Vlad hadn't bothered too hard in trying to keep up once Bonny had started using her cannon to fly- well, practically leap around like a deranged Nevermore. He basically strolled along, following the trail of craters, and killing any Grimm that happened to be lingering around the area. Not as many as he expected, and almost entirely Beowolves, but enough to provide a decent challenge over time. It was somewhat surprising, then, when he caught up to one particularly large crater and found his new partner dusting herself off and spitting up clods of dirt.

"Ye be alright there, Vlad? I came in a little hot."

"Me?" he asked, somewhat surprised by the question, though he continued walking regardless. "Unless you've made a habit of eating large amounts of earth, I'd suspect you've just blown yourself up. Certainly looks like it." He didn't say this in a manner that suggested he cared too much; more that he was confused as to how it happened at all.

"... I think I found our keys."

"Oh, good. Come along, then."

With no more words than that, Vlad strolled past Bonny and her crater, heading toward where he presumed the keys were. That was the last direction she had been moving, after all.

Rowan D. Valinn

---

Rowan ignored the calls of his partner, and instead chased after the Beowolf. It was by no means necessary for him to kill every last Grimm during an encounter, but there was just a sense of satisfaction that came with completely wiping out the creatures. Of course, the Beowolf was way too quick for Rowan. His lack of ranged attacks yet again proved to be detrimental to his mission.

”Small Fry, I think I see the relics! … HEY!”

Rowan skidded to a halt, turning around to see his partner who was still hovering in the air. Rowan followed his gaze, but his view was blocked by the densely packed trees.

”Uh… Rowan! Come on… Let’s… go this way.”

Rowan was completely oblivious to the uneasiness in the blonde’s voice. He trusted Rood enough to follow him through the trees. A loud boom echoed through the forest, but Rowan chose to ignore it. Knowing the kind of people currently storming through the forest, it was probably simply an over-eager student wanting to explode an Ursa to pieces.

“Looks like you’re not the only one trying to destroy the forest with explosions.” Rowan looked for any response from his partner, who was currently taking the lead.

@ReaptheMusic

---

Rood turned his head and walked slower so the smaller man could keep in stride with the tall Egyptian. He still attempted to shiver off the last of the chills that specter had given him as they walked into the open clearing where the relics were held. Now that he was paying attention, he did recall booming noises coming from the forest behind them, ushering Rood to take a glance back.

"Explosions? My display was hardly an explosion," Rood scoffed, folding his tan arms over his chest as a haughty tone emerged from his voice. "What you witnessed was a specialty not many can see anymore; a von Rah semblance. Calling it an 'explosion,'" He paused to make air quotations with his fingers, "Is nearly insulting. Furthermore, at least I did something to attempt wiping out a large scale of those things."

Just as they arrived in the center of the clearing of relics, Rood turned a finger and pointed at Rowan with an...objectionable aesthetic.

"And just what are those tiny fists good for, ey?! Explosions! Tiny, unreliable explosions! What even is your weapon? Fist bandages?!"

It would seem Rowan had struck a nerve. Around them, the relics glittered in the light, catching Rood's eye and causing him to look at them dead on... A myriad of large, monochromatic tarot cards laid before them set into shimmering stone tablets of all the same size, but in an array of colors that only peacocks and macaws could be jealous of. Each stone tablet contained two cards apiece.

---

---

Bonny crawled out of the crater and started catching up with Vlad. She looked around the forest a little bit nervously. Was it still here? She hadn't seen it on the hill after she'd closed her eyes, so the only place for it to go was down into the foilage. Not too far from where they were. If that thing caught them, they were dead. She didn't know how she knew despite this being the first time she'd ever seen it, but she knew.

She slapped her cheeks. Get it together, Bonny! You don't know what you saw! Could've just been a Grimm. Now stop freaking out and help Vlad-

Without looking where she was walking, Bonny bumped headfirst into Rood, their noggins clonging together like drums.

"Owwwww..." she hissed quietly.

