As the ship took off Addica awoke enough to understand what was going on but only for a brief second before he fell back into a light slumber. It wasn’t until a short while later when one of the workers shoved a box onto his lap that he actually awoke. Sitting up straight he was still a little bleary from sleep when Headmaster Tower began another one of his speeches. Addica’s first few thoughts as his mind cleared were started ”Damn, another lecture from this guy,”. This was quickly followed by ”-internal sigh- I guess my nap’s over,” and ended with ”What is the box for?”. The last of these thoughts was quickly answered as Tower began explaining the device called a W.A.T.C.H. and its uses. As Tower continued explaining Addica pulled his shirt up so that the device could make contact with his skin. After the device began configuring it showed a readout of Addica and his vitals ”Impressive little machine… now where do I wear it?”, as this thought crossed Addica’s mind he noticed a tab for weapons. Pulling his jacket sleeve up Addica for the first time since arriving to Beacon revealed Reisszahne, as Addica attached the Watch to his glove a loading screen came up with the words “Scanning Weapon”. As the screen resolved it brought up a detailed image of the Reisszahne and even a gauge for tracking the dust remaining in the weapon. After a few presses of some keys the Watch loaded up another icon for the matching half of Reisszahne on his right arm. Addica looked back up as he finished merging his Watch with his left gauntlet just as Tower finished describing the terrain below them and just as he began describing how the exam was to work.

Addica heard Tower say something about preparing to land as he went over the goals for the test, ”Find a partner, find some data, find people with corresponding data. In all honesty that sounds way too easy, there has to be some sort of cat—“. His thoughts were quickly interrupted as the passenger bay dropped away from the rest of the ship sending them all into free fall. Acting quickly Addica fired one of the Reisszahne into the wall that had quickly become the “ceiling”. As the Reisszahne took root in the wall Addica fired his other in what was now the “floor”, suspending himself in the middle of the room as he figured out what to do. Near the wall that was the ceiling Addica saw a student blow a hole through the wall, just as the students near the door managed to burst the doors open. This was shortly followed by another student ripping a hole in another wall with his weapon. Letting the Reisszahne on the floor detach he drew it back into the gauntlet as he pulled himself to the ceiling with the other. Once at the ceiling and the hole that had been blown in the hull Addica pulled himself through, leaving the Reisszahne attached so that he wasn’t ripped from the hulls surface as he tried to get his bearings. Seeing a forest below Addica decided that that was the best option and jumped from the hull aiming for the forest, letting his Reisszahne detach as he parted from the hull.

Freefalling through the sky Addica narrowed his body into a dive accelerating toward the forest at an angle to the ground and to the trees that he would use to stop his decent. As Addica soared through the sky a smile spread across his face, sure falling over a mile was insane but it was also a rush. The closer he got to the forest the more he spread himself out, slowing down letting his body catch the air and provide more resistance. As he got within range he fired Reisszahne into a tree to his forward left. As he came past it he felt the snap of the force along his arm, making him grimace in pain as he began to spin around the tree by his arm, slowing down until he was able to shoot the other Reisszahne into another tree, again suspending himself in midair. Letting the cables of the Reisszahne slowly extend he lowered himself to the ground, then let the Reisszahne release and retract. Rubbing his left shoulder Addica grimaced in pain, that sudden stop had done a number on his shoulder. ”Gah that was painful, hopefully it doesn’t slow me down all that much.”

Location border C6/C7 closer to D then B

When more of the Signal Academy students began arriving at the landing pad Kalimay instinctively withdrew into herself and, for the first time since arriving at Beacon, silently watched the various exchanges as interactions between the incredibly diverse group of students who would make up her grade for the next four years. Reya's kind greeting made her blink a bit, surprising her with its seeming genuine kindness, and she even offered a shy smile with her mumbled return. When the ship arrived, she slipped on quickly and quietly to be alone with her own thoughts which did a marvelous job of suppressing the jittery butterflies that were filling her stomach in preparation for the coming test. It was not the risk of death or dismemberment at the hands of some foul black-hearted grimm that was worrying, she was confident in her father's combat teachings, but rather the thought of being bonded to a fellow student as partners for the next four years.

Who would it be? Would they like her? Would they get along? Would they be friends? Would they sing songs together? What if they didn't like fireworks? What if it was someone from Signal Academy? Would that be as bad as she imagined?

These questions and a dozen others buzzed through KK's mind as they took off and she watched the academy grounds disappear behind a wall of hazy clouds. It wasn't long before the academy master took the stage again and the W.A.T.C.H.'s were distributed. She poked hers a few times, giggling at the tingly sensation it made when she stuck it around her left wrist, and was delighted at the range of colorful lights it displayed. It gave her a very nice display of her aura, a blue bar with several scrolling numbers and graphs that she didn't even pretend to understand and then there was the very handy map. With a bit of quick fiddling and random button pressing, she was able to get up a list of the other students and even registered her 'friends', Alistair and Sayuri, so that their blips could be located more easily on the readout. After a long moment of deliberation, she even registered Reya, though they hadn't spoken past the greeting that morning. Something about her gave Kalimay just a smidgen of hope that maybe she could be friends with her old classmates, as if doing so would make them friends retrospectively and therefore make her Signal days not be so painful to remember. Returning more to her 'normal' self, she began bouncing excitedly as the speech concluded and students began preparing to for the trial.

Doing one last inspection of BRIK-Breaker, she added a little weapon oil from a small bottle produced from one of her pouches to the motors within the flail head. Pleased, she had just slung the weapon over a shoulder along when the entire room apparently 'detached' and began hurtling towards the earth. "It's starting!" Her light, musical voice chimed in glee to mix with the chorus of alarmed cries as several students around her began to realize they could soon become a pasty mess on the ground far below. As fear and excitement spread among the class, a great crowd of people began clogging the exits that had opened to the rushing air and Kalimay, small in stature as she was, feared she may have to get creative with the walls and windows in the area when she glanced up and spotted Alistair slipping through a hole in the ceiling. "Alistair! Wait up!" She called out as he disappeared but in the chaos she doubted he'd heard her and so, slinging BRIK-Breaker off her shoulder, her face crinkled into a stern look of pure determination... that ended up being quite comical on her innocent, child-like features. With the pressing of several buttons, the weapon itself began to change: the handle doubling in length while its layered internal components began to unfold, widening the hilt until it formed a long, hollow, tube about as big around as Kalimay's forearm. With a soft whirring, and internal motor activated and the chain and attached flail head were drawn into one end of the weapon until the jagged tear-drop shaped piece of metal was plugging the hole. Flipping out a small grip on one side of the tube and a circular iron-site on the other, an indentation in the center fit snugly over her right shoulder as she aimed the flail-head end at the ceiling. "Fire in the hole!" Kalimay called cheerfully as the flail-become-RPG fired, causing several nearby students to dive for cover, and the now dust-propelled flail-rocket hurtled towards the hole in the ceiling. Much to the relief of those nearby, the rocket did not explode, KK instead choosing to let the large piece of metal punch through the hull near the hole through which Alistair exited.

With the quick press of another button, the chain was drawn in and Kalimay zipped towards her escape route.

Climbing out the hole, her long braid whipped in the howling wind and the air was nearly sucked from her lungs by the changing pressure. Wrenching her weapon free as it folded back into its usual form, the petite girl crawled over the surface of she room as carefully as she could manage so as not to get ripped off and flung into free fall alongside the death-trap. Her squinting eyes spotted Alistair not to far from her but before she could even try to call out, though she realized the sound would almost certainly be lost, he activated a strange device on the metal surface and was flung away from the ship. She watched in awe as his form arched into the distance until he was lost among the landscape and with several mouthed 'Me next!'s that no one was around to not be able to hear anyway, she quickly followed his example. Teeth clenched in a brilliant smile of anticipating she mashed the largest red button on the controls and the experienced the most wild, exciting, and only slightly feeling of her entire life.

Kalimay had no idea where she went in relation to the 'ship', being so lost in the sensation of becoming a human cannonball as she was flung far into the open air. She arched gracefully, arms tucked at her sides and hands gripping her weapon with whitened knuckles, and began her full decent towards what appeared to be a large forested area. It was at this time that the spunky young girl realized she would likely need some suitable means of slowing her fall lest she hit the ground with a bit more force than was 'healthy. Letting battle instincts take over, she twisted her body to manipulate her direction and veered towards a rather tall and sturdy looking tree with few thick branches. With the press of a button she drew in the chain and then, with a careful flick of her wrist, she sent it outward, letting the chain run out to freely. Another button made a few large 'claws' extend from the flail head's base, often used as fins to keep it flying straight in rocket form, and they caught against the bark as she passed, pulling her around the giant trunk. It was a risky and maneuver, but with several careful twists of her body she avoided the more dangerous branches as her momentum dropped with each circle around the tree. The chain neared maximum length after the third time around and she came dangerously close to twisting straight into the tree trunk, but before that could happen she let go of the weapon and dropped the last dozen feet to the ground where her aura was able to soak up the force of the now 'softened' landing.

"Yahoo!" Kalimay coughed, as she struggled up onto shaky legs while brushing off the bits of twigs and leaves stuck to her skirt. "I wonder if I can get one of those installed outside of my dorm room... I'd never be late for class again!" The initial rush of adrenalin wearing off, she took a quick note of her surroundings and found herself in the midst of many large trees and cheerful bird calls of your typical lightly-wooded forest. Her large eyes blinked in wonder at the majesty of the nature around her but her heart beat a little louder as she noticed the sudden lack of voices or human presence of any kind.

It was a new, and slightly unpleasant, sensation.

