Chapter 7

A cool, gentle breeze swept through the nearby trees, an herbal scent faint in the air. With the cliff in sight, the engines of the helicopters already audible, a sense of relief came over the large group of students, them all stopping in place to take a short break. Yang turned to see Ruby returning with a mildly traumatized group of students, waving at her once her younger sister was close. “Yo.” Yang greeted, Ruby walking over and stopping in front of her, smiling while she spoke. “Everyone present and accounted for?” Yang asked, Ruby nodding her head and looking over towards an unconscious Gilde. “Mostly, yeah.” Ruby stated jokingly, Yang laughing out while looking in the same direction. “Guess it runs in the family. Well, doesn’t matter now…” Stretching her arms, Yang yawned, popping her neck once she stopped. “We’re all done. Was a lot easier than I thought it’d be, anyways.” “Hehe, yeah.” On cue, what was thought to be the face of the cliff began to slide up as if it were a garage door, Ruby and Yang turning and staring as the loud mechanics within it whirred. It was completely dark inside, the light slowly trickling in and revealing a large collection of cages. “Do we… go up through there?” Yang asked, Ruby shaking her head while narrowing her eyes, trying to see what was inside. After a short delay, a large pack of beowolves came running out, the students quickly grouping up together and equipping their armaments. Rather than charging the students, though, the beowolves instead fled, scattering out throughout the forest and trying to get as far away from the cliff as possible. “Huh?” Jaune let out, looking around at the nearby group, the students having a general look of confusion around them. “Do one of you have like, a… some sort of scaring semblance or something?” Jaune asked, failing to receive an answer other than some faint, incoherent murmuring amongst the crowd. “Watch out!” Nora yelled out, the crowd slowly dispersing in a bout of confusion. Lie went to ask Nora what she was talking about, before the crackling sounds of fire came directly towards them. A darker, ignited ball of flame smacked right into the center of the students, most of them able to get out of the way without any injury. “Damn it…” Jaune let out, picking Gilde back up from the ground. “I’m gonna go find a place to hide him!” Jaune yelled, running away into the depths of the forest. Gritting her teeth, Ruby looked forward, seeing a collection of 3 pairs of eyes shining through the darkness, each of them a fair distance off the ground. The grimm stepped one paw through the darkness, the size of this paw easily bigger than her entire body. Chains dangled down from its neck as it made itself present, its entire body coming into full view. It was an impossibly giant, 3-headed beowolf, one of its heads still exhaling a little bit of fire and another swallowing a trampled beowolf while it looked between the groups of students. “That’s a big sumbitch.” Yang commented, Ruby in awe while looking at the grimm. “What… what is that thing?” Ruby asked, Yang shrugging. She then turned to see Alex charging at it, the young man firing both of his chainsaws at the beast, only for it to swat them away. Before he could change direction, the grimm butted its head into him, Alex being spiked down into the earth. After him was Nora, her boosting herself up in the air with a grenade, quickly changing her weapon back into its hammer form and bringing it down into the creature. This was met by one of its heads gathering frost into its maw, Nora not able to make contact in time before having a beam of ice shot directly into her torso. Just before she fell to the ground, Lie was able to sneak by and grab her, running away from the beast while Nora defrosted herself. The next attempt was a boy Ruby hadn’t seen before, him preparing a large, black mace, while concentrating his aura to his back and creating a jet of air. After a delay, Cardin flew up into the air, going to drive his mace directly into one of the creature’s heads. That was, before another head blew a column of wind into his trajectory. Cardin’s semblance and the creature’s wind struggled with each other for a moment, until the wind won the exchange, Cardin being sent back down to the ground with an audible thud. “Yeah, good idea! Keep charging at it one at a time!” Ammolite exclaimed, his voice audible through what sounded like a speaker system installed in front of the cliff site. “Well, I guess it’d only be fair if I told you what that thing is. You’re already struggling enough.” Clearing his throat, the sounds of a sheet of paper being unfolded could be heard through the speaker. The creature slowly stepped forward, each of its heads waving around and looking between the different students. “Every year, we like to put an especially strong beastie for the Ceremony, sort of as a final act. The one we have this year’s known as a Cerberus. Let’s see what those bean-counting jackasses wrote up for this thing.” Sniffling, Ammolite paused for a second, mumbling to himself as he read through the briefing. “Right. It’s a rare mutation of the beowolf, has 3 heads, each of the heads naturally convert nutrients into a different dust type, weighs a good 3 thousand kilos… yep. Well, that’s all you get for now. Good luck.” The intercom shut off, the students looking between each other, waiting for someone to get up and do something.

