"Huh... Well, this is certainly something", he sighed, looking around at the swamp. There would definitely be Grimm hiding in there somewhere, and most of the options seemed to be wading through it. He didn't want to do that.

"I can get through this fine if I just have my semblance go on ahead while I wait for it to reach somewhere safe, but how about you? Doesn't look like freezing will last on this", he commented, speaking to the Faunus. What even was in this water? Didn't look like just mud... Maybe that was a clue? Who knows. This was not a fun place to be, and the sooner he was past this the better.

With the remaining Ursa busy and him away from the pack of Beowulfs, Julio was able to enter the final leg of the Gauntlet. Ahead of him stretched blackened charcoal ground with hot red veins running through it, forming rivers and lagoons that popped up across the bleak landscape. A brimstone course, and one not devoid of Grimm to boot, he could spot some hiding amidst the darkened mounds. But at the end of it all, he could see it, the exit, a shining star glimmering to mark it. The man in the high hat was nowhere to be seen, possibly having used his semblance again. For now, it was all down to him.

"I might have a bit of an alternative." The Faunus mentioned, opening his crossbow and replacing the bolts into the quiver at his hip. Asher could spy his hands shaking a bit... it made sense, the Faunus was easily under 5 ft tall, if he went under the muddy surface, he wouldn't be coming back up. He replaced some new bolts into his quiver and fired four shots into the mud. The bolts struck and formed earthy platforms in the mud, unstable and flat. "It's better than nothing... they won't last long with weight on them."

"I guess we'll just plan our route then. We'll go one at a time, and we'll be quick about it, should be no problem then", he suggested. He then let the faunus go first, as he can simply use his clone to get across if something went wrong, but as soon as they were across, he made his own way too, a spring in his step with each one. It was planned, since the fox Faunus with the lighter and faster steps would not disturb these platforms as much as he would. His light yet powerful steps were more suited for combat than an obstacle course.

After this, it was rinse and repeat until something happened, or they were across. Asher kept an eye out for Grimm, it was reasonable to believe they were just waiting for the right chance, and he had no way of knowing what counted as a "chance" to them.

Julio looked over at the field before him. It didn't seem too safe to step on the ground, what with the heat permeating from the ground. That would certainly hurt. But he couldn't exactly climb up to something and jump from there. Not only was there nothing to climb up on, but he certainly couldn't clear it with only one jump, even with his Faunus status. As long as he didn't step on the red veins, it looks like he'll be fine. However, that wasn't his only problem. There was the matter of Grimm waiting there. Julio sighed and looked around again. The invisible fella with the top hat isn't here anymore. Had he proceeded forward or was he waiting here?

He then looked back to see if anyone else would be joining him. None yet. And considering that they all started in a rough first meeting, what with all the fighting, he doubted a lot of people would want to team up with him. This was going to be dangerous. Very dangerous. But he had no choice. Taking a gravity dust crystal, his tail wrapped gingerly around him. Oh boy, he never tried this before. Okay, maybe he did, but he never did get a lot of practice.

This was an experience he might enjoy. Or ultimately fail from. He took a running start and jumped across one red vein and activated the gravity dust crystal. Once he landed, he would jump forward again. He would repeat that over and over until he got to the other side. He would keep his gun forward so he would be prepared for the inevitable attack of the Grimm.

"Right." The Faunus and went on ahead. He was indeed the lighter and nimbler of the two, hopping on the platforms and causing them to only slightly wobble in the mud as he made it across to a grassy tussock, risen in the thick sludge below them, quickly using his crossbow and earth bolts to set out another path for them. "They should still hold! Come ov-" The Faunus didn't finish his sentence as from the fetid marsh around them, something lashed out. A long straight red tendril with a bulbous end suddenly wrapped around the Faunus' leg. Before he could even yelp in surprise, it dragged him off to the right and into a darker area of the swamp. His platforms still remained however... so whether Asher went to save him or just went on without him, was his choice.

