"How about two?"

And explosion engulfed one part of the beowolf pack, blasting them to parts. Standing in the smoldering crater where they once stood was none other than Rygar, who was coughing from the dirt he kicked up from his attack. He walked out of the crater waving the dust out of his face, inciting confused stares from some of the grimm. He used the confusion to throw the Spiral Edge into the body of the nearest one, cleaving the monster in two before retracting his shield. The Boewolves snarled as Rygar got himself ready for another fight. Two dashed at him strait on, but he also saw three others moving to flank him. He engaged the two wolves directly, activating the saw of his Spiral Edge to carve the first one, than bashed the other one away right as one of the flankers lunged. The Beowulf reached out to grab Rygar's shield as it's blades were active, causing it to cut it's own claws off. Rygar cause his shield to make an explosion, knocking the beast into a tree. The last two beasts tried to make another dash at him, but when he turned to face them they wisely backed off.

Rygar soon backed himself towards the other two hunters, though now that they were three they were still heavily outnumbered ten-to-one. The odds were in their favor, but when Rygar noticed the tornado in the distance, he began to worry. "I know it is not my place to command you two, but I'd suggest we get out of here, preferably if you follow me. I have no doubt that we can take care of these wolves, but we're no where near a cache. No need to waste energy on them when we can head towards an actual objective. What say you?"

---

The only warning Issac would hear is a sharp whistle as the rock he hid behind became many pebbles that threaten to tear the flesh off his bones. The Unicorn, meanwhile, was rampaging unaffected by it's own whirlwind, and was actually sending out blades of wind that cut through the surrounding rocks. Like Issac, it too was listening for noise of the human who dared to be living in it's territory, though it's hearing was able to block out the raging wind that still threaten to flay Issac as though he was to be served as shashimi. At the very least the Unicorn didn't notice him yet, not that it stopped the blades of wind for coming dangerously close, as well as other random flying debris that would bean Issac in the head if he didn't dodge or destroy them before impact.

---

What greeted Orion was the sound of rocks falling behind him. The path he took into the underwater cave was not shut off, and the myrmidons removed the barrier keeping the rest of the lake out of the cave. Soon Orion would have another guest; a wall of water that would swept him up and thrash him against the rocks below his feet. Though there there was zero visibility, perhaps if he could navigate with the water instead of trying to hold his ground so he could avoid fatally colliding into the many stone structures that threaten to turn him into paste. Should he follow the direction of the current he would end up getting swept into a vast underground reservoir at around B5, though not that it would have made him safe. Should he have decided to stay and fight the current he would have been assaulted by no less than seven Sirens, in an area where there was enough water for them to fight to their full efficiency. Even if he did get swept up by the current, the Sirens would soon chase after him, joined by the sirens that populate the reservoir.

Topside, Arara was left mostly alone. A few sirens did linger near the surface to see what she would do, and would attack her if she tried to enter the deep water. Otherwise they kept their distance. On her WATCH she may notice the signal for Orion and their cache quickly being taken up north underground. Some wondering beowolves and Ursas would pass by, unknown to her presence. But soon they will take notice, and would be more than willing to take a chance to attack a seemingly defenseless hunter.

Daiki laughed, before responding with a slight boast of his own. "I only need one to deal with them." He replied with a chuckle before an explosion of dirt engulfed them. It wiped the smile off his face as he sighed and before the dust and debris could reach them, spun his sheathed katana about in his hand quickly, knocking them away before they could be blinded or dirtied. When the dust had settled another student stood before them and proceeded to engage the Beowolves attacking. Daiki took that as his cue, rushing the Beowolves on Tirren's exposed side. Two charged to meet him, and he simply jumped, sailing over them as he spun his body around in mid-air and drew his blade, drawing a silver circle in the air as he sliced through the two Grimm with ease, cutting them in half as their bodies flopped uselessly onto the ground. They had only five left to deal with, including the Alpha, but Daiki had overextended himself and left too wide of a gap between him and his partner.

The remaining Grimm all rushed the wounded boy, hoping to take down the weaker opponent first. Shit. A curse was all he could think of as he used his aura to propel himself in a leap that would send him right in between two of the Beowolves. He thrust his scabbard against the ribs of the one on his left while his blade sliced through the neck of the one on his right, killing it instantly. The remaining Grimm's momentum was thrown off as Daiki drew its attention once more. The creature snarled in his direction before pouncing. Daiki only had enough time to thrust his blade before him, letting the creature impale itself on his blade. The move cost him his balance, however, as Daiki stumbled backwards and fell on his back.

It took every bit of his strength to plant his feet on the creature's belly and use the momentum of his fall to roll backwards and kick it off of him, freeing his blade in the process. He climbed to his feet just as the newest addition to their group said something about pointless battles. Daiki pointed at the glowing bleep on his WATCH, corresponding with the Alpha's position. "There is a cache here, just not where we'd expect. I'm guessing you're half of the other half of the team... where's your partner?" Daiki asked, an eyebrow disappearing beneath his fringe as he put two and two together. The abrupt landing and the absence of a partner could only mean the last man of their team had been ditched.

Not sure if I want someone like this on my team... Daiki pondered to himself as he scanned the surroundings to ensure the remaining Grimm were all they had to deal with. The prospect of a teammate who would simply up and leave for the next objective without ensuring the whole team was moving together didn't exactly thrill Daiki. Especially if he were to find himself injured in Grimm-infested territory. Deciding to keep the stranger grounded, he crooked his head towards his partner's injured leg. "He's not going anywhere fast, so unfortunately clearing the pack before us is the best course of action if we don't want to lose a teammate on our first day."

As Arara approached the island on her lilypad-construct, with intentions of circling along the shore afterwards. Unlike Orion, she wasn't going all out in terms of speed, deciding to pace herself at the moment. She'll save her effort for later, to deal with anything unexpected. After all, there was an unreasonable amount of tunnels and pathways under the island. She did not like that at all. Still too many uncertainties. If another abnormal current blew the data cache off, she'd have to be reacting. She didn't like to simply be reacting.

But a ping from her WATCH notified her that Orion was about to say something, and she activated it, listening to his message. He had obtained the cache, which was good, but then, he cut off his own message, and Arara narrowed her eyes.

There was a reason for his silence. There indeed was something underwater, a Grimm or a group of them that were preparing for an ambush after the 'bait' was taken. And then, in the background, she could hear the crumbling of rock, followed by an explosion, the sound of a whole lake's worth of water careening into the cavern Orion was in.

It was such a logical plan that she questioned whether Grimm were as mindless as she thought.

If your target is on land, and you were stronger in the water, just change the terrain into one that benefited yourself. Simply knock a hole into the wall and watch the cavern fill up.

“Orion, go with the flow! I'll meet up with you soon!”

She doubted that most of her message would have gotten through to him, but she could hope. The map was showing that he was being swept northward next, and Arara immediately turned around, clicking her tongue. Holding her spear in her left hand and clenching her right, the huntress did a quick check on her Aura reserves, spent thirty seconds making sure that the Aura she drew into her legs was utilized as effectively as possible, and then kicked off her lilypad platform.

With one bound, she covered a quarter of the length of the lake. Landing on a small Aura platform, she jumped off again. Continually building up momentum from each consecutive run, Arara was pretty much flying through the air by the time she was on her tenth jump, her Aura reserves now properly warmed up, boiling like engine oil as she poured all her focus onto speed, trusting that her White Rakshasa would protect her from any stray twigs.

Terrain-based challenges really were her weakness. She would have to work on that in the future.

Isaac Markee

---

Isaac went through every mental challenge and every piece of training he had ever undergone as he attempted to think of a strategy. Nothing would work while these winds were raging, and there was no way of knowing just how long this storm could be maintained. He had no combat data to make use of and that meant he was having to abuse pure logic in order to get the answers he desired. He’d come up with half a dozen plans and shot each one down in turn. One recurring plan kept swimming in his mind, and that plan was shelved as ‘suicidal’ every time. If he really had to resort to le…

The sound of a high pitched whistle had Isaac panicing. The change in pitch meant something was changing, and every instinct shouted at Isaac to move. He threw out the WALTER unit’s wires once again and latched onto a larger than average rock and pulled himself away from the boulder. He’d dodged once, but in the split second of being in the open he saw something quite shocking. The blades of wind were moving around at random, moving as the Unicorn bucked and snarled, looking for Isaac. He had been fortunate to be at the creature’s back this time, but if he had to keep dodging, he’d inevitably be spotted. As soon as he was spotted, he was likely dead within five minutes. If he had to use his aura to shield against any of these attacks, he would run himself dry far too quickly.

“This plan would work much better with a team. I can’t call anyone, or the beast might hear me. Are there really no fools close enough to see a side of the mountain-face sliding down the mountain?”