It didn't take too long for Vlad to enter the clearing containing the relics. Aside from himself and Bonny, he noted the presence of two others in the clearing at that moment- looked like it was prettyboy and Rowan- but since they were somewhat embroiled in an argument at that moment, he chose to ignore them for the time being. Instead, he headed over to the tablets, circling round them like a bird of prey to see what was on each one. Two cards from the Major Arcana each, seemingly sunken into the tablets in a way that necessitated breaking the things open to get at the paper inside... and wouldn't you know it, he had no idea what their meanings actually were.

To be fair, he didn't care that much. Under normal circumstances, he'd probably have picked up one of the tablets with a card that he assumed had some association with rulership, maybe The Devil or The World... however, he had a partner to consider. More importantly, it seemed likely that, in some arcane and mysterious fashion, the tablets chosen would decide what teams ended up forming as a result. He wasn't dense; he'd seen that groups of four were prevalent in the academy, taken it for granted that they were teams of hunters, and extrapolated from there with his current information.

So, it occurred to him, maybe I could choose a tablet to act in spite of Bonny? He backpedaled from this thought immediately; for all he knew, pairs of partners were randomly associated with one another based on teacher whim, and he was stuck with Sharky regardless. It didn't matter what tablet he picked. Thus, to make his decision, he closed his eyes, spun round a few times, then steadily walked forward until his hand touched one of the tablets, gripping it and lifting it up. He opened his eyes to see...

The Hanged Man and Wheel of Fortune.

"Well, alright..." he mused to himself, distracted shortly after by the sound of two heads cracking together and various noises of pain. Bonny, of course, and prettyboy too. Rolling his eyes, Vlad strutted over to his partner, brandishing the tablet like some valuable tome, though it was probably cheaper than brick (albeit much prettier). "If you're done killing yourself and blondie there, Bonny, I have our tablet," he said bluntly. "I suggest we leave before something sneaks up on us. Or before you break something, whichever comes first."

@Turboshitter@ReaptheMusic@Chickn

Rowan D. Valinn

---

“For your information, my weapon is a pair of Dust-infused fist-wraps. The explosions may be small, but at least they don’t have the chance of completely obliterating my partner!”

Rowan wandered ahead of his partner, who appeared to be quite defensive over his “special” Semblance. The kid apparently had some sort of a hereditary Semblance, which, while interesting, definitely didn’t automatically earn it the title of special. Rowan looked ahead, spotting the other two students who had been launched into the forest. The tall, dark-haired boy, Vlad, had taken to inspecting the relics in the center of the field.

Rowan joined Vlad in inspecting the relics. “What on Remnant are these things? Playing cards?” He asked, gazing intently at the cards inside the stone tablets. Rowan picked up the nearest one, which had two cards labelled “The Sun,” and “Strength.”

Rowan witnessed the Faunus girl crashing into Rood as he approached the other three students. He chose not to say anything about it, in case Rood was still fired up from their earlier conversation. “What if we took two tablets? Would we get extra credit?”

@ReaptheMusic @Turboshitter @BCTheEntity

---

Just as Rood turned, he leaned down a little and caught a slight glimpse of the faunus girl that had given him her tooth before this whole mission right before their foreheads met in a crack!

"Oof!" The Egyptian prince stumbled back, holding his eyes and groaning. Through his splayed fingers, he managed to catch sight of tall-dark-and-broody doing a stupid spinning motion before grabbing a set of the pretty tarot card pieces. Rowan, too, just took whatever was closest. Rood closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead, groaning in pain.

"Aren't sharks not supposed to have bones or something? Yours are... owwww! Phew..." Rood straightened up and flashed her a bright smile paired with a pained scowl, making it look like he was 'baring his fangs' in a manner of a grinning smirk of sorts. "I pity the grimm that you headbutt!" Straigtening up, his eyes were slightly squinted as he looked to Rowan, nodding.

"I don't think more than one is necessary. We should head back. Who knows what kind of things are... ah?"

