. “Are you guys going to training at one o’clock?” “Uh, yeah I think so,” he said without confidence in his voice. “Yes, we are,” said Pyrrha. We then got our food, ate, and headed to the training hall together. By the time we got to the training hall, it was quarter after twelve. “We’ve still got about forty-five minutes before it starts,” Shane said. “Well, I guess we can just hang out then,” I said. We all showed our weapons to one another, and talked about how they worked for a while. At 12:50, Ms. Glynda Goodwitch walked in. “Good, you’re all here,” she said, “Let me get everything set up and we can begin.” She input all of our names into a list, and randomized us into six pairs. It’s sort of like a tournament. The big holo-screen showed the first round matches: Jaune Arc vs. Shane Cox Pyrrha Nikos vs. Yang Xiao Long Nora Valkyrie vs. Weiss Schnee Neil Maas vs. Lie Ren Christian Cook vs. Ruby Rose Blake Belladonna vs. Odin Sanchez I half cringed when I saw my matchup. Blake was a ruthless fighter, and not much was known about her. Her weapon was called Gamble Shroud, and it was a pistol attached to a sword, with the sheath also being used as a weapon. Thankfully, I at least knew her semblance, which was something she called Shadow Clones; copies of herself in whatever position she was in at the time. If you touch them, they can simply disappear, as a low aura draining version, or they can explode or freeze into solid ice. A semblance is essentially a manifestation of a person’s aura, and Blake’s aura is strong. When we saw our matchup, the two of us briefly made eye contact, nodded to each other, and refocused our attention to the arena. Shane and Jaune shook hands, and backed away from one another. I knew that Jaune didn’t stand a chance. Sometimes I wondered how he got into Beacon in the first place. After Glynda signaled the match to begin, Shane instantly unleashed the full fury of his weapon on Jaune. Shane has a sub-machine-gun-style weapon that turns into a mace. Jaune had a simple sword and shield. He was able to block Shane’s hail of bullets, but Shane used it to his advantage, running towards Jaune until his magazine was empty. The end of the bullet-storm caused Jaune to lower his shield, but as he did, he was immediately clobbered multiple times with Shane’s mace, and Glynda called the match. Shane walked over and helped Jaune up, and Glynda called the next combatants to the floor. Yang and Pyrrha went at it for a while, and seemed to be about equally matched. In the end, Yang’s heavy but brash attacks cost her, and Pyrrha claimed victory. Weiss then bested Nora, Ren beat Neil, and Ruby beat Christian by a slim margin. Now it was my turn. Blake and I took the floor, and we shook hands. We took our positions, and we commenced. I began by using my semblance, which is almost two in one. I can short range teleport, and cloak myself. Very useful things for a sniper. My teleport is restricted to about 15 feet, and it takes a decent bit of energy, so I don’t like to use it in excess. It is very helpful, however, when used in conjunction with my cloaking ability. While I’m not completely invisible, if you’re not looking for me, I’m invisible enough. But, when in combat like this, I really have to use my teleport for it to do a whole lotta good. I cloaked myself, and teleported at a diagonal and pulled out my sniper. I might only get one or two shots with it in an instance like this. I took a shot at her, but her sheath blocked it. Now, she knew where I was. “Man, she has reflexes like a cat,” I thought to myself. Blake fired several rounds from her pistol in my direction. One glanced off of my rifle. “She has good directional hearing too.” I teleported once more, and changed my sniper into my blade. I had taken to calling my weapon Shadow Stalker, by the way. I uncloaked, and rushed her from the side. I swung hard with an overhead blow, and it was met by her sheath and sword. Bad idea on my part. I was now looking down the barrel of her handgun. I jumped backwards, anticipating a hail of lead slugs to be flying in my direction, but only two came, which I blocked. I then realized that she had had only two left in the magazine, but she quickly reloaded. While she did this, I took the opportunity to assess the situation. I glanced at the board, which shows each contestant’s aura level. Blake’s was full, and mine was slightly drained. That was because I had used my semblance. Your aura can be drained in two ways: utilizing your semblance, and using it as an invisible shield to deflect blows as to avoid bodily injury. Blake saw that I wasn’t paying attention, and she dashed towards me. I snapped back into focus brought my sword to block a blow to my chest. I countered by slashing at her side. Before I realized what was happening, my sword was stuck in a Blake ice sculpture. She had used an ice shadow clone. I yanked at my sword a couple times, but it was really stuck. Blake took the opportunity attack me from behind, but I was smart enough to dodge it. She shaved off a chunk of the ice statue, and nearly took my arm off. She was off balance from the missed swing, and I kicked her in the back as hard as I could, sending her flying. I hit the button on Shadow Stalker to change it into rifle form. This freed it from the ice. I figured while I had my rifle that I would fire a couple shots at her. The way Shadow Stalker works, is that the handle turns into the stock, and the blade separates on a hinge into a shooting stand sort of thing. As a final touch when building it, I decided I would make it so when in rifle form, only the sharp edge of the blade becomes the stand, and the rest of the blade can act as a bayonet. But the entire blade can also be the stand. The rifle can also fire when in sword form, but I can’t hold it with my left hand (I’m a righty), as I would be grabbing the blade. That comes in handy if I’m lying in a prone position. I have a scope on the rifle with multiple zoom levels too. So I shot four rounds at her (the rest of my mag), and I was able to land one to the torso. I then decided to make a risky move. I hit the button to change my gun to my sword, and teleported toward her. This just about drained me of aura and energy. I held my sword to her throat, and said, “Checkmate.” Glynda called the match. I fell to one knee to catch my breath, using my sword as a support. “Good match,” Blake said to me. We shook hands once more. I stood up and helped her to her feet. “Thanks,” she said breathily, obviously tired, as I was. Our eyes went up to the leaderboard, and my picture and name went into the empty round two slot. The next pairs were made. Shane Cox vs. Pyrrha Nikos Ruby Rose vs. Lie Ren Odin Sanchez vs. Weiss Schnee I laughed and punched Shane in the arm, “Ha, good luck with that,” I said. “Yeah whatever,” he said, “I got this.” “Sure ya do,” Christian said. “Shut up,” Shane said, starting to get a little agitated. Pyrrha and Shane shook hands, and the match began. Shane started the same way he had his previous match: firing a hailstorm of bullets at his opponent. Pyrrha blocked them with her shield. Pyrrha also has a spear, which can also be a sword, as well as a rifle with iron sights. She threw her spear at Shane, and it stuck perfectly in the barrel of his gun. As he strained to remove the blockage, Pyrrha threw her shield at him like a Frisbee, hitting his legs out from underneath him. Pyrrha then used her semblance--polarity, like magnets-- to pull her spear out of his gun, and changed it into a rifle. By the time Shane got his wits about him and stood up, he was looking down the barrel of his opponent’s gun. He put his hands in the air and conceded the match. “Nice try bro,” I said. “Yeah,” Shane said, rubbing his shins. Ruby and Ren were next. They fought for a while, but Ruby eventually came out on top.