He tried to measure how much aura he’d need to use to break free of the tornado. The answer wasn’t pretty, and fatality was not high on Isaac’s list of things to do. He hunkered down again, crouched and listening for any sort of action that might give him a second or two to dodge the next blade of air. He was swatting aside the occasional piece of sharp debris, but it seemed luck was on his side...for now.

(My intention is to act on the actual Unicorn next post. I’m hoping that some other people will get their asses in gear.)

---

Orion Armstrong

---

Orion could only watch in shock as the exit he’d taken was sealed off. He was dealing with some sort of sentient Grimm, Grimm with Plans and Grimm who had managed to bait him in with something of obvious value. He’d never been in a situation where Grimm so effectively used their environment. Now he was left trapped in a cave, and he’d have to move through the underground passage.

“It could be worse, at least I…”

The statement was cut off by the sound of rocks shifting and water rushing into the cavern.

“Oh Come-on!” Orion was already starting to sprint in the opposite direction of the cave as water rushed inside and threatened to crush him under the tidal wave. He heard something from his wrist, although the words were all but drowned out by the torrential sound.

“Orion...go...meet...soon.” Arara’s words made him openly chuckle. If only because they seemed so obvious and if only because he had no real choice in the matter. The water was going to outrun him soon enough, and that meant he should think of his next issue. He needed to ensure he didn’t get crushed by the waves and that meant he’d have to break the surface of the water. His grip on his polearm tightened as he continued to run on. He felt aura flow around his system so cleanly and precisely. His entire body was flowing with energy as he inhaled, and exhaled.

“Activate limiter release, password is Belt.” The bracer on his arm suddenly hissed as it powered down and gave Orion access to his full semblance. What was to come would require an application of tremendous form with incredible accuracy. He turned inwardly on his heel and spun around to face the wave, Polearm gripped in both hands as he stared at the tidal wave. The theory was sound: break the water’s surface and it wouldn’t break his bones. Exactly the same as a diver leaping into a pool, except he was facing tonnes of water that were likely filled with vicious killing creatures…

Plus he wouldn’t get a gold medal for this. In fact, it was unlikely anyone would see this.

He bared his teeth at the wave, flashing his sharper-than-human teeth in a savage snarl as he counted breaths until the wave was closer, and closer and…

Orion let loose a tremendous shout of anger as he swung the polearm around in a fierce arc, cutting through the water with his such a strength that he cleaved through: the water’s surface, a small bit of the rock underneath and a single Siren that had surged forward to try and claim Orion first. It was a surprise to both Orion and to the Siren. Orion was swept up in the waves, unbroken, but unable to really resist. His movements were sluggish and he was forced to look upon the forms of several strange Grimm, human-esq in appearance but a grotesque mockery with the added features of a nautical hunter. He let the waters sweep him towards the reservoir as he jabbed the polearm threateningly at anything of the half a dozen sirens that came close. The sirens seemed content to wait, and that had Orion worrying. Either they were waiting for the situation to change in their favour, or they were waiting for Orion to start suffocating. He felt the comforting sensation of the cache in his back pocket and was at least relieved to know he hadn’t been trapped for naught thus far.

Assessing the situation, Tirren was confident that he and his partner could handle it. Hearing his parnter voice his reply with a chuckle, Tirren reponded while wearing a small grin, "Good, because I have a plan. You got to the ri---". Before he could finish he was cut off by a cloud of dust and another student emerging from the dust. The new comer asked something along the lines of how about two hands before he proceeded to kill the closest Grimm with his shield. Watching the new arrival, Tirren muttered quietly to himself, "Guess I need a new plan."

Still watching the newest arrival to the party Tirren failed to notice the charging Beowolves, until it was to late to really do much besides pool his aura for protection. However, no strike came instead his partner barreled into two of the Grimm stopping them, and slowing the others. Tirren watched as the other two Beowolves scampered back and regrouped. Taking a moment to think, he heard his partner tell the other about how he (Tirren) was too injured to run. "I'm fine," Tirren said loud enough for them to hear. It was at that moment that the two Beowolves from earlier decided to charge, following thier lead Tirren charged as well.

Spinning past the first Beowolf, Tirren leaped over the second using it's own paw as a platform to gain more air. Descending towards the second's neck he shoved blade into it. Then flipped over his rapier and placed his feet on the Grimm's back only to push off a second later with a firm grip on his weapon, ripping it free. In the air Tirren reverted Fate's Quill to quill form and opened Fate's Grimoire as he landed.

Dipping the quill in the black dust-ink on his waist he said to his partner, "I'll hold the alpha in place and you kill it, okay?" Then to the late arrvial he asked, "Think you can clean up the leftovers?" Not waiting for a reply from either he began to write. Black chains began to form held together by a teal aura, with a final stroke of the quill they wrappped around the alpha.

"Hurry this is taxing on my aura."

Rygar's smirk faded when the other guy asked about his partner. "He... I'm looking for help. We got caught by something, told me to go on ahead to set up an ambush while he distracted the grimm. But something happened. He told me to go find help, so here I am." Than, the pack attacked again. No time for conversation, Rygar jumped into action. The one with the book kept the alpha wolf still, leaving the clean up to him. Rygar's smirk returned as he revved his Spiral Edge for another assault. "Child's Play." A quick count told him that of the remaining Beowulves, there was twelve, not including the alpha. He charged towards one crowd, who were ready to meet him head on. But instead of crashing through them, Rygar jumped onto a tree and used his Semblance to scale it upwards. By the time the wolves reacted, Rygar was already falling down to them. He crushed one wolf underneath his shield, and than propelled himself up using an explosion. This knocked two beowolves into some trees, one of them presumably killed when it was impaled on a branch. Rygar landed on the survivor and cut into it's neck using Spiral Edge's saw.

Three down, nine to go. Four charged at him and managed to get a grip on him, throwing him into a tree. It stunned him long enough for two more beowolves to grab his arm and another tried to slash his body. But he wasn't about to let himself get caught so easily. Using his semblance, he switched the friction to the point that there was little to no friction between his arms and the beowolves claws, allowing him to slip out. He uppercut one of the wolves with a Spiral Edge assisted slash and used the momentum to swing his uppercut into a slam down onto the Beowolf that tried to slash him. The other two charged at him, one of them getting a hold of his shoulders. But it made the mistake of being in front of Spiral Edge, and got blasted away with a point-blank explosion. The other wolf didn't get much of a chance to react before Rygar was already on it, crushing it's muzzle with his free hand as he decapitated it with Spiral Edge's saw.

That was seven and now Rygar was getting winded. He looked at his shoulders and noticed that he had sustained some cuts from the wolves claws. But he simply spat some saliva onto a corpse as he headed towards the next seven. He ran over two with a savage charge, but the other five were more than ready to take him on. These ones were clever; when they saw Rygar coming they dodged, and made sure not to stand in front of him or his shield. And they kept moving as well, constantly circling him. They took advantage of their agility by moving through the trees, making it difficult for Rygar to simply fling the Spiral Edge at them. They were fighting his speed with their speed, so he decided to try a different tactic. He stopped. Standing in the forest, he took on his fighting stance; his towards the back, right hand forward. He saw three Beowolves and knew the other two were above him. They knew his aggressiveness and they knew that if they kept watch on him, they could avoid him. So not that he had their attention, it was time for him to be on the defensive. Him and the wolves faced off towards each other before one of them made a move. A wolf from above dropped down. Rygar only managed to catch a small snap of a branch to alert him, and his immediate reaction was to roll to the left. The other wolves reacted as well, two of them moving in for a strike while the third on the ground moved into the trees. The fourth that was hidden in the trees stayed there. The fifth was still falling to the ground when Rygar had to react. "Two wolves inbound from my nine moving to my six, wolf number five dropping in from above strait ahead. Wolf number three is moving into the trees, probably going to take the high ground. Don't know where number four is, still hiding, biding it's time likely. Let's give them a nice surprise."

When Rygar returned from his mental analysis he acted. The first thing he did was rev the blades of the Spiral Edge. Than he threw his entire body into a swing into a tree, cutting it down swiftly. With a solid backfist he knocked the tree over, where it would land above the Beowolf that was going to drop down onto him. This also put him in a good positions to face wolf number one and two, who were just about to lunge at him. The first wolf came in with it's teeth bared and claws outward. Rygar lowered his stance and barely missed getting his face bitten off. Once the wolf was over him he punched upwards with the Spiral Edge and dug his blades into the beast's chest. Than he detracted the Spiral Edge and went to face the other Beowolf with nothing but his barehands. Perhaps surprising the wolf, Rygar dashed to it's right shoulder. Using his left arm to lock up the beowolf's right right leg, Rygar elbowed the beast in the head. Sliding his arm down he used an open palm strike right underneath the wolf's chin and closed it's mouth. He than swept the beowolf's feet from under it's legs, slamming the beast into the ground. In another quick movement, as time was running out, the tables turned as Rygar used his own teeth to tear into the beowolf's neck. It's meat was tasteless and bitter, but Rygar continued to bite and tear until his face was mattered with the beowolf's blood. He had to stop soon however, when he saw from the corner of his eyes, the other two wolves charging towards one of the other hunters from the tree tops. Grabbing the Spiral Edge he chased after, hopping to intercept them before they harmed his possible allies.