As he spoke, the ground rippled underneath them. Like... a creature moving beneath a bedsheet on a large scale, bringing the earth up and down as it moved. The hairs on the back of Rood's neck raised and he crouched down while pulling out his lance and holding his chain arm out. In the distance, the caw of a Nevermore was heard but below them... something perhaps more sinister waited. Then it stopped. The earth got still.

Confused, Rood looked around at the other students. After a moment more of silence he started to relax. In that moment, the thing that had been moving below unearthed itself... directly beneath Rowan and Bonny. It raised itself up high, clamping both of them in it's maw, shrieked, and slid back down the hole it came in. A "Retrograde" Grimm.

"Rowan! Bonny!"

Rood went to leap in after them before the aforementioned Nevermore swept both Vlad and Rood up in its talons and flew into the sky above.

---

Bonny felt herself being pushed and squeezed as she slid down the wormy Grimm's throat with Rowan. A slimy black goo coated her as she went (not that she could even see that), and made it very difficult to grab hold of anything.

Finally, Bonny decided to just rip out another tooth (ow) and jab it into the stomach lining, finally halting her descent. With her free hand, she grabbed Rowan as he slid past.

"Well," she said, trying not to breath too much so she wouldn't have to smell the Grimm's insides. "This be a fine predicament we've found ourselves stuck in, matey. Trapped in the belly of the beast."

Bonny considered their options. It wasn't very often Hunters and Huntresses found themselves eaten alive by Grimm. It had happened before, but usually the whole "eaten" part tended to make the "alive" part impossible before the Grimm was finished with them. In this case, they'd been swallowed whole, with their weapons. Escape should be a simple matter... in theory, at least.

"Just need to blow a great big bleedin' hole in yer arse..." Bonny mumbled, cursing the Grimm as she hung on to her tooth for dear life, carving a divot into the wall so she could slip more and more of her arm inside.

Well, Vladimir thought to himself, they're dead. Shame about Rowan, but it's less competition, I suppose. He didn't have time to think much else before being snatched up by an oversized Grimm claw and, alongside the blonde-haired character, the sole student who came close to his own height and weight, dragged higher and higher into the sky.

"What was I saying about leaving before we got snuck up upon?" Vlad said out loud to nobody in particular, not sure if his words were lost to the wind or not. In spite of his situation, a grin started to sneak on to his face, a practically foolproof plan to kill this Nevermore already forming in his mind. Slipping the tablet into his armour and drawing his weapons, he aimed the gun at the Nevermore's underbelly, beartrap mechanism unfolding as he took aim, then fired it straight up, the grapple lodging itself in the avian's flesh and collapsing to grant a firm grip, much to the creature's consternation. With that out of the way, and maintaining a hold on the pistol's grip, he began to swing his sword toward the creature's leg, hacking into it to try and sever the muscles, tendons, and bone (though most of the bones in its leg had shattered to the point of uselessness by the second or third hit, hollow as they were) that lay beneath its skin.

"By the by, we never did introduce ourselves, did we?" the pale teen mentioned to Rood offhandedly, pausing halfway through his efforts to sheath his sword and extend a hand toward his fellow victim. "The name's Vladimir Plasimov-Drakka. And you?"

@ReaptheMusic

Rowan D. Valinn

---

“Yeah, but you never kn-”

Rowan dropped the tablets as the ground shook beneath him. He barely had time to react before the ground itself seemed to open up and swallow him whole. His shriek was muffled by the sheer thickness of the Grimm’s skin. Rowan’s descent was abruptly stopped as the shark Faunus grabbed onto his arm. Despite the slippery texture of the goo that now covered them, Rowan maintained his grip on the Faunus’ arm. Who knew what awaited them at the bottom?

His immediate goal was to secure his own hold on the inside of the beast, otherwise his Semblance would drain far too much of the girl’s Aura. He used his free hand to punch into the fleshy wall. It took several Aura-infused hits, but he had eventually eroded away enough of the flesh to form his own hold on the beast. He severed the connection between the two of them, taking in a deep breath.