Weiss and I fought for a bit, but I was able to be victorious.

Weiss’s weapon is a sword called Myrtenaster. While functioning as a normal sword, she can infuse it with Dust Crystals to give it an elemental power. There are a few kinds of Dust. You have Water, Fire, Earth, and Ice. She can have one of each crystal in her sword, and she can rotate the chamber to select which one she uses. Her semblance uses glyphs. They have many purposes, such as a springboard sort of thing, gravity altering (can be put on a vertical surface and allows people to walk up them like they were on flat ground), and shields.

We were now down to the final three. The last battle is a three-way free-for-all. The three of us took our positions, and Glynda ordered the battle to commence. The three of us dashed to the middle in a wild clash of steel and sparks. Pyrrha activated her semblance and used it to throw my sword (myself attached) across the floor, so that she could focus on Ruby. I stood up and decided I would cloak myself and take a couple shots at them. I decided to focus on Pyrrha, as she was the stronger opponent. Well, that’s what I made up in my mind anyway. I think I just didn’t want to shoot Ruby. The only problem was that the two of them were moving so fast, it was hard to get a good shot. Finally, Pyrrha stopped for a second, and I took my shot. As my luck would have it, Ruby dashed and landed a hit on Pyrrha. This would have been a good thing for her had I not shot. I hit her square in the stomach, and Glynda called Ruby out of the match. “Dammit,” I said under my breath, realizing that now I would have to take on Pyrrha alone. That, and the fact that I had just shot my crush. Pyrrha now knew where I was. I uncloaked and directed my aim at her. As she was charging me, I squeezed off three rounds in quick succession. She blocked everything. Just before she reached me I hit the button to get my sword, and teleported behind her. I slashed as I turned around to face her, and I made contact with her shield. She blocked the majority of my cut, but my swing had enough force so that I caught her shoulder in the blow. This brought her down to her knee. I started to smile as I realized I had the upper hand. But my joy suddenly came crashing down with the rest of me as a sweep from Pyrrha’s spear swept my feet out from under me. I opened my eyes to see Pyrrha standing over me with a sword to my throat. “I believe that’s what you call, ‘checkmate’, am I right?” she said with a smile. “One might call it that,” I said with a sly smile, “But you forgot something.” She looked at me confused. I pulled the trigger on Shadow Stalker, and used the blast to propel myself across the floor. I cloaked myself and teleported into the air above her, and fell towards the ground swinging my sword in a heavy overhead strike. It worked exactly as I planned, and I came down on her sword shoulder, driving her to the floor. As she lay there, she summoned up what was left of her aura and energy, and unleashed a negative magnetic blast on me, and I suddenly found myself stuck in the stone ceiling, unable to move. Both of us were completely drained. Glynda called the match as a tie; a very rare occurrence. I ended up hanging there a while. Everyone had to get a few pictures. “Very funny guys, you can help me down now.” I said, deeply annoyed. “I don’t know if there’s anything we can do,” Christian said sarcastically, “We might just have to leave you hanging.” “Just get me down, seriously, you have no idea how uncomfortable this is.” They all just laughed and took more pictures and videos. Finally, I had had enough. I mustered up some strength and teleported a foot away from the ceiling. I fell towards the ground and swung my sword like I had before. I aimed for everyone below. They all moved and when I hit the ground, a shockwave shook everyone. I stood up and brushed off the rubble, “There. Now we can go,” I said. When we got back to the dorms, I immediately laid down in my bed, and pulled out my scroll. I decided to go on Instagram. I should have known what I’d find. A notification saying: Christian Cook tagged you in a post and comment: looks like someone was stuck between a rock and a hard place ;). He bad a habit for making stupid puns and stuff. I scrolled through the notifications, all saying I was tagged in a photo. Later I would laugh about it, but for some reason it just pissed me off. I went to sleep not long after. “Tomorrow is Sunday,” I thought to myself, “I don't have to worry about anything but me.” Sunday is the one day of the week we always get off. On Saturday’s we normally had combat training or something of the sort. I woke up the next morning at 10:00, and found myself alone in our room. I checked the bed above me to see if Christian was up there (we had bunk beds), but he wasn't. I hopped out of bed, and put on a tee shirt and jeans. I almost put my combat gear on, as I thought I might go to the range and do some target practice, but I decided against it. I could always come back. I didn't grab Shadow Stalker either. I decided to go for a walk, and on my way to the bottom I checked the notification board. In big letters it said, STUDENT BALL SATURDAY AFTER NEXT. This thing was the event of the semester. Everyone who was anyone was going. Now, if there's one thing thing I make clear to people, it's that I don't dance. While this is true to this day, I still wanted to go. There was only one problem. I didn't have a date. I wanted to ask Ruby so badly, but I was so worried about rejection, I couldn't bring myself to ask. Talking to girls like that has never been my specialty. I decided I would go to the store and grab some stuff to eat. On my way back up to my dorm, I saw Professor Ozpin walking through the hall. Ozpin was the school’s headmaster. We were all a bit nervous around him, but he was a pretty chill guy from what I remember. “Good morning sir,” I said. “Good morning,” he said, “I heard you and Ms. Pyrrha Nikos had an interesting match yesterday.” “Yeah, interesting all right.” Ozpin chuckled, “Well, you'll see even more ‘interesting’ fights at the Vytal Festival next month. Vale is hosting this year, you know. I assume you and your team will be participating?” “Yes, we will be. I do have a question though. Can teams from the same academy battle one another?” “Normally we try to keep the inter-academy fighting to a minimum during the tournament, but when teams are eliminated, it can become necessary.” “Ohh ok. Thanks.” “Sure. Well, I have a meeting to get to. Good luck with your classes and training.” “Thank you sir. Have a good day.” Now that my mind was on the tournament, instead of going to the store, I switched into my combat clothing, grabbed Shadow Stalker and headed to the range. When I got there, I found Ruby and Pyrrha were practicing. “Hey guys,” I said, “How's it going?” “Oh, hey Odin!” Ruby said, “I'm good! Just practicing. Gotta be the best, ya know?” “Not better than me though,” I said, issuing a challenge, “That's just not possible.” “Oh yeah?” She said, taking the bait, “Well then prove it!” “Sure, piece of cake,” I said. I pulled out my weapon and changed it from sword to rifle, and stuck the blade into the ground. “Let's start at 400 yards,” I said. “Sounds good to me.” I got the target in my sights, and shot three times. Two bullseye one on the line. “And that was just the warmup,” I said with a smile. Ruby then, without a word, stuck the long blade of Crescent Rose into the ground to use as a stand. She squeezed off three shots at the target next to mine. Three in the bullseye. She stuck out her tongue and then said, “Looks like it is possible for me to be better.” “Yeah, we'll see.” I looked back through my scope. I shot three more rounds, having reloaded already. No new holes were in my target. “Um, I think you just completely whiffed.” “Wrong target,” I said with a smile, “Take a look at the 600 yard target.” Ruby looked at the target, and she looked back at me, sort of squinty and stuck her tongue out again. There was one big hole in the target, but it was made up of three bullet holes.

