"Target's neutralized." Francesca mumbled as she sheathed her sword. With that monster of an Ursa dead, they had little to worry about right this moment and had a clear way to move forward.

"We had better get going. Don't want to be the las ones to the ruins." Francesca nodded out of agreement with Kael. The two moved to where the relics were suppose to be. . . There were others already there in fact! Even someone she already knew. "Schwarz Nacht." She vocalized as she walked to where the pieces were. Her eyes glanced over the girl's partner, tentacle headed. . . A faunus for sure. For the sake of civility, the best thing to do would be just ignoring her. . . Albeit her glance at the girl wasn't the most friendly.
As her view changed from the girl, it turned onto what they came to get in the first place. There were only a few pieces left. Her eyes were drawn to the one of the black bishop pieces however. There was something about the piece, she couldn't quite figure it out. "I suppose we shall take this white bishop piece then. That is, assuming that this is the relic we are looking for. I believe we can be in agreement in this 'partner'."

Kael ran with his partner, running through the forestry and hoping there would be more Grimm. One was just not enough. His grin returned. This time, though, there was now blood covering parts of his teeth. He probably bit his tongue or something, but it only added to his features.

When they made it to this place with some ruins in it, Kael wondered at the sight. They had to run through a forest full of creatures that wanted to kill them to find this small location. He shrugged at the thought and continued to move. Francesca identified Schwarz and some Faunus. He was glad to see Schwarz. She was nice, but this other female made him a bit skittish. He barely heard Francesca's question.

"Whatever works for you," as he scanned his surroundings, nervous if this was all a trap against him. He pulled on one of his zhen halves off his belt, in case he had to defend himself. What if this was all a prank against him.

Letting out a heavy sigh, Schwarz facepalmed. "Seriously, could you people please stop using my full name? I'm not particularly fond of having it." she said, giving Francesca a cold glare. "Speaking of which, to what do I owe the honor of being a person to be acknowledged rather than a thing to be ignored? Did you miss the picture I gave you yesterday or do you think these are a cosplay?" she went on, running her hand along one of her wings. Despite the scolding words she chose, her voice actually sounded more curious than sarcastic about the matter.

Truth to be told, she wasn't bothered any more by steel-solid faunus haters that refused to even listen to any arguments. At least they were firm in their beliefs. What annoyed her were those inconsistent in what they said, at least until they admitted that maybe judging people based on race instead of individuality was a mistake on their part. She was kind of hoping to make those turn like that and Francesca just happened to be the first one she bumped into, so she was in Schwarz' crosshair for now. And for now, she was still the hypocrite category.

When her gaze fell upon the other person, her mood turned on a dime. "Hey Kael." she said in a lot more cheerful tone, waving at the guy, "You look like a mess, what did you bump into?" she said curiously, noticing some battle wear on his appearance. while she wasn't the one to boast, she did like to keep tabs on the competition.

Gerald did not need a sniper rifle to hear the faint but very existing rumble of approaching beowolves. Looking up at the direction Michelle indicated, he began to run.

In all honesty, Gerald had never actually seen a creature of Grimm before. As such, this experience was rather new - and a tad frightening - to him. He had heard the tales, read the stories, watched the videos on what they were but he had never faced anything like this. While he had been in life or death situations before, everything he had been facing was strictly human. This was new. Entirely new.

As he ran, he kept Michelle in his peripheral vision and took note of the bullets he had. He had fired two red bullets and used the blue for his descent, so that meant...

Red Blue Red.

Under the grim realization that he could not reload, he pressed a button on Anwarter, releasing the ice dust bayonet from his barrel, causing it to fall to the forest floor before shattering under his running feet.

Chess pieces? Well, they didn't seem to be something that one would naturally find out here, so the likelihood that they were in fact looking for these was pretty high. But still, trudging through a forest like that, even without getting attacked by Grimm, just for some chess pieces seemed wrong. Maybe she would have felt better about the whole thing had there been some real excitement in getting to them, but the pieces were a disappointment.

"Religious leaders and I don't get along. Queen it is," she said, eyeing the piece her partner had grabbed for them. "But why are there two?"

She was about to grab the other queen when another group showed up. The girl gave her a stank face for just a moment, but Coral saw it, and walked back over to her partner. Oh, she knew that look. It was on.

"Who's this, Schwarz?" Ugh that name was dumb, she'd have to come up with something else to call her. "Some sort of low-life, dim-witted stalker friend of yours? Want me to... deal with her?"

"Then we are taking this white bishop piece." Francesca said staring at the piece. Thens she turned her attention to the Schwarz. . . And someone else pair. The girl who Francesca glared at earlier was complaining at her. "Not even asking the party in question. If it weren't for the threat at the end of your statement I'd not have given you a reply. . . Whatever you deem yourself." She looked straight into the girl's eyes. "I have no quarrel with you. Beyond that, this entire area is most likely being monitored by Beacon's teacher. I wouldn't try anything rash if I were you."

Done with that conversation, she turned to Schwarz. She left whatever it was that Schwarz gave her yesterday with her stuff back at the school. "I never looked at the paper though I suppose I know what was in it now." Wings. That was a bit odd. Francesca wondered how the girl hide them so well. Still, she had to reply to the other part of it. . . Maybe. "At first I acknowledged your presence. I barely even noticed your wings." She wasn't very sure what to say next. "It appears you're showing your true form now though, I see." She'd not talked much to 'animals'. Need she explain herself? Or would it be better to walk away at this point? Schwarz's partner didn't give her a good feeling at all. . . She was also unsure of where to go now. Return to Beacon somehow?

Schwarz gave Coral a push, shoving her away: "Behave!" she hissed. And stay at at least an arm's and knife's length away from me. Good grief! She was creeping her out, and she was coming to her defense! The girl made a note never to get on her partner's bad side or she just might not wake up one day, at least not in one piece. Great. she was stuck between a Faunus hater and a White Fang wannabe. Just her luck.

Trying her best to remain calm, she remembered what Francesca said, and it made her eyebrows rise a bit. How does one barely notice wings with a span of half the second meter? "I see. So these are what makes a person you're all right with one day into a thing you want to have nothing to do with over night." she said, giving her wings a beat for good measure and folding her arms on her chest. "If this pile of living garbage might inquire, is there a reason for that? Or are you just that shallow that you would toss me into the same bag as whomever made you view me like that?" Schwarz said, her red eyes piercing into Francesca's, as if she was trying to get a glimpse of the other girl's soul.