That, however, was definitely the wrong thing to do at the time. The putrid stench of the Grimm’s insides gnawed at his nostrils. His face twisted in disgust as he tried to find a better smell to replace the current one. He had no luck, though. They were surrounded by the horrid odor.

“A predicament is probably understating it. I don’t know what the stomach of a Grimm looks like, and I sure as hell don’t want to find out.” Rowan peered downwards, trying to get a glimpse of their impending doom. The faint glow from the walls of the creature provided a very small amount of light, but it was enough to see that there was no easy way out.

Rowan reached into his coat and pulled out a small rectangular box. He opened it, revealing a sizable amount of red Dust. “I usually don’t use it all at once, and it probably won’t kill the Grimm outright, but it might give us an opportunity to escape…” He paused, then looked at his temporary partner. “How’s your Aura holding up?” A sharp pang of guilt ran across Rowan’s face as he awaited an answer. His Semblance was as much a curse as it was a blessing. It may have been beneficial in a fight, but the fear of unintentionally draining someone’s Aura was always present in his mind.

@Turboshitter

---

"Crap crap crap CRAP!" Chen ran towards the cliff where he was supposed to be grouped up with new teammates, angry at himself for sleeping in on the one day where he told himself not to sleep in. He had been looking forward to today for the past month now, he had set so many alarms for himself, yet he still slept in!

Chen finally got to the launch zone and saw Headmaster Ozpin standing with some blonde chick who seemed somewhat familiar. "Yo! Headmaster guy!" Chen jumped into the air and vanished in a puff of black smoke, reappearing in front of him panting from his long distance sprint. He waited a few seconds to catch his breath and looked at Ozpin. "Sorry I'm late, I had stuff to do. Important stuff." Chen lied through his teeth as he looked around.

"So uh, where is everyone? Did everyone already pair up and leave? Oh man, I'm not going to have to team up with myself am I? I don't think that would work out well to be honest." Chen smiled nervously as he said this, while he masked his worry behind humor, he really didn't want to be in some sort of one man team. It would be very inconvenient.

---

The pale haired professor looked to the newcomer, his eyebrow quirked. At that moment, the sight of a large nevermore in the distance was tackled by a boy with erratically dark hair. Ozpin looked over at the commotion and took a sip of his coffee, only to find no more was left with a frown. He stood up from where he sat, nodding to the platforms.

"Go on. Launch yourself. Some of us have important matters to be on time for."

With that he was gone. Glynda stood up from where she sat as well, frowning with her riding crop risen.

"Just... launch yourself." She huffed, obviously annoyed.

---

---

As they were picked up and the force of the speed hit his sensitive eyes, Rood was forced to keep his eyes shut. He ducked his head, grunting as his hands felt the grip of the harsh talons at his waist. He could barely hear the voice of the black haired boy over the torrential wind flying past his slowly-becoming-more-frigid ears. The blonde managed to barely crack his eye open, only catching the silhouette of the other kid doing something with his weapon and outstretching his hand to him. Rood, groaning, struggled to pull his arm free before gripping his temporary partner by his offered arm. This time, he was able to barely make out what he asked. In response, he shouted over the tempest.

"Rood... Rood von Rah!"

He managed to wriggle his second arm free and wasted no time raising it up straight, and then bringing it sharply down upon the talon. Moments before he had, the slight crackle in the air around the front of his arm was visible, making the speed of his arm into a blur. Fast enough that it had sliced clean through the talon, causing the feetless grimm to screech in agony. He would have fallen with the dismembered talon had he not been gripping Vlad's arm. He held on tight, grunting... then, using his free hand covered in chains, he lashed his arm out, prompting the chain to go soaring. It wrapped around the neck of the giant nevermore, the tip of the whip flowering out into a pistol which blew bullets straight into the Nevermore's neck. This did nothing more than make the grimm shriek and begin to spiral to the opposite sides of the incoming fire. The great bird crashed into a tree by the angle of its wing and plummeted down, causing the two bodies attached to disconnect and soar through the air ahead. It clearly, however, was still not finished.