“I’m not quite done yet.” she said. She reloaded, and fired three times at the 600 yard target next to mine. “See? I am better you,” she said proudly.

Looking through my scope at her target, there was only one hole in the target, meaning she shot them through the same hole. “Well,” I said, defeated, “Maybe you are a better shot than me. But, I can beat you in combat any day.”

“Oh really?” she said.

“Yeah. Pyrrha,” I said, “You know what we should do?”

“What do you have in mind?” she said.

“We should have a rematch tournament today. Just for kicks. Ruby and I should get our teams together, and you can grab Jaune, Nora, and Ren.”

“Sounds fun!” Ruby said excitedly.

“But isn’t the training arena closed to recreational sparring?” Pyrrha questioned.

“Well, yeah, but we can use one of the outdoor arenas. I mean, it’s a nice day, and we can power up the force-field. How about we meet half an hour from now?”

They both nodded. With that the three of us went off to find our teams. I pulled out my scroll and made a group call to my guys. Shane answered almost immediately.

“Hold on,” I said, “Let’s wait for the others so I only have to explain this once.”

Christian and Neil joined a few seconds later.

“So how do you guys feel about a rematch with RWBY and JNPR?”

“I’m down,” Neil said.

“Sure,” Christian said.

“As long as I don’t have to fight Pyrrha again,” Shane said.

I laughed, “We’ll just have to see.”

We showed up almost exactly on time. JNPR was already there. A couple minutes later, RWBY arrived.

“So how are we gonna do this?” Yang asked.

I pulled out my scroll, input all of our names into a matching software the leaders had on their scrolls, and announced the first round fights.

Yang vs. Nora

Neil vs. Blake

Christian vs. Weiss

Odin vs. Ren

Shane vs. Pyrrha

Jaune vs. Ruby

“Seriously?” Shane grumbled.

“Sorry bro,” I said, “That’s just the way the cookie crumbles.”

“Mmm… Cookies…” Christian and Ruby said in unison. They both were addicted to them.

Nora lost to Yang, and Neil lost to Blake.

An interesting battle was Chris and Weiss’s. Even their personalities were at odds. Christian, a lighthearted joker, and Weiss, uptight and bossy.

When the match began, Christian pulled out his weapon. Christian uses a bladed whip-like weapon, which can lock together into a giant longsword, as well as a shield. It is made of a light aluminum-titanium alloy, which allows him to easily swing the weapon around. He also owns a razor-brimmed fedora, which he wears from time to time. He was wearing it today. His semblance, which would not be of much use in this fight, is the ability to temporarily control machinery. This includes Atlas robotic tech.

The two of them fought for a long time, the advantage seeming to sway back and forth between the two.

Weiss was able to disarm Chris, but as she prepared to land one final knockout blow, Chris threw his fedora and took Weiss by surprise. Christian took advantage, grabbed his whip, and wrapped her up in it, immobilizing her. I called the match a victory for Christian.

“I coulda done that ‘Tweiss’”, he said. Everyone rolled their eyes and chuckled.

Next up was me and Ren. Ren is a ninja, and his weapons are two machine pistols with blades attached. His semblance is the ability to make himself and a small group of people invisible to Grimm. He is also very fast, which meant that attempting to snipe him would be a waste of my time and energy. I knew I might have to use a good chunk of my aura teleporting.

When the match began, Ren starting firing his pistols at me. I blocked them for a second, and then I got hit a couple times. I teleported in the air toward him, and fired Shadow Stalker behind me, propelling myself toward him. He dodged my downward slice, as well as a sideways slash. I decided I couldn’t go on the offensive until he tired out some. All I could do for now was block him and teleport.

This went on for a while, until finally he got close enough for me to swing at him. He blocked the edge of my sword, but the force of it sent him reeling. I took my chance, unleashing a string of slashes and cuts. He blocked some of them, but I was able to land the majority. Christian had taken over the announcer role during my fight, and after my last big cut sent Ren flying out of bounds. Chris called the match a victory for me.

Pyrrha easily beat Shane once again, and Ruby beat Jaune. The next round matches were made.

Blake vs. Christian

Pyrrha vs. Ruby

Odin vs. Yang

“Oh boy,” I thought to myself.

Yang is the strongest member of team RWBY. If she hadn’t gone against Pyrrha in the first round last time I’m sure she would have been in the final three.

Chris beat Blake, and Pyrrha bested Ruby.

As soon as the word “Fight” was out of Christian’s mouth, Yang dashed towards me, and landed a fist in my gut. Yang’s gauntlets that I mentioned earlier really do pack a punch (pun intended). I flew backwards, having to stab my sword into the ground to keep from going out of bounds.

After pulling my sword out of the ground, I swung it around into a reverse grip, so the blade is pointing down when holding it out in front of me. This way I have more leverage when using the flat of my blade to block punches. Besides, if you’re trained in the use of a sword in a reverse grip as I am, it can prove very effective.

I used the flat of my sword to block another one of Yang’s assaults, and countered with a kick that met her jaw. I teleported behind her and made an upward slash with my sword, still in a reverse hold. This nearly sent Yang out of bounds. If I had charged her then, I might have won right then and there, but I didn’t. I instead pulled out my rifle, and aimed it at her.

“I win Yang. Concede the match.”