From his behind, Julio could see the girl in the flowery dress was catching up, still wielding her fan blades in sweeping movements, surprisingly nimble. With the usage of the dust crystal, he narrowly avoided a swipe from a Beowulf down below and for the most part, thanks to the lava, the Grimm left him alone. That, however soon changed. From the lava vein he was leaping toward, something emerged from it. It looked like a Grimm, most similarly to a King Taijitsu... but, it was unique. It had strange orange and yellow spines growing out of its back and its entire body was wreathed in flames as it rose to full height, eyes locked on him. He was jumping right into it. If he didn't act fast, they'd collide.

Wow, this was working almost too well. The Grimm left him alone because they couldn't touch the lava. The girl leader from before had been catching up. To be honest, he was quite interested on what she would do to travel through this. However, his luck soon changed when something emerged from a lava vein. It was a new sort of Grimm, first time he's ever seen one like this. Ah, but he shouldn't think about that right now. He was about the collide right into it. He was more worried about the fire in its entire body than the Grimm itself. That would hurt a lot.

Deactivating the dust crystal would only make him fall onto the hot ground below. While it wouldn't be as bad as stepping on lava, it would still make him have the need to constantly move. He pointed his gun towards the Grimm, shooting out ice dust filled bullets both to try and injure the Fire King Taijitu and to use the force from the gun to stop him from his collision course with it. He would then shoot regular bullets to his right to change his flight direction to his left. Hopefully this would work. If not, then he would be in a world of hurt. And if that Grimm attacked...

Well, here's to hoping he can react fast enough or some of the others would help him.

[colour=orange]"Hey watch your... Self"[/color], as his warning came too late, the Faunus was dragged into the what seemed to be the deep end. Asher wasn't about to let someone meet their end right in front of him, so he leapt up above and right after the fox Faunus, leaving behind his clone standing on safer ground. Hitting the switches on his sheath a few times, he switched the equip into Air Dust, and slashed the area in front of him, a wave of wind cutting through the thick swamp, although not revealing too much, was enough to uncover the Faunus, before he appended a second slash, slicing away the tendrils that held him, giving him a chance to escape, doing all of this in a single motion as his blade was sheathed again. As he was beginning to land, he suddenly switched out with a shadowy embered clone, which disappeared as he dismissed it, teleporting back to safe ground.

"I honestly don't think that Grimm is going to let us go like that", he commented, keeping at the ready. It was likely going to emerge from the swamp very soon.

The ice shot struck the flaming Taijitsu in the mouth and staggered it long enough that changing his trajectory with the bullets worked. He was on the ground beside it, but the creature wasn't going to let him escape that easily. It reared back and shot its head forward, opening it's mouth to unleash a roaring tongue of fire upon him, the ice bullet having quickly melted against its blazing body.

As Asher went after the Faunus, his slashes cleared the fog enough for him to see exactly what had grabbed him. And when he saw it, he realised that the thing that grabbed the Faunus was not a tendril, but a tongue. He could see it perched on a grassy tussock. A large froglike creature, white mask over its face and underbelly. The Faunus was currently hanging out of its mouth, stuck up to his stomach in its jaws. Toadeyes, as they were called, were Grimm mostly found in Mistral and had a tendency to devour hunters with their strong tongues as aide. Worse still, they were agile. As his second slash careened toward the Toadeye, it leapt from its perch to another on its left. It opened its mouth and above the Faunus, its tongue shot out, headed straight for Asher with painful intent.

Julio breathed a sigh of relief as he managed to land beside the creature and not directly on it. He could see the shining star. But he couldn't think of a way there before the Grimm locked onto him again and then prepared an attack. He only had a moment to decide what he should do and seeing the raging inferno in that Grimm's mouth didn't help with his thought process. He shook his head before jumping away from the fire breath and towards the shining star gate. But instead of just moving forward, he turned back at the Fire King Taijitu and then started to rapidly fire at it with bullets embedded with ice-dust.