Bran Brass

---

Well this day had been disaster so far, his transport from Vacuo had been delayed thanks to having needed repairs before it could make the trip to Vale. Bran he told the captain to please call ahead and let the school know they would be late thanks to this delay. The captain said he would, then again he wasn't sure the man would do so, after all the captain didn't seemed to like the young huntsman.

With time to kill he set to working picking out what he would wear for his first day. Something that would leave a good first impression, nothing to fancy after all he expected combat. Smiling he plucked out a white long sleeved shirt, a black cloak with orange inlay, he pulled on the glove for sword hand, and headed into the bathroom. Changing shirts and pulling his belt, he set to work next preparing himself for combat, cleaning his sword he inserted fresh spools of thread. Walking back out of the back he pulled on his glasses and looked, Vale looked very impressive from a distance very modern compared to where he had been staying Vacuo.

While they were docking he had received a message that he needed to reach the grounds soon or risk expulsion. Sighing he waited patiently for the vessel to land and open it's doors, the moment it landed he put his glasses back in there case and in his bag. He rushed off towards the forest, he had studied the map so he would know where things were once he arrived. He moved quickly, hoping it would not be over by the time he arrived he had chosen Beacon because it seemed the best school for him. He hoped would get a chance to at least experience it.

He reached the top of the hill a few minutes later looking towards Professor Goodwitch. "I am terribly sorry I was delayed by the airship needing repairs. I do promise not to make a habit of being tardy Professor." He bowed as he apologize for his lateness and he would understand if she simply expelled him, he did hope the captain had sent her a message letting Professor Goodwitch know why he would be late. If not well he could to Shade or Atlas next, perhaps they would take him.

@ReaptheMusic

---

Bonny grunted at the silver-haired girl.

"Me Aura's fine. Kinda got a little weak there for a second though..."

She wondered why but didn't let it bother her for long. Instead, the pirate queen hoisted her cannon with one arm and pressed it to the walls of the Grimm's stomach.

"Right. Now Imma shoot me cannon at the stomach here and..."

Bonny stopped as she got an idea, eyeing the box of red Dust. A wicked grin splayed across her features. She pulled her cannon away from the wall, and rotated it so it faced down.

"On second thought, new plan. I wanna make this bastard regret swallowin' us. On me mark, yer gonna throw all that Dust behind us, and then Imma shoot me cannon down at it. With any luck the whole lot of it blows up at once right inside his ass and we rocket out the other end. Savvy?"

Bonny smiled.

"'Course we're gonna need to punch out his teeth first. Think yer up fer it, Long Jane Silver?"

Vlad had had the idea that, after cutting the leg of the Nevermore away, he would use his weapons to grapple and climb his way up its body, then use Maw to hack at its wing until something was severed, dislocated, or otherwise damaged in a way that was irreparable, at least in the short term. A grounded Nevermore, after all, is a far less dangerous opponent, especially with one and a half missing feet.

He had had that idea, but it had gone off the rails the moment this Rood figure decided to use his arm as a rope swing. It seemed Rood's Semblance involved something along the lines of "cut through just about anything", given that Rood had done in one strike what it would have taken Vlad several more to finish off. Not that he was complaining - apparently, shooting the thing in the neck with a weapon oddly similar to Vlad's own was just as effective as hacking at its wings - but it did come with the slight disadvantage that both humans were now spiralling through the air, somewhat out of control, in spite of their respective grapples.

No matter, though. So far as Vlad could see, they were both still gripping on to one another's forearms, and as it happened, his gun hadn't been torn from his hand. Resetting its grapple and looking to see where they were headed, he aimed Breath, opened its beartrap up, and fired it, the device latching on to a tree branch as it had before, not doing much to halt their descent before the grapple began to retract, dragging them both toward the branch. Shortly, after a few moments of swinging over and round repeatedly until their momentum expired, Vlad found himself holding on to the branch by Breath's grapple, some twenty or thirty feet from the ground, with Rood's own weight hanging off of him to boot. And of course, the majority of the grapple's metallic rope was now wrapped round the branch. Oh, what a joy unwinding that was going to be.