"No problem, Kalimay. No problem!" She muttered, not really believing herself but finding a bit of comfort in the sound of her own voice. "Just grab BRIK-Breaker and start walking and you'll find your friends in no time!" This, however, would prove to be easier said than done as she realized that the flail claws had not withdrawn after she released the handle, likely do to them becoming jammed as they gripped the tree-bark, and that the chain had become caught on a branch she had passed. This left the weapon handle hanging several feat out of the tiny girl's reach. "Damn..." Was all she muttered as she began attempting to scamper up the trunk to reach the hilt and failing rather miserably.

Location: Forest

Jaclyn Kent

When Mr. Towers began his orientation on the test and the W.A.T.C.H.es were distributed, Jack cracked open her eyes and listened with moderate interest. The little device was fairly impressive, but not a game-changer as far as she was concerned. She pulled it out of the little locked box and strapped it onto her wrist, letting it scan her aura and whatever other information it could eke out of her. It was all a little Big Brother, but she figured that it probably wasn't anything sinister. A tap on the weapon tab linked her fairly simple armaments to the watch, a readout showing both Thunderdell and Blunderbore popped up, along with icons showing their current magazine capacities and remaining magazines. That was kinda neat.

Then the cabin was ejected from the plane and most of the students panicked. The whole situation reminded Jack of the time Stan had pissed off some gangsters and gotten the pair of them locked in a shipping container and dumped into Vale's river. Long story short, it turned out fine. They were all talented individuals, and Jack really didn't see why everyone was getting their feathers ruffled by this turn of events.

Making her way towards the exit, Jack flowed through the students crowding the door with remarkable ease, probably due to her willingness to casually elbow people out of the way. "'Scuse me, pardon me, make way, coming through." It didn't take long to arrive directly behind the hold up, a boy who had rushed to the exit only to stare out at the rushing air, paralyzed. "Burning daylight here." She said, breaking the boy from his transfixed stare. "What?" he asked, clearly confused. "Boop!" Jack said, nudging him out the hatch with her boot. For a second she could hear him screaming, but the rushing wind quickly quashed the noise. Actually, the crowd got really quiet all of a sudden. He'd be fine, he just needed a bit of pressure to get him focused on task. Jack herself jumped out from the hatch a moment after him, Thunderdell in hand.

"Geronimo!"

Airborne and falling fast, Jack unfurled Thunderdell into its axe mode and sat 'side-saddle' on its shaft. Pulling the trigger, she dry fired the cannon to make some distance from the airship's cabin. The tops of the forest's trees quickly came into sight as she hurtled towards them. Picking out a massive pine to aim for, Jack brought her axe in a wheeling overhand swing into the tree's trunk. With a cacophonous cracking, the momentum of Jack's fall drove the axe blade from the treetop to nearly it's base. At the end of the mighty cleave, she hung beneath the handle of her axe like a pull-up bar, and the once towering pine was split into a "Y". Trying to pull Thunderdell free from where it was lodged, Jack found it stood firm. Scowling at it, she poured her aura into the blade until it thrummed in her hands and let out a keening noise as she slid it out of its resting place effortlessly.

Relatively unscathed, Jack climbed the rest of the way down from the old pine to the forests floor and checked her new watch. First order of business was to find another unpaired student. Over thinking who to pair up with and how to get the partner she want wouldn't get her anywhere. It wasn't the point of this exercise, and it was a waste of time. Beacon didn't take incompetents.

Location: Deathgrip Forest, D-5

A WATCH, was it? Arara was impressed by the technology that the staff of Beacon Academy was handing out so easily, to students who weren't even officially part of the school yet. It was, how should she say it...ah right.

It was like they were babysitting the first years through their test. A computerized GPS that not only provided locations for anyone who you added into the WATCH, but also acted as a biometics and Aura scanner, as well as a helpful tool for weapon maintenance and Dust management. It was, in her eyes, much too easy. Sure, this was a helpful device, but shouldn't it be expected that all students already knew how to subconsciously 'feel' how much Aura and Dust they had left? Shouldn't navigation WITHOUT maps be a skill that's more appreciated when hunting Grimm in unknown lands? Or were Arara's standards too high once more, her own standards being what she expects of everyone else? The heir to the Sakanade family took in a deep breath, refocusing on the details of the mission. Headmaster Arrun Tower had done a better job this time, focusing on the details and what actually mattered, instead of spouting out some sort of motivational speech that fell flat on its face.

It was a simple examination with two stages. Find a partner that you had no choice of actually choosing, due to the fact that you're automatically partnered with the first person you see, and then find a Data Cache within the examination grounds. A simple, luck-based objective. And Arara had no intention of leaving up her pairing to luck. The girl cared little for suffering the incompetence of a potentially useless teammate. With that in mind, she hide her WATCH in one of the many folds of her White Rakshasa, before taking a look out the window. The airship had slowed down, and indication that the area below them was most likely going to be their examination grounds. She focused on remembering the general orientation of all the terrain, before nodding once to herself. There was a ravine, a mountain, a lake with an island in the middle, as well as an underground mine that was most likely connected to the Ravine and Mountain in some way.

Also, whoever named those places needed to get some sense slapped into them. That naming sense was on par with a seven year old's names for his fantasy world. It was all sorts of stupid, and was absurd enough that it pulled a light smile out of Arara, before she refocused, readjusting her grip on the Heavenwrath as Arrun announced that they were landing soon.

Amongst the students tinkering with their new tech toys or preparing for the ordeal ahead, only a few of them seemed to know what was going to happen next. Arara was amongst the 'knows'.

Beacon Academy had an odd tradition that concerned forcing their students to survive falls of thousands of meters through the usage of Aura or their weapons. A peculiar tradition, but one that, through research, Arara familiarized herself with. As a giddy, rising feeling arose from her stomach, metal screeching and groaning as the metal 'claws' holding up the room detached themselves, she flipped her spear around and stabbed the tip into the floor, creating an anchor point for herself as the metal box containing them all began to tumble and spin, sending students in a panic.

Many of them escaped through the hatches or the doors available, while a few simply panicked and tried to break the walls with their weapons, only to be eventually dragged out into the sky by the suction of a decompressing room. It did not take long until Arara was the only person left in the room, the wind pulling and pushing her clothes and hair, yet failing to move her.

Then, one minute from impact, falling at terminal velocity, she decided that this was enough of a handicap to make that landing a challenge. No other students around, so her Semblance had no use. Terminal velocity, so it would be much harder for her to stop. One minute, so the time she had to land properly was only a mere sixty seconds. That would be enough for her.

By then, the falling room was already tilted ninety degrees downwards, with Arara standing resolutely, parallel to the ground. With a casual step, she lifted her feet and her spear from the floor that they were anchored to, curling into a ball as she slowly rotated, before she was ninety degrees with the earth once more. She allowed the wind resistance of her clothing to naturally let herself 'rise' out through the exit of the detached room, and found herself outside after a moment's wait, free falling at a speed that was only a bit slower than the box.

She took a brief look around her to appreciate the view. It wasn't particularly breath-taking, but the scenery was nice, in a subjective sort of way. She would have liked if it was the afternoon or at midnight instead, so she could get a brilliant view of the burning sun or the night sky, but, alas, it would have been equally annoying if the test was postponed for 12 hours, just so Arara could get the view she wanted.

Then, as if it was the most natural thing to do, Arara began to walk in the air. In a manner that could only be considered graceful, she took a step downwards each time, planting her feet firmly on a circular plate of translucent Aura. It gave the impression of someone walking down an escalator that was going upwards, but if a sharp-eyed observer focused, they would have seen that she was simply reusing three different Aura-platforms as she walked downwards. Every step slowed down her overall velocity, until finally, her dark hair, once streaming upwards, had now fallen to her shoulders, as silky and unruffled as it had always been. Another application of Aura? Perhaps, but it didn't matter too much.

Through the usage of her Aura, she had turned one minute of free fall into five minutes of descent, without using much of her inner energy at all. And with a final step, Arara landed on ground once more, ready to start the exam.

<<Location: Shores of Lake Listless>>

After taking his place on the airship, Rygar waited out the ride in silence. A familiar face, Oliver if he rygaterday. Remembered correctly, came to greet him about the events from yesterday, only vaguely remembered getting into a fight, and even than that was just to justify how he ended up he in the infirmary. Rygar dismissed it and waited, listening half-heartedly as Arrun explained their test. Even as the Watches were being handed out, Rygar didn't even bother to put it on. He pocketed it away, at least allowing it to get a scan on him. He was nearly falling asleep before the sudden drop.

People were panicing and Rygar was just confused. He managed to latch onto one of the chairs welded ibnto the wall as everyone was beginning to clear out, and he figured it would be best if he did the same. Initially he wanted to get on the Sepulcher and try to land with it, but that idea was scrapped when it went flying out of the falling room and down to the ground below. "Well, time for plan b than." Rygar looked around at the destruction around him went on. People already were beginning to get out and launched themselves towards the ground, but even without his bike Rygar planned to ride the wave of chaos down. When he saw what he was looking for, he used his Spiral Edge to propel him towards a large, flattish piece of metal. He stomped his feet into the metal to maintain grip, using it as a crude sky board as he cut through the air with it.

Unlike others who were in a free fall, Rygar at least could move horizontally. His first destination was the mountains; seemed like the most likely place for a cache. He won't find his partner until some time later he imagined, but he didn't particularly care who he was paired up with. It was only a matter of time. He watched from his potion as other students landed, and before long the room that contained them crashed into the ground, leaving a notable crater. "Well, they're likely dead. Heh, the grimm will eat well today."

