While Arty shot at a charging Beowolf, Roland wrestled with an Ursa, and Timbre whipped at a reasonably large Nevermore, Sepia was making her way from tree to tree. At each tree, she would run a circle around it, climb up and down, and give it a good kick before moving onto the next one.

When Timbre finally managed to slice her enemy in half, a dinging noise came from her scroll to indicate the kill. When the fight was over, she turned to see Sepia going along with whatever it was that she was doing.

"Sepia! We've barely killed anything so far! ANTE has 28, and FREZ has 34! We only have 15… You need to, you know, help!" Timbre shouted, but Sepia just kept on with her strange game of "I Spy".

She held up a finger to shut Timbre up. She was on a mission. After a few more minutes, she managed to find what she was looking for. A small hollow could barely be seen near the lower limbs of a tree.

Sepia shimmied up the tree trunk and looked inside. Dozens of little molten dots could be seen scuttling around. A bunch of tiny Scuttlepods hid in a tree hollow, all of them awaiting the day that they would be big enough to pose a threat to the people of Remnant.

As the opportunity had finally been found, she shoved the barrel of one of her guns into the hollow and held down the trigger. The Scuttlepods were met with swift, yet incredibly painful, deaths as her reels of film ammo spun bullets into their home. Black smoke billowed out of the hole, then her scroll began dinging in rapid succession.

Arty shot a paintball and a burst of electricity fried the head of the Beowolf. He took out his scroll as it chimed. His eyes widened as he saw the stats on the screen, "Sepia! That's just dirty," he scolded.

Timbre turned to her partner, "That shouldn't count!"

"It should," Roland cut in with his hands clutched against the sprawling claws of an Ursa. He gave the Ursa a quick headbutt, then threw it to the ground and decapitated it with a fresh blade of paper and ink, "She tracked them down and killed them fair and square. That's what I thought she was doing, but didn't tell you guys because you'd have this reaction, which is what she probably wanted."

Sepia nodded while hanging from the branch above the hollow.

Arty and Timbre stopped and looked to Roland. Their synchronicity since they'd started dating was always a strange sight to behold when it reared its ugly head.

"How in the bloody hell did ARTS get up ta 84 points?!" Alice yelled as she dashed through the woods, a rogue Venice-gone-Wendigo chasing after her and Turf.

"Knowing them, I'm gonna guess Arty blew a group of Grimm up," Turf huffed as he ran alongside her. He could still hear the Wendigo a ways off, but he didn't know quite how far away. Unlike his cousins, he had a little harder time telling distance by sound, "Maybe we can find a bunch of Tuu or something."

Alice glanced back to the rampaging beast behind them as it clawed right through trees to gain ground on them. "Bigga is betta, Ace. We can argue for more points. Now, if you would be so kind, do ya mind doin' somethin' ta stop this thing for a bloody second so I can kill it!?"

"These are dog ears, not wolf ears! I can't tell… where exactly… it is… to shoot at it..." Turf's voice trailed off, "Alice, please slap me for being an idiot."

"Afta this thing is dead, Turf!"

"Right," he shut his eyes and focused on the ground beneath them. The footsteps of the Wendigo were heavy and shook the earth, and told a guy with a Semblance that allowed him displace land exactly where it was.

He raised a hand up into the air quickly, and looked into the sky. Only a second later, the Wendigo could be seen flying high into the sky in front of the shattered moon, a pillar of rock obstructing the path behind them, "Think you can take it out now?"

"With my Semblance... I can do anythin'…" Alice reeled her arm back. Hearts dotted the face-side of the card in her hand. Time seemed to slow as the dark howling figure flew between her and the moon. She didn't need a real Semblance to kill a monster. A fake one would do just fine. With the shot lined up, she launched the card through the air. The airborn Grimm disappeared in a fiery explosion. "Oi, fireworks."

"Nice, but I don't feel like doing the whole kiss that ends scenes like this" Turf made a gagging noise. He realized what he said and chuckled, "Wow, now I'm starting to sound like Sepia. Treating real-life like one of her movies."

Alice turned and walked further into the forest, "With your doggy breath? No way, but on your second point, I do wish you'd be as quiet as her sometimes," she held up some more cards, "No one sounds like Sepia, by the by."

"By the by? You mean 'by the way', don't you?"

Alice stomped in frustration, "'By the by' is just as correct as 'by the way', Turf! Why does nobody else around here know that except for me?"

"Frost probably says weird things like that," he looked up at the whisp of smoke that was left in the Wendigo's place as if to make sure it was dead, "and I bet Rime questions it as much as I do sometimes."

"Great, Everest and Zero are off doing their thing and we're stuck here with these stupid spiders!" Rime stomped her foot down on a Raach as big as her head, "How are our scores doing, by the by?