Kael took a small step forward, but at least it was a start. Looking to Schwarz, he replied to her comment.

"Ah, man. I thought I left no gore." He began to pull on his hoodie, trying to see where all the gore was on. This was his favorite, and only, piece of clothing that created some kind of warmth. "We had to fight some Grimm on the way here. Had to decapitate a Ursa while on the way here."

He heard the various comments between Schwarz, Coral, and Francesca. Kael decided to move out a bit, not wanting to be caught in the crossfire. He did, when there was a pause between the accusations to step up and speak to all of them.

"Come on, guys. We are all at Beacon. It does not matter if anyone is a Faunus or Human. We have all worked hard to get here." His voice slowly became louder as he continued his tirade. "We have survived this far in this forest. Can we not bicker or fight?"

(Collab between Scarifar and LaXnyd)

Michelle switched her sniper rifle setting to fire Fire-infused bullets and aimed at where the Beowulves would be in a few seconds. She fired, setting a bush on fire and causing the Beowulves to stop suddenly and growl. From what Michelle remembered, Beowulves were cautious around fire, which worked to her advantage. However, it was just one bush that was set on fire, and they were already moving around it to continue charging towards them. Michelle decided that she had bought enough time for now and started leaping from branch to branch to continue running.

Gerald looked up to see Michelle leaping branch from branch - and he also noticed that as he watched her, he was starting to look up less and to look to the front more. In a brief moment, he realized that his partner was leaving him. What a great start to the partnership. Turning around, he realized that he should delay the Beowolf advance for a moment and took advantage of the seperation that Michelle's distraction had caused. Aiming Anwarter at the trunk of a nearby tree, he fired a red shot which flew in the air before blowing away a large portion of the trunk, causing it to topple over right on the path of the beowolves. Then, Gerald fired another round - knowing it to be a blue round - and took aim again, firing to form the ice bayonet

Normally, when Gerald fired a red round, he would eject the ice bayonet first. However, keeping his aim on the beowolves even with the ice bayonet armed from the barrel, he fired a red round even with the ice bayonet in the barrel, causing the bayonet to fly out of the barrel and imbed itself onto the first Beowolf which leaped over the tree trunk, causing it to fall and howl in agony at the dust bayonet imbedded in its stomach. Gerald took the moment to reload Anwarter by inserting another six-round chain of bullets.

Blue - Red - Red - Blue - Blue - Red.

And with that, he continued his great escape.

Michelle kept an eye on her partner as they tried to escape the Beowulves. She noticed him firing at the Beowulves, so she spared a few glances to see what he was doing. He had apparently caused a tree to fall right into the path of the Beowulves, creating another obstacle for the incoming threat to overcome. It seemed like she made a good decision when having him be her partner.

Then she suddenly had one question appear in her mind: why were they running? They were both meant to be training to fight these creatures, yet here they were, running like cowards. Michelle stopped at a branch and turned to face the Beowulf pack. She fired three shots in quick succession, one to set the fallen tree on fire, and the other two at two Beowulves that had jumped after the first one that had been impaled with her partner's icicle. The wolves she shot were instantly set ablaze, causing them to howl in pain as they tried to beat out their flames, and the rest of the pack was momentarily stopped as the Beowulves growled at the fire, not daring to come any closer.

Gerald, as he ran, noticed that his partner had stopped in her tracks and was holding the ground. Joy. That meant they were fighting. A direct confrontation had never been his style, but he figured there was no better way to get used to it. One thing was for sure, she sure changed her mind quickly - and Gerald wasn't so sure she was willing to leave her safe higher position to help him if he got in trouble.

Aiming Anwarter at the Grimm again, Gerald proceeded to take aim, preparing to go from the Grimm's weak spot... and then promptly remembered that he had a blue round coming next.

God. Damnit. Murphy.

With that, he entered a standoff with the Grimm, waiting for them to charge as Michelle picked them off one by one and waiting to see if anything of them would be brave enough to charge, in which case Gerald would have an ice bayonet ready for their soft undersides.

The younger, smaller Beowulves snarled, looking left and right for a way through the fire. The larger, older Beowulves, however, walked back slowly, determining that perhaps it was not worth the effort to chase down their prey. Another shot from Michelle, hitting and setting ablaze another of the younger Beowulves, soon confirmed it and they decided to growl at the younger ones who were still alive, as if telling them to leave. The younger ones growled back, as if frustrated, but obeyed their superiors and left with them as they ran back into the forest, leaving Michelle and Gerald alone.

Seeing that the Grimm had dispersed through Michelle's excellent marksmanship, Gerald was on guard for a moment, waiting for the presence of the Beowolves to disappear before he flicked on the safety on Anwarter and holstered it underneath his jacket again. Well, their first battle as a partnership could have gone a lot worse, so Gerald assumed that meant that he wasn't completely screwed over in choice of partners. That, and he was still alive after his first encounter with the Grimm. Hooray.

"...Well, that was an unpleasant distraction," he said in one of the biggest understatements one could make. "Shall we keep going?"

Michelle watched as the Beowulves ran off, then lowered Artemis. She turned to her partner, then scanned the area for anything worthy of notice. Her eyes caught an area of cracked stone, maybe a temple, which was obviously quite different from the forest that they were in. "Hey, I see something. Not sure what it is, but it's definitely a building, and probably not originally part of the forest. Wanna check it out?" Michelle reported to Gerald.

Gerald followed Michelle's and his eyes landed on the cracked stone which Michelle was looking at.

"I guess," Gerald nodded, beginning to head in the general direction of the stone. "We don't have any other informed alternatives, so I suppose that is really our only choice."

"Ok," Michelle replied, then dropped down to Gerald. "It's not too far away, maybe a two minute walk," she said. As she started walking, Michelle awkwardly asked, "So, uh.... I suppose we should, um... get to... know each other?" She wasn't one for conversation, but she thought it was necessary if they were to continue being partners. She only hoped that this little conversation would not be so awkward.