Eventually Rygar landed in the mountains, his crude board stuck into a stone face. He took out his Watch and noticed that, despite his initial belief, he was actually quite close to someone's position. "Well, would you look at that..." Still, he didn't bother to go find this mysterious person. He had a gut feeling that there was a cache around here, or something to fight at least, so off he went.

Location: A6 "Boulin Mountain Range"

Sayuri listened to the explanation the headmaster was giving with mild interest but became distracted when the WATCHes were passed out. She pulled one of her arms out of her jacket sleeves and pressed it against her upper arm that wasn't covered by wrapping watching all the readings as they balanced out. She smiles and pits her arm back into her jacket sleeve. She puts on the watch and starts exploring the features that were on it. She registered Kalimay and Alistair as friends before continuing browsing. Her attention was brought away from the WATCH when there was a metal grating sound and then they were falling.

Sayuri was mildly surprised they were being thrown into the exam like this. When the other students started freaking out She sighed, 'I wonder how many are going to get killed. Probably quiet a few are going to...' She watched one of the other students wade her way through the others. Smiling she follows the student and when she pushes another out the open door and jumps after Sayuri's smile grows.

As the silence grew she put her arms around several other students, "Well what are you guys waiting for? Let's get going!" running forward with her arms still around the students she leapt through the open door pulling them with her. After she pulled out the other students with her she let them go to fend for themselves. She angled herself so she shot towards the ground quicker. When she got closer to the ground she spread her body out and slowed a bit before hitting the canopy. When she did she drew her sword and stabbed it into the nearest tree and used it as a stand until it stopped near the bottom of the branches. Hopping onto one of the branches she pulls her sword out of the trunk and returning it to its sheath. Looking at the watch she notices several others moving around the limited area. Turning she decides to just wander around, "Hmm... Wonder what types of Grimm are in the area."

She concentrates her Lash into her leg and leaps to another tree. She was ready to leap again when she landed but the branch broke under her surprising her. As she fell her foot got caught on the fork of a branch and she was stuck hanging upside down. As soon as she turned upside down her Dragon Fang fell and stuck balde first into the ground, "... Well this could be a problem... Hope nobody takes my weapon..."

Location: F4 Death Grip Forest

(Location: F4 Death Grip Forest)

Carefully stepping around branches, vines, and fallen logs, Reya walked slowly, Rings of Saturn drawn and ready to slice anything that came her way. The Watch was registering several presences in the forest, at varying distances. If she was lucky, she'd run into one of them soon. She was sure that Grimm were lying in wait just beyond the trees, as she could hear the rustling and growls in the distance. The young Huntress-to-Be dared not say a word, not wanting to draw any attention to herself. The primary objective, as Mr. Tower had said, was survival, and the loudest died first.

Measured steps and controlled breathing brought her beneath a tree with a forked branch, however Reya did not notice this until she heard the distinct sound of wood being mutilated above, like it was being cut into and split. Not a comforting sound in the middle of a Grimm-infested forest. Reya got into a battle stance, right foot in front slightly, and left behind, as the Rings floated a short distance from her fingers, held aloft by threads of her maroon Aura. "Calm..." She whispered, and was about to strike as the sound moved above her.

Reya was stopped, however, by an ornate sword nearly skewering her from above, the dragon-adorned weapon sticking sharply in the ground. A ping from her Watch noted that an unpaired student was very nearby, and sure enough, one had practically been delivered to her. The fire-haired Sayuri hung haplessly from the forked branch, her foot caught in it's grasp. It took everything she had to not break out into laughter, but Reya was definitely glad to see a friendly face. In fact, it looked like she'd be seeing that face for quite a long while. She looked up with a smile, "Need a hand, Sayuri?" Reya asked with a little laugh, before sending one of her Rings to cut the branch with an upward swing of her right arm.

The chakram easily sliced the wood, allowing the girl to fall, which Reya could only hope Sayuri would right herself. There was no way she'd be able to catch her and not break anything in the process. Her expertise was grace and finesse, not hardy bone structure. Once she was on the ground, Reya held out the arm with the Watch to her. "Looks like we'll be getting to know each other, partner. If that's cool with you?" It was hardly an option, considering their situation, but she figured courtesy was still paramount in the second impression.

Grizel fiddled with her WATCH experimentally, having no real idea what she was doing. Some random bars were showing up, which she assumed was her stats or something. Not like she even knew how it came up in the first place. Figuring them out was going to be a real pain,..

And then they were falling.

Somehow finding herself somewhere outside of the airship, the falling faunus tried not to panic too much and just find a safe landing spot. Twirling her body to face the quickly-approaching ground, Grizel groaned when all she could see was a forest below her. Why couldn't it have been a giant trampoline? Why was it never a giant trampoline?!
Well, best to make do. As a Best Hunter Ever-In-Training, landing was not going to be difficult. Anyone could land after falling from the sky! ...You just had to know how to not completely squish everything that made you a person in the process.

Grizel wasn't build to take many hits, but she at least knew how to soften a blow, and even her limited expertise with Aura allowed a little bit of protection.

So, slowing her descent as much as one can in a free-fall, Grizel waited until she was just above the towering trees before suddenly curling into a ball, effectively cannonballing her way through. Many, many leaves and twigs lashed out at her, but the faunus ignored this for now, throwing a hand out just as she cleared the sheet of leaves, miraculously finding a branch to grab onto.

While the force of her descent ended up jerking her body from the sudden stop, and probably did terrible things to her shoulder, at least she hadn't broken her neck! Even when the branch snapped immediately after and sent Grizel tumbling to a painful fall on her face, she was alive to complain about it!
"...Ne'ah 'oin' 'ah a'ehn..." Grizel mumbled meekly into the dirt. When she became Best Huntress Ever, she was going to have to make sure that such a thing never had to happen again. Ever.

Eventually, the ragged and leaf-cloaked faunus rose to her knees, poking at her WATCH system again. Somehow, she managed to find a map, but the rest of the data she was kind of unclear on. This was explained to her a few minutes ago, right? It was hard to remember from all the surprise skydiving.

...Oh well! She'd just need to find Daiki somewhere, right? He couldn't have flown too far away. Probably. Jumping to her feet as if nothing had even happened, Grizel wandered aimlessly around the forest.

Location: D4.

Tarkus stared at the W.A.T.C.H unit in his hands, turning it over and over before finally placing it on his left arm, the screen lit up and projected the screen all the others saw as well, displaying bio metrics of the wearer, along with various other stats. Quickly flipping his way through nearly every option, an idea occurred to Tarkus when he saw Morella scan her boots. He removed the W.A.T.C.H. from his wrist and placed it over Zoll, the small device beeped once as it flashed, the lights on the screen shifting as schematics of the gauntlet formed from some sort of scanning tech that honestly astounded him. His face spread into a wide big grin as he saw what the thing could do, rotating the schematic of Zoll, his smile widening a bit as he poured over it, he only snapped out of his rampant smile fit when Morella tapped on his arm, he was about to respond to her when he saw...something...something on her face. She was smiling. In all the years he'd known her, she'd never smiled so openly, and it made him somewhat eager to get moving, if even Morella was getting pumped for the test, he felt no reason he shouldn't either. He slapped the W.A.T.C.H. back down on his left wrist before turning back to her to say:
"Sure am, show's about to start."

---

When the cabin dropped from the ship, Tarkus was nearly flung out of his seat as the box lurched. He pulled himself out of the seat as the initial "Oh Shit" factor kicked in for all the other students, some trying to break down the walls, doors, windows, some guy actually managed to break a hatch on the roof open. Tarkus deftly pulled 6 bullets from his satchel, the red dust shining at the tips of each round like a small fireplace smoldering. He revolved Cadeyrn's head outwards and loaded the rounds in quickly, the order didn't matter, he just needed the dust in them anyway. Spinning the head back into place, he looked over to Morella, saying: "Good luck out there Cindie, just remember: Double Tap." before making his way to the hatch to the roof. A lot of students had bailed out already, shoving each other to get out of the way to the hatch, Tarkus waited rather patiently, and by that I mean he threw a couple of people over the hatch himself, not being a big fan of lines.

As he stood atop the roof, he felt the wind whip at his face, the sun looming overhead, and the ground looking oh-so-deadly getting closer and closer, he eyed something on the roof other than people, some sort of panel with a handle and button, people seemed to be launching themselves using them, but Tarkus didn't feel a need to. After all, he didn't wanna accidentally lose Cadeyrn in the fall, that would have ensured he'd either be dead or broken to barely functioning bits on the ground. Instead he looked down at Cadeyrn's head, the wind whipping his hair upwards as he walked over to the edge of the roof. He looked straight ahead ans pulled the chord near the back of Cadeyrn's head, immediately the chamber in the center began lighting up with the same shade of scarlet as his bullets, only this time it was much brighter, the dust culminated in the chamber until it completely drained the bullets, the once-empty chamber was now filled with dust kept in place with a pressure lock. And then, he ran back a bit, took a deep breath, and sprinted off the edge of the roof, holding firmly onto Cadeyrn the whole time.
Panzerfaust's Roar
"One...Two...Three...Four..."
The chambers of Cadeyrn began spinning as he pulled on the chord once again, the revolver of the head continually spinned in place, locked in by the hammer, the red dust in the chamber began glowing a bright light as he shifted his position mid-air.
"...Five...Six..."
The dust in the chamber began to ignite as he descended at a slanted angle, his speed gradually increasing as he went along.
"...Seven. Panzerfaust, locked and loaded."
He pointed the head toward the ground as he pulled the trigger.
"...Afterburner."
The dust in the chamber fully ignited, the red flame slowly brightening to become blue as he picked up speed, the Red Dust propelling him through the air over the treetops of the forest. His eyes widened a bit when he could feel the hammer start to stall, seemed like he'd skimped on the dust in a few of the rounds and there wasn't as much as he thought. As he slowly began descending again, he remembered the schematic of Zoll the W.A.T.C.H. has shown him, and the one little thing that could bail him out of this.