---

The flow of water continued to take Orion northward, where the Siren's could trap him in their hunter grounds. They had hoped that he get his bashed against the stone during the initial wave, but they were patient creatures. The wait made the reward more tantalizing. Soon Orion would hear the sounds of a water fall, though unless he had nightvision he wouldn't see it coming. Additionally, there was another hazard: at the bottom of the water fall was a formation of stone that would impale and kill Orion if he landed on them in his current state. The Sirens knew of them and knew how to avoid them, as they were banking on the Orion to fall to their trap as well. Even if he were to somehow survive, he would still be inside a deep underwater lake and the hunting grounds of the Sirens; the closest solid piece of land being a few rocky formations that stood over the water. And to top it off, they had heard Arara. "Orion..." Her voice echoed in the underground, and soon the Sirens would begin to use it.

---

Issac would have to wait what felt like hours before the whirlwind eventually dissipated, leaving the area changed greatly. The area looked more like a pit than a mountainside, but at leas the Unicorn was gone. Or perhaps it was merely... Watching. Waiting. It was playing games with Issac, and it was planning on winning.

Addica & Oliver
Location: Under the ground somewhere near A5

Oliver heard a commotion, opening his eyes and looking to the forest. His jaw dropped, and his eyebrow wriggled in a very confused manner, as the orange light emanating from the rock behind him quickly disappeared back into his gem. It was what looked like a student riding a...big snake thing, Oliver couldn't remember the name. Kong Taijitsu, or something... he thought, his mind trailing off for a second before snapping back to the current situation. Whatever it was, it was heading right for him.

Addica could feel the Taijitu beneath him, straining against the makeshift bit and bridle that was Addica's weapon. The more the Taijitu strained, the more Addica could feel the pain in his shoulder. As the Taijitu began to beat itself against the cliff face, Addica realized he couldn't hold on for much longer. A plan quickly began to formulate in his mind, but the details were made murkier by the severity of the pain that was spreading across his shoulder. The Taijitu slammed itself against the cliff once more, Addica had the Reisszahne release a large amount of electricity into the Taijitu, hoping the shock would momentarily stun it. As the electricity was released Addica jumped from his spot on the back of the Taijitu onto the cliff, at the same time relinquishing his weapons hold on the snake. Reeling in the cables as he fell towards the cliff Addica smacked against the cliff face, the air being knocked from his lungs. With the Reisszahne still retracting the cables, he had to rely on his hands to find a grip. Once he was comfortable, or at least fairly certain that he wasn't going to fall, Addica called out to the fellow student, "HEY! I've stunned the thing bu...."

Oliver struggled and wormed around frantically, trying to pull free as quickly as he could, while the Taijitu hissed in pained and veered towards Oliver's right. *SLAM* *SLAM*. Cracks appeared around Oliver's imprint, as pebbles shook and fell from top of the rock face. He froze, as the rock had shifted a bit more than he wanted. He peered to the right as the snake reared once more, slamming the rock from the top, bringing more cracks around Ollie's spot. The rock tilted forward, while Oliver tugged and pulled at his restraint, struggling even more. The rock tilted more, and more, teetering just before...tipping forward, and falling to the ground. Ollie didn't make a sound as the rock fell to the ground, he didn't scream as the rock neared the ground and smashed on the mountainside. Kicking up a huge dust cloud and sending huge chunks rolling into the forest, the rock only left a huge imprint in the now cracked ground..

As Addica called out he noticed that during his dismount a large chunk of the cliff face had fallen away. Assuming his would be partner was in the ruins Addica began to panic. The prospect of dealing with the Taijitu by himself well also attempting a rescue was not an idea that tickled Addica's fancy in the slightest. Thoughts were racing through Addica's head but one kept finding it's way to the surface "What if the other student is dead because of me?".

"Dude, you alright?" came a voice from above Addica.

Addica looked up to see a dark haired student gripping the side of the cliff with one foot and hand. "That was close," he sighed, shaking his head before looking back at Addica. He smirked, saying, "Hey, buddy, hope you didn't think I-NYOHMYCHEESEY BITS!" he said, quickly yelling as the Taijitu launched for him. Apparently his calling out attracted more than Addica's attention, as the Taijitu had, for the moment, shifted its attention. Oliver kicked up while still gripping the cliff face, so he'd turned upside down above the Taijitu before it sunk it's fangs in the rock. Oliver glanced up to see another huge rock above them, looking back to Addica. "Sparky, I think we'll have introductions later, mind keeping this one busy for, like, five seconds? I gotta cunning plan..." Oliver shouted, smirking slightly before resuming his dodging of the beast's attacks. He jumped and danced on the cliff face as the Taijitu lunged, carving long marks into the rocky part of the mountain.

Giving a curt nod and a smile Addica quickly sprung into action. In his momentary reverie of thought, Reisszahne had fully retracted and they, as well as him, were once again combat ready. Launching himself from the cliff face, he shot his right Fang into the snout of the snake. Using it as an anchor, he swung underneath of it and continued his swing till he, once again, found himself on the snake's black head. Unsheathing his actual sword, Addica began to shout catcalls at the white head hoping to draw it's attention as well. The catcalls worked surprisingly well, as the white head seemed to decide that it was its duty in life to rid the black one of the pest that Addica had become. Dancing atop the black snake's head, Addica parried the snake's attempts at biting and dislodging him, using the sword for defense and the Fang in the black head as an anchor.

Oliver took the chance to scale the mountain, expertly finding handholds and footholds as he went higher and higher. He hopped up when he reached the large rock at the top, peeking down to check on Addica. Oliver chuckled to himself, but knew it was still a serious situation, so he set to work quickly. He rushed to the other side of the rock, pitting his shoulder against the base. He placed his right hand on the bottom, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath. Okay, just absorb the bottom front part, like a triangle, and the rock should be easy enough to push. Easy peasy lemon squashy...er, squeezy. Oliver thought, shaking away a bad image of his newfound friend being smashed by the falling rock. He focused, as an orange light seeped out into the rock, filling in part of the lower front of the huge stone. Oliver began pushing, and shouted, "Sparky! Look out for a special delivery, air mail!!" as loud as he could, as the lit part of the rock quickly faded. The rock looked like it had been freshly cut, like a butter after a hot knife, and stayed upright for a second. Then, after Oliver pushed as hard he could, it tipped, tipped, tipped...and fell over, rolling down the steep cliff face. It bounced around a few times off the wall as it fell, but still headed straight for Addica and the two headed beast.

Addica looked up as he heard his new friend shout a warning, as he saw the boulder begin it's tumble down the cliff he couldn't help but chuckle. "Quick thinking on his part, glad he's so resourceful," Addica thought to himself as he mentally sent the signal to the Fang in the black head to release. As the Fang released, Addica used the bucking of the Taijitu to launch him away from the cliff. Finding himself sailing through the air ,for what would hopefully be the last time during the exam, he lined up a shot with the cliff face closer to his soon-to-be-partner. Launching the Fang into the cliff, Addica let himself continue to fall for another half a second, in order to make sure he avoid any nasty collisions with a giant piece of falling earth. After Addica's weapon made contact with the cliff, he reeled himself in, ending up hanging from the cliff and only a few meters from Oliver. Taking a cursory glance towards the ground, he saw what remained of the boulder and Taijitu. Both heads were unmoving, with purple blood leaking from the impact, and much of their body covered in rocky debris. The majority of the rock was whole, sitting atop the new corpse, almost triumphant. Looking back up at his fellow student Addica smiled as he began to speak "You now despite the bad times at the beginning and the very end, that snake made quite a fine ride. I'm Addica by the way,". He added the last sentence more as an after thought then a proper introduction.

Oliver replied, "I'm Oliver, nice to meet'cha, Addie," offering a hand to help him up. He added, with a chuckle, "And, yeah, though the ride didn't last too long. Guess two heads aren't better than one when they're on the same body," as Addica winced while Oliver pulled him up. "Ooh, bad joke or bad arm?" Ollie asked, dusting himself off when Addica was up on the cliff with him.

"Bad arm, I injured my shoulder something fierce on the landing from the deathtrap that the Headmaster called transportation," Addica paused for a second looking around the cliff that the boys had ended up on. After looking around Addica resumed speaking "Though I could've probably had the pain completely soaked by now if it wasn't for King Giant-Two-Headed-Snake."

