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"Jaune," a high pitched, overly happy voice called out, "Jaauuneey," the voice rang out again, "You've gotta wake up now." Nora leaned down and poked Jaune hard in the head, jarring him awake or at least to consciousness.

"Hey big guy, you doin' okay?" Yang was leaning on a rock nearby, humor and concern evident in her grin. Jaune groaned and pulled himself up to a seated position.

"Oh thank Oum!" Ruby cried out as he sat up. "Oh I was so worried. Are you okay? How's your head?" Ruby dashed to his side and began examining his head from every possible angle. Yang laughed and hauled her back a few feet.

"I think he might need some room to breathe." Yang lifted Ruby up and sat her on the rock she had been leaning on.

"Well, at least someone is being rational about this." Weiss was standing, as firm and proper as ever beside an incredibly worried Pyrrha. "Who would have ever guessed it would be you?"

"Come on Weiss. If there's anything I know how to handle, it's injuries." Yang laughed and glanced across at Pyrrha who had her hands clenched beneath her chin and hadn't let her eyes wander from Jaune for even a second.

"I suppose." Weiss relaxed her shoulders ever so slightly.

"Jaune?" Pyrrha asked finally. He hadn't answered any of their questions yet and was just sitting there, rubbing at his head.

"Yeah, I'm okay," he levered himself up on one arm and rose to a standing position. Almost as soon as he was on his feet he wobbled slightly, losing his balance on both feet. Pyrrha rushed forward to support him, one arm at his elbow, the other around his waist. "Oh," Jaune laughed, "Okay, maybe not great but I'm fine." He planted both his feet and smiled at Pyrrha for helping him. She stepped back slightly, leaving one hand on his upper arm.

"I'm really sorry Jaune" Blake stepped forward from where she had been slightly hiding behind the rock and Yang. "I guess I just got a little too into it." Blake clasped both hands behind her back and looked at the ground a few feet in front of Jaune.

"It's okay," Jaune laughed nervously and rubbed the back of his head with his hand, pulling his arm out of Pyrrha's grip in the process. "Really, this happens right? No problem." Jaune smiled at her, Blake lifted her eyes just a little to find Jaune but didn't relax at all.

"Yeah, it's okay Blake." Ruby darted over to her side, "He's okay, you're okay. I kicked your butt." Ruby snickered and hopped down from her perch on the rock. Even Blake was unable to repress a small smile, her mouth widened slightly out of the worry induced grimace.

"You performed very well Ruby." Ren nodded from Nora's side. Once Jaune had woken up, she had pulled back to stand with her partner.

"Aww nah," Ruby kicked at the dirt abashedly, "I just did my thing." Ruby never lifted her eyes to meet Ren's, embarrassed by the praise as she was.

"We gonna do any more rounds?" Yang asked, look anxiously around at the two gathered teams. Ruby and Jaune both pulled out their scrolls.

"Well… I don't know." Jaune looked up at the sun, now well past noon and then back down at his scroll with his team's aura readouts. He was basically at zero still, his aura having been exhausted in the battle and now working furiously to repair whatever trauma Blake's blow had done. Nora was still recovering from the fight with Pyrrha, not even back above standard safety levels yet, they had really let them go too far. Pyrrha was doing fine, she walked away from her fight looking like nothing had happened. But Jaune was surprised to see Ren was below the safety limits as well, apparently Ruby really had given them a run for their money.

"Yeah, we already had one person get hurt. We should probably just head back." Ruby flipped her scroll around so Yang could see. Blake was down from her fight, Weiss was still recovering from the battle and glyph use. Yang had started to recover hers, like she always did, but was still only at about half and Ruby was weakened from going two on one with Ren and Blake. "The hike down will be fun though right?" Ruby tried to lighten Yang's mood even though she had just denied her the one thing she knew she loved, another fight.

"Yeah I guess you're right." Yang sighed a little but didn't seem too put out, "I wonder if anyone will be in the gym when we get back?" Yang turned to begin collecting her gear off the ground from where they had left it all at arrival.