As he sank under the canopy of the forest, he rolled his wrist inside of Zoll, something cleverly hidden within the wrist of the gauntlet sprung out, a hook of some sort, that then propelled itself and latched around the branch of a sizable tree, upon rolling his wrist again, the cable began retracting, and he dropped down to the forest floor. He let out a sigh of relief as he plopped down onto the ground rump first, his left hand still clutching his hammer. He dusted himself off, and brushed the leaves from himself as he stood, pressing a button the watch to bring up a map. Looked like someone was nearby, one pair close by had dissipated from the map, and others were still descending.
"Yup, it's showtime."

-Location: Border of E-5 and D-5-

Pascale Isadora Buckley
—♫♪ Aide-Toi et le Ciel T'aidera ♫♪—

Quite interesting.

The speech that was, and the W.A.T.C.H, as well, of which she used to scan herself and attune to her waist.

The lifting into the air as their part of the ship was released from its latches was not as interesting, but still rather interesting. Pascale, who was situated in her seat by the window when it happened, simply looked around, still in her seated position but far above her seat. A sigh escape her lips, a hand running through her hair. Guess simply landing was more than she could have asked for, but, then again, Pascale wasn't the type of gal to just simply land either. The exasperated frown immediately turned on its head as she closed her eyes and merely flipped backward. If they wanted to make this a challenge, then she would gladly and wholeheartedly accept it and not whine and complain like the girl she knew she wasn't.

The screams, the panic, the rush of air the swept and whipped at her hair was muffled in her daze. A sinister smile adjusted itself onto her lips. Pascale's feet kicked below her, the clicking in her long heel quiet in the turmoil around her. One heel at a time.

Crack

Pascale's head whipped upward as she flew toward the window, eyes locked onto the circus boy rushing through a makeshift hole above her. The people around her, though, soon caught her immediate attention; they were mere objects now, just in her way. The blasts from her heels would be harmless, though they would definitely and probably leave a few bruises, of which she couldn't care less for. Flipping, somersaulting, doing whatever she could to maneuver correctly in the air, Pascale kicked her boots into whomever she could catch, using them as leverage to propel herself further toward the window. As soon as she reached the thick glass, she made sure her feet were pressed tightly against it before further propelling herself upward with a powerful blast. Using the obvious force she could in her free fall and the shots from her heels, Pascale shot in a direct line toward Ollie's exit. Quickly, and before she was sucked out, Pascale released her rapier from its holster in her boots, hand already reaching behind to grasp it. The kid she used to apply that much pressure cursed loudly at her, clutching his head as she laughed her way out of the falling, steel box.

Screaming out into the sharp wind that tore through the air around her, tousling her clothes, hair, whatever was loose on her body, her hands gripped whatever they could an launched her toward one of the catapaults near the edge of the compartment's ceiling—all with a giant grin on her face. Using her gun boots to flip and glue herself onto the platform, she closed her eyes in all the rush and excitement. A deep breath was taken and then held in the split second Pascale released the hatch and pulled the lever tight, curling into a ball as she was flung higher through the air.

Everything moved so slowly; she rose for what seemed like forever, increasing her height at an alarming speed. The moment she reached the apex of her journey, though, Pascale unfurled herself with her limbs outstretched. The rapier clung ironically clung to her like a lifeline, shooting up her arm in segments and seconds before she was able to bring it forward. Her legs flung forward, as well, with her free arm right beneath the other. It started slowly, at first, bullets streaming in slowly downward, powerful and fast enough to break from the wind. Then it began to speed up as Pascale began her decent, the boots she wore adding to the flurry of loud shots and bullets that streamed like liquid from Lock. Shock and Barrel were both powerful enough to aid in the slowing of her decent, though slower than their sword counterpart.

The bullets, the crackle of Pascale's weapons, an the rush of air continued as she barreled downward in her arc, changing her position to always face the direction she was flying toward. The steady stream of increasingly fast bullets from Lock aided most in halting her further, completely stalling her mere inches above the bullet riddled patch of grass below her. How she actually got there was kind of a blur as her mind was racing too much during the whole flying through the air bit and forgot to remember just how long it took or if she was even descending from a terrifying height in the first place.

Blinking as the sounds around her finally came ringing clear, Pascale looked down at her weapon, Lock, which had actually ran out of bullets but was still in its numbing fast paced shooting, clicking loudly to alert her that it needed reloading. Finally realizing this, Pascale flipped over the moment it slowed down enough and planted her feet onto the fresh, green grass, high enough to cover her lower calves. Rolling her shoulder, she hissed at the steam that flowed from the segments of her rapier's armor, feeling the heat of the weapon crawl up her arm. Sighing, she replaced the magazine on her shoulder with a new one, waiting to hear the rattle as the bullets locked in place down the entirety of the armor.

Now it was about finding out where the hell she was. Her eyes roamed around the area, letting in all the detail of the surrounding space in quiet contemplation. It was a long stretch from where she was, but it seemed as if she was locked between a lush forest and the shore of a large lack, the rest being simply green grass and rolling hills. It wasn't much to be impressed by, minus the odd, large patches of wildflowers that dug themselves deep into the side of the grassy hills. Despite the distance, the lapping of fresh water still hit her ears, if she listened close enough, signaling that she was indeed closer to the beach than she was to the forest. The sun above, with the clouds grazing its bright tips, shown radiantly, washing Pascale with a warmth she gladly welcomed and easing away the goosebumps from the lashing, cold wind she had just been barreling into. If she just closed her eyes, let her mind tune into the beating waves and soothing breeze, Pascale could simply forget about everything and let the pressure she let both herself and the Academy place onto her simply lift away. It was serene, to say the least, but the looming danger that quickly washed all of that tranquility away did the same to remind Pascale of her duties.

Guess it wasn't the right time to enjoy nature.

Reaching down to the belt around her waste, Pascale gripped the W.A.T.C.H tightly and held it up to her face, moving slightly to erase the glare on the screen. Right now, she had to find someone to partner up with. Who? She didn't care. All that mattered was their willingness to work with her and for the rest of their years at Beacon, for that matter. There were just a few blips on her radar, a few of which were scattered on the beach and more leading further into the forest. She didn't quite know which one to lock on, didn't quite know what to expect from either of them really. So, she didn't; she smiled, put the gadget back onto her belt, and simply walked toward the forest in a straight determined line.

Letting fate decide where you were to go, who you were to be with, was a tad scary... well, actually it was really scary. However, most of all, it was actually rather exhilarating; it gave Pascale that rush she needed. Her smile returned and she let her eyes once again roam her surroundings. Her goal was to partner up whoever bumped into her first, unless that person was a Grimm and then she'd either run like all hell or kill it.

Ah, maybe she'd run like hell regardless. She wasn't experienced in dealing with Grimm like other students, though she faced various smaller ones that somehow got into the city walls, but that felt almost like killing an innocent animal, except that the animal wasn't at all innocent. Pascale didn't know what to expect from the larger, more dangerous beings that most likely inhabited the entire area, but, despite her sudden realization of her lack of inexperienced, she was really looking forward to it. Oh, she wanted to feel the rush of battle so badly at that moment, but Pascale contained herself, however giddy and hoppy she seemed to look, at that exact moment.

The smile, in all that had just happened in the span of a few minutes, never left her face.

Landed on the intersection of quadrants G-6, G-7, F-6, and F-7 and skipping happily northward on the border of 6 and 7.

Morella Cinder

Morella jumped back as the hold began to fall, waiting to see how the other students would react Some of them were relatively calm, moving with purpose to the exit without going crazy, though a good majority of them were in a bit of a frenzy. They were soon getting control of themselves, though, and in the partial lull, Morella took the chance to move to the exit.

She trusted Tarkus to take care of himself, nodding at his remark to her, as she ground her boot on the floor. The Dust cylinders in the boots spun, as the power lines glowed light blue. She could’ve started spinning them just by using her Dust reserves, but this method saved a small amount, and who knows how much she’d need. She jumped to the wall and tapped her foot on the metal.

DASH GATE – 2 STEP

Below Morella, parallel to the wall, appeared a large circle, white, with an ornate arrow made of criss-crossing lines converging. She shot off the wall, above the crowd escaping from the back end of the hold, as another circle appeared above them. When Morella hit that Gate, she shot out the door, leaping above the students jumping out, as she streamlined into a freefall.

She barely squinted against the rushing air that whipped her hair around, partially shielding her face with her hand. She looked around, as bodies flew in various directions. She spotted a clearing a little ways from the forest, and flipped in midair to ready herself. Her boots light hadn’t faded yet, as Morella kicked downwards in front of her.

JUMP GATE –3 STEP

Below her, and in a diagonal line down from her, the round circles of light appeared again, but this time the lines looked like they were moving out from the center. She hit the first Gate, which sent her bouncing forward through the air, falling a bit before she hit the second. She could set about three gates per kick, and though she could kick more to summon several more, they wouldn’t last till she got to the bottom. So setting three gates at a time suited her just fine.

She flew threw the air, gracefully leaping from gate to gate. It took nine for her to reach the clearing, not a substantial amount of Dust wasted, but it was borderline significant. She touched down lightly, quickly getting a bearing on her surroundings. She retied her hair back into a tight ponytail as she looked around, not seeing anyone readily there. She checked her watch, seeing several dots of students flying in an out of her range. However, she saw a cave entrance near on her map, no doubt with some sort of Grimm within. She debated with herself, they didn’t have any readings on caches until they got to a partner, where their watches would automatically sync, but Morella wasn’t sure if she really needed a partner as of yet.