Instead of saying that, Yang turned around with an evil smile on her face. She then exploded into a fireball. This is her semblance. Basically, when she gets angry enough, she gets really strong and doing damage to her seems to only make her stronger, making her nearly invincible. She basically goes Super Saiyan.

Quickly attempting to get my sword back out, I teleported backwards. Almost as soon as I was holding my sword, I found myself attempting to block a flurry of punches and fiery shotgun blasts. Yang reached way back with her right hand, and made direct contact with my lower chest, and sent me flying across the arena. By the time I realized what was going on, Yang was helping me up and out of the out of bounds zone. I had lost.

“Well, you win some and you lose some I guess.”

“Yeah. Good match though!” Yang said.

Christian walked up to the two of us, and the two of them said in unison, “At least you went out with a ‘Yang’!”

You could almost see the tension in the air instantly after those words left their mouths. They were both expert pun-makers, and they both thought they were the best.

Now the final match was set. Christian vs. Pyrrha vs. Yang. Christian is about as tough in combat as me, if not more so, and probably a bit more conservative with his aura, as he can’t use his semblance in many battles. This means he is very proficient with his weapon. If he and I were to go toe-to-toe without semblances, there’s a good chance I would lose. Now, if I could use my semblance, I would probably kick his ass. But if he can avoid my attacks and I’m running low on aura and energy, he can gain the upper hand.

The three combatants took to the arena, and I signaled the match to begin.

Christian and Yang both attacked Pyrrha at once. She was able to hold them off for a few seconds, but she then used a negative magnetic force on Christian’s whip and caused it to hit Yang. Now that Yang was out of the way for the moment, she could focus entirely on Christian. She changed her sword to a rifle and started firing on Christian. Chris coiled his whip into a shield to block the rounds flying in his direction. He then extended the whip into his sword, and charged Pyrrha. The first swing of his sword was blocked by Pyrrha’s shield, but a follow-up slash knocked her off balance.

Suddenly, before Christian could swing once more, a fiery fist smashed into Pyrrha’s face, sending her flying to the edge of the in-bounds portion of the arena. Before she could move, she was struck by Christian’s fedora, which caused her to fall backwards and out of bounds.

As Christian was turning around to face Yang, he felt two powerful arms grab him and lift him into the air, and then the hard ground. Yang had suplexed him. Yang kicked away his whip, grabbed him by the shirt, and lifted him up with her left arm, with her right fist ready to pulverize his face.

“You wanna just give it up now?” she said.

“{Insert punny line here?}” Christian took Yang by surprise and kicked her in the side, causing her to release her grip. He grabbed his whip, locked it into a sword, and made an overhead swing at Yang. As he was swinging, an uppercut made contact with his gut and sent him flying up into the air. Yang jumped up after him, and punched him in the back, firing her shotgun round as she did, and sent him flying across the arena and into the force-field. He fell onto the ground in the out of bounds zone, and I called the match.

“Looking a little ‘Chrispy’, huh?” Yang said, with that evil smile she’d given me earlier.

“Shut up,” Chris said.

“Can’t win em’ all,” I said, helping him up.

“Yeah,” he said.

All of us walked back to the dorms together, and we said goodbye for the night. It was about 5:00 now. Dinner time.

“What do you guys want to do for food?” I asked.

Everyone just shrugged and looked around. I opened our mini-fridge, pulled out two bags of pizza rolls, and put them in our mini-oven.

Christian was reading the new X-Ray and Vav comic he picked up on the way back, and Neil was re-watching old Red vs. Blue episodes on his Xbox.

“Give me back my shotgun,” a gruff voice from the TV said. That was Sarge. I sat down on my bed and watched the television.

“And why would I do that?” another voice said. Freelancer Agent Washington. His voice always sounded familiar to me, and I’ve never figured out why.

“Shotgun,” Sarge said again, “Shot… Gun! Shotgun, dammit!”

“Oh, right, that’s my cue!” a muffled voice said. Dexter Grif, Shane’s spirit animal.

“What are you up to?” Wash asked. “What is that noise?” A whirring sound like an engine came from the wall behind the two characters. “Is that a…” Before he could get the words out of his mouth, a jeep blew through the wall right at Washington. “CAR?!?” That was one of my favorite moments in the entire series.

A half an hour of Laser Faces, Terrifyingly-Strong Mutes, and hilariousness, the timer went off on the oven. I leapt off of my bed and speed-shuffled over to the oven, but Shane got there first. After a bit of shoving back and forth we finally got the pan out of the oven, and set it on one of the desks in our room. Neil came over and took about one-third of the rolls. Christian and Shane took another half, leaving about one-sixth of the pan for me.

“Wow, thanks guys,” I said.

“You’re welcome,” Neil said.

Before even putting some on my plate, I put the contents of the other bag in the oven.

We hung out until around 12:30, and then I went to sleep, listening to 70’s and 80’s rock.

Monday. My least favorite day of the week.

After trudging to class, we entered Dr. Oobleck’s classroom.

While he’s extremely smart and thorough, he talks and moves so fast it’s nearly impossible to keep up with him. His thermos, which is also his weapon, never seems to run out of coffee. He was darting back and forth and talking at light speed. I found it difficult to stay focused on the history lesson he was teaching. It didn’t help that Shane kept poking me now and again.

At lunch, my team, RWBY, and JNPR sat down at a table, per the usual. At the table that I had my back to, was team CFVY (pronounced coffee), seniors at Beacon. One of their members was a rabbit Faunus girl named Velvet.

I don’t believe that I have explained what a Faunus is yet. Faunus are basically human, but they have animal attributes as well. To use Velvet as an example, she’s exactly the same as a human, but she has rabbit ears on the top of her head, as well as normally-placed human ears. Monkey Faunus have tails, cat Faunus have cat ears, and so on.

Anyway, there were some bullies at Beacon, such as Cardin Winchester. There were a few times when I wanted to just sock him in the face. This dunce walked up behind Velvet, and pulled her ears.

“Hey, whaddya know, they are real!” Cardin said sarcastically.

“Ow! Please stop!” Velvet said in her accent.

Neil got up and walked over to Cardin. “Just who do you think you are?”

“Screw off, you don’t want trouble with me,” Cardin said, turning to face him.

“Oh really now?”

“Yeah,” Cardin said as he bowed up to Neil, and gave him a slight push. One of Cardin’s teammates was standing behind Neil, and kicked the back of his knees, causing him to fall backwards.