"You just don't know when to quit do you?" Weiss turned on Yang, "One of these days you're going to get yourself hurt, and don't come crying to me-" Weiss's tirade was cut off by a high, ear-piercing screech from above the assembled Huntresses and Huntsmen in training.

Before the cry had a chance to fade away the air was filled with the whizzing and clanking of weapons being armed or drawn. Massive blades and hammerheads swinging into ready positions, swords being drawn and guns cocked back.

"Nevermore!" Ruby cried and the group scattered in opposite directions as razor sharp talons tore through the ground where they had been. Team RWBY pulled back away from the clearing as a group, Ren and Nora barely ducked the claws and came up behind the massive avian Grimm and Pyrrha hauled Jaune threw the air to safety a few dozen yards away to the remnants of the boulder Nora had smashed at their arrival.

The talons ripped free of the ground and the Nevermore pulled back into the sky with several rapid flaps of its enormous wings. The bone armor wrapped all the way around its head and along its back and chest in a crisscrossing web like pattern. It had much more shielding than an average Nevermore but the webbing left huge areas exposed, they would just have to be far more accurate with their strikes than usual.

"Stay here Jaune!" Pyrrha screamed and leapt back toward the clearing, she threw her shield against her back and rolled Milo into rifle form. Without hesitation she began firing at the bird as it circled for another pass. Ruby appeared at her side in a flash of petals, Crescent Rose collapsed into a rifle and began firing. Their dust shells sailed true, striking the Nevermore in the gaps in its armor, but it kept barreling forward. Pyrrha and Ruby both ducked behind the rock Yang had been leaning on just moments ago as the Nevermore made another pass, leaving deep gouges in the mountaintop.

"Why is it so big?" Ruby yelled at Pyrrha as they watched the Grimm swoop back into the sky.

"It's an Alpha." Pyrrha turned and threw a few more rounds at the bird as it gained altitude. Yang, Weiss, Blake, Ren and Nora appeared at their sides, ready to fight.

"We have to get it on the ground." Yang checked the rounds in her gauntlets as she spoke, "There's no way we can fight it while it's in the air like that."

"And how do you suggest we do that?" Weiss held Myternaster high, tracing the Grimm's path through the air, ready to react if it showed any sign of diving in again.

"We have to take out its wings." Jaune panted as he finally reached the group. He leaned on the rock for support and clutched at his head with his sword hand.

"Jaune, you shouldn't be here. You're hurt." Pyrrha darted to his side and reached a hand out to support him but he steadied himself before she got there.

"Weiss, how far can you launch people with your glyphs?" Jaune turned on the heiress, completely disregarding Pyrrha's show of concern.

"Not very high." Weiss admitted sullenly and let her eyes drop from the circling Grimm to Jaune. Jaune looked around at the gathered combatants and set his eyes on Nora and Yang.

"Nora, Yang. It's gonna be you two. Next time it swings in, you have to get on top of it. Weiss can you give them that gold glyph you gave Pyrrha?" Jaune turned back to Weiss who still looked uncertain.

"Yes, uhh, just one though." She looked sad, disappointed in her own abilities. Jaune nodded his head and looked back to Yang and Nora.

"You take it Nora. I've got more in the tank." Yang gave her a grin.

"You got it!" Nora whipped her hammer back into a grenade launcher as Ren called out a warning.

"It's coming in for another pass." Ren lowered into a crouch behind the rock and leveled both pistols at the Grimm. Ruby and Pyrrha took up positions around the boulder as well, Weiss stood well back and prepared her glyph, showering Nora in a golden light. Yang jumped on top of the boulder and bellowed out a ferocious war cry at the bird as it swept in. Jaune sprinted away again, not wanting to get in anyone's way.

"Oh yes." Nora cackled as her body began to shimmer with golden energy, "I need this more often." She launched two grenades at the Nevermore, striking it directly in the face, and swung Magnhild back out into a hammer. The bone mask cracked slightly above its left eye and the bird screeched in pain but continued its dive bomb. Pyrrha, Ruby and Ren filled the air with dust shells which proved mostly ineffective and Yang and Nora prepared for the jump.