If I can get my hands on a cache myself, they might allow me to go at it solo, it’d be easier for my training if I didn’t have to worry about anyone else… she thought. Even if there wasn’t a cache nearby, she was sure they’d have put caches in some of the places underground, all she’d have to do would be to find it. It wouldn’t be extremely difficult to maneuver, her Glyph Gates could get her out of a crowd if she was swarmed, and it’d be unlikely that she’d randomly run into another student down there.

She reasoned the pros outweighed the cons for her long term goals, she had a feeling that being part of a team would be distracting, which was something she couldn’t afford. She checked the cave location once more and set off in that direction, keeping a watchful eye on her surroundings.

LOCATION: G4

---

---

The Jerks

Christophe quickly took stock of the situation. He checked the walls, doors, and surroundings that they were falling toward. He listened, in between the screams, he heard the sound of industrial hydraulics, synchronized with the spinning jerky movements of the hold. Some sort of catapult system, no doubt, to give us some lateral momentum to utilize on our way down, he thought, preparing to relay his plan to the rest of the team. He was going to have Ashton lash them all together when they jumped off the catapult, and have Jonah use his Hammer Jets to aim them to the lake. Lorelei could shoot her gauntlet’s grapple at the water, using her soundwaves to agitate it enough so their impact wouldn’t be that strong. That, coupled with Tibbers shielding their fall in the water, should’ve been a relatively safe landing that kept everyone together.

What actually happened, however, was Christphe and Lorelei being accosted by a girl with waist length red hair.

"Well what are you guys waiting for? Let's get going!" she said brightly, taking them by surprise and running them out of the door.

“What, wait, no no no!!” Christophe said, as he and Lorelei were thrown from the ship. The two quickly clasped hands as Lorelei shot her gauntlet, Silent Seduction, to grab the edge of the ship. They swung along it as she drew it close, but it was out of view from the hold. Christophe breathed slowly, patting Lorelei on the shoulder. “Woah, thanks. Okay, okay, we can still save this, I’ve got a plan. We just need to get Ashton’s attention before-“

“Christophe!! I’ve got ya’, par’dner, don’t worry!”

Ashton came shooting out of the hold, apparently using his Laser Lassos to slingshot himself out of the hold. All too quickly, he was too far to lasso back up to them..

Christophe sighed, slapping his forehead. “Ugh, I don’t know why I even bother,” he said, rubbing his face while the air rushed through his hair.. “It’s okay, it’s okay, Jonah’s got a cool head. We’ll get him up here, he can direct us to-“

“Ash, you moron! Wait up!”

Christophe grumbled, as a dark blur shot out of the ship. Jonah had swung one of his hammers by it’s strap, using the force to leap out of the ship, as jets along the handle and hammer head propelled him even farther. Very quickly, he intercepted Ash in midair.

Christophe kept quiet, as Lorelei giggled, “Go on, say something about getting Naomi before she jumps off,” she said with a grin.

Christophe barely opened his mouth before a call of, “Don’t forget me, guys!” rang out, as a small body jumped out of the hold. She was surrounded by orange lines of light, Tibbers surrounding her while she fell, so she’d be kept safe when she would hit the ground..

He didn’t say a word, just a restrained scream while he rubbed his face. “…Whatever, I’ve got a plan, hit the catapult switch when I give the signal,” he told Lorelei, pointing at the button on the handled. However, when she grabbed the handle, she accidently pushed the switch, sending them both hurtling through the air. “OH COME ON!!” Christophe shouted, as Lorelei loudly laughed, the two spiraling through the air towards the mountain range.

---

---

Arrun Tower

Arrun watched the hold of the ship slip away through the window, “Ah, takes me back to my first year…” he said to himself, turning to walk back to the cockpit. He stood by the pilot, asking, “How is the ship running?”

“Running fine, sir, we have more than enough fuel, and controls are responsive. We are heading to the drop point to pick up the spare ship hold, we should be there in about ten minutes,” the pilot replied.

Arrun nodded, steeping to the side. He looked at the console, at a detailed map of the First Test location, along with the markers for every student, and cache in the area. He crossed his arms, looking over all the readouts and statistics. Alright, everyone’s alive, though some of the class has some fractures. Looks a few battles have started, though no caches have been found, he thought, eyes drifting towards a certain twenty-four students out of the others.

Hmm, not much results yet. These students have the highest expected ratings out of the entire Freshmen class, according to Luster’s calculations. I still can’t access his databanks and records, so I don’t know exactly what calculations he used, but I’m still not sure why he believes these students will excel above the others… he thought, reaching forward and highlighting a few students to see their situation. His eye twitches slightly while he mustache bristled. “What’s with people shouting random things while jumping, and getting caught in the environment?” he said to himself, shaking his head. “Must be generation thing, this is much different than the First Test in my day, I might change it back next year,” he said, walking back to the main area of the cockpit.

He took a seat, looking at the windshield with his fingers tented. He intently looked ahead, brow furrowed in thought. Something was bothering him about the test, he knew the Unicorn was a threat on the mountainside, but he felt there was something else by the mountainside that was cause for alarm. This was still one of the things that Luster had set-up before his death, so it was either go along with the directives or set up something completely different, which Arrun didn’t have the time for. He’d have trusted Luster to the end of the earth, but there’s been so many questions raised since he died, Arrun didn’t know if Luster knew everything that was going to happen or if he’d been blindsided himself. Arrun rested his chin on his thumbs, tapping his tented forefingers against his brow.

I suppose we’ll see what the year brings, maybe Luster had a plan all along…or maybe it doesn’t matter if he did. We’ll just have to trust the new generation…and ourselves, he thought, mustache curling in a slight smile. No use getting worked up before the First Test is even over, I’ll worry about the future when it’s time, he thought once more, standing up and returning to the console to monitor the test.

---

---

Naomi Isadora

--LOCATION: Death Grip Forest – F6—

Naomi closed her eyes tight, feeling pressure from all sides as Tibbers held her close. She was completely embraced by the large bear construct, so when she fell through the tree canopy of Death Grip Forest, she barely felt a nudge. When she hit the ground, which felt like hitting a mattress, she looked up, surprised by the tree beside her that she assumed she knocked down. “Oh my,” she said, picking herself up and dusting herself off. She looked around biting her lip and gripping the bottom of her hoodie. “Um, guys? Guys? Are you, um, around here?” she called out, only hearing the buzzes and chirps of insects.

“Oh, okay…” she said quietly, huddling up in her hoodie. I must have been too late, and missed them… she though, breathing heavily as she crouched on the ground. She rocked on her feet, as she realized that this was the first time since she’d joined Christophe’s group that she’d been in a combat zone alone. She didn’t like it. She held her hands to her ears, closing her eyes tightly, as the noises of nature around her seemed to increase in volume. Birds, bugs, beasts, even the far-off voices of people were too much, too loud, she didn’t like it. She didn’t like it. She hated it. She wanted it to stop, to stop, to stop, stop, stop, STOP, STOP!!! STO-

And she felt a pat on her shoulder.

She looked up, eyes welling up with tears at the familiar form of Tibbers, the lines of light now a light blue. Naomi sniffed, wiping her noise on her sleeve, and stood up. “You’re right, I’m sure we’ll be fine,” she said, pausing. “Yeah, let’s go try and find them, I’d like that,” she said after that, her pained expression turning lighter with a soft smile. It fell slightly, though, before she said, “You know, I never brought this up to him, but we’re five people, and Mr. Tower said it would be teams of four.” Pausing once more, she looked up and said, “I guess so, maybe Christophe will have a plan, he always does.”

How Lyndsey managed to get to the airship in time was probably better left to the imagination. Apparently some students didn't care about their peers enough to wake them up in time for the exam date. She was so rushed to leave the auditorium barely had time to dry her ear tufts off from the morning shower. It was as if they wanted her fluff to be droopy and damp. A true act of racist sabotage. But that was for another time! All that mattered now was the exam. She was in the airship, with her fellow students, ready for the headmaster to give his speech to them. Still hadn't interacted with anyone but being social could wait until she had a team! Considering how crazy it had been since her arrival, she was thankful that the ride was relatively peaceful. From her seat in the back of the airship she listened carefully to Arrun as he gave out the required speech, The faunus curiously toyed with her WATCH when it was presented. It was kinda useful, displaying her aura, the amount of dust left within her boots, other miscellaneous facts about her weapons she didn't much care about. She clipped it into her belt, too entranced in fiddling with the device to notice Arrun's sudden disappearance into the rest of the airship. She only looked up when she heard claws detaching, her ears twitching.

Why did it feel like the cabin was sliding?

...

She wanted her tuition back.

Flying tables, cannibal ear eaters, pork chop roof drippings. Now being dropped from the stratosphere in a metal box filled with weird teenagers. Why was none of this mentioned BEFORE she enrolled into the school? As she tumbled about the dropping cabin, she flared her aura and activated her weapons. The gloves on her hands expanded rapidly to cover the entirety of her arms and the remainder of her exposed fingers. Her boots did the same. As she was flung up against one of the back walls of the cabin, her pale blues eyes spotted a window directly across from her current position. Cat like reflexes ago, the pale stripes along her boots flared with a vibrant energy. She placed her feet against the wall and boosted off them, the explosion of dust propelling her knee first into the window, which exploded as a result of the impact. The vacuum which resulted sucked the cat girl out into the air. She tumbled briefly before the metallic threads of her gloves shot out and wrapped around a portion of the descending cabin. She towed herself against it for a final time before her boots once more set her rocketing off into the distance, momentum sending her head first towards the ground and safely away from the thousands of pounds of metal about to get very intimate with the ground below.