"One, ARTS is up at 85 now and ANTE is up at 30, and two, it is 'by the way', Rime," Frost huffed as her bladed ribbons fell to her sides. About seven Raach began fading into nonexistence around her.

"Why does everyone think they need to correct me when I say tha- STUPID SPIDERS WHY WON'T YOU ALL JUST DIIIIIIE!" Rime continued stomping around as smaller Raach tried to climb up her legs. In her panic, she looked almost like a child throwing a temper tantrum. She summoned a staff of ice and began stabbing it into the ground. Bone plates cracked and shadowy dust filled the air as she continued flailing and screaming. Despite their size, the white-hot venom that dripped from their mouths still hurt. She had to keep a block of ice on hand to wipe away the liquid before it completely ate away at her aura.

When she was done, the Raach that were previously clamoring around her feet were gone and she was panting heavily, sweat pouring down her face and her hair wildly matted. Her socks were drenched from constantly rubbing ice on her shins.

"Are you okay?" Frost asked with an eyebrow raised.

"I… hate… spiders…" Rime managed to get out between breaths, "Almost as much as I hate Grimm. Together they form my biggest nightmare."

"Yeah, I noticed…" Frost began retracting her weapons, "I am curious about why ARTS got a big point boost. I am going to check the killfeed and see what I can find. Are you alright with keeping an eye out on the area while I do? Maybe call Zero and Everest to come group up with us for some… backup?" she opened her scroll and began scrolling through the recent kills. She certainly wasn't too concerned about the Raach hiding out in the trees around them.

Rime created small icicle throwing knives and held them between her fingers as she looked around in a panic. "Make it quick? I can't go long without somebody watching my back. I don't want these eight-legged, acid-spewing freaks getting the jump on us in case there are any bigger ones!"

"If you keep holding onto those negative emotions, then they will just swarm you even more. If I am being honest, I am horrified of spiders, too, but I learned to repress those fears when I fight. If I refuse to do that, then I may die one day as a result of my fear," Frost noted while scrolling through the killfeed. She noticed something peculiar. Apparently, the boost in points for Team ARTS came from Sepia killing 65 Scuttlepods, "Those little…" she pursed her lips, "Rime, Sepia took out 65 Scuttlepods. I bet she found a nest of really tiny ones or something…"

"Are we not doing the same sorta thing?!" Rime yelled as she kept throwing icicle after icicle at the swarm of creatures.

"It is not proving to be that effective…" Frost mumbled.

"Because they won't stop moving, Frost!" Rime shouted.

"That is not hindering Zero or Everest," Frost held up her scroll to show a killfeed constantly updating with kill after kill by the two young men, "Why not just freeze them and then shatter them once they are immobile?"

Rime stopped in her tracks and blinked, "Oh… good point." Rime stood and faced the creatures, now with a defiant grin on her face, "You guys need to chill out." She summoned a freezing vortex of wind from the blue crystal around her neck. Grass turned white with frost and the wind whipped through the air in twinkling sparkles of ice. The arachnoid Grimm tried to fight back, but eventually succumbed to their frigid demise, "Dammit… now I'm doing the puns..." she turned to her team leader, "Care to finish them off? Your… ribbony… thingies… would probably do better than anything I could think up."

"The collective name of my weapon is Borealis, Rime. I worked very hard on developing them, and will put you on their receiving end if you do not address them with the respect that they deserve," Frost re-released her weapons, "Think you could back up a bit? It would be a shame to accidentally decapitate you while taking out a bunch of Raach." she asked and then began whipping her weapons in a wide circle around herself.

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever, Frost." Rime leaned back against a tree, outside the circle of frozen spiders. "Let 'em have it, Frost!" she called out from her safe spot.

Frost, still twirling, lowered her hands to the ground. Turning on her heels, she allowed her ribbons sweep across the frozen horde. The Raach burst into sparkling dust when struck, their scattered shards reflected the moonlight like shattered glass. When the smoke and ice faded, she retracted her weapons, "What does that bring us up to?"

"Woah! FREZ just shot up to 76 points, dude!" Ebon yelled to his partner as he circled a trio of three large Ursa on his skis. A circular wall of ice and snow corralled them to the center of the clearing, "And it just keeps going up! We're falling behind everyone now!"

Navy didn't care. "Just keep them close together so I can finish them." Navy dashed and lept into the group. He planted a boot firmly on one bear-Grimm's head, bending down to hold the barrel of his pistol against its temple. With a few quick shots, it was down.

"Yo! Navy! Watch out!"

Navy turned just in time to see a black paw barreling towards him.

With a heavy swat, Navy was thrown off of the dissipating body of the downed Ursa and slammed into the dirt, knocking the air out of him.