The massive Grimm unfurled its wings to arrest its descent and struck out with both claws, aiming right for the rock that had been the source of so much pain for it. Nora smacked the ground with her hammer, launching herself into the air above the Grimm and Yang lunged directly at its face, hair streaming out behind her like a flag. The talons scraped over the rock, shattering most of their cover, but left the three shooters unscathed and Weiss was forced to roll out of the way as casting the glyph had left her completely without cover.

Yang's right fist connected with the cracked mask, Ember Celica's bang echoing through the forest around them. The Grimm carried on, straight through the blow and Yang flipped off her fist and onto its massive back, planting both feet on the thick armor spread over the feathers. Nora came rocketing down on top of the bird, hammer held high and smacked her giant weapon against the bird so hard it shattered a large section of the armor. The bird's body buckled under the force of Nora's strike but beat its wings at the ground and managed to take to the sky once more.

Pyrrha swung her rifle around to continue firing but Ruby pushed the barrel at the ground.

"No, they're up there now. We can't risk that." Ruby yelled.

"Ruby, I won't miss." Pyrrha corrected, "You know I won't." Ruby turned on her, enough anger on her face to prove she was related to the big blonde.

"That's my sister and your teammate up there Pyrrha." Ruby spun Crescent Rose out into it's largest scythe mode.

"She's right. We have to hope they can get it back to the ground." Ren flicked Storm Flower around his fingers and holstered the weapons. Weiss stood panting and checked herself over for injury.

"DId that thing just take a hit from Nora?" She looked up to the sky at the monstrosity above them.

"We have to get through the armor." Blake extended her weapon into its katana form. "Remember Port's lecture?" The group released a collective sigh at her reminder.

"Nora already hurt the mask, if they get it down here just go for the face." Ruby shouldered her scythe, "We've gotta kill this thing fast, before it attracts more." The group nodded in agreement and returned their eyes to the Grimm as it circled above, so high that Nora and Yang were just two colored dots on the black and white expanse of its back.

Yang dropped to a three point stance and gripped the edge of the bone armor beneath her as the Grimm banked hard, spinning around to make another swoop at her friends. Nora was still glowing golden, using the enhanced strength it gave her to wield her hammer with one hand and smack anywhere she could reach as she too held on for dear life.

"It's like it doesn't even notice." Nora bellowed over the howling wind, "How are we supposed to hurt it?" Yang looked around frantically searching for a weak point anywhere on the beast.

"Go for the wings." Yang yelled and dropped to her belly to crawl hand over hand towards one of the bulging wing joints, pumping up and down as the monstrosity wheeled through the sky.

Yang finally managed to reach the joint where the wing met the body and was overly pleased to find that the armor stopped well shy of the bulging knot of muscle and bone. It must have to keep this section unarmored so it could move its wings well enough to fly. Yang gripped the feathers in one hand, braced her feet against the edge of the bony armor and punched down again and again with her free arm, driving Ember Celica against the joint as hard as she could, firing off a round with every hit.

The Nevermore howled in pain and folded the injured wing against its side, sending them all plummeting towards the ground below. Yang never stopped wailing, she wanted this wing to come off and to make sure the Grimm never took flight again. Nora had never reached her wing and decided to straddle the beast's neck instead, one hand buried in the feathers for grip and the other swinging her hammer around wildly as she screamed in joy.

"Oh Oum, here they come." Weiss muttered and ran for cover as the Nevermore plunged straight towards them in an uncontrolled dive. Ruby, Pyrrha, Blake and Ren braced for the impact, weapons out and ready to help if needed. As the giant monster fell from the sky it began to spin, one injured wing dragging more than the other and causing it to tumble through the air. A small yellow dot was thrown out across the sky from the hurtling mass.

"Yang!" Ruby screamed as they all watched her body fly helplessly into the woods. Ruby went to run after her but Blake put a hand on her shoulder.

"She'll be fine Ruby. We have to finish this first." Blake locked her gold eyes on Ruby's silver ones and Ruby nodded her head sullenly but with determination. Blake was right, if anyone abandoned the fight now they risked even more people getting hurt here. Yang was tough, she'd be okay. Ruby watched as her sister's body broke the treeline with a muted crash and turned back to face the problem at hand.