Then she realized being a faunus shaped missile was a bad plan. She also realized that her trajectory had shot her passed the forest, just a tad. So she had no trees to slow her fall. Crap.

But then she caught a glimpse of something in the distance and an idea formulated within the girl's head. Yeah, this was gonna be awesome. Her hands stretched outwards to the horizon and the skies were suddenly filled with wire.

______

Sector K-K

A screech broke the air of silence around a Miss Kalimay Kay. One bone chilling and inhuman. One approaching rapidly and violently, by the sound of trees falling and rending in the distance. It wasn't long before the tree line in the foreground exploded... with a Nevermore in tow. The raven Grimm seemed to be thrashing wildly in the skies as it ascended from the forest like a deranged animal. Why such a normally intelligent monster would act in such a way was bizarre... until one spotted what was on its back.

"Hyah, Birdie! Hyah! Down girl!" Shouted a leaf and twig covered Lyndsey, standing on the back of the Nevermore. She was kept against the beast by the near invisible strands of wire extending from her fingers. Wires she had wrapped around the Nevermore's neck and maw like the reigns of a horse. She whipped the wires down, trying to steer the demonic avian towards the ground for a landing. It didn't want to cooperate. So she continued to whip it, comically riding the monstrous creature through the skies in a sporadic pattern as it tried to free itself. All while KK hung below.

Did that make them partners?

Orion Armstrong

---

Orion took a good few minutes to dry the worst of the wetness out of his clothing. He was thankful for a little trick his adoptive mother showed him which allowed his aura shield to do a bulk of the drying by expelling the water from the protective soul power. Suitably dry, Orion consulted his W.A.T.C.H and was blessed to see a nearby hunter-in-training. From what he could tell, there were no other notable readings and as such, Orion felt like there was a high chance he was in for a meeting with his partner pretty soon.

Orion had dropped his Polearm in the time he’d taken to concentrate and control his aura sufficiently to pull of his little drying trick. He was not known for his stunning control of aura, and it was one of the only things he didn’t excel at in the academy a few years back: Even after his year outside of the academy had not given him a chance to hone that inefficiency in his capabilities. Thankfully, he was attending the most prestigious academy for hunters in the known continent; and as such, he had the best chance of tempering this failing here.

Orion picked up the Polearm, swinging it around lightly in order to get a comfortable grip on the weapon. Epsilon Delta was one of the strangest weapon choices Orion could have gone for: he’d gotten so many recommendations of ‘Hammer’ or ‘Gauntlets’ by his teacher; all of which seemed to miss the point of why Orion chose to craft himself such a bizarre compliment to his natural strengths. A hammer would have given his strength an outlet, and gauntlets would have abused his semblance: to be sure. However, Epsilon Delta gave him something more difficult to get. The Polearm provided versatility, and the Polearm provided something he could use when his Semblance was acting up. Controlling his strength had been a big enough issue in the past: imagine trying to control raw power with a hammer?

Orion reached into his back pocket and fished something out of his pocket. Withdrawing the soggy lollypop left Orion a bit disheartened, as the flavour would be all but gone. It was likely that his entire supply of sweets was ruined, and that tragedy left the Faunus frowning. He scratched his head through the orange beanie on his head as he began to walk alongside the edge of the Island’s edge, looking for the shallowest point to cross the island.

Eventually, Orion spotted something in the distance; along the opposite side of the Lake was a distant figure: appearance impossible to from this side of the lake. Orion had yet to find a shallow point to cross from, which meant that his crossing strategy would have to be a bit flashier. Taking a couple dozen steps back, Orion cupped his hands over his mouth; about to shout something when he stopped himself. ”Grimm are going to be nearby. Shouting would be suicide.”

Instead of shouting, Orion would just have to ‘wing’ the entrance, it seemed. He flared his aura as he started to pump his muscles full of energy with his semblance. He inhaled sharply, and then exhaled slower: gripping the Polearm tightly as he burst into an instant sprint. Small chunks of rock were sent spraying behind the tall Faunus as he began to sprint towards the edge of the beach when he leaped.

Concentrating aura into his legs was much harder than it was to concentrate it into his arms, mostly because of the volatile nature of the stunt. Despite that, Orion had seemingly gotten lucky with his semblance twice today, as the leap was strong and true. He was high above the air when he spotted something in the lake: a glint of some sort that looked almost colourful. ”Could that be the cache?”

He didn’t have time to ponder the cache as the approaching ground presented his next issue. He didn’t have a good enough jump to make this landing clean: which meant he’d have to make a dramatic entrance one way or another. He cleared the lake, sure: but breaking a bone wouldn’t be the best way to make acquaintance with the person he’d likely be spending the next few years with. Orion was spreading his aura shield over his entire body now: getting ready for what would hopefully be nothing less than a little graceless.

About twenty feet from Arara, Orion hit the ground. He rolled to cushion the blow and let his aura shield absorb the worst of the blow before rolling onto his feet. He looked over at the figure of the woman he’d met the day before: smiling as he wiped at his arms and legs. “Yo.”

<<Location: Shores of Lake Listless, Twenty feet from Arara Sakanade>>

---

Isaac Markeel

---

Isaac waited until the ship hit the ground before he moved on from his perch atop the mountain. He was comfortable enough where he was, and as such he didn’t feel a need to move in a hurry. He’d taken the chance to grab his small pocket computer from his pocket and zoomed in on something interesting that escaped from the ship at a later point than anyone else. From his perch atop the mountain, he saw Arara’s antics with the aura glyphs, letting a smile spread across his lips as he enjoyed the graceful display. “Shame. She’s far too far away.”

Discarding Arara as a candidate for partnership, Isaac decided he’d just have to settle with the closest individual as his partner. He’d likely be partnered with some weakling who would then be blessed with getting carried through every combat exam by Isaac’s skills. Examining the W.A.T.C.H revealed that there was exactly one blip that was close enough to be of interest to Isaac. Close enough was a pair of blips: likely already partnered.

Isaac paused to observe the blip’s movements, and was left smiling lightly as the figure walked away from his location. No idiot would ignore the W.A.T.C.H’s use after the headmaster had gone to such length to explain it: meaning that whatever person this blip was attached to was actively ignoring Isaac. “Interesting.”

Isaac pugged at the metal wires of his semblance on his left hand, which began to reel them in. He’d done the same with his right hand in the time he’d been watching Arara’s descent, but had left his left hand ready as a sort of grappling hook, should he need to move quickly in the left direction. Instead, it seemed, he was going to be moving after a new blip.

“Time to go pick my poison, it seems.” Isaac sighed, before launching the wires of his left hand and right hand towards nearby rocks. Each finger represented a different bayonet, and each bayonet embedded itself in the rock. Reeling in the wires was Isaac’s next step, and doing so catapulted him into the air, jettisoning him towards the direction of the blip. He yanked the bayonets free from the rocks before planting them into another rock mere moments later, catapulting him in a new direction each time He’d keep jettisoning himself towards his future partner, and he couldn’t help but feel an anticipation grow in his gut. What gutsy individual was trying to actively avoid partnering up, and why? Were they itching for glory or a fight or something else, perhaps?

They’d likely see the rapidly moving blip soon enough: no doubt they’d probably know of his coming before he landed.

<<Location: Zipping through the Boulin Mountain Range, towards A6>>

"C'mon you... stupid... tree!" Kalimay grunted as she dangled futilely, and rather comically, from the handle of BRIK-Breaker while rotating slowly in the air with her shoes nearly two feet off the ground. It was a marvel of determination that she had gotten this far, shimmying up the trunk until she managed to reach the flail's hilt. Unfortunately, her weight alone had not been enough to dislodge the tangled chain from the tree branch high above and the weapon's claws still refused to properly release.

As her mind tried to find a way out of this predicament, her arms already starting to ache, a sudden high-pitched screech filled the air and echoed through the forest around her. "Alistair?" She called out in hope, thinking that maybe the boy was one of those on the more feminine side of displays of fear. It would make sense considering his passionate, romantic heart: much more attuned to its emotions than a normal male.

Alas, it was not Alistair who arrived in a rush of beating wings and angry squawks, like an Eagle-Faunus Knight come to save a damsel in distress; she tucked that idea away for a future smutty romance short story; but a rather disoriented Nevermore carrying a peculiar rider. "Ooooooooooh!" KK's jaw dropped as her eyes became as big as saucer plates while they watched the bird twitch and jerk through the sky overhead, circling her and the large tree. "I wanna ride! I wanna ride!" She chanted in jealously and excitement, brain suddenly coming up with a plan. A deft spin planted her feet agains the tree trunk and with the hand gripping BRIK-Breaker, her thumb jammed a button and the internal motor revved to life.

Before she'd tried to go down, now she was going up!

The chain was drawn in quickly while her feet dances around the trunk as she was pulled around and around and up and up towards the stuck flail head. A quick spin over the offending branch and the chain was untangled, giving her a clear line to the top of the tree. She spotted the Nevermore circling back around as the rider attempted to force its compliance and Kalimay's tongue stuck out of the side of her mouth in concentration. "Game face is a go!" The squirrely girl muttered as she calculated the timing while the hilt in her hand began to change form again. "3... 2... 1... LAUNCH!" The instant her feet reached the metal flail head, and it was wrenched free of its prison, she activated the largest set of dust canisters and the tree top exploded. More accurately, the tip of the flail-rocket head exploded, obliterating several feet of wood and branches and sending her flying into the air as she 'rode' the RPG launcher towards the large bird.