I got up behind Cardin, grabbed his shoulder and spun him around, “Walk away Cardin. Now.”

Christian and Shane got up too, as did Blake and Yang.

“And what are you gonna do? Why don’t you walk away?”

Now, I’ve always had a bit of a temper, and people like Cardin somehow knew how to set me off. I probably shouldn’t have, but I reached way back and punched him right in the face. Neil, returning the favor, kicked the back of his knees, making him fall to the ground.

Cardin stood up, red faced, and said, “Teach ‘em a lesson boys,” as he grabbed his giant mace from its holster.

“Damn,” I thought to myself, “Maybe this wasn’t the best idea.”

Thankfully, I had taken Shadow Stalker with me, so I could fight. I pulled my sword out and dodged a blow from Cardin’s heavy mace.

While Cardin and I were fighting, the rest of my team subdued his teammates.

Finally, I was able to disarm him, and knocked him to the ground.

I held my sword so that it pointed toward his chest and said, “Now, we don’t want to have to do this again, do we?”

“WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?” An angry voice boomed, “Who is responsible for this?” Ms. Goodwitch stormed into the cafeteria. She was making a beeline for me, as I still had my sword out.

I quickly put my sword away and turned to face her. “Well, uh, you see--”

“This maniac just punched me in the face and attacked me out of the blue!” Cardin said, now standing next to me.

“Is this true Mr. Sanchez?” Glynda said, standing right in front of us.

I wasn’t used to being called “Mr”, so it caught me off guard. “Uh, no, actually what happened was he was bullying, umm… Velvet’s her name I believe. Anyway he was bullying her, so my teammate Neil walked over to him and confronted him about it. Cardin and his teammate pushed him to the ground, and I got up, spun him around, and punched him in the face. And it just kinda exploded from there.”

“Hmm. Well, the two of you need to come with me for now, until we can get this sorted out.”

Cardin pushed past me, and I nearly put him in a headlock right then and there.

The two of us followed Glynda to her office, where Professor Ozpin was already seated.

“Take a seat gentlemen. Tell us exactly what happened. Cardin, you go first.” Ozpin said. He didn’t seem annoyed or anything, which surprised me.

“Well, sir, I was messing around with a teammate of his, not causing any trouble, and this lunatic punched me in the nose!”

“Are you sure that’s what happened?” Ozpin asked, seemingly giving him a way out of his lie.

“Yes sir,” he said confidently. He’d obviously had some experience in storytelling before this, and must have had some success, or he wouldn’t have been acting so foolishly.

“Ok then. Odin, now your side of the story.”

After explaining, Ozpin stood up and told me to walk with him. “I believe you, you know. I also think your intentions were good. Bullying such as that should not exist.” He said.

“Thank you sir, I just-”

“I just think that maybe you went about stopping it the wrong way.”

“Well, I couldn’t just let them beat up on my friend and teammate!”

“I’m not saying that, but maybe punching him in the nose wasn’t a great idea.”

“Yeah, I see what you’re saying.”

“Well I have good news, and bad news. Which do you want first?”

“Well, the bad news I guess.”

“The bad news is that, per regulation, you have to have a minimum of one hour of detention following today’s classes. With what happened, one could justify giving you two and a half hours.”

“Oh, ok.” I said, hanging my head a little bit.

“But, the good news is, I’m the headmaster of this school, and I’ve decided to only give you the minimum one hour. And who knows, maybe I’ll put in a word with Ms. Goodwitch to let you out a bit early.” Ozpin said with a slight smile on his face.

I smiled back, and said, “Thank you sir.”

“Your next class should be starting about now, you should go.”

“Yes sir. Thanks again.”

With that I ran off to the classroom. Running through the hallways, I whipped around a corner and collided head on with Blake. I noticed her bow was on the ground next to me, and I picked up to give it to her, and said, “Sorry Blake, I didn’t mean to-” I saw something that made me stop mid-sentence: atop Blake’s head were two black cat ears, “Run into you…”

Blake looked at me, and realized I was holding her bow. Her face turned white.

“You’re a… a Faunus,” I said.

Without a word, Blake grabbed her bow and ran by me.

“Wait!” I yelled to no avail. I jumped up and started running after her. She was way faster than I was, so I started teleporting and running.

I finally got to the point where if I teleported again, I would be in front of her. I teleported and stopped running, forcing her to either stop or run into me. She decided to run into me. She tried to get up and run again, but I grabbed her leg.

“Wait a second, ok? I just wanna talk to you. You can’t just keep running you know.”

“Fine. Yes I’m a Faunus.”

“Well, why do you hide it?”

“Because I don’t feel like getting picked on like poor Velvet did today.”

“Yeah, I understand that. It’s just wrong. Who else knows about this?”

“Nobody.”

“Not even your teammates?”

“No.”

“Don’t you think you should tell them?”

“No, especially because Weiss is the heiress to the Schnee Dust Company, and they have been long at war with the White Fang. I don’t want to have her not trust me because I’m a Faunus.”

“The White Fang? What do they have to do with you being a Faunus?” After I said this, I could see her demeanor and facial expression change. I could also tell that in her mind she was somewhere else, though I couldn’t know where.

“N-nothing I just um… Nevermind. Anyway, so yeah. We should probably get to class now.”

“Oh, yeah, haha, I almost forgot.”

We got back to class just in time to start learning about how to properly attack an Boarbatusk, which is a kind of Grimm that looks like a demented warthog. Cardin wasn’t there though, and I can’t say I was disappointed. Christian had saved me a seat, so I sat down next to him. Shane was right behind me, and Neil was on the other side of Chris. I noticed a cage in the corner of the room behind Professor Port, but didn’t pay a whole lot of attention.

“May I have a volunteer?” the Professor asked.

I raised my hand, along with Christian and Yang.

“Yes, Mr. Cook. If you would come down here and join me.”

Christian walked down the stairs to the floor where Professor Port was standing.

“I would suggest taking your weapon out young man.”

“Wait wh-” Before Chris could get the word ‘why’ out of his mouth, the door of the cage in the corner flew open, and out flew a Boarbatusk, raging mad. Christian drew his whip immediately, and readied himself for the Grimm’s assault.

The Grimm curled up into a ball and starting spinning at blazing speed, and suddenly whirred toward Christian, intent on tearing him to shreds with its tusks. Chris slung his whip over his head a few times to gain speed, and made a powerful swing crossways, slicing the Grimm in two.