"Well, Rood," Vlad started dismissively, looking down to assess the drop, "you did a fine job of declawing that giant bastard. Taking it out of the sky, not so much. Now, how do you feel about going down there and finishing it off?" He looked to Rood for an answer, the prior grin starting to return as he relished the thought of a halfway-challenging fight, even if it was with a crippled opponent.

---

Chen blinked a few times and shrugged. He wasn't going to argue with a free pass. He heard a Nevermore crashing in the distance and looked towards the sound. That's where he would go. He would go kick that bird's ass for even daring to befoul the sky with its presence. He nodded in the direction of Ozpin and smiled. Suddenly another guy rushed over and started giving legitimate reasons for being late and he felt slightly awkward. "Well uh... thanks headmaster dude. See ya later I guess. And later blonde lady. Don't quite remember your name so... sorry I guess? I'm gonna stop talking now." He chuckled nervously at that statement and headed to the launchpads.

He waited a few seconds before stepping on and took a deep breath. 'Time to fly. Or something close to it at least.' His grin returned full force and he stepped on to the launch pad, going flying into the air the second he put his second foot on. Chen let loose a cry of joy as he flew through the air, reaching his zenith and feeling the wind blow through his hair, on his skin, it was perfection.

And then he started falling.

"Wait a second, how the hell am I landing! Crap crap crap CRAP!" Chen began searching desperately for some way to slow his descent as he headed straight for a tree and a one way ticket to whatever afterlife existed. He pulled on his Aura and teleported just above a nearby branch at the last second, retaining his momentum but able to control it a bit better. He put one foot on the branch and pushed off to the next one, gradually slowing down so he could catch his bearings. Finally Chen stopped, breathing heavily as he came down from his adrenaline high. He caught his breath and looked upwards, his grin even bigger and happier. "Nailed it!"

Chen quickly began teleporting to the top of the tree, two or three branches at a time, and began scanning the horizon. Finally he found what he was looking for and started heading towards the fight. Damn this was shaping up to be a good year.

Chen was quick about getting to where he thought the crash zone was, but it would appear as if the unholy bird had gotten away. Disappointing, but there were a few students nearby, they seemed cool. Chen whistled to catch their attention and waved at them, one arm holding on to a branch above him so he didn't fall off by accident. "Yo, which way do the bird go? I wanna take that sucker down." He said with venom in his voice, man he hated Nevermores. He shook his head and took a deep breath. "No, that was rude. Let me try again, I'm Chen Jet. I like bad jokes, video games, and other things. Nice to meet you two." He flashed a smile but stayed on alert in case the Nevermore came back. He then looked over to where they were facing and saw it. "Nevermind about the bird."

@BCTheEntity@ReaptheMusic

Rowan D. Valinn

---

Rowan looked to the shark faunus, who had just suggested perhaps the most absurd plan possible, given their circumstances. She responded with a smile of her own. “Aye aye, Cap’n! Maybe next time, he won’t bite off more than he could chew!”

Rowan adjusted her stance, strengthening her grip on the side of the Grimm. She took one last look below into the belly of the beast, and held out the box of Dust. “Ready when you are, Cap’n!” She added a salute, unsure of proper pirate etiquette. The whole pirate thing felt quite unfamiliar, and a little awkward, but it helped alleviate some of the tension currently welling up inside the pit of her stomach. Perhaps it was the silliness of it all that gave her a small amount of comfort.

@Turboshitter

Yu Zuiren

---

What was I doing again..? Oh right. Heading to the cliffs.. Yu thought to herself slowly as she took a clumsy swig from her gourd. She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand lazily, stumbling passed trees and rocks, massaging her temple a little. How do I get rid of this hangover..? By drinking more, of course. She had mostly forgotten the way to the cliffs. She had asked one of the staff at Beacon Academy earlier in the day. Apparently it was straight ahead. Was that what they said? Probably.

