Yang leaned against one of the pillars of the ruins, palying with the Knight piece in her hands, while her partner, Blake Belladonna stood on top of another pillar, keeping an eye on the surroundings.
"What's taking them so long?"
"Hm. This place isn't all that hard to find if they simply walk north. Maybe they got lost?"
Yang shook her head at her partner's suggestion.
"Ruby? Sure. She might get lost. But Ignis? Definitely not. He is used to navigating in forests with nothing but the sun for determining directions or depending on the constellations during nights."
Blake had a tiny smile on her face at those words.
"You think very highly of your brother, huh?"
"Duh. He is pretty awesome. Of course, not as much as yours truly, but still, you get the point, right?"
"Hm. I do."
And Blake really did. Because she had seen how close the siblings were in the short time she had observed them.
"Then, maybe they encountered Grimm along the way?"
"Heh, yeah. That will do it. Especially if it isn't a Goliath. Ignis will be over the moon and probably spend as much time as possible extending the fight to savour it."
"Huh?"
Seeing her partner's bewildered gaze, Yang chuckled and started speaking.
"I don't know if it is a curse or something, but every time we went out hunting Grimm during our time in Signal, the only Grimm that he would ever encounter were all some variations of a Goliath. Worse case, he might even encounter two of them."
"Needless to say, he has developed a certain hatred of that species of Grimm and a longing for literally any other type of Grimm to fight."
Blake had no answer to that ridiculous statement, so she simply remained silent.
Then, she saw movement towards the southern direction.
"I see movement to the south. Could be students, or Grimm."
Yang got ready with her gauntlets extended, ready for a fight.
Thankfully, it turned out to be students, and familiar ones at that.
Yang watched Ruby and Weiss bickering about something in the back while an exhausted Ignis led the two girls towards the ruins. He had this hollow look in his eyes that he only has when he is forced to deal with particularly troublesome antics originating from the sisters.
The moment Yang spotted them, her eyes lit up.
Waving her hand wildly, she called out to her brother.
"Yo! Ignis! Took your sweet time, eh!?"
Ignis's eyes brightened as well as he sped up his walk.
As for Ruby, she was even faster.
She directly used her semblance to shoot forward in a rush of petals, jumping right into Yang's open arms.
"YANG!!!""
"Whoa there, sis. Good to see you as well."
The older sister grinned teasingly at the younger girl and then at Ignis.
"So, I take it from how long you took that you finally avoided a confrontation with your lifelong nemesis?"
Ignis grinned as well.
"Definitely. It was a pack of Boarbatusks. Then, it was a pack of Beowulves. Then we dealt with a few Ursa Minors and a Ursa Major."
"It was horrible."
Weiss complained, but Ignis contradicted her words directly.
"It was very much fun. The greatest fun I've had in years!!"
Weiss just stared at the man as if she were looking at a lunatic, making Yang roar in laughter.
However, the warm atmosphere was cut short as a loud, distant, feminine scream filled the forest.
Yang's eyes widened as she looked westwards, the direction from where the scream originated.
"Some girl is in trouble!"
Her statement, however, was proven wrong momentarily as a blur shot past the canopy, burying itself in a nearby tree with a thunderous crash.
Revealing one very disoriented Jaune Arc.
"Did anyone catch the number on that Bullhead....."
Blake stared back and forth between Jaune and the direction he flew in from with a stupefied look.
"Did that guy just fall from the sky?"
"More like crashed in like a speeding bullhead, but that works as well..."
Ignis commented as he too stared westwards with an intrigued look, trying to understand what just happened.
As for Yang, she was just dumbfounded by the comedic sight.
"I..."
Suddenly, the forest to their East shook with the noise of explosions, followed by an Ursa Major crashing into the clearing, dead to the world.
The moment it crashed to the floor and started smoking, a girl with orange hair and turquoise eyes rolled over it.
"Awe. It's broken."
The girl commented as she stood over the dead Ursa, while her partner, the boy with black hair with a pink streak and Magenta eyes, panted heavily.
"Nora? Please, don't ever do that again."
Unfortunately for the boy named Lie Ren, Nora was already gone by the end of his words.
"Ooh!"
She leaned into the rook piece on the pedestal before snatching it up.
"I'm queen of the castle! I'm queen of the castle!!"
"NORA!!"
Ren roared at the girl who was busy singing with the piece, making her giggle happily.
"Coming, Ren!!"
Blake, still with that shocked look, unable to understand just what was going on, muttered to herself.
"Did that girl just ride in on a Ursa?"
"Would seem so. But, I got to ask. Is it more economical to use Grimm as pack mules instead of depending on dust-driven vehicles?"