“Very nicely done! You may return to your seat.”

“Thank you,” Christian said.

“You see students, when you remain focused and keep a cool head during combat with Grimm, most will be slain easily. But if you are fearful, the Grimm will sense that. It will feed on it and use that fear to it’s advantage. Fear not only attracts Grimm, but gives them more power than what they would have normally. Fear empowers them. And while this is true for them, it causes you to be rather foolish in your actions, and open yourself up to attacks. In other words, the Grimm becomes more powerful and you become weaker. Mr. Cook definitely demonstrated that he is not afraid. Again, nice job Christian. Now, anyway…”

Professor Port went on for about twenty minutes more, and then the bell rang. School was over for the day.

As everyone was getting ready to head back to the dorms, and myself to detention, a voice came over the PA system saying, “All students must report to the main hall tonight at seven o’clock for special assignment. Repeat, all students must report to the main hall tonight at seven for special assignment.”

“Ooh, I think I know what that means!” Yang said excitedly.

“What does it mean?” Neil asked.

“It means all of us are going on a little field trip!”

“Well it’s about time we did,” I said. I knew exactly what it meant: we were going on our first mission, wherever it may be. “Well, I best be off to detention,” I said with a slight chuckle.

“You got detention for what happened at lunch?!” Yang said, “That’s some class A bull right there.”

“Oh well, I have some homework to do anyway. Besides, I did punch a guy in the nose and hold a sword to his throat.”

“Yeah, but for good reason,” Neil said.

“Well, there’s really nothing I can do about it now. See you guys later.”

I walked into the detention room, and saw Cardin sitting in the far corner, sharpening his mace. I half smirked at him as I sat down.

I took out my school-issued laptop and pulled up a blank word document. At the top I typed out the title for the paper I was writing:

“GRIMM COMBAT TACTICS”

Basically, what I had to do was, for each common Grimm species, lay out a plan of attack specific to my team. This would factor in our semblances, weapons, the Grimm type, and situation in which we were fighting. This was assigned to the leaders of every team as preparation for the mission we would undertake within the next week.

After about half an hour, Glynda, who was overseeing the detention, called me up to her desk.

“You may go, Mr. Sanchez. Just so you know, Professor Ozpin and myself truly do appreciate what you tried to do, just do it in a more, peaceful way next time.”

“Thank’s Ms. Goodwitch.”

“Go on now, before one of the others notices the time.”

I walked into our dorm about ten minutes later, and found my team along with RWBY hanging out and playing Xbox.

“Ooh, partay,” I said, purposely saying the word ‘party’ abnormally.

“Yeah,” Christian said, “You’re late.”

“Actually, I’m early,” I said, “Glynda let me out half an hour early.”

“Are you serious?” Shane said, shocked, “She never lets me out early!”

“Dude,” Chris said, “That’s probably because you’re in detention every other day…”

“So?” Shane said.

“Never mind.”

“So who want’s to 1 v 1 me on Halo?” I said.

“Which Halo?” Ruby asked.

“Reach. Duh,” I said, “You know, the best Halo game?”

“You’re on,” she said.

“Dibs on winner!” said Christian.

“You might as well have said you’ll be facing me after,” I said. Halo: Reach, a game released almost ten years before, was a game that Christian and myself spent hours playing together when we were younger. We would play custom games and campaign, but we spent the most time on was the online multiplayer. A game mode called Living Dead most specifically. I have so many memories playing that game it’s not even funny. The two of us were so competitive, we would actually be shouting at each other and at glitches, but it was all fun and games.

“Well we’ll see, won’t we?” Christian said.

“Yeah, don’t get too confident,” Ruby said.

“Well are we gonna sit here and talk or play?” I said, booting up my Xbox. “First to thirty points, random weapons, on Hemorrhage.”

It was a good game, but I obviously had more experience, and came out on top. Christian and I went at it for a long time, and we raised the winning score to seventy. The both of us were at around sixty points, and that’s when both of us got “sweaty” as us gamers call it. Basically it’s when the players go all out, no more messing around, purely focusing on the game. The two of us were tied at sixty-eight, and the both of us had sniper rifles, the weapons we were most proficient with. Chris ended up winning, but I was at sixty-nine when he finally claimed victory.

I looked at the clock, and it read 6:50.

“Holy crap guys, was no one paying attention to what time it is?? We have to get to the main hall now!”

All of us started scrambling towards the door, and started sprinting towards the hall. Team JNPR was just ahead of us. I ran through the doors, out of breath, at 6:59.

“Way too close,” I muttered under my breath, still recovering from the sprint.

Professor Ozpin appeared on the stage, and stepped up to the microphone, saying, “Students, I assume you know why you’re here, but I will tell you anyway. You are going to be sent on a mission of your choosing. You will be accompanied by a fully-fledged Huntsman or Huntress. You will be called up alphabetically by team names. The team that is next will be displayed on the screen. You may begin.”

When it was my team’s turn, we walked up to the holo-screen, which had a big list of different assignments on it.

“So, what do you guys think?”

“Definitely something outside the walls. I want to fight Grimm.” Chris said.

“Yeah, I agree. What about you two?”

Neil and Shane nodded in agreement.

There were some assignments that only upperclassmen could pick, as they were deemed too dangerous for lowerclassmen.

We chose a mission outside the walls in which we would be meeting a Huntsman who is already in the field. The area was a small village in the middle of nowhere that had been out of contact for a few weeks, and we were going to check it out.

“The Huntsman you will be meeting with is Ajax Carter,” Ozpin told us, “He is easy going, but he can be serious when need be. Keep in mind, this mission, while marked as freshman-capable, has the potential to be as dangerous as a senior-rated mission. The only reason it is marked as such is because this kind of thing happens all the time, and everything is ok. But be ready for it to be life or death. You don’t have to take this mission, with this knowledge. Are you sure you and your team are up for it?”

I looked at my teammates, and they nodded. “Yes sir,” I said confidently.

“All right then. You will leave tomorrow at noon. Good luck.”

As we walked back to our room, we talked and wondered about what it would be like.

“I can’t wait to kill some Grimm,” Shane said.

“I know,” I said, “But there’s always the possibility that everything is fine and there are no Grimm.”

“Yeah I guess, but at least we aren’t gonna be stuck here doing stupid classroom work.”

“Yeah, that’s true.”

When we got back to our room, I immediately started gathering my supplies together.