It wasn't too helpful that she had fallen asleep the moment she got to Vale, perhaps attending the orientation would've been a good idea. Well, the past is the past. Got to think in present.

She shambled into the clearing, only to see two older people and another younger... She stared at him intently for a moment before confirming that he was around her age. So two old people and a guy around her age, standing next to and on some stone platforms. She walked a bit closer before greeting the man whom she presumed to be Ozpin. She didn't know the other lady, but that woman's stern look gave her the chills. The kind of chills that would remain ambiguous for the teen audiences. "Y-yo.. Sorry I'm la-hic." Her hiccup made her stumble slightly, but who's to know if she was really unbalanced? "I'm sure you've go-hic.. important things to do, so don't mind me~" She gave the two teachers a cheeky grin before strolling over to one of the stone platforms, taking another gulp from her gourd. She saw a few were already vertical. Spring boards. How fun.

She glanced over at the boy who was also waiting. Yu decided to stand on the one directly beside him, her jade green eyes studying his form. She gave him a playful wink to see how he'd react. She wouldn't mind getting paired up with this cutie, he looked so.. neat and clean.. A stunner in her books. She didn't even have books. Reading is still a pain in the ass.

---

---

Glynda rubbed her palm to her forehead, agitated, and looked up at the two newcomers and pointed angrily at the remaining jumping points.

"Just... GO. Pick your teammate and get the relic once you launch and GO!"

Her angry voice echoed all around and she sighed as her riding crop swished through the air in her motions. This was way more work than she thought it would be.

---

---

Rood held on tightly to Vlad as they swung around on Vlad's similar weapon contraption. Once they had come to a stop, Rood looked up at Vlad whose forearm he still tightly gripped.

"Well, Rood," Vlad started dismissively, looking down to assess the drop, "you did a fine job of declawing that giant bastard. Taking it out of the sky, not so much. Now, how do you feel about going down there and finishing it off?" He looked to Rood for an answer, the prior grin starting to return as he relished the thought of a halfway-challenging fight, even if it was with a crippled opponent.

Rood stared up at Vlad a moment, his scowl still evident as he contemplated a response. He began to speak, but was sharply cut off by the sound of a loud whistle from the tree beside them, causing the red eyed young man to look up at the newcomer with raised brows.

"Yo, which way do the bird go? I wanna take that sucker down." He said with venom in his voice, man he hated Nevermores. He shook his head and took a deep breath. "No, that was rude. Let me try again, I'm Chen Jet. I like bad jokes, video games, and other things. Nice to meet you two." He flashed a smile but stayed on alert in case the Nevermore came back. He then looked over to where they were facing and saw it. "Nevermind about the bird."

"No, I'm Rood," The blonde gestured to himself with a large hand on his chest, his usual scowl returning. He looked down at his feet, which began to glow on the base of the armor. Slowly, he let go of Vlad's arm and walked across to the newcomer who had introduced himself as Chen as though there were an invisible walkway between the trees and where Vlad had stopped their fall. He stuck his hand out to the newcomer, eyes intense as usual. "Rood von Rah." Whenever the shake would be over, Rood looked to Vlad again, then glanced to where the Nevermore had fallen.

"The Nevermore is a threat, I agree, but I believe we should find the others before we head on out... That Grimm seemed different from the usual types. I've never seen anything like it." The muscular young man folded his bronze arms over his painted chest, "What would be the point in maiming an already downed Grimm anyways?"

Rood glanced over at Chen.

"You should go get the relics before that... thing comes back and destroys their location altogether."

---

At that moment, the Retrograde that had swallowed Rowan and Bonny opened it's great maw, screeching as it came to the surface of the meadow the Nevermore was now hopelessly flapping about in, having lost both it's talons. The Retrograde let out a roar and snatched up the great bird in its massive jaws, causing the Nevermore to screech in agony as it was being swallowed by a glorified worm. The stomach lining, where Rowan and Bonny were, became dark as the incoming hulk hurdled down the throat towards them.