"Oof, yeah, that'll do it," Oliver said, shrugging. "'Course, I had fun on the way down, the landing was a different story. But, hey, I always like making a good impression, even if it's in a rockface," he said with a grin, reusing the joke from before, now that he had an audience. "But, let me see this a sec..." he said, before walking up and tenderly lifting up Addica's arm. He pressed around the shoulder, gauging himself from Addica's winces. "Alrighty, think I can fix this, looks like it's from a dislocation that went in wrong. You see it all the time with early contortionists and acrobats, you're gonna feel a pop, then some pain. Then what feels like a snap, but isn't, and then a lot more pain. Then a click, and you should be right as rain," he told Addica, waiting for a nod of approval. After a sharp intake of breath, Addica nodded slowly, as Oliver slowly aligned his arm. He kept a palm at the shoulder, and the other holding up the elbow.

POP

"AH, god you wer--"

SNAP

"Mother fu---"

...click...

"-sigh- well that feels better, thanks for that"

With his shoulder not radiating a constant amount of pain, Addica could relax a little. Taking a look at his watch, Addica noted that he had used quite a bit of his aura keeping the pain down, and even more of his dust reserves fighting the snake. Looking at his watch, Headmaster Tower's speech came back to him, "Hey Ollie, this makes us partners right? I mean I honestly wasn't really listening when Tower gave his speech thingy but we are partners now... right?" Thinking to himself, he re-examined the mental checklist he had developed from the Headmaster's speech. Or rather, the parts he caught, "Land/Don't die. Check, so far. Partner. Another check at least I think.... and now something about a catching something..." Drawing a blank on the next step, he was about to ask Oliver, when he noticed his watch doing something.

His watch began to beep, seemingly syncing up with Ollie's, with both of their names showing up on the screen. Then fading out, as their initials shifted to form the words "TEAM HALO". The screen then shifted back to the normal view except now there was a slot for Oliver and two blank spots lower down.

"Huh, guess we are partners. And look at that, we got a pretty sweet name too," Addica mused aloud, with a grin from ear to ear. "Though... he began his grin fading and his cheeks beginning to glow red, "What..ummm...exactly are we supposed to do now? I may have kinda spaced out on that part..." He finished letting his voice trail off, hoping that Oliver at least had been more attention than he had.

"I'll tell you what we're s'posed to do, race you to that rock!" Ollie said, pointing at the rock remains on the, now dead, Taijitu at the bottom. If he had been paying attention, it had shifted to a new source of fun. Ollie leapt off the side of the cliff, clutching the rock face below, and leaping from hand hold to hand hold. He found a few places to slide down from, before leaping to more catches on his descent, a few stories higher than the rock when he looked down. He gave a mock scowl when he saw Addica leaning against the mountain, swinging one of his cables around as he stood on cracked ground. "If we'd just been using our hands, I woulda won," Oliver said, though with a grin, as he leapt off the cliff to the rock. "And we said first one to the rock anyways, so look out!" he shouted with a laugh.

As Ollie pointed out that Addice hadn't technically won yet Addica leveled one of his fangs at the rock, perparing to hookshot his way there and hopefully still beat Ollie. As he lined up the shot he noticed that the ground surrounding the boulder had deep fault lines and cracks spreading out from it. "Ollie! Hold on! I don't think that it's sa--- Addica called as Oliver landed on the boulder with the same grace and finesse he had shown while dancing with the Taijitu on the cliff face.

"Hold on what?" he said, crouching on the rock, as the ground shuddered around them. "Uh...oh..." he said, as the ground crumbled and crunched beneath them, while the two fell below amidst the flurry of rock and stone.
Oliver yelped, "Woah, woah, WOAH!! JAM AND TOAST!" while tipping over with the rock. He remembered Addica had some kind of grappling hook weapon, but he'd fallen with the other side of the rock. He tried climbing up or around it, but it kept spinning between them as they fell. "Addie, you okay over there?!" he called out, trying to maneuver around it in vain. As Addica fell, he couldn't help but feel there had been something almost comedic about how the duo had had just enough time to speak before the ground gave way. Alas, the comedy of the moment was quickly forgotten, as both Addica and his new partner found themselves once more falling through the air. Addica spent the first few crucial seconds of the fall attempting to get his bearings, but couldn't really right himself in the fall, as falling debris kept smacking him. Launching the first Fang blindly into the air, he was more than a little crestfallen as he saw the blade tumble past him a second or so later. Reeling the first blade in, he took aim and launched the second one. This one he felt connect to something, and then he noticed that the something was a rock that, much like himself, had decided to find where the pleasant hole in the ground went. Just he was about to start cursing, he heard Ollie call out to him. Yeah, I'm fine!" he called back, not quite sure if he was going to continue to be fine when he landed.

There was another short stop beneath them, like they hit something fragile and kept going, as the hole they fell through opened into an underground cavern. Ollie tried gripping the edge of the wall before they passed it, but the rock crumbled between his fingers, and he only succeeded in stopping for a second as the large rock he'd landed on whizzed passed. He spun through the air, saying, "Not sure...I'll be...right now!!" as he tried to reorient himself, so he'd at least have a good view when he hit the ground. He sighed, not sure if he'd survive a head on impact, as his first fall had a few glancing blows before he'd struck the rock. But, hey, not much he could do right then.

Addice had begun reeling the Fangs back in as soon as he noticed that they had missed any target that would have prevented Ollie and himself from falling to, what could possibly be, their death. Using a piece of falling rock as leverage, Addica righted himself, launching off the rock to the boulder that had been Ollie's weapon in killing the Taijitu. Getting the boulder beneath his feet just as the first of the Fangs finished reeling back in, he looked around for Ollie. He caught sight of him, but having to be precise about the shot worried Addica a little, might end up hooking Ollie if something went wrong. Which wouldn't be a pretty sight. Launching the fang so that the blade sailed just to the right of Ollie, Addica yelled at the top of his voice "Grab on! I'll reel you in!". He sounded confident, but any number of things could go wrong, and result in both of them still dying on the cave floor.

Oliver looked to his right, just as the knife whizzed past. Rather than taking the chance to make a snide remark, Oliver grabbed the cable, wrapping around his hands so the knife wouldn't get yanked up by his fingers. "Ready to be reeled!" he shouted, glancing at the oncoming floor with slight worry. He gulped nervously, bracing his arms for the eventual tug.

As soon as Addica heard Oliver's reply, he began reeling him in, all the while setting up his next shot for the cavern's ceiling. As soon Ollie was in reach Addica grabbed his wrist and pulled him the rest of the way. "Hang on," he said as he launched the other Fang at the ceiling. As soon as the blade made contact and locked in, Addica felt his shoulder strain as he and Oliver were ripped from the boulder and suspended by the cable of Addica's right Fang and his right arm. "At least it's a different arm this time," Addica managed with a smirk as the two hung from the ceiling.

Oliver winced, remembering his shoulder was just recently hurt, saying, "Yeah, sorry 'bout that, hope it's not too bad." Before looking down. "Hmm, I think, if your shoulder can take it, you could maybe reel me down there. Both or your cables are probably long enough, I can definitely catch you from the fall, just dunno if your shoulder's gonna be in too much pain," Ollie said, shrugging.

"It was a joke," Addica said laughing, "It was the force from stopping so fast on landing that mucked my shoulder up, this, this is a piece of cake." As he spoke, he spooled out the cable that Oliver was holding onto, as well as what remained of the cable that he had attached to the ceiling. The cable from the launcher attached to the ceiling ran out more quickly, as it had already been spooled out quite far. Looking down towards Oliver, Addica was concerned to see that Oliver was still over 15 feet up from the ground. Addica checked his WATCH and his concerned worsened as he saw that there was only a few feet of cable left in the Reisszahne.

Looking down towards Oliver, Addica watched the cable lower closer and closer to the ground. There was a small tug as the cable ran out, from what Addica could see on his WATCH, and Oliver was still about ten feet from the ground. Before he could call out, to let Oliver know he was out of cable, Oliver had already let go and fell to the ground.

"Hup!" Oliver said, flipping in middair and landing in a roll. He popped up and jumped to the top of the rock that had fallen, landing in a crouch before standing up in a victory pose. "Ta-dah!" he cheered, looking up to Addica. He hopped down, shouting up to his partner, "Yo', Addie, drop down! Trust me, I got ya'!"

Addica looked down in concern, then back up to his anchor in the ceiling. He wasn't sure what Oliver had in mind, but he was a little concerned about the thirty something drop. He sighed,"Alright, if you say so!" he shouted, as a wave of nerves hit him released his Fang from the ceiling. His cables reeled in while he was in free fall. Oliver sprinted towards the fallen rock, leaping and kicking off of it to flip higher in the air. "Incoming!" Oliver shouted, reaching Addica partway in the air. He caught Addica in his arms, flipping over as he fell and tossing Addica back up before they hit the ground. Addica then wasn't falling as fast, slow enough to land safely, though Oliver had to roll to compensate for his added momentum from pushing off against Addica's fall.