Michelle's question honestly surprised Gerald, but she did have a point. After all, the two were going to be partners. They worked better when trust was formed. However, to Gerald, trusting someone who hid their very body language with a cloak wasn't exactly comforting. It could just be the fact that he saw too many self-proclaimed vigilantes back in the day who thought cloaks were in style.

"Mmm... what do you want to know?" Gerald asked as they walked. "I'm not a really interesting guy, in case you're wondering."

"I, uh... don't... know, actually," Michelle said, unconsciously avoiding eye contact by looking down. As she looked around, she asked, "Maybe... the weapon you're using? That might be a good start."

"This?" Gerald asked, reaching into his coat and unholstering Anwarter. "It's Anwarter. Revolver based. Uses red or blue dust. It probably can be used with other forms of dust, but I've never tried it." It had been too expensive to buy other forms of dust, even if the effect he could achieve with it through Anwarter could be very interesting.

"What about you?" Gerald asked, turning back to Michelle. "Is that sniper rifle all you have? Normally, I assumed that people with sniper rifles let it transform for close range combat, but yours doesn't seem to have that function," he commented.

Michelle took out her sniper rifle from underneath her cloak and held it out. "I call this Artemis. Uses all 4 kinds of dust: red, blue, yellow, and green," she explained. "Also, I do have another weapon," Michelle said as she put away Artemis and pulled out two pistols from their holsters. "Well, two, actually. Together, they're called Apollo. They're just regular guns though; they don't do anything special," Michelle said. "I've been meaning to change that, but I can't figure out how to get them to do what Artemis does."

"Well they've been doing a good job for you so far, haven't they?" Gerald commented, idly wondering if the gunsmith who forged Anwarter might be able to actually help Michelle with Apollo. He actually did have one other weapon, but should he tell her? Schnellfeur, after all, was a mere handheld semi-automatic, but the mere surprise of having it offered Gerald so many opportunities.

"I actually do have one more weapon, but it's actually a secret ace in the hole." Gerald admitted to Michelle as a compromise. "It's not really powerful, but I've caught a lot of opponents off guard just by having it, so I like to keep it a secret. Don't tell anyone though." he asked with a grin on his face and a mischievous twinkle in his eye.

Michelle turned toward Gerald at the mention of a "secret weapon", curious yet respectful of his privacy. "I won't tell anyone," she promised. She was going to ask something else, but they had arrived at the building. Michelle turned toward it, and noticed that it was a temple of some sort. "Well, we're here. Let's go see what's inside," Michelle said, putting away Apollo and putting Artemis into her hands while still keeping it underneath her cloak.

Only nodding in response to Michelle, Gerald, who already had Anwarter out, opened his chamber to confirm just what bullets he had left. Nodding in satisfaction, he closed the chamber and stepped into the ruined circle to find what appeared to be chess pieces.

"Well, it sounds like we're not the only ones here." Gerald commented as he heard talking, which actually relaxed him a bit. Someone being here meant that any Grimm here would have been cleared out. Looking at the options of the chess pieces, Gerald turned to Michelle.

"...I'm not much of a chess player, so what do you want to take?" he asked.

"Hmmm...." Michelle thought out loud, looking at the choices she had. "Let's go with this one," she said, grabbing the white bishop and showing it to him, then placing it in an inner pocket within her cloak. She looked at the others that were there, recognizing the one that had been mauled by an angry mob of chickens before she saved him, but not the others. She turned to Gerald and asked, "You, um... wanna go say 'hi' to them?"

"Sure." Gerald shrugged, wondering if Michelle taking the white bishop would have any drastic implications down the road. "I guess it wouldn't hurt. Safety in numbers, after all."

Turning to the others who were currently at the ruins - he recognized Kael, who had been swarmed by chickens yesterday. Good to see he had made it. He also recognized Coral from the airship. Then again, her appearance wasn't something that one would easily forget.

"Hey." he called out, stepping forward. "You guys got your relics too?"

Perry hadn’t expected help to come, despite that he knew it was a possibility. It was simply one that he hadn’t planned on depending on. So when the other student dropped onto the smoking grass in front of him, he had to jerk Blast Bicell out of the way lest he impale the male. Nonetheless, he was glad for the other student’s arrival as it gave the Grimm pause and most importantly a moment of reprieve. Taking a deep breath as the creatures eyed the newest arrival, he was a bit surprised when the Faunus, given the sound being made, roared at the surrounding Grimm. Was he perhaps hoping to intimidate them, or challenge and rile them up? Perry didn’t know, nor did he really care at this moment. What was important was getting what remained of his Aura focused and using the most of the time the other student had bought.

“Aw shit,” Perry couldn’t help but curse when the other student finally turned around and he got his first look at his timely “savior”. It was slightly depressing that he recognized the other student especially given the reason for his recognition, it was pretty hard not to take notice of the commotion at yesterday’s lunch. As far as Perry knew, the student didn’t like humans or just males given his differing reaction to the two students. Or maybe the first had just been annoying him, Perry didn’t really know, and hoped his assumptions were off the mark. Any further musing was interrupted when he was apparently labelled for use as a springboard by the other male. Grunting at the sudden impact as injuries flared up with pain, Perry stumbled backwards but remained standing as he looked up with a look of annoyance. There wasn’t much time for petty emotions though as the other student’s actions marked the resumption of battle. With their attention split between two targets though, Perry had just a bit more breathing room and that made all the difference.

He couldn’t pay too much attention to what his partner was doing, but Perry still managed to catch glimpses. A Glyph that was supplied with Dust, some form of grappling device within his gauntlets, and the resulting explosion as the Glyph’s use was revealed. Feeling the heat at his back as he backpedaled towards the smoldering corpses left by the explosion, his movements were a lot smoother now. His Aura use was much more focused and controlled now, given that with his newfound room he could actually dodge blows instead of simply allowing them to land or soaking them with his Aura. As he backflipped over the explosion site, Blast Bicell’s tip stabbed downwards in a rapid flurry and dispatched of what creatures had only been injured. Landing behind the disappearing corpses, he took advantage of the gained distance and lashed out in rapid succession before falling back. “Hey, can you apply those Glyphs to my weapon?” Having reloaded a bit of Dust during the lull he was also fairly confident in Bicell’s ability to withstand the other student’s blasts. Combined with the other student’s Semblance, Perry was pretty sure it would prove quite effective at thinning the remaining Grimm.
_______________________
Planting a foot firmly on the ground, Kuhaku slowly stood. Wiping the sweat and dirt off of his brow, his looked at his wounds as his Aura slowly sealed them and he began to heal. Sighing, he wish he had more skill in using his Aura defensively rather than just for regenerative purposes. Ears perking and twitching, he heard the human call out to him. Looking up as his new partner as he dispatched and finished off the burning Grimm from his Trap Glyph, he listened up.