Walking over to the center of the battlegrounds, Ruby and Yang stood alongside each other, the both of them having their weapons out while looking up at the cerberus. Stepping next to Ruby was Weiss, and next to Yang was Blake, all of their weapons drawn. “What’s the plan?” Yang asked, Ruby gripping her weapon, thinking for a moment before speaking. “Okay,” Ruby began, the three looking towards her. “Here’s what we’re gonna do. Yang,” Yang perked up, Ruby turning to her. “Try leading it away from the others. Make it turn around so it can’t hit anymore people with its dust attacks.” Yang nodded, sighing before she spoke. “Decoy duty. Okay.” “Blake… uh… what’s your semblance, again?” “I make clones.” “Okay. I think its chains are still locked around its neck, or… necks, so just, like, try and make them tight again. It’ll choke it out and keep it restrained, which helps with what we do next,” Ruby then turned to Weiss, a grin starting to grow on her face. “Weiss,” She began, Weiss raising an eyebrow. “Let's go cut off its heads.” “Uh… okay?” Weiss answered, no further conversation being had before Ruby and Weiss split from each other, going to flank the cerberus. “She really likes beheading things, it… it kinda scares me sometimes.” Yang commented, Blake chuckling to herself, playfully shoving Yang on her back. “No more chatter, decoy.” Blake teased, Yang rolling her eyes while sucking her teeth. Firing a shot behind herself, Yang boosted over to the front of the cerberus, the grimm turning its three heads towards her. “Hey!” Yang yelled out, waving her arms while jumping up and down in front of it. “Three heads, and you’re still dumb as shit! How’s that work?” Stepping towards her, the cerberus swiped its claws at her, Yang narrowly dodging out the way. Grinning, Yang then unloaded a shell, punching it and sending the explosive projectile into one of its faces. It growled in response, one of its head drawing in wind while the other drew in fire. Yang’s eyes went wide as she watched it combine the two elements to create a large column of fire, this column rapidly growing after Yang as she tried to outrun it. Before it could hit her with its attack, Pyrrha threw her javelin into the side of its jaw, the fire ending when the wind-casting head howled out in pain. Its three heads seemed to disagree on whether to pursue Yang or Pyrrha, the body of the cerberus jerking back and forth towards the two. While it was distracted, Blake climbed up onto its back, shutting her eyes and resting her finger against her forehead. After a short delay, her aura seemed to deplete itself, creating two shadowy afterimages of her in its wake. Her and her clones then proceeded to grab onto the chains weighing down the creature, pulling them back and bringing its heads up. It bucked against her, Blake struggling to keep her strength, groaning while planting her feet into its back. Upon seeing Ruby petal bursting on one head, and Weiss boosting herself with a sigil onto the other, Blake managed to find the strength to keep going, staring intently as the both of them prepared to attack. That was, before a loud snap was heard from the cerberus’ collar. With its already damaged lock splitting in half, the collar came falling down to the ground afterwards, the chains being ripped from Blake’s grasp and sending her two clones into the ground at high speeds. The cerberus then used its newfound dexterity to swing its heads around, throwing Ruby and Weiss to the ground.