"Oof," Oliver said, getting up and dusting himself off. "Not the most graceful fall, but what're you gonna...what's that?" he said, pausing before pointing deeper into the cavern. The light from their entry point only reached a certain point, but past that there was an opening to a larger cavern, with soft blue lights dimly illuminating inside.

Addica checked his WATCH while Oliver went forward, the watch showed that there was a cache somewhere inside there. He suggested they go for it, since no one else seemed to be in the general area, and they were the only ones underground here.

"Well, alright, let's go check it out..." Oliver said nervously, as he waited for Addica to get to the entry point with him. Stepping inside, they waited for their eyes to adjust to the low light, the blue hue being cast from several crystals in the wall. Apparently raw Dust, not quite purified enough for weapon use, but it was potent enough to give them some light. Still, it wasn't much. Oliver held his WATCH up, poking the display and some buttons on it, saying, "Wish this thing had, I dunno, a light thingie or something."

W.A.T.C.H. LIGHT, ACTIVATED

"Bacon bits, my eye!" Oliver yelped, rubbing his eye as the display shot a bright beam in his face. Addica chuckled, safely activating his own light while mentioning this was the third food item Oliver had shouted as some kind of curse. "I'm still hungry from breakfast, lay off," Oliver replied with a smirk, holding his WATCH up to shine light around the cave. He gave a muffled yelp when he saw what was inside.

The light beam fell on many round, egg like objects. Egg-like, because they were bigger than any eggs Oliver had seen, and he was hoping they were jut rocks. A tentative knock on one of them by Addica gave a hollow sound, quickly dashing much of Oliver's hopes towards their legitimacy. Addica put an ear to one, telling Oliver that he could hear something moving inside.

"Addie, I've seen this movie, the plucky comic relief always gets a raw deal..." Oliver said, slowly moving around the eggs. He looked at the holomap from his WATCH, seeing that if it was in the cavern, it would be on the very far side....though he didn't really know what they were looking for either. "Let's just get it and get out, I can barely see in this place, and I hate walking where I can't see," Oliver said, making his way through the cavern. "If I can't see where my feet are going, I never know if I have sure footing or no-OT!" Oliver yelped, his foot catching a raised stone and tripping him, right in front of an egg. Luckily, he had enough time to hop over the egg with a flip, briefly using the egg as a handstand as he went over it. He gave a sigh of relief, as he didn't fall on top of it, but gave an odd look as he shined a light on top of it.. Some of his "pocket bacon" that he'd gotten from breakfast had slipped out of his pants pocket, and fallen right on top of the egg.

Oliver and Addica froze, as the egg started to tremble. Addica was trying to harshly whisper for Oliver to get away, but paused as disconcerting cracks echoed through the cavern. Slowly, Oliver slowly tiptoed away from the egg, as chips began to fly off of it. Suddenly, a growling chirp came from the egg, that quickly grew deeper, as a toothy jaw that was the size of a small torso broke free from the shell and chomped around the, comparitively tiny, piece of bacon. The scaley head of the newborn creature quickly swallowed, curiously looking around the cave. Oliver didn't say a word, until its eyes fell on him... and quickly narrowed. It snarled and chomped the air, quickly smashing what was left of its shell, while Oliver took off.

"Ollie we need to get out!!! NOW before more of these thi---" crick-crack "--hatch" Addica shouted, the last word coming out more as sigh then a shout. Most of the other eggs in the vicinity, some even larger than the one Oliver flipped over, quickly started cracking just as Oliver caught up to Addica. They looked at each other. going back to back as Baby Hydras started to cry out all around them. They gulped nervously, making a couple sarcastic remarks, before trying to figure out their next move.

Isaac Markeel

---

Isaac was more nervous than relieved when the storm died down. The beast had not been forced to stop, nor had it seemed exhausted. It was seemingly playing with him now, and that left him partway between furious and embarrassed and happy not to be dead.

Looking at the changed landscape let Isaac know that he couldn’t fight in this area any more. A crater was not the battleground he needed to fight this beast: he needed manoeuvrability, and that meant he needed to be able to abuse the terrain. If he was at least equal in size to a Grimm, he could stand his ground. Right now though, he needed to get to somewhere that enabled him to move on a third dimension.

The choice was simple. He was going to have to head towards the forest, so that he might abuse the trees. Clicking open his WATCH, he silently took note of where Rygar’s location was. He’d seemingly met up with two individuals. He had no doubt the Unicorn would follow Isaac, likely with the intent on striking him when he came out of hiding.

Isaac needed to earn every chance he could abuse, so he grabbed the closest fist sized rock: one that had until recently been a part of the mountainside. Gripping the rock, Isaac flung the pebble towards a tree on the opposite side of the crater, hoping to distract the Unicorn for a second as he launched himself into the forest: heading towards Rygar, Daiki and Tirren.

---

Orion Armstrong

---

Hearing the water’s flow changing gave Orion enough cause to be worried, and when the Sirens started to back off, the Faunus could predict what was coming. While he could predict it, he couldn’t do much about it except prepare for what was to come. He popped his head above the water level and exhaling heavily. “WATCH, Lights.” He felt the watch’s heads up display shine its brightest and immediately regretted the power of the light. He was a few feet from the waterfall’s edge and that meant he couldn’t do much else but fall.

The tumble down the waterfall was scary, but nothing frightened more than the sight of jagged rocks jutting out of the froth of the waterfall’s cascade. He didn’t have the time, or the control to produce an aura shield that would stop him from receiving serious injury at the hands of the rocks. That meant he had to avoid the entire lot of them, and that meant doing more stupid stuff.

He was making a bad habit of this.

His plan involved the use of his weapon in an unconventional way, and that might leave him vulnerable, if the bottom of the lake was filled with more Sirens. He needed to get some sort of dry land at some point: lest he be swarmed or skewered or generally slaughtered.

Using his weapon’s shaft, Orion pushed the Polearm through the waterfall and into the rocks below: shunting himself a few feet away from the rocks and into the deeper part of the waterfall. He could do naught but pray he didn’t instantly become prey, but luck had been on his side thus far.

Sayuri smiles at Reya's comment on the team name, "Absolutely!" after looking at the map again she nods as Reya asks if she's ready to go, "Definately, and our styles will work well together," She puts the map away and follows as Reya takes the lead.

Through the rather thin edge of the forest, the duo emerged onto the more open grassland area. A quick survey of the land around them didn't reveal much, save for some outlines far away in the distance. Reya glanced down at her map once more, the WATCH quickly proving itself to be an invaluable tool. It would be even better once integrated with her weapon.

According to the map, an unpartnered student was heading straight for them out of the forest, and at a rather remarkable pace. With their current objective, waiting for that student to approach them would be the best call, just in case. Considering the cache signal originating from that locaiton, in the wide, empty open, it was a bit too good to be true.

"Let's hold up here for a second. Someone's coming this way, and fast. We'll pick 'em up here, and then find 'em a partner later." Reya said, rolling her neck and shoulders. She felt kind of bossy, but it was her trained and focused mind that got her this far. Fun and games was for the campus, in the real world, authoritative and precise would go much further.

The two looked up as another girl nearly ran into them. After a short, nervous introduction by the wolf-faunus girl, Sayuri and Reya both introduced themselves as well.

"Nice to meet ya, Grizel! I'm Reya. Of course, we'd love to have you!" Reya affirmed gleefully to the Faunus, knowing that having a Faunus around, especially one who seemed to have canine attributes, would be very handy. Plus, she seemed like a decent girl, even if she did seem a bit backwards. Then again, it was to be expected in such a society.

Turning to face her she responds, "Nice to meet you Grizel. My names Sayuri. Hope we can get along!" she turns to look back in the direction of the Cache was and thought about what was sort of challange they would face trying to get it.

Grizel was quite happy with the warm reception. Of course she was too much fun to hate! And now that they were a trio, they probably didn't have too much to worry about for now.

They also told her that they had already partnered up, and weren't sure if they would make a team if Grizel herself didn't have a partner. But, from the map, they saw that there apparently was a free student south of them.

They paused, as the dot started to very quickly move underground, appearing to be chased by the cache. It soon stopped, with the cache stopped close by as well. For some reason, it gave them an ominous feeling, like the student was in trouble.

After a peppy comment from Grizel and Sayuri, the trio took off. They ran South, to where the cache was, spotting a hill. After climbing it, they spotted the mouth of the cave at the top of the hill. Shrill shrieks echoed from within, and sounds of frenzied fluttering wings. The three quickly discussed what to do, though they couldn't plan much without knowing what was inside, and they couldn't very well stay outside for much longer. They had a feeling the student inside was in a bit of trouble, and the sounds of the Grimm didn't alleviate their concerns.