Blake gave a dubious look to Ignis who looked just as lost as her at what was happeing in front of him.
In truth, however, Ignis's mind was working hard to remember as much as he could about the coming events.
'Damn. Watching it on the show was one thing, but watching all of this live? It feels far more dangerous than I thougth.'
'These guys really love putting their lives in unnecessary danger.'
Then, a terrifying screech resounded from the western direction, the same place from where Jaune was launched like a missile, followed by trees toppling continuously.
Within seconds, Pyrrha Nikos ran into the clearing, followed closely by a Deathstalker.
The moment she came in, she spotted her partner, who was still slightly out of it, recovering from being treated like a ballistic round by the Deathstalker.
"JAUNE!"
Instantly, the boy snapped out of it and spotted his partner in danger.
"Pyrrha!"
The boy jumped down from the tree, ready to assist. And he was not the only one.
The sight of the elder Deathstalker made all the students take on combat stances, ready for the fight.
Ignis pulled out his sword and got ready.
'Elder Deathstalkers are rare but powerful Grimm that primarily rely on their stingers for offensive power.'
'Their carapace is comparable to a four inch thick solid Aura-Steel, that means most attacks won't go through unless we rely on sheer kinetic energy transmitted to its internals.'
'Legs should be the only viable weakpoing to exploint. Without locomotion, we can flip it on its back and end it quickly.'
"Alright, guys, Standard encircling formation. I'll take point!"
Weiss, Pyrrha, and Yang reacted to Ignis's command near instantly and took positions around the Grimm.
Unfortunately, the other four failed to react, much to Ignis's brief confusion before realizing what was going on.
'Fuck! Ruby does not know large-scale battle formations! This is why I was against having her skip grades!'
'As for Jaune....yeah, that guy practically knows nothing about being a Huntsman if my memories are right.'
'But why are Nora, Ren, and Blake not responding? Do they not have standard education as well?'
Seeing how little time they had, Ignis improvised.
"Jaune, Ruby! Go left and flank it! Fill in the gaps by Pyrrah's side!"
"Blake, Nora, and Ren! Do the same with Weiss and Yang!!"
The command made the students finally move, creating a tight encirclement around the elder Grimm.
Ignis grinned at the beast and issued his command.
"Alright! Cut off its legs! All of em!!"
Unfortunately, it would seem that the Grimm realized the danger it was in and made a desperate call.
SCREEEEEEEE
An ugly roar tore through the area as the elder Deathstalker, desperate to escape the danger it sensed, called in all the Grimm in the area.
And as luck would have it for the students, something did answer the call.
"Guys! Above!!"
Jaune screamed as he dove back, dragging Ruby and Pyrrha with him, just in time to avoid being skewered by feathers.
At the same time, another strange roar rang out from the woods, but the children had no time to react to that.
Ignis dove backwards, avoiding another barrage of feathers, just like the others.
One after another, barrages came down from the sky, courtesy of the ancient Nevermore that was now circling the sky.
By the time the barrages stopped, they realized that they had all been scattered about in the clearing.
"This is getting us nowhere!"
"Agreed. There is no point in fighting these things!"
Weiss pointed to the relics that were now scattered about in the ruins.
"Our objective is right there. I say, we snatch one and make a run for it!"
Ruby nodded at her partner's words, as did Jaune, who was on the other side of the clearing with Pyrrha, Nora, and Ren.
"Run and Live, I can get behind that!"
Ignis stared at the surroundings, looking for a way out.
Then, he saw the bridge leading to even more ancient ruins that seemed to circle back down south, which meant they might provide enouhg cover for them to avoid the grimm and make it back to the cliffs.
Truthfully, he did not want to leave just yet. He wanted to fight them and have some fun since it was very rare for him to get the chance to enjoy himself like this.
However, he had to supress this desire since he was not the only one here at the moment, and he would never put the lives of others, especially his sisters, in danger.
"Get to those ruins! We'll circle back to the cliffs from there!!"
The others nodded, ready to do just that.
Unfortunately, the final reinforcement of the Deathstalker made itself known at that exact moment.
The trees flew into the air as a colossal shadow ran through the forest, trampling everything in its path.
Its roars sounded out before it even arrived in the clearing, with its trunk swinging wildly, destroying everything it touched.
The beast barged out of the woods and into the clearing, letting out a triumphant roar as it locked eyes with the humans.
Weiss felt blood drain from her face as she saw the beast that she had learned about back in Atlas, unable to comprehend how this thing, that should be native to Solitas, appeared here, of all places.
"Is that a Megoliath?"
The others reacted in more or less the same kind of stunned silence at the appearance of the Grimm.
Except for one person.
"OH COME ON!! ANOTHER GOLIATH!? AGAIN!??"