Nora heard Yang yell as she was thrown from the wing but there was nothing she could do. It was taking every ounce of her, now fading, glyph enhanced strength to stay where she was. She collapsed Magnhild against her back and held onto the feathers in front of her with both hands. The ground rushed up to meet them and Nora let out a scream of panic and excitement as she was launched through the air and off the creature.

Rocks and dirt were thrown into the air by the impact, Nora's yell barely audible over the sound of rending dirt and cracking rocks under the Grimm's body.

"Did we get it?" Jaune screamed from his and Weiss's hiding spot.

"I don't think so." Ruby yelled back, scythe at the ready. Their doubts were answered as a hail of debris was thrown around them, the beast shaking itself loose from the screeched as it stood on it's hind legs, one wing hanging limp and useless at its side, the other fanned out in an impressive display of size. It was by far the largest Grimm any of them had ever faced and now they were face to face with it.

The assembled warriors loosed a battle cry and charged straight at their foe. Weiss and Jaune even entered the fray from their position of relative safety, brandishing their swords and running forward bravely. The Nevermore swept out with wing and beak, meeting the warriors at every turn. Pyrrha and Ruby took to attacking its still mobile wing, jumping and leaping at the exposed flesh and swiping away at any part of the appendage they could reach. The beast buffeted them with huge winds turned up by its wing and fired its own feathers at them as razor sharp projectiles.

Ren and Blake attacked from the weak side, going at the injured wing and trying to reach its face like Ruby had instructed. The bird was so tall that even their impressive agility was incapable of getting them there in a single leap. Every attempt to scale its body ended with them hurtling back to the ground or avoiding the monster's massive beak, picking at them like fresh worms.

Jaune and Weiss for their part did their best to immobilize the creature or topple it over. They charged at the talons and struck at the ankles, battering their blades against the rough hide exterior protecting the Grimm's fragile muscle structure underneath. Even injured as it was the Nevermore managed to kick and strike at them with its feet. Not entirely able to hold them off but preventing the two exhausted hunters from inflicting any significant damage.

Roby swung Crescent Rose in a wide arc, severing feather missiles out of the air in front of her and charged directly through the gap she had made on a wave of rose petals. The Nevermore reeled back and away from her first swing and swatted at her with its wing. Ruby tucked over in the air and landed nimbly atop the bone of the wing, using the beast's own body as a runway. Pyrrha swept in from the other side, coming straight at the creature's chest, Milo out in spear form and cocked behind her shoulder. With a bang she hurtled the spear at the creature's face and Ruby leapt into the air to bring Crescent Rose's massive double blade down on it's skull. Both strikes hit home, Ruby's scythe sinking into the crack Nora had made earlier and Milo Burying itself deep into the Grimm's eye.

Ruby yanked her blade free and let her momentum carry her over to the beast's injured side where Blake and Ren were ready to meet her.

"It's skull is too thick. We need Yang or Nora up there." Ruby screamed at them as she landed. Ren cast a saddened glance at Nora's latent body resting on a pile of dirt in the distance and Ruby looked out at the trees Yang had snapped on her way down.

"We can handle this." Blake said with more confidence than they were used to hearing from her, "Let's drive Pyrrha's spear further in. There's no armor on its eye." Blake gestured up at where the spear was still jutting from it face. Pyrrha lifted her hands and began to focus her semblance to return her weapon to herself.

"Pyrrha don't!" Ruby yelled and darted towards her as fast as she could, pushing herself hard to hopefully stop Pyrrha from getting rid of their one advantage. Pyrrha turned as Ruby yelled, puzzlement on her face. Ruby saw the wing before she did, a massive black appendage swooping down behind her. "Noo." Ruby cried as the wing made contact with Pyrrha's back and launched across the clearing into a rock.

"Pyrrha!" Jaune screamed. He ducked a kick from the Nevermore and ran towards his fallen partner. "Please be okay. Please be okay. You better be okay." Jaune muttered under his breath as he sprinted. He reached her and pulled her out of the fissures her body had made in the boulder. She groaned and sat up in his arms.

"Is that what it's like when I floor you?" she asked, her voice strained but her body clearly intact.

"Oh no," Jaune chuckled in relief, "No, he barely tapped you."