"Well, ladies...looks like our first bit of real action. Let's give 'em hell, shall we?" The raven-haired girl smiled mischeviously, her fingers itching to grasp the rings at her hips. A cave wasn't the ideal combat environment for her, but there was some trouble down there, and if it got Grizel a partner and saved someone's hide, it was worth it.

Sayuri's nodded with a emotionless face and drew her sword and placed one of her dust cartidges into it making a small click as it secured itself. Swinging it a couple times before resting the blade on her shoulder.

So, after a look from each, they jumped in, sliding down the steep incline of the cave.

HOURS LATER

Caches had been found, Grimm had been fought, and blood had been spilled. But, at the end of it all...they were alive. None of the Freshmen class had died in the First Test, not one. Not even from the drop, and not any that were centered around the most dangerous part of the terrain. Their wounds had been tended to, and they were all gathered once more in the Auditorium. This time, they had tables and chairs for them, most teams were sitting very close to each other while still mingling with others. Of course, many were battered and bruised, some even lost limbs, but the spirits of the class seemed fairly high.

On their W.A.T.C.H.'s, each student had a colored ring. These Watchfaces were inside each cache, they unlocked more capabilities of the W.A.T.C.H. when attached on the front, and linked up the four W.A.T.C.H.'s with matching colors. Also, along the rim, were shaped indentations. Eight colors: Red, Blue, Yellow, Orange, Green, Purple, Black, and White. five symbols: Clubs, Spades, Diamonds, Hearts, and a fifth symbol that looked like three curved lines with circles at the end coming up from a base. On a certain group of students who'd gotten their caches on a certain part of the mountainside, the fifth symbol was on their rings. But five different symbols, with eight different colors, and four members per team, made a Freshmen class of 160 students.

Then the room grew dim, while a large spotlight came straight down on the front state. Arrun stood, looking down at the podium. He waited till everyone stopped talking and looked forward, before raising his gaze. He looked from side to side, a motion that took only a few seconds, yet every student would swear that they felt Arrun was looking right at them. "I am pleased to announce..." he said, though his pleased look seemed a lot like his intense look...which was his normal look. "That of 160 students who applied for Beacon...all 160 have passed the test." He said, as the students whistled and cheered. It had been a long time since a first year Headmaster had 100% of the school applicants be accepted...or survive. "You are prospective students no longer, you are now officially students of Beacon Academy!" he said, raising his hands up, as the group cheered once more. From their Watchfaces, a hologram appeared in middair, the crest of Beacon floating with their team name below it.

"Now," he said, waving a hand that silenced the class. "Is the last step for your teams to be confirmed," he said, walking from behind the podium. "Each team is its own unit. Your W.A.T.C.H.'s are linked to the Beacon mainfram, through its own encryption. You have access to all the information we possess, at least anything digital, through your W.A.T.C.H. While we can receive information from your device if you allow, they were <i>your</i> tools for <i>your</i> personal use. Without a specific request for information or an academic court order to retrieve info, they are private servers for the team to better themselves in training and on missions. They will prove you represent Beacon in official matters, and you may customize them as you see fit, although any damage to the W.A.T.C.H.'s functions would be problematic," he said, as some of the crowd started to yawn.

He cleared his throat, saying, "Now, before we introduce the teams, I must also tell you that each team will have a certain role to be filled. Teams will be assigned Captains, whose job is to keep their team in line during training and schooling. They will the responsiblity of making sure their teams are prepared for any test, project, or mission. Scheduling times for sparring, studying, research, keeping the team motivated, etcetera. Without this order, the teams fall apart, so treat this role seriously. This authority will only switch, possibly, during missions, when a Mission Leader will be chose. Often they are the same person as the captain, but in some cases, a different member of the team will be chosen to lead the mission. During that time, and only during that time, the Leader has a higher authority than the Captain, and teams are expected to act professionally if there is a change in authority." Once more, he seemed to lose the crowd slightly, as his mustache bristled with frustration.

"Anyway," he said, clapping his hands together to get their attention. "Now's the time we welcome the new teams of the Freshmen class!" he said, the students cheering even though they'd have to sit through the introductions. Still, each person was going to get their chance to be the center of attention. "Now, in the Clubs class..." Arrun said, as another spotlight came down from the ceiling, circling around till it landed on the teams in succession, as their pictures appeared on the screens. Arrun would say their names, and a highlight of their team's battles, while some footage from the test played as well. Most were very exciting, though somewhat tame, until he got to...

"In the Joker class..."

Several groups snickered at this, thinking these groups of teams would have had easy or sillier fights. Surely not anything as difficult as what <i>they</i> had fought.

"Team Clash Jack, our first team to activate their retrieved caches, who had together defeated the largest troll this school has seen..." Arrun said, as footage of a 5 story tall, gray skinned monstrosity was swinging around a giant tree as a club while the team engaged it. Curiously, it seemed like two other members of a separate team were around, but the audience was mainly focused on the clips of Christophe coordinating them around, teaming up to distract the troll while using Naomi, Ashton, and Jonah in a combination to land an incredible hammer strike on the Troll's jaw. The rest of the classes were silent, before slowly starting to clap, and then cheered louder than the teams before. Christophe's Watch gained a gold ring along the center of his W.A.T.C.H. face, denoting him as team leader.

"Team RipTide, our second team in history to fully square off against the Unicorn, but the first to actually...defeat it,"he continuded, as footage of Rygar, Isaac, Tirren, and Daiki maneuvering around the beast. There was some pretty graphic footage when Rygar tried to shield a member of his team, as some students around him tried not to stare at his wound, but the looks were drawn to the screens anyways whe the team gave the beast its finishing blow. It seemed that Isaac was picked as this team's leader, as a gold stripe appeard on his device too.

"Team Lucky Jackal, who fought against a horde of Myrmmidons underground, the largest number of Grimm seen on that mountain...and defeated them all," he said, as Lyn, K.K., Alistair, and Kiora were seen surrouned by ravenous Ants, that had exploded from the remains of the Queen behind them. But, despite the numbers and the quality of Alistair's weapons, it seemed the team figured out a way to dispatch all the ants attacking them underground. A few girls gave Alistari stray glances, sighing and batting their eyelashes. This was before Alistair's W.A.T.C.H. gained a gold stripe, labeling him as Team Captain.

"Team Magic Storm, who took on Vampire Bats, Fire Salamanders, and the unexpected arrival of a Death Worm, and survived," he went on, as the footage showed the girls luring the swarm of Bats around before taking them out. The battle with the worm was very chaotic, but the beast had the cache in its rows of teeth, and it seemed like the team had trapped it and propped its mouth open to retrieve the cache. The girls cheered along as well, though Morella was silent. She was looking at her Watch, which gained a gold stripe along the face as well.

"Team Panic Jolt, who was the first team to defeat their Grimm, the large Treant amongst the Vampire Trees in the forest," he said, as the team was shown ducking and dodging large swipes from brances. Jonah noticeably scoffed at the way Tarkus used his hammer, but didn't say more. The team had managed to actually knock the tree down, which was quite a feat against this incredibly old and powerful Grimm, though Naomi seemed to take off before the footage cut out. Still, most everyone else cheered, save for Team Clash Jack, while Jaclyn held up her W.A.T.C.H., showing her golden stripe as Team Captain with a broad smile.

"And last, but not least, Team Nova Halo..." he paused as he sighed, as Oliver had somehow instictively known he was on camera, and found time to pose while he bounced around during his initial fight. "Anyway, this team not only took on the dreaded Hydra, albeit with a rather unorthodox way to wound it..." he said, as the footage showed Oliver making his way up to the Hydra's mouth, only to get eaten and then later cut his way out through its stomach. Arrun shook his head, continuing, "They not only took it on, they actually defeated it...in a way that I hope is never repeated again," Arrun said, as Arara took advantage of the Hydra's wound to coordinate the rest of the team and strike it down. Unsurprisingly, Arara'a W.A.T.C.H. soon bore the gold stripe, and she seemed to have expected the role of Team Captain to fall on her shoulders.

He had talked about two other teams in between, which had a spectacular fight, but he finished with Nova Halo. The other spotlight then disappeared, as the screens grew black, while Arrun took the podium again. He cleared his throat. "Now, once again, I welcome all of you to Beacon Academy. Your Watches will show you to your rooms, each class has its own wing in the school, I'm sure you'll make yourselves comfortable. Looking at you all now, I'm sure this will be an interesting year," he said, pausing before gesturing to the door. "You're dismissed."

The students were silent for a bit, before beginning to stand and file toward the door.

"Wait...that's not it, is it?"

They all looked around, as another voice echoed through the hall. Arrun looked around, confused, as he had the only microphone.