"Hey, can you apply those Glyphs to my weapon?"
He nodded in response. Of course he could.
Though, he was curious as to the human's plan. Exactly how did he intend on using his Trap Glyphs?

Lowering himself to the ground so that he was on all fours Kuhaku took off towards the male, his attached chains clinking loudly as he ran. Leaping over the pile of quickly fading bodies of the fallen Grimm he skidded to a stop in front of the student, kicking up a small dust cloud as he looked at his held weapon. Eyeing it, he wondered what its unique abilities were. Touching it; he pressed his thumb, index, middle, ring, and pinky finger along the length of its blade. His blood-red eyes glowed as smaller black glyphs etched themselves onto the student's lance. Flattening his palm against the blade of the lance, the Red [Fire] Dust Crystal inlaid in his gauntlets radiated its light to charge the glyphs. The engravings on his gauntlets burned brightly as he charged them. After a brief flash, the glyphs then faded away becoming barely visible.

Snapping his eyes up, he saw another group of Grimm rapidly approaching. With a slide he shot around the larger student and executed a roundhouse kick, knocking a few of them away. With a few quickly thrown jabs, he knocked a few more away. Back to back with the giant human, his mask opened with a click-click and he blasted another roar at the Grimm. Issuing another challenge to rile them up. Tired from having moved through the trees as he did and with his emotions still running high, he hoped the other student had enough energy to come up with a plan. Kuhaku was in no shape to strategize in his current position, he was out of his element fighting out in the open. He brought up his fists and settled into a fighting stance.
_______________________
Grinning at the affirmative, he stabbed the lance tip first into the ground as the other student got to work on it. The Grimm didn’t seem content to simply let the two prepare unimpeded and Perry was forced to step forward into their ranks. Slamming fists and feet into black bodies, he slowed the Beowolves to a halt as he traded blows with the creatures. By now he was a great bloody mess who was certainly headed to the infirmary if he survived the rest of initiation. His clothes were resigned to the garbage, just holding together as blood wet the fabric. Claw marks marred his chest and back, shallow slashes he hadn’t managed to avoid. His arms were covered in bruises and dripped with blood, the result of numerous attacks. Every move he made with the limbs hurt, even making a fist caused pain to flare up, but Perry grit his teeth and fought on through it. It had only been a few seconds before he jumped out of the melee and back to his weapon.

Wrapping his hand around the lance’s handle, he wrenched it from the ground as his Aura sputtered back to life, its glow faint and uneven. The blood flew from his arm as he raised his weapon, the lancehead spinning around him as the wire cut through the air with a sharp sound. Spitting blood, he caught the lead Beowolf right in the face and he smiled grimly as it roared in hatred and charged. “Get ready,” he muttered to his partner as loosed the “flail”, giving the wire slack so it reached out towards the Grimm. Catching the lead Beowolf, the force threw the beast to the side even as the wire wrapped around more of its kind, ensnaring them together like insects in a web. By the time the lancehead slammed to a halt against a Beowolf, at least half a dozen of the creatures had been wrapped together by thick metal wire. “Detonate it.”
_______________________
As Kuhaku took a moment for himself to catch his breath and gather his thoughts, he was alarmed when he glanced over his shoulder to see Perry throwing himself into the fray, fighting viciously without his weapon. His eyes growing wide, ears and tail standing straight on end. As he watched with incredulity, momentarily distracted, he couldn't believe his eyes as his partner took and absorbed damage almost unflinchingly. He was most definitely more durable and sturdy than himself. He would have to take note of that, though it seemed that his partner's Aura was low and weak. They would have to either end this quickly or run away and move on.

His mask shutting closed with another mechanical click-click, he turned just in time to see a Beowolf's claws fly at him aimed straight at his throat. Bending backwards at the waist, he narrowly dodged the attack, sparks flying off of his metal face mask from its claws. Straightening himself and snarling underneath his mask, he refocused his attention. Getting back into the action, he swiftly engaged the multitudes of Grimm charging at him, letting them come to him. Skillfully blocking, evading and countering with well-timed strikes. Though not able to take damage as well as his human comrade, he was more agile and flexible. Able to dodge most of the brutish Grimm's crude attacks. Their simple movements and attacks visibly telegraphing. It was their ferocity and numbers that made them dangerous, lacking intelligence for complex strategy other than swarming tactics.

After what seemed like an eternity, but was only a few moments in reality, Kuhaku spared a glance back at his partner to see he had returned to his weapon. As he then raised his weapon in the air and swung it around, Kuhaku had to duck as the lance's head detached from the main body of the weapon still attached with a wire of some sort. Backpedaling a few steps, he returned with his back to the human, watching the spinning lance head curiously.

"Get ready." he muttered.
As the lance head then smashed into the side of a nearby Beowolf, it began to ensnare other Grimm. Gathering some number of them.
It was then that realization dawned on him. Kuhaku's red eyes glowed as he prepared to utilize his Semblance.
"Detonate it."
Smirking underneath his mask, he nodded and popped the knuckle of his thumb. Crack!

The first Glyph he placed on the lance then reappeared, brightly glowing red before shortly erupting into another billowing fireball. Its explosion not as impressive or as large as the bigger Glyph he had placed on the ground prior. He was pleased and impressed with this one's creativity. Lifting an arm so that the human could see, the band on one of his gauntlets rotated with a whir-click. Showing him that he also had Blue [Ice] and Yellow [Lightning] Dust Crystals socketed into his gauntlets. Though, they would have a different effect on his Semblance than his Red [Fire] Dust Crystal.