Weiss's strength was failing her, the fight with Yang and Nora had completely drained her and she really should not have used that glyph on Nora. She had poured far too much of her own aura into the redhead and now could barely summon enough energy to keep up with this beast. Ruby, Blake and Ren were doing an admirable job of keeping the bird's more dangerous parts distracted but with Pyrrha gone they were starting to struggle. Dodging the feet had been a lot easier too when she had a partner down here with her. Now that she was alone, the talons were scraping much closer than she felt comfortable with as she ducked and rolled, stabbing at its ankles all the time.

The bird screeched again, a noise so loud it hurt Weiss's ears and she could only imagine what it did to Blake. With a mighty effort, the massive Grimm leapt backwards through the air, propelled only by its leg muscles. As it soared backwards and away from them it swept its wing across it's chest, unleashing a barrage of feathers with razor sharp tips. Weiss remembered initiation and how she had saved Ruby from just such an attack. It was ironic to her that this same creature might be the end of her. She stabbed her blade into the ground and poured every bit of strength she had into an ice shield. Channeling her final bits of aura into the dust to protect herself from the rain of death the beast had unleashed.

Feather tips came piercing through the ice but the frozen wall held together, keeping the points from ever scraping the heiress's porcelain skin. She breathed a sigh of relief and released the barrier, letting the dust dissolve away. Just to be faced with the beak of the Oum-be-damned bird coming straight at her. Weiss threw her rapier up in a guard, too low on dust and aura to do anything else and just hoped Blake would forgive her for how she treated her, hoped Yang knew she never meant half of what she said, hoped Ruby would grow up and take charge. She braced herself and stared her coming doom in the face.

"Not today bird brain." Yang launched herself at the Grimm's face, clenched both hands together like a hammer and brought her strike down on the back of Pyrrha's spear, driving the blade all the way out the bottom of the beast's head and into the ground. Her glowing mane of hair whipped out behind her as she tumbled past the bird to the sound of Yang's gauntlets going off reverberating through every bone in Weiss's body. The Nevermore's beak was less than a foot from her chest, immobilized by the spear now extending from its eye socket to the ground beneath. Without a noise the huge body started to dissolve away, fading into black ash and dust that rifted away on the wind.

Yang collapsed to her knees on the opposite side of its head, having fallen there after her strike hit home. Her hair faded back to its normal yellow and the red haze drifted from her eyes, revealing deep purple again. She collapsed to the ground, covered in scrapes and cut, blood running freely down her leg from a tear in her shorts. Weiss moved as fast as she could to Yang's side.

"You dolt, how did you let yourself get hurt?" she fell to her knees by Yang and supported the other girl. "Do you have any idea how long it's going to take you to recover from this? Not to mention your poor clothes." Weiss fretted over her partner's sister. She pulled the shorts up past the cut and tore a long piece of white fabric from her combat skirt, using it to tie the wound shut.

"I told you snowflake, it's fine. If I can handle one thing, it's getting hurt." Yang wheezed an attempt at laughter but settled for a groan as she leaned back into Weiss's surprisingly strong arms.

"Oh shut up you, and you owe me a new skirt." Weiss said as she tore another length of fabric and wrapped it around a long cut on Yang's arm.

A/N - Okay, so like I told a lot of you who reviewed last week. This chapter was rather experimental and after edits and edits and re-edits I'm really still not happy with it. I don't think I have ever read a fanfic that handled Grimm combat extremely well. I mean, let it be said that I read mostly shipping fics and comedy romance stuff so obviously not the focus but still. So, I tried to go a little different direction with it and see how it worked. The third person omniscient viewpoint seemed to work rather well to me, what did you think? Did the combat work? Perhaps I should have started with a real Grimm and not my own made up 'Alpha Nevermore'. Who knows. Please tell me what you thought!

So, we got some more ship building going on here. A couple different irons in the fire right now. What are you betting on? What do you want to see? What do you not want to see? Does it matter at all or is the story already done? Find out on Thursday =P (no seriously, no matter what you say I'm already done writing the story so it's fine)

Can't wait to hear from you all, hope you enjoyed the chapter!

-Zach