“Let’s see here, sniper ammo? Check. Blade sharpener? Check. First aid kit? Check.” I’ve found it better to say my checklists out loud. “MREs (Meal Ready to Eat)? Check. Compass? Check. Hat? Uh, guys, does anyone know where my hat is?” I was looking for my baseball hat. It was special to me, almost to the point where I felt like it was a part of me. My uncle gave it to me for my eleventh birthday, and I wore it almost everyday for years. It got to the point where if I wasn’t wearing it for a week or two, people would ask me about it.

“No clue,” Neil said.

The other two had no idea either.

“When did you have it last?” Shane asked.

“I can’t remember.” While that hat is basically a part of me, I somehow manage to lose it almost every time I take it off.

I basically turned our room upside down looking for it, until I finally found it, in between my bed and the wall.

“I need to stop losing this blasted thing,” I said.

I clipped it to my backpack using a carabiner, and finished packing my things.

I fell asleep at around nine, and slept like a rock.

I awoke at 7:00, and threw on my normal clothing. What I wore was a pair of blue jeans, black steel-toe boots, a black zip-up jacket with kevlar lining with my emblem on it, my hat, and a belt with sniper bullets on it, along with a couple vials of dust, which I could add to bullets to give them more power. My emblem is a red Maltese Cross, otherwise known as the Fireman’s Cross, with fire around it. I chose this because my father was a firefighter his whole life, and I myself was a part-time fireman when I was attending Signal.

My teammates were still sleeping, so I decided I wouldn’t wake them yet. I’d give them another ten minutes or so. I set a timer on my scroll, and went through my supplies one last time. I grabbed Shadow Stalker, and placed it on my back, where there was a holster of sorts.

After my teammates woke up and got ready, we ate our breakfast and walked outside of the dorm building. RWBY was already outside.

“Hey,” I said, “Who are you guys going to meet?”

“We get Professor Oobleck believe it or not.” Ruby said.

“Really? I didn’t think he was an active Huntsman like that.” I said.

I glanced at my watch, and it read 11:25.

“What time are you guys leaving?” I asked.

“Should be about five minutes actually,” Yang said, “What about you guys?”

“We should be leaving at noon.”

“Who’s the Huntsman you’re meeting?”

“His name is Ajax Carter. I think.”

“Oh, huh, never heard of him.”

Our two teams talked for a couple more minutes, when a Bullhead, which is an airship with VTOL (Vertical Take-Off and Landing) capabilities, landed on the pad designed for them.

“That’d be our ride,” Yang said, “See you guys in a few days! Wish us luck!”

“See ya!” I said.

Ruby ran over and hugged me before she left, saying, “Good luck! Be safe out there!”

My face as red as her hood and not knowing what else to do, I hugged her back and said, “Thanks, and you too. I don’t want to have to come find you out there,” I said teasingly.

After they left, the four of us just sat around until our ride came along. I closed my eyes for about fifteen minutes, soaking up all the rest I could, knowing I would need the energy.

I awoke when our Bullhead arrived, and the four of us hopped on.

The ride was about two hours, but I couldn’t sleep a wink.

We finally landed in a clearing, and the pilot said we were approximately two miles east of the village. He also said that our Huntsman should be close by.

“Well, we should try to go find this guy,” I said, “He shouldn’t be too hard to find.”

I was wrong. We couldn’t find him anywhere.

We looked for about 45 minutes. The four of us finally decided to just head to the village.

“Well I hope something didn’t happen to him and we’re looking for a dead guy,” I said.

“Yeah, what are we supposed to do then?” Neil said.

“Let’s just find him first,” Chris said.

“Yeah,” I said, “Let’s just keep heading West.”

We walked for about twenty minutes in complete silence, looking and listening for any sounds. We knew that Grimm loved forests, as they couldn’t be seen as well and could get the jump on any unsuspecting victim.

Suddenly, we heard a great crash to our left, and then to our right, and then all around us. We all pulled out our weapons, and got into a defensive formation. All of a sudden Grimm, more specifically Beowolves, came running at us from all directions. Beowolves remind me of werewolves, and they move and hunt in packs. Each pack is usually lead by an Alpha Beowolf, and they can get to be fifteen to twenty feet tall, twice as tall as normal Beowolves.

“Come on boys,” I said, “Let’s make these things ‘Beo-wish’ they were never born!”

“That was horrible,” Christian said.

“Ok fine, shut up and kill Grimm Christian,” I said, “Better now?”

Without saying another word, the four of us began to unleash hell on the attacking Grimm.

After a couple minutes of fighting, I spotted the Alpha, and it was moving in on Shane from behind, who was unable to hear the sound of the hulking beast charging him over his machine-gun fire.

I teleported, and jumped at Alpha, slicing its side. It didn’t seem to do much but anger it.

With a powerful swipe of its huge clawed hand, it sent me flying into an oak tree.

When I realized what was happening, the beast was about to finish me off, standing over me in all of its hideousness.

“Seriously?” I thought to myself, “How pathetic is this? My first real battle with Grimm and I’m going to die from a freaking Beowolf.”

I braced myself for the blow that would surely end my life, but it never came.

I heard three gunshots that I didn’t recognized, and when I opened my eyes, I saw a man jumping at the Grimm with a large knife, and buried it into the creature’s giant head, killing it.

I quickly grabbed Shadow Stalker, and got back to work.

Christian finished off the last Grimm, and the five of us gathered in a small treeless spot.

“Huntsman Ajax Carter I presume?” I said. I lifted my hand to shake his, but quickly retracted it, due to a sharp intense pain in my left shoulder and side.

“Yeah,” Ajax answered. His voice was a little gravelly, but you could tell he was young, mid-twenties or early-thirties. “You can call me Jax though. You ok? Let me see your shoulder, I was the medic on my team, so I know what I’m doing.”

“Yeah, I’m fine I think, just sore,” I said, sitting down on a fallen tree. I took off my jacket and t-shirt, even though it hurt like hell as I did, so he could look at my side and shoulder.

My team sat down too. They reloaded their weapons, in case the commotion attracted more Grimm.

“Oh, ouch,” Jax said, “You got hit pretty hard.”

My right shoulder and side were all bruised.

“Looks like you might have dislocated your shoulder, but you must have slammed it back in without realizing it due to the adrenaline. I don’t think anything is broken, just some heavy hemorrhaging, or bruising as you know it. Here, take these. Just some painkillers. You aren’t allergic to aspirin, are you?”

“No, I’m not.”

“Good. You’ll be back to normal tomorrow, like nothing ever happened. Just focus on using your aura to heal you.”