Touching a hidden spike in his Gauntlets with his thumb, he etched a glyph onto it. On one of his arms, the band upon which the Crystals were socketed into centered on the Blue Dust Crystal. As he charged the glyph the engravings on his gauntlet burned blue. Picking a Grimm, Kuhaku punched at it. With a gunshot BANG! his spike shot out still attached to its chain, embedding itself into the chest of the picked Beowolf though not killing it. Staring down the Grimm, he then popped the knuckle of his thumb again with a crack!. The glyph on his spike then glowed the same as the other glyphs before only with a bright-blue color as it then exploded in a cloud of white. The Grimm's movements slowing as its body slowly froze. Jerking his fist back, the winch on his lower back activated and returned the chain-spike back to its home in Kuhaku's gauntlets. Looking over his shoulder at his partner, he hoped he got the message. If not, he could demonstrate the property of his Yellow Dust Crystal. Though he could only have a total number of 5 glyphs at any given time and no more.
_______________________
The blast wasn’t quite as powerful as the previous if Perry wasn’t mistaken, but between being bound and the point blank detonation the lower force hardly made a difference. As the wire unspun itself from the Beowolves’ ruined corpses he couldn’t help but smile at the satisfying recoil when the lancehead slammed back onto the handle and reattached itself. A quick survey of the clearing showed that most of the larger Grimm had slunk back towards the treelines by now, watching the two of them, wondering if they should continue the assault when so many of their youngers had perished already. “It’ll only take a bit more to break their backs,” he called out as he began to twirl Bicell around, warning the Grimm as he glanced at his partner. If the display and Dust colors was any indication, he assumed the other student could also apply an electric effect to his Glyphs.

Granted, life would have been much easier if displays of strength were always capable of driving away the Grimm. Against these reckless younglings though, it only spurred them on as their eyes narrowed in hate at the challenger. With a deep boom, the lancehead fired out once more, sailing through the air like a missile. Slamming into the lead Grimm, it punched through the Beowolf’s chest and threw it back onto the ground. Whipping the handle to the side, he flung the attached corpse like a ragdoll, bowling over the others beside it. Wrenching his weapon free, he swung it over his shoulder so it came crashing down on the ground near his partner.

“Yellow if you can make a lasting effect. Red if it’s one-use only.”

Returning his partner's glance, a feline ear swiveled to listen to his words.
"It'll only take a bit more to break their backs," the human said as he began to twirl his weapon.
Eyes looking forward and scanning the treeline, it was true. Their numbers were thinning, with the more intelligent and older Grimm having retreated.
The younger, fool-hardy Grimm were the only ones that dared to stay.
Behind him, he heard a booming sound as the human continued his attack taking out a single lead Grimm and knocking a few others down with its body.
Looking to his side as the human threw his weapon over his shoulder to have it land next to Kuhaku, he gave his partner another curious look.
"Yellow if you can make a lasting effect. Red if it's one-use only."
Smile hidden underneath his mask, he continued to grow impressed with the other student. It seemed that he understood Kuhaku's Semblance.

Looking at the blade of the lance, he saw there were still four other Glyphs inactivated. Thinking this a good chance to show most of his hand, he touched the faint outlines of the glyphs with their corresponding fingers and canceled them out. As his Lightning Dust Crystals clicked and centered in place on his gauntlets, he touched the palm of his hand against the flat of the weapon. Etching as large a glyph onto the weapon as he could, he then began to charge it with Dust. As his red eyes burned and the engravings on his gauntlet gave off a golden glow, he kept his hand on the weapon. The more time he had, the larger Glyph he could create and more powerful its effect. He would hold his hand on the weapon as long as his partner deemed necessary to give him the desired effect. Punching his free hand straight at the ground, he shot out his chain-spike and ripped it from the ground. With a flourish, he swung at the Grimm with its sharp end to whip at them before retracting the spike again.

---

While Perry would have loved to let his partner create the largest Glyph possible, he wasn’t exactly ready to go unarmed against the Grimm another time. Keeping his head low as his partner harried the monsters with his weapon, he fended them off to the best of his abilities. Wielding the handle like a miniature staff, he fell back away from the advancing creatures nonetheless. He could deliver sharp blows, snare them with wire, beat them to the ground, bash them aside, but in this form he couldn’t do much to actually kill the creatures. More importantly, while some had left the battle completely there were still a number of older Grimm simply lurking in the tree lines, waiting to make their decision. Unless the two of them could win, and do so decisively, they would likely rejoin the battle. And if they did, Perry was certainly as good as dead. 

“Sorry,” he called out as he jerked the handle forward, pulling the wire taut as he did so, causing the lance head to rip free from the ground and his partner’s grasp. Batting a Beowolf aside as his weapon came back together in one piece, he eyed the fading yellow glow with satisfaction. “Get clear!” With that warning, he shifted his stance so the weapon was aimed at the ground, its handle pointed diagonally up to the sky. His shroud of Aura flickered and died before it burst back to life vibrantly around his feet, like the last flash of a dying light. The Grimm leaped forward, claws ready to rend, but Perry was beyond their reach by then. He seemed to float at the apex of his jump, clearing even the treeline as he soared into the sky above the clearing. Rearing back as gravity began to grab hold of him once more, he simply roared as he hurled his weapon.

Like a falling star it flew from his hands, powered by the Dust he’d managed to reload in it during his partner’s appearance. Flying past the closest Grimm, it slammed into the ground at the center of their group, raising a cloud of dust and debris that shrouded the weapon from view. “Now!” He yelled as he fell back towards the ground, fully spent, though he doubt his partner needed the verbal cue. 

---

"Sorry," the human said as he reclaimed control of his weapon, pulling it from Kuhaku's hand.
"That should be enough." Kuhaku thought before he was rudely interrupted by more Grimm.
Throwing fists and swinging at the Grimm to force them away, the human then yelled, "Get clear!"

Not wasting time in wondering what he meant by his words and questioning it, Kuhaku clenched a fist and punched at the nearest tree firing a chained spike at it it. The metal point digging deep into its wood, the chains were pulled taut as the winch hungrily consumed the slack. Pulling Kuhaku's body toward it. Not intending on slamming his rib cage into the tree trunk again, he made sure to absorb the momentum with his legs as his feet made contact with it. Leaving the spike buried, he dug the metal claws of his free hand into the tree's bark and hung there. He watched as his partner then utilized what little remained of his Aura to launch himself into the air with his weapon. As the human began to make his descent, he roared as he then hurled his weapon towards the center of the mass of Grimm. The blade slamming into the ground and kicking up a dense cloud of dirt and dust.