"I mean, come on, guys, we're just going to our dorms now?"

From behind Arrun, Oliver popped out, skin reddemed and clothes partially dissolved from his near digestion in the Hydra's stomach. He snatched the microphone, leaping the tables in front of the stage before Arrun could grab him. "I mean, guys, girls, we did it...we freaking did it! We got into Beacon academy, and you heard the man, none of us bit the dust! C'mon, where I come from, this calls for a party!! We're not gonna just go have a boring night now, are we?" he called out, as the students watched him in amusement.

"Mr. Kootz!" Arrun said, stomping down from the stage. "While no one's died, several students have lost limbs, and are still injured. I'm sure they'd rather rest up than engage in frivolous nonsense. Don't include others in your silly...shenanigans when they'd rather be left out of it!" he said, voice raising slightly as this apparent show of disrespect.

"We-e-e-e-e-ell..." Oliver said, looking at the group of students. "How about you let <i>us</i> decide if we wanna party, hmm? If we wanna have shenanigans, lets have some shenanigans! I know a lotta people are worse for the wear, but c'mon, don't you think that's the perfect time to live it up a little? Let's here it from them!" he said, jumping up and tossing the microphone into the crowd, shouting "Incoming!"

(Alrighty, if anything needs to be changed, let me know, otherwise, post a response if you want.)

OOC: Did someone call a kaithas?

IC: Kiora blushed slightly, pulling the trenchcoat collar up around her neck farther and sinking into her chair, fingering the Edge's hilt.

Now it was official.

She was bound to three other people.

While she trusted Alistair, she didn't know the others very well. They had fought together, sure, but... She still didn't know them. She didn't really know him, either, but he had saved her life...

OOC: Kiora open for interact.

Alistair was very, very sore indeed.

He hadn't suffered any severe injuries, surprisingly. Some strained muscles, a few cuts, bruises and a few other myriad injuries, but all things considered, he was okay. That did not, however, mean that his body wasn't loudly registering its complaints at the events it had been put through, from falling out of the sky to fighting a horde of giant ants. Normally, he'd simply want to go crawl into his own bed and hibernate until he was rested and slightly less pained, but in this case, he felt... Energized. Perhaps it was a little left over adrenaline, but he felt better than he'd felt in a long time. A smile pulled at the edges of his mouth despite his weariness, he sat up straight and proud. He'd made it. He'd put all of his effort for years into making it here, and in this very moment, he knew he had succeeded. His heart was swelling with a pride that no amount of soreness could diminish, a vindication that was years in the making.

That said, he was rather surprised at the extent to which he had succeeded. He glanced down at his wrist idly, noting the gold band around his WATCH's face. The same band that denoted him as Team Captain. Somehow that decision had been reached, though he hadn't the foggiest idea why. Even if he wasn't the leader on missions often, he had still been appointed the Lucky Jackals' overall leader. And speaking of the Jackals, there was another unexpected aspect.

Every one of them was a girl.

Now, the important part of that concept was the "every" part. From what he had seen during the assembly, he somehow had become part of the most gender imbalanced team present, at least as far as he could tell. If he were still back home, his father would have some very choice quips to make, a smirk on his face the whole time. As it stood, Alistair could still almost hear them, and his dad was far, far away. He'd already had a few other students raise an eyebrow at the team roster, and some of the other female students had cast some rather fascinated looks his way when he had been appointed team captain. Between his new status, the Jackals' accomplishments during the exam, and Christopher's standing feud with him, he hadn't exactly had a low-profile since arrival.

Speaking of Christopher... Unsurprisingly, he'd been appointed a Team Captain as well. He hadn't been able to see the other student during the announcement, but he had instinctively looked around uneasily. It almost felt like someone had sent him a rather poisonous stare. He was vaguely aware of Koontz's objections, but he didn't pay them much mind

At least, until he noted a flying object and reflexively caught it, only realizing it was a microphone until he already had. And now people were looking at him as if expecting an opinion.

... Goddammit.

"Ah, well..." He began, standing. "With respect, sir, I don't see what harm a celebration could be. Some will no doubt wish to retire, but I think it would be good to celebrate. Some of these people have worked a long time for this. It wouldn't be too much trouble, just wire a music player up to the speakers, maybe get a little food from the cafeteria, and then everything's set."

"It's your call, of course. Just my two cents." He fell silent, before awkwardly holding up the microphone for anyone that might want to take it.

Pascale Isadora Buckley
—♫♪ Pendant le Faveur de la Fortune, Il Faut se Préparer à Sa Défaveur ♫♪—

Eventful.

Well, if you call two broken ribs, a fractured ulna, multiple bruises, a large, stitched up gash that ran the length of her side, nearly crushed lungs, a concussion, and near full dehydration due to overexertion and complete and utter exhaustion to the point where she was no longer able to use her legs without falling over in pain eventful, then you must be one crazy mother fucker. But, that didn't quite near the harm that came to some of the other teams and, in spite—no, especially because of what she'd done (numerously sacrificing her well being for a complete stranger), Pascale was among the luckier ones. And to see that stranger currently stuck to another team, in spite of the rules stated she belonged to theirs, well that irked her to no end. She'd not tell the girl her frustrations, not tell her she hated her guts, which she didn't, but she'd make it known through her silence.

Nearly get killed two times, one of which was her fault, and then having to help her other team do their job, only to be brushed off because she wasn't 'one of them' meant she had every right to be pissy and angry and peeved and everything in be-fucking-tween. Oh, she was livid and she didn't give two shits about the stares she was getting and the angry pokes and quiet boos that assaulted the back of her head when the clips were shown and the applauds were giving. And when Alistair gave up the microphone after Oliver's entire shpeel, she couldn't help but launch up, trudge over there, push the lady's man over—earning her some very nasty hisses from the local harem surrounding him—and promptly looked at Arrun, Oliver, and then the entire freshman class.

"Fuck this," she said, earning her silence in return, "I'm getting drunk and I don't give two shits about some damn law. How old... never mind, that's not important—"

Still peeved by the assault on her dear Alistair, a young, female cat Faunus dove forward to clamp down on Pascale's leg. She yowled, shook the girl off, and planted a powerful kick square to her face (Pascale - 1; Alistair Harem - 0). "I'm not done, you bitch; your damn, precious harem boy is perfectly fine," Pascale hissed back, flashing a glare down at Alistair.

"No, I'm not standing for some measly school dance shit," she continued, "If we're going to celebrate us, all of us, surviving the hardest fucking test we'll take in our lives, or rather our freshman year, and kicking ass—kicking ass, ass kicking to the max, super fucking death punch to a fucking Unicorn's prissy ass face, going fucking treant tipping out in the fucking woods of dath—then we deserve... No. No, no. We have every right to celebrate until we bleed out, drink until we fall unconscious in a pile of our vomited entrails, eat until we're fatter than a fucking slutty ass siren, and scream our lungs out until we sound like some two-bit hooker who's smoked all her damn life."

Pascale paused, looking at Arrun now; she was heaving her breaths, desperation tinting her voice. "I came into this thinking I didn't deserve to be here because I have cat ears, a tail, and a tendency to get comfy on someone's laptop while they're still using it. I didn't attend any academy outside of Beacon; I did all my training by myself. If you're telling me that I don't get to party my fucking socks off after doing something I've been told I would never be able to do in my entire life, as a subservient being, then I have a few things to tell you, Mr. Arrun Tower."

"Shove it up your ass," she held the microphone out, paused, and brought it back to her face, "I'm going to find the biggest keg of alcohol and I'm going to tow it myself to the cafeteria. If you want to stop me, then you're gonna have to pry that thing from my cold, dead, fingers." And finally, with that last remark, she dropped the microphone and promptly began stomping down the aisle, pins and needles shooting up her entire body.

Isaac Markeel

---

Isaac was unusually cowed by the events of the initiation ritual. He had expected the events to have been a breeze: Kill a few ursa and get into the academy for hunters with a snap of the fingers. Instead, he had spent most of the time running for his life and barely avoiding the murderous designs of a Grimm of near mythical proportions.

Sadly, that was not even the worst news. Now, Isaac was the leader of a 4 man cell and his partner for the next few years was a drug taking battle-chaser with a missing arm. If he hadn’t actually gotten the chance to know Rygar a slight amount these last few days, he would assume the berserker would go ahead and quit the academy.

Isaac’s ears perked up slightly as he heard the mention of his cell: about RIpTiDe’s clashes with the both unicorns, of the slaying of one at the cost of Rygar’s arm and of the final meeting with the second beast. Why had it not attacked the weakened group: respect? Maybe fear? Either way, his group had been spared by the unicorn and he was grateful.

This speech by Arrun was different in Isaac’s ears; a mix of respect for new hunters and respect for the trails faced. He looked around the room, glancing at the few interesting people he’d spotted. The boy in the orange hat was chief amongst his interests. The boy seemed distant, as if he’d had to deal with a number of his own trails and he’d been forced to change because of them.