"Man, looks like you don't just get your butt handed to you by other students!" Ebon laughed and dived into the fray, his skis retracting into his boots. The Ice Dust points of his ski poles were driven into the foreheads of the two Ursa. From the stab wounds, ice crystals burst out and skewered the heads of the Ursa from every angle as he pumped freezing projectiles into their skulls, "I've got you covered, though."

Navy scoffed, "pff… whatever," he winced as he pulled himself to his feet.

Ebon jumped down and landed with a thud as his heavy ski boots hit the ground."You could say thank you." His cocky smile quickly faded as he found himself face to face with the barrel of Navy's glock. "Woah! Woah! Navy! I know we never said anything about inner-team battles, but I'm pretty sure the same rules apply! I take back what I said!" He held his hands up as the gunshot rang out. He shut his eyes, but didn't feel any bullet hit him or even reflect off of his aura.

Navy stood with the end of his gun smoking slightly. He wasn't looking at Ebon. He was looking behind him.

Ebon turned just as one of the injured Ursa began teetering over, blotting out the light of the moon as it began to fall over him. He rolled away just in time to avoid getting crushed by the thing's body.

"I think I'm the one that needs thanking. Or you could call us even and shut up about it." He holstered his gun and began walking away, "Come on. Let's find more so we can finish this stupid game."

"Fine, fine, thanks," Ebon kicked some ice out of his way and trudged along ahead. His boots crunched the snow while he walked, but this didn't distract him from what was eating at him, "Wait a second, I thought that you of all people would be stoked to kill a bunch of Grimm, or kill anything for that matter."

"When it's for a mission or class, it's fine," Navy's brow furrowed even deeper as he continued ahead, "The twelve of us out here right now are treating this like a game. What people need to learn is that what we do isn't a game. The Huntsmen Academies were put in place to protect people from Grimm. Wouldn't the logical thing to think be that Grimm are more than just playthings?"

"If we can bring them down to the level of playthings, doesn't that mean that we're good enough to take them on? I mean, us being able to play a game with Grimm successfully could be an indication that we're effective Grimm killers," Ebon pointed out.

"That's an ignorant way of thinking of things, Ebon." Navy said bluntly. "Toys don't actively try and kill people. You treat them as such, your guard goes down, and if your guard goes down," another loud bang suddenly rang out.

Ebon heard a loud thud behind him. He turned back to find a dead Beowolf at his heels.

"You die."

"And ARTS takes the lead by a long shot!" Arty chanted as he dashed through a shallow stream.

Timbre stayed close behind, "Literally twenty minutes ago you scolded Sepia for her little bug-hunt method…"

"Yeah, well," Arty snickered, "I thought about it a bit, and I realized it'll be funny to see Frost and Alice's faces when we win, won't it?"

"Got that right," Roland glanced around the area as they ran. After all, he didn't want any Grimm coming around. He slowed down, "Hold up, guys. You see that?"

Everyone stopped.

"See what, Roland?" Timbre asked, her wires at the ready.

"Another big-point target?" Arty sounded hopeful as he aimed his gun towards the thicket of trees where Roland was looking.

"No…" he tried to peer into the trees, but they were too thick to see very far. Something didn't quite feel right, "Call it Faunus intuition, but I think we're being watched."

Sepia stood beside Roland and shut her eyes. In a few moments, she opened them again and shook her head. If she hadn't seen anything with her Semblance, then there was probably nothing to worry about.

Timbre shrugged "I'm sure it was nothing then, Ro-"

A line of explosions cut Timbre and Roland away from Arty and Sepia. Smoke filled the air. The four of them coughed until the air finally cleared.

Arty wiped at his eyes and blinked them back open. All he could see was a flash of red before something heavy hit him square in the chest, launching him back into a tree. He slid down to the ground. "Oww…" he groaned as he pulled himself to his feet.

"Haha! That's what you get for cheatin'!" Alice taunted as she flipped a card between her fingers.

Sepia whistled at Timbre and nodded. Knowing that Timbre would catch her drift, Sepia sprinted at Alice with her guns in front of her. If she could have, she would have been screaming like a banshee. Sadly, she had to settle for sliding on the ground between Alice's legs and firing a few shots towards her back as she came out the other side.

"Why you little…" Alice grimaced.

Sepia giggled to herself as she continued the barrage. That is, until she found a boot on her stomach, stopping her mid-slide.

"Well hello there." Navy grabbed Sepia by the hem of her skirt and threw her backwards. She fell into the water of the stream with a loud splash.

"Hey, jarhead!"

Navy turned and suddenly found a thick wire wrapped around his waist.

In one quick jerk, Timbre had Navy flying towards her. She stepped back, preparing her foot for a devastating kick. As Navy came close enough, she swung and threw her foot outwards. The heel of her boot connected with the side of his face and sent him sprawling around twenty feet away.