Knowing what to do next, he removed his claws from the bark of the tree he clung to.
"Now!" the falling human yelled at him.
Clenching his fist, he cracked each knuckle.
Crack-crack-crack-crack-crack all at once, the sound almost sickening.

From within the cloud, the Glyph etched onto the other student's weapon could be seen glowing a bright gold. As it activated, the air cracked loudly as a bolt of lightning ripped outward from the weapon. A flash of light following it. As the channeled power from the lightning surged through the ground, arcing bolts reached out to hit the nearest targets. The tendrils of electricity branching out and chaining together as they slammed into the bodies of the nearby Grimm. Shutting down the weaker Grimm unable to handle the attack while paralyzing the rest.

As the area of effect grew to reach out and touch everything close enough to the impact zone of the lance, Perry was remained relatively safe. Kuhaku however, was not. The attack backfiring on him, a lightning arc struck his metal mask and gauntlets knocking him unconscious. As his vision went dark, his body slumped forward and the weight of his body freed the spike dug into the tree. Causing him to fall a few feet until he smacked into the ground, twitching and seizing.

---

“Holy,” Perry murmured as he raised his arm to shield his eyes from the release of lightning underneath him. Blast Bicell was basically unseeable as lightning covered and surged out from the weapon. Bolts lanced out from it towards the closes Grimm, dropping them to the ground like flies. And even beyond the visible arcs of electricity, Grimm fell to the ground, seizing as it flowed through the ground to reach them. Landing a good distance away from the source, Perry nonetheless threw himself back even further just to be safe. Stumbling as he tried to land, his legs giving out beneath him, he rolled for a few meters before finally managing to come to a halt. Pushing his face off the grass, he looked up at the damage and sighed in relief. 

A few of the larger Grimms, mainly the Ursa, still managed to stand, but they weren’t going to be moving anytime soon, their bodies twitching involuntary from the massive shock that had been pumped through. Others spasmed on the ground, their bodies devastated, while the rest had already begun to decompose, fading away to little more than smoke. A glance at the surrounding treeline revealed them to empty of Grimm, the others having retreated during the blinding light show. “Shit.” Only after surveying the damage their final attack had done did Perry notice the condition of his partner. 

Forcing himself up onto his feet, he made his way over towards the other student. Kneeling on the ground next to him, Perry ran a hand through his hair in frustration for not bringing his supplies with him. Though it might not have helped given he wasn’t quite sure how to treat an injury like this in the first place, some medical supplies were better than the none he had on hand right now. Sighing, he pushed aside those negative thoughts and got to work doing whatever he could. Seeing as there wasn’t anything he could do for his partner at the moment, he picked him up with a small grunt and dragged him away from the treeline. Perry’s main concern was taking care of whatever Grimm were simply paralyzed for the moment, and then he’d wait for his partner to regain consciousness. Leaving the other student a few meters from where the effects of the yellow Dust had ended, he walked over towards his weapon.

It was easy, but messy work cleaning up what remained of the Grimm. Granted they couldn’t fight back, but plunging Bicell into their twitching bodies wasn’t exactly glamorous work, given how it was usually accompanied by a fair bit of blood and gore when he wrenched the weapon out. Sighing, he brushed off the ash that lingered on his clothes after the Grimm bits had evaporated and surveyed the clearing. Devoid of any Grimm at all, the only signs of the battle that had taken place here were those of him and his partner’s making. Shaking his head, he walked over to the unconscious student and smacked him gently with his weapon. “Come on. If more Grimm show up, we’re going to be awfully tasty snacks.”

---

“...Come on. If more Grimm show up, we’re going to be awfully tasty snacks.”

Eyes fluttering open, he felt something smack against him. Something nudging at his body. Blinking a few times, he had star bursts spotting his vision. Coughing underneath his mask, he slowly and carefully pushed his body off of the ground. An odd mixture of sore and numb, he got to his feet. Stumbling slightly, he regained his balance as the white stripes on his ears and tail began to fade away. His red eyes changing back into their icy-blue color. As he stood in silence, he recalled the events leading up to his time being unconscious and stared at his partner. His eyes held no malice or anger, though by all means he should've been angry. After all, it was this human's plan that backfired slightly on Kuhaku and had him hit by his own Semblance. But, to be honest Kuhaku saw it coming. He was expecting almost. It wasn't his partner's fault, he couldn't have known exactly what would happen. Hell, he wasn't even expecting his Semblance to act the way it did having been altered and amplified by the human's weapon.

Looking around, he saw that the large number of Grimm had all but gone. Either having fled or died from their battle. Scoff muffled underneath his mask, he couldn't help but wonder how much he and the human had aided the other students inadvertently. Coming at the cost of he and his partner's health that is. Dusting himself off, he started to walk. Some ways away, he detected human and Faunus scents gathered which he figured where they were supposed to go. There was no point in lingering around, lest more Grimm decided to return and continue their scuffle. Relegating his movements to a leisurely stroll, he desperately needed to recuperate his Aura having expended a moderate amount of his energy. Surely the Beacon faculty had something planned to further test the students, other than just locating the relics and surviving. Not even sparing a glance or a few words of acknowledgment to the human, he continued his walk through the forest. An odd, dull pain pulsing through his body. 

A twitchy shudder creeping up his spine as he walked, it was clear he didn't harbor any feelings of camaraderie with the human even after their battle.

[This was a collaborative effort with Zombehs and myself.]

Aashaln and Leona had finally arrived where the other students were, 10 in total now. There was only one relic left, the black queen piece, which ended the pair's confusion as to what their black knight piece was for. However, it seems they were all arguing about something. Making their way to Saurodrinn and Zyramos, they asked "What's going on here?" Saurodrinn shrugged, replying "Pointless bickering. Don't they realize we should be finishing our mission?" Another pair had arrived, a Faunus and human, both looked like they just went through hell. There was only the one relic for them to retrieve, which means that they should now head for the ruins further. Glancing around, Leona wondered where exactly these ruins were. finally, she spotted a large unnatural structure some distance away. Walking towards it, she arrived at the edge of a deep precipice, with the ruins on the other side, hugging the opposing cliff. There seemed to be a bridge, but it was almost completely broken. "How do we get there now?" Leona wondered aloud. Then her ears twitched. Something was coming. Something... Big.

