After everything that was said and done, the girls were students so it was back to reality for them. Schoolwork welcomed them back after their little adventure to stopping attacks for their group after they discovered a little bit of an illegal operation. Another normal day for Team RWBY right?
And another one was just right ahead. Today, was the start of the practicals which meant first years like them were going to start their missions and were graded by their professors in their given missions.
"So what do you think, girls? Where will we start?" Yang asked as they all gathered around the boards in the middle of the hall where most of the students gathered around to see what missions were available to do.
Weiss looked around, lugging her weapon by her waist and scanning the nearby boards. "What about clearing missions? We can do a few of them and get more credits." She suggested, looking at the three other girls.
"That seems reasonable but won't material gathering and area security be better? It won't be boring and we get to compete against each other." Blake suggested as she eyes the one that was down by the marina where they pull in the fish catches.
"Pssshh...how about we help out deliveries? We get to travel far up to Haven!" Ruby told them, pointing at the few that were listed for their year level. "Besides, we have professors supervising so it won't be hard, right?" She asked.
The girls had to discuss among themselves what missions could they do for their first. It was about to turn to a heated debate that didn't, thanks to Professor Goodwitch who showed up at the right time.
"Team RWBY?" She called out, looking at the bunch who are ready to throw punches at each other from the discussion of picking missions. They all straightened out upon hearing the blonde professor call up to them.
"You've already been assigned a mission from Professor Ozpin." She told them.
This was confusing for the whole team but seeing that this was from Ozpin himself, they didn't see why would they turn it down. It was practically an order exclusively for their team alone so why not?
An infestation of Grimm. That was a good reason for them to refuse. Being unsupervised by a professor is another too.
Team RWBY was sent to the outskirts and the furthest corner of Vale's jurisdiction where they were instructed to Clear out a small town where people have been reported to be stuck due to the increasing amount of large Grimm that surrounded the area.
From the air, the team could see the population of the monsters that roamed the vicinity and when they were dropped off, they underestimated it.
"We'll pick you up in three days. Just send out an SOS if you need extraction." Said the pilot that dropped the girls off at a nearby forest clearing a few kilometers away from the town.
Thus, the start of their mission. Ruby and Yang made sure to go ahead of the team, Blake scouting ahead at the treetops and the canopy to warn them of any Grimm that might cause them trouble upon entering the town.
A few smaller ones came around to try to get them as food but they finished them off quickly as not to disrupt their time in trying to enter the area. Thank the gods that they managed to get in and sneak to an area with a lesser Grimm population to check if there were signs of life in the place at all.
"This place is abandoned. Did Glynda think someone was here?" Blake told them as she stood on top of a house that was burned down, the wooden frames of the roof and the steel foundations were all that was left of the building.
Weiss felt something bad in her gut and looked around, trying to pinpoint what was causing the uncomfortable feeling that was growing in her chest but she couldn't find anything odd other than the amount of larger Grimm around them.
Yang looked around too, feeling the same odd sensation. All of them felt dread and the horrible feeling that something was wrong in the place.
Houses were all boarded up at the doors and windows, many were burned down and brought down form a fight that happened a long time ago, the lingering cold was unnatural for a town that was close to a city by the sea, and the whole place simply had no sign of activity or life from when they came. Not even townsfolk that were trying to get supplies for themselves or people fending off Grimm. Usually, there would be huntsmen and huntresses around such places to get bounty off killing many Grimm in an area but there was no one. Not a single soul.
"We should split up and check if there is anyone alive around here." Ruby suggested.
Yang gave her a bitter look. "Are you serious? Grimm are everywhere and if we split up now, it might mean serious trouble if these all decide to swarm." She gestured to a large number of boarbatusks and beowolves around. Not to mention a few manticores flying around at the distance.
"How about pairs then? I'll take Blake. Weiss and Yang, you two can look around the other half of the town." Ruby suggested again, drawing out a layout of the town and where their areas would be. "Maybe we can also look for a place to camp. It's getting dark."
Weiss bit her lip. "Something feels wrong here." She spoke up. "I think we should just stick together and scout around? Maybe clear off the population of the Grimm too?" The white-haired girl added.
Ruby sighed. "How about this. We split into pairs and we'll rendezvous here? If there would be a swarm, we can take them here where we know the place and we can escape easily. Alright?" She finalized, looking at the three other girls of the team.
"Sounds good to me." Yang answered, fixing and calibrating her arm and weapon. Blake simply nodded and so did Weiss, although she looked most nervous of all fo them.
They all split up to their pairs and headed the opposite directions, a pair scanning the north side of the town, their other on the south. Ruby and Weiss got paired off together whereas Blake and Yang went off on their own.