As soon as it was respectful to do so, Isaac left the hall, in a rush to leave the company of the masses and of a mind to do something uncharacteristic. He flipped open his pocket computer, one that connected to people outside of the insular world of Beacon and typed in a message. Ten words later, he was using WALTER to propel himself through the air, towards Beacon’s main recovery room and without a single care for what other people thought of him.

He owed his partner a visit.

"That was a good trip."

Is what he wanted to say. But Rygar didn't really get a chance to say anything after the Unicorn tore his arm off. All he could remember was the pain, a lot of screaming, and than blacking out. He went back and forth between the realms of conscience and dead once they hit the airship, but Rygar didn't know if he had passed, failed, or died. By the time he could sustain a thought longer than five seconds, he could feel a mask tightening over his face and being pushed on a gurney. He could feel anything past his neck, and wondered if he had become a severed head. He's laugh if his body wasn't so numb.

It felt like hours since he's been laid to rest. Everything was just sort of a blur, like if he had taken some morphine. It was a blur of people walking in and out of his room, some people touching his arm stump, some people coming in and changing his bedpan, that sort of thing. He would sometimes make a noise or move his head, but otherwise he didn't do much. It was kind of boring.

Sometime later, Rygar didn't really know for certain, he was able to sustain his thoughts better. He could even sit up, though he had a hard time of it. Probably because he didn't have his right arm to support him. "What the shit..." Rygar just laid back down onto his bed and tried to test out the other parts of his body. He could weakly lift up his other arm enough to get it on the hand rail, wiggle his toes too. After much struggling, he managed to throw his hand onto the TV remote. He turned on the television and flipped through some channels before he came upon a show where Arrun was announcing the events of the test. The volume was too low for him to hear through, so just kept kept watching. He saw his team standing on the stage, but he wasn't there. "Did I not make it?" He spoke softly. It wouldn't surprise him, but... It was still a bit sad.

Isaac Markeel

"No...You made it in."

Isaac leaned against the doorway, having been watching Rygar for at least a minute before deciding to speak up. The man had been struggling with all the changes he'd undergone, and Isaac wanted to see Rygar overcome it. The man was central to Isaac's success in the academy and, as loath as he was to admit it, he had saved the Markeel heir's life. Without Rygar's actions, they wouldn't have been able to slay the Unicorn. Hell, they probably wouldn't have gotten away at all. It frightened Isaac a little, to realise how woefully unprepared he was for the hunter's life.

Isaac didn’t bother asking permission to come inside Rygar’s room. It didn’t really make sense to him, as the pair would likely be sharing a room, sooner or later. Preparations had already begun to move Isaac into a shared accommodation with the other two members of his team: Daiki and Tirren. Both members had proven integral to the battle with the Unicorn, but he knew nothing about his team so far. Another small crack in his normally controlled façade might appear at the thought of himself as leader. He had no idea what the people before him could really do. If anything could be applied to Isaac as a phobia, it would be the unknown. He would endeavour to get to know these people better, for the sake of the team. God forbid, he might have a go at the whole ‘friendship’ process.

That could come later though.

Common practice dictated he should ask Rygar ‘how he felt’ but that seemed like pointless and patronising pity to Isaac. You didn’t walk away from permanent maiming with a smile on your face. Instead, Isaac shut the door behind them and pulled a chair to Rygar’s bedside. Sitting down on the side Rygar still had an arm. “I’ll ask the big question before we go any further. Do you still want to be a hunter?”

Isaac wanted that answer before anything else. He could have started with the use of drugs: which he didn’t mind, or the idea he had in his mind revolving around solving Rygar’s future deficiency and replacing it with strength. However, it was more important that Rygar still had the warrior’s will. If he’d looked into the eyes of fear and flinched, then there was no going back.

“Just know that whatever your choice, I’ve made arrangements for you to receive a state of the art prosthetic from my father’s workshop. I owe you my life, so that is the least I can give you.”

Daiki left the initiation ceremony early. The moment Arrun mentioned Riptide's achievement, he felt sick to his stomach and exited the hall, not caring for the awed gasps of his peers or the murmurs that went through the crowd speculating how they had done it. Daiki could answer that question - by sheer dumb luck. It had cost one of his teammates' arms and his own sword, in the end they barely managed to slay it by using its own horn as a weapon.

He needed a breath of fresh air and Daiki settled down under the shade of a large tree as he dropped the cloth bundle holding what remained of his sword. He supposed he would either have to buy a new one with money he didn't have or forge one with the school's supplies and facilities. He groaned as he leaned against the trunk and the throbbing ache in his dislocated shoulder protested with a vengeance. A small price to pay to prevent the unicorn from taking more than Rygar's arm, though it made the swordsman wonder if they would all be so lucky next time.

Daiki had always been confident in his skills, but it seemed that he needed to sharpen them further or develop a new style of fighting entirely if he wished to be a proper hunter. All the other students had fancy weapons and abilities, and he was trying to keep up with a hand-me-down sword... Not that he'd be any good learning how to fire a gun at this point. He would just need to figure out how his new blade would be improved on. He'd pay a visit to the forge and look up the manuals there later. He might even ask one of his teammates or Grizel to help... since he had no experience whatsoever with making a weapon by himself.

"Barely a day and I feel like I've aged a year..." Daiki muttered to himself as he leaned his head back against the tree and enjoyed the breeze, waiting for the ceremony to end before shuffling off with the crowd.

Rygar turned his head towards the sound of the voice. To his surprise, Issac, Sir Stick-up-his-ass, came to visit. Though he had to admit, he was fairly certain if it weren't for Issac's no nonsense attitude that Rygar was even here to make names for him. Maybe, since the details after his dismemberment was blank. Issac came in closer and took a seat next to Rygar and popped a question. "Good question... Yeah. Still do." He would have been more verbose, but he was having a hard enough time breathing steadily right now, let alone talk. Not that he didn't try to make some form of conversation.

"Never had much choices in the past. But being a Hunter was my choice. I'll live and die by it. Not going to let anyone... Or anything... Take that away from me." Still vague to him, but hopefully it gets the message across. He tried to go for a reassuring smile, but he just sort of clenched his teeth like he was getting ready to take a punch to the face. He listened a bit more to Issac saying how he'd help Rygar, which did bring a small, amused smirk. "You always this generous, or you just having regrets? Eh, don't worry. I don't blame anyone for this, cept myself and the unicorn. Not going to look a gift horse in it's mouth... But it's funny to see you seem nice." Rygar laughed a little before shifting himself to get more comfortable in bed. He was starting to get more feeling in his body now, but he hoped being bedlocked didn't soften him up too much. As much as he liked to relax and be lazy, he had to keep up maintaining his body. Or whatever he does to it that makes it this way.

"So... How's the other two?" Wanting to change the direction of the conversation, Rygar wanted to know what his partner thought of the other two members of RipTide. They seemed cool enough to Rygar, if meek. He's hoping he'll change that soon enough.

Isaac Markeel

Isaac listened to the crippled man in the bed, face unmoving at what would normally have been a heart-warming display of determination from his hunter-ally. Isaac had expected at least this much from the man who had shown so much strength: but he was at least emboldened in his ally’s grit and steel. It was a lead he hoped to follow, one of bold-ness and courage: that might inspire the other, less active members of the group.

“If you are worried about me being too nice, don’t. You are useful and strong: I wouldn’t want that off my team…” He paused for a moment, letting the words sink in for his own benefit, more than Rygar’s. His team; a group of individuals who would quite possibly live or die by his decisions. It was a heady responsibility. One that he wasn’t sure was best placed on his shoulders. “…Besides, I wouldn’t trust your prosthetic to come from one of the inferior manufacturers.” He offered his own lopsided half-smile. Something that tried to inspire confidence but probably just looked out of place.

“The other two seem fine, a little shaken maybe, but otherwise whole.” Isaac didn’t want to say anything else about his thoughts on the pair. They had hardly seemed cut out for hunter work at the start of the whole mess, but under pressure: they had performed admirably. Without their combined effort; the group would all likely be sharing a ward with Rygar…or worse.

“Have you any ideas on directions you want to take your prosthetic? I could have a whole host of add-ons fitted: add-ons that hide blades or make your arm into a cannon or monitor heart rate or maybe an add-on to control your fix…” The last one had been dropped in almost as a foot note, but Isaac’s eyes bore into Rygar. It was obviously the point of discussion that he’d come here set to talk about, but he was giving Rygar the benefit of the doubt. The drugs had been…beneficial today. That meant they could be useful, should they be controlled a little better. Imagine if Rygar had maintained the might he harnessed, whilst retaining full control of his wits?

Truly a force to be reckoned with.