"We have survived this far in this forest. Can we not bicker or fight?" Kael said to the others, drawing their attention. Whatever he was going to say next, they might never know, for something suddenly sprung from the cliffside Leona was at. Moving like lightning, it wrapped around Kael's waist, then pulled him off of the cliff. "AGH!! What's that?!" Leona shouted, pointing at what could only be described as a gigantic spider, glowing red eyes and armored bone scattered on its body and legs. The arachnid had grappled Kael with spiderthread, and despite his struggling, refused to break off. It hissed at the others loudly, while something rustled from the forest on the other side. More hissing, although it gave everyone an unsettling feeling. Slowly, a King Taijitu emerged from the trees, first the white head, then... another white head?? The two heads erupted further to reveal their black counterparts, two King Taijitus.

"This is not good!" Leona mumbled, nervous and rather intimidated. "Yes it is!!" replied Zyramos, a blazing look of excitement in her eyes, matched only by her grin as she reached for her blade. "Wait!!" saurodrinn shouted, kneeling to the ground momentarily, then pointed. "There's more coming, from there." Aashaln looked carefully at where he had pointed, and there was a strange red glow, a chilling feeling, and slight rumbling. More of those spiders, only much smaller, were coming, no doubt to feed on the prey captured by the larger. The situation was dire indeed.

---

Kael fell past the giant spider and into the chasm, then landed on something that surprisingly didn't hurt, rather it seemed to bounce and fluctuate with him on it. Glancing down, he saw that it was more of the spider's silk, then looking everywhere confirmed what he thought next. It was a large spider's web, spread out between the two cliffsides, chunks of the manmade ruins were scattered and stuck on the web here and there, with bits of vines that once grew between them reaching out. The web even cascaded up the cliff partially, more of what seemed to be the bridge stuck on some parts. Maybe the ruins fell down not long ago. The Grimm like spider descended down the chasm, the tether that bound Kael lifting him up off the sticky web as the spider prepared for it's feast.

---

As the students looked down from the edge, they saw that it was a spider's nest below the ruins, and the serpentine Grimm were closing in on them. Without hesitation, Leona announced "We'll take care of the oncoming armies. You guys handle yourselves here. Ash!" She knelt down, both hands cupped with her back to the approaching Grimm army. Aashaln rushed at her, then jumped off her hands, which she raised quickly to launch him, being carried further by the hands of energy she generated to send him further, which dissipated as he descended upon the Grimm into the forest.

Zyramos rushed to the edge, pouting. "No fair! Don't hog it all for yourself!! Sauro!!" With a sigh, Saurodrinn charged at his partner, shield up. When he got close enough, she kicked off of his shield with great force, actually stopping him dead in his tracks as she sailed through the air, axe unleashed and ready to do some damage. Saurodrinn and Leona then nodded to each other, and slid down the cliffside towards their partners. Leona waved to the rest, shouting out "Stay alive!", leaving them to their own decisions.

A few things seemed to happen at once. More students arrived. Kael tried to stop their argument, and was promptly pulled off of a cliff. Then several large grimm shown up. Schwarz sighed: "We'll finish this later." she said to Francesca and drawn her wand. She wanted to go after Kael, after all a life was in danger over there and that took priority, but he wasn't her partner. Speaking of which...

She ran to Coral, eyes on the closest Taijitu. "Ideas?" She asked, so far not having a chance to see how Coral fought save for what her weapons looked like. It didn't help that the knives looked fit both for stabbing and throwing. Still, there was something she could do in the meantime. Drawing a circle with the wand in front of her, it left an orange trail. She inhaled as much air as she could.

"Drachenfeuer."

The circle rune filled itself with a downwards pointing pentagram. The crystals on her wand went two shades brighter as her aura commanded them to do her bidding. Blowing the air out of her lungs, it burst into a jet of flame as soon as it crossed the rune in front of her, heading for the snake's eye.

As Uglyandstuckup turned away, Coral dropped her low, menacing pose. “I wouldn’t do anything rash. Behave!” she mimicked the other two in a high, annoying voice, rolling her eyes comically and flailing her hands and tentacles into some sort of expression of blonde disappointment. “Coral you’re being naaaaaughty you bad girl!”

She stopped midpose to smile at Schwarz. “I wonder if they’ve managed to find all of the pieces of the last person who told me to behave. You’re lucky I like you!” She reached up and ruffled Schwarz’ hair before starting to walk back into the forest.

“I agree with that guy, let’s get out-“ she started, eyes closed as she approached the forest. Then she heard some sort of commotion behind her, and something big rustled through the trees, and when she opened her eyes, she was staring into one eye of a huge snake. “Ooooooh, a snake, cool.” And then there were three other snakes? Well that just didn’t seem fair.

Schwarz ran up dutifully to give her backup, asking if she had any ideas and spitting fire into the eye that she’d been studying. The snake head reared away, and Coral put on her grumpy face. “Walk around them? Though I guess you probably made it angry with that move.” A chorus of hissing confirmed that, and with a sigh, Coral unlocked her weapons.

“Then I suggest we get to the stabbing part.” Her weapons rose from their slots, swiftly forming around her hands like large, disconnected, especially deadly claws. She grabbed two of them to use like normal daggers, and turned to face the closest enemy. “Do they have some sort of weakness? I normally just stomp on snakes.” No point attacking them if her damage would do nothing, after all; they looked well-armored, and it was likely that everyone here actually knew more about them, given that it was hard to know less than nothing.

Kael felt hope as some of them looked like they were listening, when he felt a tug of massive proportions, lifting him into the air for a moment,

"Oh my Dust!!!"

He began to fall into the cliff, where he thought, "well, at least life was....ok, fine, it was complete shit, but still.......fine, my life sucked. If I live through this, I will do something about it. Maybe throw a party, socialize a bit more, stop sniffing Dust, something in those lines." He felt a small impact, instead of the crippling blow which would kill him. Kael opens his eyes to see he is stuck to the wind. Damn, Fate is in a bitchy mood.

He began to pull at the web, trying to break it, but it would not work. He began to take a look around and saw several spider-looking things coming towards him. They were down right ugly. With a small groan, he began to use his semblance. Several metal blades began to pierce through his clothing, all of them crossing the web, attempting to cut them.