Though she'd slightly miscalculated the trajectory to put her onto the grimm's back, she still managed to sail right into its side. The creature shrieked in fear and annoyance as it banked to the opposite side, giving Kalimay time to find a grip among its thick black feathers. Peeking over the top of the bird as it righted itself, she managed a sparkling smile at Lyndsey. "Is there room on this baby for two?" She giggled, hoping for a hand up.

Location: I'm on a bird over E4!

"Heh, yeah, this seems about right. Maybe I'm not as nuts as I thought I was." Rygar spoke as he placed his foot through a Myrmidon. He had jumped a group of five, doing what seemed to be some sort of material gathering. With one down, the others were likely going to be eliminated with mechanical efficiency. They scattered to get behind Rygar, but he wasn't going to have any of it. With his shield to his back, Rygar charged forward towards the next grimm. It snapped it's mandibles at him, only to catch his shield. Before it could put too much force into it's bite, Rygar caused his Spiral Edge to explode, launching the bug off the mountain and into the valley below. Another one moved in to attack, but Rygar already saw the insect. The blades on the Spiral Edge roared to life as he turned and throw his entire body into a downward punch, grinding the blades of the Spiral Edge into the insect, splitting it's head in half. "Three Down, now where-" Rygar was getting cocky, which didn't do him any good when a Myrmidon managed to get behind him and grab him around his right leg. It had used it's spiked legs to crawl along the cliff to get around Rygar, who was distracted with killing it's other two brethren. Rygar managed to get his hands between the beast's mandibles, struggling against the monster so that it didn't cut off his foot. But as Rygar was almost freed, the bug threw him off the cliff, likely to face the same death he gave the second bug. But Rygar wasn't about to die to easily. With the Spiral Edge still buzzing with life, he launched his disk at the myrmidon. The force of the weapon combined with the kinetic tearing of the blades nearly cut the insect in half, digging deep into the ground. Rygar than simply locked the chain and allowed himself to impact the cliff side, using his raw endurance to survive the hit.

As Rygar was climbing up the cliff side, his final opponent arrived. The Myrmidon began to climb down the cliff side to face Rygar, putting him in an awkward situation. He couldn't use his left arm efficiently since the chain kept him from being bale to use it to swing a punch, and he didn't want to waste too much energy sticking to the wall just to fight this grunt. "Bring it on, myrmidon!" Rygar made the Spiral Edge begin to retract it's chain, pulling him towards the grimm as it came charging down to him. When he was in range, he jumped. The bug lunged, keeping it's grip on the wall, but missed. Rygar flew right over him. And when he was above the cliff, he pulled the Spiral Edge out of the ground. In that brief moment, when the Spiral Edge slammed into it's gauntlet, it gave Rygar the momentum to make his body spin. He spun twice, his rise soon becoming a decent. And at the fulcrum of his jump, he looked down. The Myrmidon hasn't even turned around to climb back up. Before his body dropped, he threw his Spiral Edge down at the beast, knocking it off the wall. Like many before it, it would fall it it's death.

After Rygar landed back on solid ground, he finally took a look at his Watch, which had been beeping like mad. Seemed like he was right; someone was coming to find him, and fast. Rygar considered looking for this person since he was near when he saw the tail-end of a Myrmidon, just about to escape. "Oh hell no! Everything dies!" Rygar went to chase after the lone creature, soon catching up to it. Rygar began to beat the creature around with just his fists, using his Spiral Edge only once to cut off it's pincers. He proceeded to beat the bug repeatedly, slamming it against the ground and onto rocks until it stopped moving. But he didn't kill it just yet. He wanted answers. Grabbing it by the thin connector between it's thorax and it's head, Rygar dangled the insect over the cliff. "Now start talking, you insect! You're going to tell me where that cache is, or I'll snap your neck in half!" The Myrmidon began to squirm, unwilling (And unable) to tell Rygar anything. He began to throttle the bug, but still didn't kill it. "I'm not going to ask again! Where is the Cache!?"

Location: Death Grip Forest D5

Tirren watched quietly as the room plummeted towards the ground. Many of the remaining students fled using some launching device on the outside of the room to propel themselves away from the falling room. 'That could have been useful' he observed with a silent chuckle 'Seems easier than directing yourself towards the forest in freefall.' Letting the thought fade he watched the room collide with the ground, just moments after the final notes of the song still playing in his ear. Turning off the music he pondered where to begin his search for a partner. Muttering quietly to himself he said, "Might as well start the search around here, I think I saw someone land around here after all."

Slowly he began to lower himself down the branches towards the lower parts of the tree. Placing himself on a sturdy limb he began to look around for any movement, it made sense that the other students would be moving about looking for partners many of them had donned their WATCH's for that purpose. As he looked down he saw what looked like the figure of a student moving quietly and effectively through the trees. 'This could be promising,' Tirren thought as he set off following the other student. The shadow below seemed determinded to find someone on their WATCH as they appeared to check it every now and then. Tirren grinned watching this, because of his lack of WATCH he was going undetected.

At that moment Tirren made his mistake though, he had been watching the figure so intently that he had not been watching where he was going. His foot settled on a small branch as he moved, the moment his full weight was on it the branch snapped. The sound bounced through the forest accompanied by a yelp of surprise.

Falling, Tirren tried to grab on to another branch to no avail, he lande on a thicker limb below knocking the wind out of him. Sitting up, he turned to see the figure he had been following. Reaching into his pocket he put on his WATCH and then looked up. "Partners?" he asked through his small gasps of air.

Arara could see someone off to the distance, of course, but it really was quite too far for her to make anything out of it. On the other side of Lake Listless, there was a blob of humanness, but it didn't concern her too much. After all, surely there was no one desperate enough for a partner this early that they would...

Oh wait, they just did.

Watching from the shoreline, Arara observed that blob charging up their Aura and then leaping, intent on clearing the lake in a single jump. A great explosion and a trail of sand and dust streaked behind the person like a jet plume as they sailed through the air. And just like that, they covered the distance once blocked by water, landing on the side of the beach that Arara was on. Another, smaller explosion occured, and the student tumbled for a quite a bit until he stopped, rolling onto his feet and then standing up once more. An impressive display, and as the student brushed off the sand on his body, she realized that she knew this person. Orion Armstrong, the person who wore Patchwork clothing yesterday. He seemed alright, and no doubt that he was strong, at least enough to clear a lake in a single jump, even if his landing left much to be desired. His weapon was similar to her own, so that was another plus. Ultimately, an acceptable partner.

And an acceptable one was all that she needed. After all, it wasn't like Orion was a faunus or something.

“Salutations to you too, Orion Armstrong,” she said, taking out her WATCH, yet not putting it on. “I presume you'd like to become partners with me?”

Pascale Isadora Buckley
—♫♪ A Chaque Oiseaux Son Nid est Beau ♫♪—

Near the Edge of the Forest— F-7

What was that?

That sound...

Sounded a lot like cracking. Pascale blinked, just now stepping into the vast forest before her, but stopping as she leaned forward slightly. Turn. Step forward just a tad more...

"Oh...." Pascale mouthed, frozen in place, "Shit."

Right on the edge, near what looked to the entrance of a vast swamp within the forest itself, lay what looked to be, at first, odd looking rocks. That was at first glance. The second glance clearly told any individual who stumbled upon this odd quarry weirdly positioned next to the entrance of both a swamp and a forest that this wasn't a quarry of rocks at all. It was a thousand times worse. From the position Pascale was in, she could clearly see the dip in land that was definitely not natural, but what she could clearly make out were the oval shape of these supposed rocks. They rocked, though, back and forth, cracked, jumped even. They weren't rocks at all, despite the texture; they were too perfectly shaped to be rocks anyways. They were eggs and there were thousands of them littering the entirety of a makeshift nest. Not a nest, no, it was more like a crater.

The bad thing?

All of the eggs were hatching almost simultaneously.

Bursting through each shell came enormous creatures, reptilian in nature with scales blacker than an abyss. At first, they looked simply like an assortment of snakes inside one egg each, their heads poking out into the heat of the day, but that wasn't so. Each head was attached to one body, gathered into one giant tail and covered in the placenta and yolk they incubated in. It was a waking nightmare and not because Pascale had a phobia of snakes—she probably would after this, if she lived to see the next minute or so—but because these things were colossal for just outta the egg babies. They outdid the cat faunus in height and she had heels on. What made this situation worse, though it was a miracle of life... or did these things count as being alive if they had no souls? That wasn't a question she should be asking, at the moment. What made this situation worse was the fact that each, after thoroughly shedding their giant shells, locked eyes on what would be one of their sources of food. It was either they all stampede right that instant or die of starvation.

That was a very unlikely wish...

---

F-6 — Run For Your God Damn Life
—♫♪ Celui Qui Fuit de Bonne Heure Peut Combattre Derechef ♫♪—

---

Hauling ass was the only logical thing to do and Pascale hauled her ass until she could feel her lungs disintegrating. She kept the sprint up. Under her breath she uttered every curse ever imaginable; she could taste the soap her foster father would have shoved into her mouth. Sweat matted her once perfectly windswept hair, turning the stark white into a sterling silver. Her eyes darted back and forth, looking for feasible escape plans and to determine whether or not those things were catching up to her. The hisses and natal cries told her, 'Yes, and they're closer than you think.' She couldn't possibly go any faster, but Pascale willed herself to, the boots that crunched the ground beneath her propelled her forward in blazing shots. Careening her head to the side, a glimpse of a very serpentine head caught her gaze.

Why in the hell were these things so fast?