“What the hell are you all doing?!” Ammolite yelled out through the intercom, Ruby, Weiss, Yang, and Pyrrha too occupied with dodging the attacks of an angry cerberus to listen. “There’s 20 of you, and there’s only 5 fighting! Why are most of you just sitting on your asses?!” His disparaging words had a strange, yet commanding effect on the students, each of them charging and firing a barrage of projectiles at the grimm, with bullets, grenades, and shells alike connecting with parts of the cerberus’ body. It turned back to face them, charging up another beam of frost from one of its mouths, being interrupted with an incendiary mortar shot to its face. It turned to the direction of the projectile, seeing two boys surrounded by a pack of ursai. However, instead of attacking the students, the ursai seemed to make some sort of guard formation around the both of them. This anomaly was made more clear when each of the grimm had a white, translucent chain tied around where their eyes were, walking alongside a thin, elegant-looking young man with a black blindfold tied around his face. “Apologies for the delay,” He began, holding his arm around his stomach and bowing. “I had to recruit some more troops.” The student next to him, a heavy-set, pale-skinned young man in a thick, red trench suit with a black waistband. He kneeled down, using his dual-wielded hooked blades as a bipod for the mortar mounted along his back, aiming another shot at the cerberus. When the cerberus went to charge him, it was blocked by the pack of ursai, each of them clawing and tearing against the larger grimm with a fervor not naturally seen in them. It stomped down, crushing one of the ursa into the earth, howling out as another barrage of attacks were sent into its back. In a fit of rage, the cerberus began rapidly spraying fire and frost around itself, all of the students backing away while the ursai were either burnt to a crisp, or frozen solid. The blindfolded student pursed his lips at the sight of his fallen controlled grimm, inhaling deeply while backing away.

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Once the cerberus finished its bombardment upon the students, it hung its heads down, panting heavily while resting its body. Ruby noticed its exhaustion, running over around to its backside while reloading her weapon. Tossing her magazine haphazardly to the side, Ruby ran along its back, the cerberus bringing up one of its heads and looking around towards her. Before it could react, Ruby hooked her blade around its throat, it quickly standing up and trying to wiggle her off. Being flipped sideways, Ruby pressed her boots up against the back of the creature's neck, her hair falling around her face and dangling in the air while the blade of her weapon sunk further into its flesh. The cerberus howled out while sending fire and frost in random directions, one of the larger ice shards hurtling outwards and landing on Jaune during his attempt at providing medical aid, him narrowly blocking the projectile with his shield. The projectiles occasionally grazed Ruby, but the intense adrenaline pumping through her body made her hardly even notice it, her focus set only on firing her weapon and watching as every shot led her blade cutting slightly deeper. The cracking of bone and tearing of flesh echoed against Ruby’s ears, her face red with strain while pulling her scythe further into the being’s neck. With one final shot, the blade finally went through, the cerberus screeching out while one of its necks came sliding off its body, followed by black blood and bits of dust spurting out from the stump. Falling down, Ruby managed to land on her feet, sliding backwards along the earth while holding her scythe above her head. The cerberus turned around to face her, cleaving its tail through a swathe of trees while rushing towards her. Intercepting its attack was Weiss, a sigil appearing under her while she boosted in the air towards one of its remaining heads. She sent her rapier under where Pyrrha’s javelin was still stuck, pulling it out and tossing it to the ground. Gripping both of her hands at her rapier’s hilt, Weiss turned the revolving mechanism to ice dust, freezing a chunk of its neck and sending the head falling down to the ground. Jumping away, Weiss watched as a bolt of lightning collided into where the ice was built, looking back to see Gilde conjuring another bolt, with Jaune gripped onto him and boosting his aura. The neck’s bone and innards were exposed, the cerberus crying out and wildly shooting fire at anything that drew close. Unfortunately, it did not notice as a chainsaw landed into its torso, the loud noises of the engines revving only drawing its attention when it was far too late. Spinning around, Alex sent the agitated blade where the exposed bone was, the head severing from the rest of its body with a visceral cut. Managing to pull itself back onto its feet, the cerberus turned around, limping away from the students and going to escape into the forest.

Its attempt was stopped when Ruby petal bursted upwards and landed on its back, a wide, maniacal grin on her face while she ran up to its head. “Hope you weren’t, haha,” Ruby began, swinging her scythe down and slashing its blade along its neck, earning a pained screech from the cerberus. “Too attached to this!” Her joke gained a few stray groans from the crowd forming around her, with many watching horrified as Ruby brought her scythe up and planted the blade through the side of its neck. As Ruby drove the creature down onto its face, she stomped her boot down onto the back of its head, keeping a firm grip on her weapon as she began to hack away at its neck. “Ruby.” Yang spoke, stepping up behind her younger sister, a noticeably embarrassed expression on her face while Ruby loudly laughed out. “Ruby!” “Yeah?” Ruby casually replied, turning back to her and wiping the back of her hand across her face, flicking away some of the blood. “Can you, like… stop?” “What?! It’s a monster, we’re supposed to kill it!” “Yeah, but, uh.” Yang looked around, seeing a mixture of disgust, fear, and indifference amongst the crowd. “It’s not the best first impression, y’know, doing this psycho shit in front of everyone.” Ruby tilted her head, before looking over to see the shock on her fellow student’s faces. “...oh. Haha, sorry, I… g - got a little carried away.” Ruby said, rubbing at the side of her neck as she flipped her scythe back into its holstered form. As she and Yang stepped away from the cerberus, the creature began to scurry away, its body limply dragging forward while blood leaked from its two severed heads.