That’s another function our aura’s have. If the injury isn’t too serious, our aura can speed up the healing process exponentially.

“I have a camp set up a half-mile to the north,” Jax said, “We can talk more there.”

When we arrived at the camp, we unloaded our things. It was inside a cave, so at least we would be out of the weather.

“So,” Christian asked, “What is the condition of the village?”

“Not good,” Jax answered, “Most of it is destroyed with few survivors. The place is crawling with Grimm of all kinds.”

“Aw man,” Shane said sarcastically, “And here I was hoping we were just gonna go camping and check out some village girls.”

Everyone got a kick out of that.

“If only.” Jax said, reining everyone back in, including himself, “We can’t have any transports take the survivors out of here until they have some cover, so that’s our job. We have to distract the Grimm and lead them away from the village. Tomorrow, we’ll go to the village and do some recon, as well as gather and inform the villagers on what our plan is to get them out. Then, the day after tomorrow, assuming all goes well, we execute the plan, and it goes off without a hitch. But that never happens, so be on your toes.”

Darkness set in as we cooked our food over the fire.

As I was enjoying my meatball marinara MRE, we heard gunfire coming from outside the cave. Shane had assumed the watchman’s post for the time being, and he must have seen something. We all charged out, weapons at the ready.

“What are you shooting at?” I said, “I can’t see anything.”

“I dunno, it sounded big, whatever it was.”

We scoured the ground, looking for anything.

“I think I got something over here!” Neil shouted.

“Jeez,” Shane said, “Must have blown it apart, because I shot at it over here.”

“I swear to God Shane,” Chris said, “If this thing is a damn squirrel, we’re using you as bait to attract the Grimm.”

“You might as well tie him up then,” Jax said, “There’s your big scary Grimm.”

A furry tail was lying on the ground, all that was left of the squirrel that was just blown to smithereens.

“Way to go buddy,” I said, “Maybe you should get some sleep.”

“Shut up,” Shane retorted.

While walking back the thirty yards to the cave entrance, we heard a large commotion.

“What was that?” Neil said.

“Who knows?” Jax said, “Maybe it’s the squirrel come back to get ya.”

“Uhh, guys,” Chris said, “Something tells me this isn’t our recently deceased furry friend…”

A large glowing yellow bulb was floating just at the entrance to the cave, accompanied by six red eyes. A giant Deathstalker. Basically a huge demented scorpion.

“Hey, doesn’t this feel familiar?” Neil said, “Haven’t we heard of something similar before?”

“Less talk more stab,” I said, charging forward.

“Aww,” Chris said, “We didn’t even get to tie Shane up yet!” With that he joined the fray.

Jax pulled out his handgun, and fired three rounds at the massive claws of the Deathstalker, knocking them back and allowing me to strike at the head.

As I jumped up to bury my sword in its skull, I caught a glimpse of the giant yellow stinger flying towards me. I was able to bring up my sword to block it in time, but the force sent me flying back, smashing my left side again in the process. I could not push myself off the ground. My left shoulder was in excruciating pain. I knew immediately that my shoulder was dislocated.

“Hold that thing off!” I heard Jax yell. He ran over to me, and pulled out a syringe full of liquid and injected my arm with it. “It’s morphine,” he said, “Not a whole lot, but enough to mask the pain temporarily. Sit up.”

I did, and he saw how my shoulder was sagging. He moved it around a bit, and asked me if it hurt. It didn’t so much anymore. He slammed it back into place, creating a sickening pop sort of noise. He quickly put it in a sling.

“Stay put,” he said, and returned to the fighting.

There was no way I was going to do nothing. I picked up Shadow Stalker with my right hand, which fortunately is my dominant hand, and transformed it into my sniper, stabbing it into the ground. I activated the night-vision mode, and aimed it at the giant beast.

I found one of its eyes in my sights, and pulled the trigger. The Deathstalker released a blood-curdling screech, which echoed into the night. This gave my teammates and Ajax time to pour on everything they had.

After finally killing the Grimm, we walked back into the cave, and I immediately collapsed onto my sleeping bag, my head pounding.

“That’s the morphine and adrenaline,” Jax said. Just keep focusing your aura on it, and you’ll be fine by tomorrow morning. Sleep is the best thing you can have right now. We’ll handle the night-watch for tonight.

I almost immediately fell asleep afterward, exhausted from the day.

I woke up at around 8:00, and found that my shoulder and side were only a little sore.

“Thank you aura,” I muttered to myself.

After stretching, I had a bite to eat and walked outside. Fallen trees were everywhere, a result from last night’s fighting.

We then traveled to the village, killing a few Grimm as we went along, and located what remained of the survivors, and informed them of our plan.

“Myself, Neil, and Christian will attract the Grimm away from you.” Ajax explained to the villagers, “Shane and Odin will accompany you to the evacuation landing-zone. Stay safe, and we’ll be back first thing in the morning.”

On our way back, Christian asked me, “Do you really think we can get all of those people out alive?”

“We don’t have a choice,” I said, “Either we get them all out or we die trying.”

“Yeah, but let’s try not to let it get that bad.”

“Sounds good to me. So Jax, what do you have planned to get the Grimm’s attention?”

“Oh, you’ll see,” he said with a grin.

Back in the cave, I sharpened Shadow Stalker to the point where it could split a hair. I also reloaded my belt with bullets and dust.

I loaded the rest of my supplies into my backpack, knowing we would have to make a speedy exit the next day.

I woke up the next morning, almost sick to my stomach due to nervousness.

We set out to the village, and split up.

“See you on the other side,” Jax said.

“How will we know when you’ve activated your ‘distraction’?” I inquired.

“Trust me, you’ll know.”

“Ok. Good luck guys.”

Chris and Neil nodded, and the three of them ran off.

“Let’s do this,” I said to Shane.

We found the villagers, and told them we would be leaving soon, and that Vale transports were maintaining a holding pattern about one mile away.

“We’re gonna get you all out alive,” I said, “I promise.”

We waited a little while, and went over the fine details of what would be happening.

Out of nowhere, a huge explosion rocked the already crumbly building we were in.

“I’d say that’s our cue, wouldn’t you?” I said to Shane.

“If it’s not, I don’t know what would be.”

“Yeah. Ok everyone!” I yelled, “We’re getting out of here!” We all walked out of the building, and could hear roaring and screeching from the Grimm that were surely meeting their doom. Insert non-formatted text here