Seriously, close-ranged one on one fight is not ideal for someone like him.

Asher darted out of the way of the tongue attack, while he summoned a clone above himself. As it began to dash down the toad's tongue, and then leap as soon as it retracted it, Asher switched places with it mid-flight in a smooth transition as he came down upon the toad Grimm. He needed to slow the oversized toad down, hoping Grimm physiology was something like real animals, he switched to ice and drew a mighty slash, summoning an arc of thick icy wind, covering its face, and the slash itself being short of striking. The icy wind should at least make it falter at minimal, the objective right now was to either find a more advantageous spot to fight it, or find a way to run from it. The fox Faunus should not be so helpless as he is, considering he should have a chance to slip out when the toad opened its mouth to attack.

The flaming taijitsu slithered out of its hot lava bed and followed him, its mere slithering left a trail of fire in its wake as it followed him. His bullets made it flinch occasionally, but otherwise the creature shrugged them off admirably. It was getting close, it'd be on him any second. But before he acted, he could see the girl in the flowery dress behind him. She was frantically gesturing to the left, like she wanted him to move.

The toad's tongue retracted as Asher pulled off his trick. The icy wind blanketed the Toadeye's face and effectively covered its eyes for the time being, but the frog didn't need its sight to remember where Asher was. As he was in mid flight, the Toadeye leaped up into an effective headbutt in mid air, using its arcing leap to move to new ground. Thankfully, the ice over its face had given the fox to dig his crossbow into the ground and free himself, his bottom half coated in slimy residue. He was up at least and could provide assistance once again.

Julio clicked his tongue as he noticed that his bullets had little to no effect to the flaming Taijitu. Well, that was understandable. It would have a lot more effect if he was working in tandem with another person, or maybe two. Before he even attempted to jump away before the Taijitu attacked him, he saw the girl in the flowery dress. She was gesturing frantically. The monkey Faunus nodded and then indeed ran to the left, gravity dust deactivated as he did so, effectively moving out of the way of the Taijitu and whatever the girl had in plan.

Asher could just barely defend himself as he pulled his sheath in front of him and braced himself as he saw the frog's body language. As expected it hit hard and sent him flying far into the air, mid-flight he let his clone out to charge the frog down while it was still affected by the ice. Thankfully the fox faunus was now free, which meant hopefully some more assistance. As he landed and his clone was locked in combat to keep the toad occupied at least for awhile, he stepped over to the fox.

"I sure hope you have more tricks than dust bolts and getting eaten, because now would be a great time to think about how to use them", he commented, swinging his now sheathed blade over his shoulder.

Once he sidestepped, the flowery girl enacted her plan. He saw two flashing bolts of silver fly through the air and connect with the snake's neck, cutting it hard before her fan blades returned to her hands. She followed up by rushing the creature, it's attention now on her as it prepared another tongue of fire. But as it let loose its blazing breath, the girl began to glow a light yellow as her semblance went off. She split into three copies of herself, each moving in sync with one another as they surrounded the snake and leapt around it in graceful bounds, their blades cutting into its neck in a perfect circle, cutting into the dark Grimm flesh and making it thinner and thinner as the attention of the Taijitsu was too split to respond.
"Now! Shoot it hard!" The girl called over to him. One well placed shot from Julio could effectively decapitate the creature now.

The Toadeye was surprisingly efficient in combat with the clone, using its tongue akin to a rapier, shooting it out of its mouth to jab at the clone's guard and even blocking his sword strikes. The fox got to his feet and grumbled as he flecked slime off of his jeans.
"Thanks for the assist... sorry." he looked away a moment, his fox ears faltering before he refocused. "Toadeye's have weak underbellies. If we can force it to jump and get underneath where it's going to land... that's an ideal moment to strike."