Heart racing, ears filling with blood, adrenaline bursting. It was all happening and she felt as if she could keel over any moment, vomit her breakfast on the forest floor, and simply die of overexertion. That wasn't an option though and it would never be. She was getting out of this alive—hell, it had only been, at the most, ten minutes before she was unfortunate enough to stumble upon a giant nest of giant... things. What was her life coming to? This wasn't happening. This wasn't happening. She just wanted to squeeze her eyes shut and make it all go away. No, no, she was panicking now. Deep breaths. Deep, deep breaths. Okay. All good. Just... just keeping going straight and she'd find something—some way to get those things as far away as possible from her.

"No... no, no, no, noooooo," she pleaded.

Not far from her, half a mile or so, but within seeing distance, there was a tiny figure just standing there. No, she was walking. That wasn't possible, though, 'cause her W.A.T.C.H would have alerted her that another Freshman Hunter was near her.

Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep...

"Oh, fuck my life. Just kill me now," she gasped, picking up her pace now. There was no chance of alerting the girl in time—she was so damn small. Pascale had one course of action now... or two, actually: let her die or grab her and run like hell. The former wasn't going to happen, not while Pascale was still alive and kicking. So, she bent forward, and arm ready as she jumped, flipped, and ambled fiercely through the forest. In one short burst from both of her shoes, Pascale jolted forward, outstretched in her jump, snatched the girl in a hard thump, and flipped back onto her feet. She didn't wait for any protests or explanations; Pascale broke into a faster sprint, her boots shooting her forward once again and just as one of the baby things snapped at her ankle.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," she repeated, veering diagonally in hopes of disorienting the baby Grimm. At the moment, it was hopeless, they would continue until she wore herself out and now she had dragged another person into all this hot mess. This was turning out to be a very, very terrible test day, but she doubted this wasn't unusual. What she doubted was that not many people actually made it out of all of this alive. But, she couldn't have any thoughts like that poisoning her mind, though she was finding herself a lot tireder and her feet began to ache as they pounded into the ground below her. The girl in her arms significantly slowed her down and by significantly, she meant that those things were starting to viciously assert their dominance and attempt to snatch her right out of the damn air. It was a stampede of slithering Grimm who didn't seem to experience the same fatigue that was slowly overtaking her.

A large, black branch hammered into the ground, picking up dust as it pierced the forest floor with incredible force. Pascale flipped over, crying out as another branch nicked her side mid-flip. Nearly losing balance, Pascale stopped in place, looking around her frantically. The hissing grew to a mind numbing pierce and she would have keeled and let everything just over take her if not for the girl still in her arms. Pascale whipped forward, nearly tripping on the snapping jaws of the baby Grimm that she kicked into the ground to propel her up and forward. Branches, gigantic branches, fell like anvils onto the ground beneath her, aiming particularly in her area. They were aimed, which meant that—Pascale looked up, barely dodging the flying serpent and branch all together, felling the force and friction once again slice into her, deeper this time, in the arm that held the girl. She cried out, almost crumpling to the ground, but continued in her sprint. The giant spears were relentless, but did more harm to the stampede of giant, serpentine Grimm than they did to her.

In her acrobatics, Pascale could very well tell where those branches were coming from. They were more direct, coordinated now that they knew what was happening. The trees before her groaned, lashing out at the Grimm that marked her as prey. These selfish beings wanted her and the girl in her arms purely for themselves and they made that known. Their branches still lashed out at her, but were now less concentrated. They made swathes in the giant cloud of baby Grimm as if they were slicing and tearing apart pieces of bread. It wasn't until she was half-way through did they feel they were able to fiercely target her. They threw the bodies of the dead hydras at her like boulders. She not only had to take care of the girl in her arms, but she had to dodge both branches and dead bodies.

But the end of it seemed so damn close, so near. She heard the hissing still, the rumbling of bodies and branches hitting the ground, but it all seemed more muffled. Sweat drenched her body, wanting nothing more than to give out and let her die. And she would have let herself, if she didn't remember the body in her arms. Pascale continued pushing, jumping over another branch that sliced deeper into her leg. She fell forward slightly, her knees nearly buckling under her weight and blood painting the ground in a deep crimson. That was an opening for the living trees and they took advantage of it. Pascale cursed, head shooting up to see the multitude of branches racing toward her. In one last burst, the boots charging for a mere second before catapulting Pascale forward, as far as they possibly could. She tumbled forward, down a seemingly steep heel, falling unconscious almost immediately after hitting the ground. She let go of the girl midway down, satisfied that she had at least saved her. Dirt coated her as she slid and rolled, most of her body now caked in blood, sweat, and grim.

The rest was simply black, after that.

Orion Armstrong

---

Listening to Arara gave him a moment of slight pause. This woman was very radically different to any other he’d met: if only because of her intensity and the way she controlled every word she said with a cunning and forethought that baffled the Bear-hunter. He had gone for a more monosyllabic approach, only because there seemed like very little else that needed saying. “Well, mission directive is pretty clear: fine partner, link devices…” he lifted up his left wrist, showing the glowing W.A.T.C.H which had a little readout of himself taking up half the screed, with the other half showing a small map of the immediate area which seemed to place them in relative solitude. “…and then find a cache.”

Orion stabbed his Polearm into the ground as he used his right hand to start tinkering with the WATCH. His first instinct was to try and figure out how to link the W.A.T.C.H.s, but something else was starting to annoy him. The device was still struggling to normalise his aura readings: The device registered that he had donned an aura shield, and had a bright green display representing that’s presumed level of structural integrity, but the device itself had yet to fully register his full aura capacity: most likely due to both the high levels of it and the lack of control. He was likely being wasteful with the resource of the soul.

“Still, I seem to have been lucky today. I’ve gotten someone who seems powerful and can tell me when I’m wearing the wrong clothes.” He offered a little smile at the joke: reflecting the little moment of conversation they’d shared yesterday. The remark on her strength was mostly true: she had the air about her of someone confident in their own strength. Most of the time, you could tell the difference between someone who was arrogant about their strength and someone who was confident in it: although he’d been wrong a couple times before. He hoped he wasn’t though, it would make the next few years much harder.

“I think I saw something in the lake, as I was…crossing over. About midway across the lake I saw something shiny: might be worth checking out, after we link these watches.”

---

Isaac Markeel

---

Isaac had arrived quickly enough upon the scene of his partner-to-be’s first bout, and was…interested to see the results of a very one sided engagement. His future associate had made a fine mess of things, with carapaces with holes in them and Myrmidons with their heads split open and, weirdest of all: his partner standing mostly untouched with one of the bugs grabbed by the throat. He waited for the man to deliver the finishing blow, but instead the stranger was…talking to it?

A moment of anger overtook him. Isaac jumped onto the scene of carnage silently, and simply stalked towards the man. He was about twenty feet away from the psychopath when he began to shout: asking about the cache’s location. Isaac couldn’t take any more stupidity and swung his right hand around. The WALTER unit started to move and in an instant, five bayonets suddenly buried to the hilt inside the right side of the Myrmidon’s corpse, one having gone through the eye and the other four having landed between whatever joints there were in the carapace.

“Are you an idiot?”

Not the best way to start a four year contract of cooperation, to be sure; but Isaac was furious. For some reason, this baboon had discarded every single theoretical combat lesson that he should have ever been taught. He may not have shared Isaac’s more elite training regimen, but even a place like Signal should have taught the basics.

“You are an aspiring hunter for fuck sake: you don’t talk to prey, you don’t rationalise the actions of prey and you certainly don’t let prey live. Act like you’re the top of the food chain or become a victim of it.” He was aping the words of his father: remembering the calm rage Isaac had suffered when he had made the mistake of getting cocky after felling a few Ursa and taunting them.

He yanked his right hand back and suddenly the five wires holding his bayonets were pulled back and retracting, sending flickers of crimson to the right of Rygar and drawing the blades to Isaac’s side. The other five bayonets were still planted at the top of the Cliffside above Rygar’s battlefield, having been the blades he’d used to climb down the Cliffside.

“Your shouting probably attracted more Grimm…What is your name?” He said, as nonchalantly as a man might ask the time.

Rygar's interrogation was cut short when someone came in, killing the myrmidon. Some dude who fought with what looked to be small grappling-hooks of some sort. He began to yell at Rygar for "Talking" and "rationalize" his prey; Rygar didn't think so. "You mad bro?" Rygar grinned as the stranger seemed to get more and more irritated. He seemed like a stuffy type, but if Rygar remembered right, now the two would be partners. With all the Myrmidons nearby dead, Rygar didn't have much reason to stick around. Tossing the corpse off the cliff, and scoped the area for a place that looked like it would have a cache. "Myrmidon's travel in small groups. Seemed like I found these guys scavenging things for their nest. Rocks and such. Lot's of loose stone around, so wherever the nest is must be built pretty tight. Obviously it'll be in the mountains, but if I had to guess, it's over towards the east side." Rygar stood near the top and examined the trail. It was pretty loose in terms of evidence, but it made sense to him. Rygar put his hand to his chin as he tried to make sense of his observations. "Quarries of loose stone get more bare towards the east. So I'm guessing that these Myrmidons have been picking out the rocks and stacking them back at their nest for a while now. They probably don't cut into the rock itself cause they need the natural defenses, but they're smart enough to make use of any loose material they can get their grubby pincers on."

Rygar hopped off the high point and onto more solid ground. He looked over to the angry stranger and just smirked. "Climbing these mountains is going to be real tough if ya gunna have a stick up yer ass the whole way through. But if that's what you are, that's what you are, neh? I'm heading eastward, see maybe if there anything over there to get. Maybe I'll find the rest of the team while I'm at it." Rygar waved goodbye to the stranger as he headed off towards the east, climbing through the mountains and careful to spot for more grimm.

Location: A6 Moving South-East towards A7