It wasn't long when they heard gunshots, blades clashing and fighting from each side, thinning out the Grimm population little by little. Unfortunately, the Grimm in the area was more than what they thought.
Both pairs were soon dealing with Grimm that formed crowds around them, Manticore flying in the sky trying to swoop down on them while Boarbatusks, beowolves, and ursai try to move in on them and try to overwhelm them from the ground.
Ruby and Weiss were holding off well on their own as they went around the town but the swarm followed them around and not a single breath of life was found in the houses and buildings around.
Weiss was quick to dial-up Yang in her scroll to inform them of their situation that might be getting out of hand. "Yang, we don't know where and how but there is a swarm that's been following and trying to kill us off." It was a miracle someone answered her call.
"Same here! We have to rendezvous to fix this." She told them, Ruby hearing their conversation as Weiss was using her rapier and her powers to keep the Grimm off her as she tried to get across the other half of the team.
Ruby sped through next to her when a manticore tried to swoop and get her by its claws, quickly shielding Weiss off of it. "Watch your head!"
Weiss ducked under Ruby's arms and kept her scroll, ending the call. "We have to go back. I don't know where this swarm came from!"
Without hesitation, they both rushed back to their meeting point as they fought their way around and through the horde that was following them.
From afar, you would think they were heralding sheep, like shepherds at a farm. It was the complete opposite. The herd was the one trying to attack and kill them.
Thankfully, all of them got together with minor injuries like scrapes and bruises that can be easily dealt with but they were starting to see why this place gave them such a horrible feeling.
"Where did they come from?!" Blake can't help but ask as she saw a few dozens of White Fang soldiers that had their weapons pointed at their direction, somehow alive with all this Grimm around them.
"I have no idea." Yang replied.
The soldiers were balsy enough to attack first, forcing the whole team to defend themselves even though they knew that this was going to cost lives.
"Ruby, we have to go back. This isn't a mission as much as it is a culling of us and our heads!" Weiss screamed as she shelled herself from an oncoming boarbatusk which eventually got her and threw her a few feet back.
"Weiss!" Ruby wanted to run to her girlfriend to get her up and help her but ursai were trying to dice her up with their sharp claws and she could only keep up with so much of the monsters around them. "Get up! Weiss!"
The white-haired girl struggled to get to her feet as the Grimm was trying to pin her down, Manticores going at her throat wave after wave. "I-I can't! Blake, cover me!!" She screamed out as she tried to fight for her life, trying to get up.
Yang took it upon herself to make an opening for Blake to get out of her fight. "Go! Help her up and head back into the woods! Ruby! Let's cover!"
Ruby understood what they had to do for them to get out of this useless fight. This was an ambush. A very one-sided ambush that they couldn't get themselves out alive if they continue fighting.
Blake quickly got to Weiss and helped her up, clearing out the air quite literally for her to stand. "Head for the woods!" She said as she kept Weiss up.
Unfortunately, Weiss' fall caused her to break her ankle and a few ribs which were making her hurt by simply breathing. "Ruby--" She wheezed as she swung her rapier to her side to dice up an ursai that was about to come down to them. It was a great way to realize that she pulled a few muscles by her side too and it was painful to move anything.
"Go! Go! Go!!" Ruby kept moving back to the treeline, firing at the monsters that got too close to them, firing explosion spells and bombs to get the white fang off them too.
"This is sick! This was one-sided from the very start!" Yang complained as she let out flames that gave them a chance to cover their asses and screen for some time to get out of sight.
Ruby and Yang did an ice and fire cover, fog keeping anything from seeing them escape deeper into the woods to give them a chance to live. Thankfully, it worked.
The four of them vanished into thin air, out of sight from their enemies.
Back at the Tower of Beacon, the great professor Glynda Goodwitch was simply watching the fight up until the point where the girls escaped. Her eyes scanned for them the best she could but they all vanished just like that.
This place a disappointed smile on her face, a smile that said she wished she would have seen more of their fight than the relief of seeing them escape. She closed off her scroll and made a call to an unknown number.
"Hello? It's me. It was close but they still managed to escape." She informed the person on the other line. "No, Ozpin doesn't know about this. He's not here."
Glynda walked over the large glass windows of the tower, behind Ozpins' desk and looked out onto the campus and the Emerald forest. "Yes, I'll tell you when they come back. Don't worry, I'll keep this between you and me."
The professor then dropped the call and sighed, pinching her nose bridge. It made her irritated to know that those four weren't finished off. She returned to the couch at the office and sat to watch the whole footage once more, keeping a close eye and observing the girls.
"What a shame."
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A/N: Hello, hello~! Y'all were flooding my notifications so I figured I'd update. I missed writing this one! I'm currently working on one that's an original. I want to apologize for the long wait.
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