The shaking of the ground here was so great it drew everyone, even Glynda's, attention. She ran to the cliffs edge, disturbed by what she was seeing and covered her mouth. Behind her hand, she whispered.

"This cannot be...!"

---

Bonny tucked herself to the wall as her Semblance informed her of a massive presence hurtling down the Retrograde's gluttinous harvester-maw. Dirt? Maybe a boulder?

No.

Bonny felt the strange ruffle of black feathers lightly brushing against her as a whole Nevermore, a forty meter-long creature large enough to pick up and carry grown Hunters and Huntresses in its talons, slid down the wormy Grimm's gullet, its beady red eyes staring at her pitifully as the two of them just narrowly avoided being dragged down with it.

It eats its own kind?! Bonny thought to herself, shocked. Sunlight poked through the roof of the vertical tunnel. The creature's mouth was still open. Breaking its teeth would've been fun, but there was no arguing that this was the best time to go if there ever was one.

"All ashore who's goin' ashore, lass!" Bonny said with an urgent tone, knocking the box of red Dust out of Rowan's hands and pulling the trigger on her cannon. The resulting explosion was... magnificent.

Imagine every outrunning-the-fireball scene in every movie you've ever seen, times a hundred, and then imagine it inside a living thing, bursting like a fleshy balloon behind you as you rocket out of its mouth and into the atmosphere, propelled by the blast wave, with enough speed and force to peel the skin off your naked bones (if you didn't have Aura that is). The creature howled in earsplitting agony as its hide split apart but the sound never reached Bonny and Rowan as they climbed higher and higher into the sky, past even the clouds. At this point their flapping gums looked like a dog who'd stuck his head out a car window. Finally they came to a stop and they looked at the planet miles below them. Bonny's eyes widened.

"Well shiver me timbers," she said in a timid, disbelieving voice. "We're pretty blasted high, ain't we?"

Then they started to fall.

"Oohhhhhh shit! Oh shit oh shit oh shit!" she cursed as she grabbed Rowan tightly. "Batten down the hatches, girl! Batten down the bloody hatches!"

They came in hot. Way, way too hot. Doing everything she could to break their fall, Bonny started firing indiscriminately to slow them down, and to try and land back in the forest instead of crashing straight into Beacon. It didn't seem to work, at least not as quickly as they needed it too. As they rapidly approached their LZ, she caught sight of the Retrograde, still alive and thrashing despite its bottom half being peeled apart like a banana. That's when she got an idea.

"Hold me tight, Rowan!" she said. "We're gonna give this wormy son-of-a-whore his last heave-ho into Davy Jones' Locker."

After all, there was nothing softer to break their fall than a huge hunk of tenderized meat.

Gripping her cannon like a club, Bonny raised it above her head. She winced as she felt her muscles cry out in protest. Why? She shouldn't be tiring out this early! Had something in that worm's stomach depleted her Aura? Regardless, she swung it as hard as she could just as they fell on top of the Grimm's giant head, smashing it into the ground with the resulting momentum and finishing it off for good.

Bonny laid sprawled out on her back as the Dust cleared. She was covered in Grimm goo.

Oh well, it'll dry off once the big thing dissolves, she thought. Which, given its size, might take a while. She sat up, trying to find footing in the swampy puddle of mashed Grimm beneath their feet.

"You okay, Rowan?" she said as she tried to stand up and give her a hand. "Everything ship-shape?"

Instead she ended up tripping and landing facefirst in the goo. She felt so goddamned tired. What happened to her? She never wore herself out this quickly during practice. Her Aura was nearly depleted.

"You mind helping me up, lass?" she asked weakly. I think me old bones... me old cartilage took more of a beatin' than we thought."

Then the ground started shaking. The earth was quaking. Bonny's mind (and body) were achin'. But who was makin' it? Bonny groaned.

"Oh what now?"