The line of fire sped towards the King Taijitu, but it swiftly dodged with ease, hissing in response. The two Grimm then waited, as if anticipating what to do next to their prey.

---

The small, yet sizeable, arachnids darted towards Kale, but a flaming arrow suddenly took one out of the web, falling in flames. Aashaln stared at the Grimm with indifference, readying another arrow as he stood on a branch, easily spotted by the spiders. The spiders ignored Kael and ran towards the other, mobile prey. The bound one could wait, he wasn't going anywhere. Now, almost completely alone, Kael attempted cutting through the webs, but it seemed to prove useless, the blades erecting from his body only pushing the thick web back. But, if he used his Semblance specifically... He could potentially squeeze himself out of the spidersilk currently binding him, allowing him much more freedom. That is, if the large one wasn't still focused on Kael. The arms adjacent to its mouth flurried as it crept towards the human.

((The small ones are currently occupied by the NPCs and are about as big as a house cat. The big one is roughly on par with an elephant))

The snake dodged her attack, but she accomplished what she set out to do. She drawn it's attention. "Eyes. Mouth. In between scales if you are close. Maybe the belly, but that one is guesswork." Schwarz identified the Taijitu's weaknesses. Her mind raced over her options. charging the monster head on was a bad idea, so was trying to get past them and risk being surrounded and cut off. Of course that wouldn't be of any problem to Coral when she could just turn invisible, provided they couldn't find her by smell.

"How often can you do your vanishing act? If I draw it's attention, can you flank around out of it's view and do some damage?" she asked, wishing they had the time to get better accommodated with each other's fighting style. Switching Swansong to sword mode, she shoved the queen piece to Coral's hand: "The mission is to retrieve the relic. If push comes to shove, get it out of here." she said, giving Coral a sideways glance, "For some reason I don't think you'd have trouble with leaving me behind." she grinned as she flared her semblance up.

"Go!" She pointed her sword at the giant snake, aiming for where it touched the ground so it'd be harder for it to dodge. Unlike the dragonbreath, she practiced this attack often and didn't require any focus aid to use it. Stabbing forward several times, with each thrust a lance of the white fire surrounding her weapon shot forward towards the Grimm. The first two missed, but then she adjusted her fire and she scored a hit, grazing the Taijitu's side and melting away some of the scales. That's your weakspot, please go for it! she thought and willed her form forward towards the snake.

Francesca set down the chess piece she had. It wouldn't help much in a fight after all. With a hefty sigh she changed the music on her music player to something a bit more epic. She had to help her partner out. It would look bad on her if he died in the barely first mission. She looked over the cliff where the other students where. Her semblance would most likely come in handy here, where the smaller. . . Albeit not exactly small, spiders where coming up and the other, giant, spider was moving over to where Kael was. Some of the others were taking on the two twin snakes, a perfect chance to 'save' her partner.

Backing up a little bit, Francesca started a running jump towards the behemoth of a spider. Kael seemed like he was trying to break out, and the giant spider didn't seem like it wanted to back off. She just needed to give him some breathing room. She pulled out both of her weapons and prepared to plunge both of their blades into the creature. Her jump gave her enough of a boost to reach the spider's back. The blades plunged deep as Francesca braced from the fall, her Aura's guard taking a bit of it. Enough at least, to not damage her.

Standing at a distance from his partner, Perry got the feeling that this “partnership” was going to be one in name only. His memories of the other student told him that there was no love for humans, and it didn’t look like their fight for their lives had changed that in the slightest. Sighing, he followed the Faunus back into the forest out of the clearing, sheathing Blast Bicell as he did so. Given he had no clue where the ruins actually were and his partner’s likely heightened senses, following him around wasn’t a bad idea. All that aside, Perry wasn’t even sure if he could have convinced the other student even if he had a reason to. At least his pace was something Perry didn’t have any trouble keeping up with, even if he winced a bit with every step.
__________________________
He’d recovered a bit during their trek towards their destination, the pain fading to just a constant dull throb that told him his body was far from fit to fight with. Brushing himself off as he stepped out of the treeline, the mixture of sweat, blood, and dirt cracked before flaking off, though he was still in sore need of a shower after this. Looking around, he quickly realized that they were the last pair to arrive at the destination given the number of others around and the fact that there was only a single piece left for the taking. Raising a hand to wave at the gathered students, he walked over and pocketed the Queen.
__________________________
Running a hand through his hair, Perry sighed in exasperation as one of the students was promptly yanked from the cliff. He’d followed the others over towards the cliff opposite of the ruins to find the bridge connecting the two cliffs was in horrible condition. And apparently housed an entire web of spider-like Grimm underneath it. Retreat didn’t seem to be an option either given how the treeline was blocked off by the bodies of two King Taijitus, four heads gazing down at the remaining students. He was feeling a bit better having rested during the leisure stroll over, but far from peak condition. He scratched his head as he watched the students break off against the creatures, he wanted dearly to help out. Cold logic told him that in his condition he wouldn’t do much good and he might even make the situation worse if he ended up in needing protection.

Gritting his teeth, he turned away from the King Taijitus and made his way towards the bridge. It seemed the largest arachnid Grimm was still preoccupied with its bound meal, and Perry was fairly certain he would be able to deal with the smaller variants without too much trouble. His main concern was to leave the combat zone for now and await retrieval by the Beacon staff.

The Taijitu continued dodging Schwarz's attacks, but one of them had finally struck, melting away a few of the scales protecting it. though it was only a few, it was another weakspot for them to exploit. In response, the Taijitu seemed to quickly bat at Schwarz with the black end, angered, while the second casually watched for the other's movements. After a moment, however, the second Taijitu swept the white counterpart across where the rest of the students were waiting, also knocking into the bridge, causing the rest of it to collapse. So much for an escape route.

---

The sword was plunged into the spider, although the way it reacted seemed like the attack was a small hindrance. Fransesca still on top of the arachnid, the Grimm tried shaking her off, as well as hopefully the sword, but neither seemed to be coming off that well. Finally, it moved over to the cliff face, climbing veritcally, but just enough so that it was completely perpendicular to the cliff, then pushed its body outwards. The bridge was falling apart, as it had taken note of, and there was several chunks of stone hurdling towards Fransesca now.