Impressed. Surprised. Astounded. There were many words to describe what Julio was feeling right now, but none he could say out loud. The way the girl moved was elegant and precise. Her semblance wasn't something to frown at either. Before she could say anything, he was already prepared to gun the Taijitu down. Lightning dust was inserted into the chamber and the rifle was back into sniper-mode. Looking into the scope, he aimed at the thinned neck of the Tajitu and shot two bullets, just to be sure.

"I see, alright then, just cover me, use fire dust", he ordered, before charging back into the fight, his clone running around the side to flank it while he charged the front. Although he strafed around before charging, allowing his clone to get close while he occupied it with himself, but as soon as his clone was right by it, he switched places, and with little waiting he unleashed a wide arc of flame around it's feet, any stray bolt from the fox faunus should hit the grassy tussock too, the aim was to get it to burn, and force the toad to jump, Asher's semblance clone along the outside, ready to move to wherever Asher needed to be at a moment's notice.

Whatever connection was keeping the flaming Taijitsu's head on its shoulders, it was severed when those two shots hit home. The head was ripped off the neck by the force, flung through the air and landing upon the blackened charcoal ground as the body slumped beside it. The girl in the flowery dress touched down in front of the creature and briefly fanned herself with one of her fan blades. When she was done, she casted her eyes toward Julio and smiled.
"Thank you dear. Now come, we have an exam to finish."

"You got it!" The Faunus nodded, loading his crossbow with the right bolts. The Toadeye was still blind from the ice, thankfully, so when Asher's clone came close, the Toadeye let out a wide swing with its tongue to hit as much ground as possible, missing in the process. The fire burned up the fresh grass on the tussock, plus the bolts from the Faunus' crossbow started to get the Grimm hot under the collar. Finally, it was forced to jump, soaring into the air into prime position.

Julio sighed in relief as the two shots severed the Taijitu's head. He then placed the head of the gun onto his shoulder. He then looked at the girl who helped her. "No, thank you. Alright, let's go." He then walked towards her and then aimed the barrel of his rifle towards her. "Trust me on this alright? Jump towards the shining star." The dust chamber revolved to gravity dust and, if the girl follows his order, he would shoot the gravity dust to propel her forward. If she refuses, well, he wouldn't shoot anything.

After that, he would activate his own gravity dust crystal and then jumped towards the shining star as well, to avoid the hot ground and the Grimm, just like what he did earlier.

There goes the toad, but just as needed. With no hesitation he and his clone kept close enough to it as it soared through the air, and the moment it's leap turned into a fall, it became easy to ascertain its landing zone. He thrust his blade into its sheath. Once again the fox faunus would bear witness to what slew the deathstalker earlier like it was a simple matter, although he would notice that this time the blade was a bit thinner. Asher's aura reserves were beginning to wear thin after all but he had enough in him for one more of these after this one.

As the clone was in position, he began to fade as he and his clone switched places, putting him under the toad's landing zone, as his blade was fully formed, sheath opening up to become merely a component of this new and larger laser blade. With a mighty kick he leaped high into the air, flying up past the toad as he spun, slicing the toad clean as he passed by it, and as naturally as he did so, the blade would revert to its normal form immediately after the slash.

He hoped this would be enough to slay it, if not, then they can just leave it behind, as regardless, his strike should have done considerable damage.

Curiously, when Asher landed, he heard the Toadeye land behind him as well... seemingly intact. For about 3 seconds. After that, it's front and back suddenly peeled away from one another and rolled into the mud of the swamp, sinking in and vanishing from sight. Their foe was dead and thankfully, no further Grimm seemed to be troubling them.
"Just as cool as the first time!" the fox chimed in, grinning from ear to ear.

"Of course, dear." The girl nodded, seemingly familiar with gravity dust. When the shot hit her, she leapt forward and even used her fans akin to wings to help steer herself and glide across the blackened ground, toward the shining star above the exit. They were so close now, the opened doorway beckoned unto them.