Much to Ammolite’s dismay, none of the students continued to chase after it, him reaching over to his table and turning on the microphone. “What the hell are you all doing?! You’re supposed to kill it! Ah, fuck it, don’t even bother.” Ammolite shut off the microphone, turning over to Penny and Zephyr, sighing before he spoke. “Go put the poor thing out of its misery.” “Understood.” Zephyr quickly replied, sliding down the cliff and beginning to run towards the grimm. Penny nodded, following Zephyr while it speeded over towards the weakened cerberus. The two received looks from the students while they ran through them, Zephyr bowing its head and unsheathing the blades along its arms. It was only seconds before it caught up with the cerberus, the creature turning around and firing a ball of flame towards it. Stepping out the way, Zephyr jumped up into the air, panels opening up along its shoulders. Firing from the panels were a barrage of missiles, the projectiles leaving the android with a fireworks-esque scream as they collided into the cerberus. Zephyr then landed on the grimm’s back, its arms slicing through its flesh in a blur, the cerberus collapsing against the ground as the last of its blood was sent in every direction. The killing blow came from Penny, her hesitantly sending one of her blades through its skull, the cerberus’ squirming finally ending. Its body began to dissolve, Zephyr jumping off of it and landing next to Penny. “Highlighting shortest route.” Zephyr spoke out loud, taking off in a direction that cut through the woods shortly afterwards. Penny inhaled deeply, nodding her head as she followed after him.

“So,” Ammolite began, the students stood in a mostly straight column in front of him. “Looks like you all completed your mission. Found your partner, then found the relic. Pretty simple.” He began to pace around the front of the column, his hands behind his back while he resumed talking. “There’s one thing you failed, though. And I feel like you already know what it is.” Some of the students averted their gaze to the ground. “Well, I’m saying it anyway.” Ammolite stopped in the middle of the crowd, pointing a finger between each of the students while he spoke. “You do not spare the life of a grimm! They aren’t some cute puppy you can take home in a picnic basket, they’re a monster that wouldn’t even think before biting your head off.” Ammolite stopped pointing, standing at ease. “Grimm have two objectives. First one is to keep themselves alive. Second is to kill everything else. Fortunately for you, you only have one.” Stepping forward, Ammolite stopped in front of a student standing next to Cardin, cocking his head. “To kill every goddamn grimm you see! And you know what happens when you don’t?” Ammolite asked, Russel squinting his eyes, looking to his left and right. “Well?” “It’s, uh… bad?” Russel answered, Ammolite sticking his hands forward around Russel’s head. “Qhukhena’s tits, you’re a genius!” Ammolite scornfully yelled out, turning around while shaking his head. “And I thought my expectations couldn’t get any lower.” Turning back around to face the students, Ammolite put his hands at ease behind his back once again, standing tall while he spoke. “When you let a grimm free, all that grimm’s gonna do is find weaker prey. When you kill one of those ugly bastards, you’re indirectly saving the lives of countless people.” Grabbing the microphone stand off the table, Ammolite held it in his hands, slowly pacing back and forth. “So if I get a little - ” Ammolite chucked the microphone into the ground, stomping down on it, much to the shock of some of the students. “Pissed! Off! That you just let one of them go free because ‘Aww! But they’re so cute!’, that’s why!” A group of 4 helicopters landed behind Ammolite, him standing out of the way of the helicopter pads, making a left turn while standing still. “Now go board! We still have to pick teams today, and your slow asses just cost us a precious hour.” The students slowly filtered onto the aircraft, the filtering speeding up as Ammolite began yelling for the students to hurry up. His words slowly drifted into the distance as the helicopters left to return to the academy, the forest slowly fading behind the view of the clouds.