"Dammit, Navy! Ya let her catch you off-guard!" Alice yelled.

"Aww…" Timbre mocked sympathy, "did I break your boy-toy, Alice?"

All was fun and games when it came to beating the living hell out of one another, which was quite a step up to their previous quarrels earlier in the semester.

Talking crap about Faunus was something that could be ignored within reason. Grabbing Sepia by the skirt was completely unforgivable, "Navy…" Roland glowered down at the jerk in blue, "you grabbed my girlfriend's skirt and threw her. Do you have any idea what you just got yourself into?"

Navy was still recovering from his sudden back-breaking trip across the clearing and the boot to the face, so he just spit at Roland in response.

"Hey Alice, your boyfriend is a dick, and he touches other girls. Do with that as you will," he crouched next to him and wiped the spit back off onto Navy's face. "You can get pissy at me all day Navy, but you do not touch Sepia. Got it?"

Arty saw that Turf and Ebon were distracted by the continuing battle between Navy, Alice, Roland, and Sepia. He decided that if Team ANTE wanted to fight, then he'd fight back too. He aimed his gun at the boy in the green beanie. "No hard feelings, right Turf?"

"Nah," Turf raised his shovel like a baseball bat, "No hard feelings when I kick your butt, right Arty?"

Arty grinned and began firing paintball after paintball. Shades of blue, green, yellow, and white flew through the air before being batted away as if they weren't full of highly potent elemental energy.

Turf held up the end of his shovel to show Arty. It was coated in an icy haze, bursts of electricity, and bits of stone, "You… you really didn't think this one through, did you?" he asked while examining his newly Dust infused weapon, "I mean, it's a flat end. It was like playing table tennis…"

Arty stood a bit stunned. "Well… I guess I really didn't think that through," he shifted his hold on his weapon, forcing it to fold open and straighten out into the bat-shaped form he seldom used, but he found it to be the best option given the circumstances. He pointed it at Turf, "What do you say we even the odds, eh?"

"I mean, you kind of… already put the odds on my side in the first place… but alright," Turf stepped forwards and took a swing at Arty's head, but missed when Arty had the forethought to duck. The electricity pulsating through the weapon made their hairs stand on end. He gritted his teeth to get over it, "Do you always feel like this with Lightning Dust?"

"Oh, most definitely," Arty leapt up, holding the handle of his bat with both hands. They exchanged a few blows, Dust energy jolting through the air with every clash. Arty ducked back away from Turf.

"Aw, no need to give up now, Arty." Turf grinned as he rushed his opponent.

"Oh, you have the wrong idea, my good friend." Arty knew the type of Dust he wanted to use was somewhere in his weapon, he just had to get through enough paintballs to finally get to it. As Turf drew closer, he lifted Palette above his head before slamming it down hard on the ground in front of Turf's feet. A dark purple and black burst of shadow spread out beneath him.

"Great…" Turf sighed. Purple Dust meant Gravity, that much he knew. Arty put a lot of force behind that downward slam, and that force had to be let out somehow. As a result, Turf was launched into the sky above.

"Impressive…" Timbre lowered her wires and watched as Turf ascended into the cold night air, screaming the whole way up.

Arty looked to her in disbelief as he pointed to the Faunus now flying through the sky, "I just launched your boyfriend into the sky and you're perfectly okay with that?..."

Timbre blushed, "He's not… I… he…"

"Bloody hell, Painta-Boy! Did you have ta launch him inta the stratosphere?!" Alice said in disbelief as she watched her partner do his best impression of the Wendigo they had taken out earlier that night. She turned to Ebon, "You haven't done anythin' this whole fight except stand there and gawk! Go catch Turf before he splats on the ground!"

Ebon couldn't help but laugh, "Honestly, it's more fun just to watch you guys slap-fight each other like little kids. Turf's a big boy. He can handle himself."

As Alice continued to bicker at Ebon, a black figure shot across the sky and slammed into Turf. Underneath the whipping cloth of what seemed to be a cloak was a dull, blood red glow. It carried him with it into the trees on the other side of the clearing.

Silence fell over Team ARTS and Team ANTE. All of them froze at once. All of them counted those around them. No one but Turf was missing. Whatever that thing was was the ninth one to join the fray and they were fairly certain that the eerily glowing silhouette wasn't a member of Team FREZ.

"Who the hell was that?..." Timbre stumbled back in shock. Her brain finally caught up with what had just happened. "Turf!" Panic fell over her as she dashed towards the trees in the direction the mysterious figure had fallen with him.

"Timbre, wait!" Arty yelled after her, "We don't know who or… what that was!"

She snapped around, "So you're fine with Turf being alone with them?!" She continued running, shaking her head as she dashed away, "Nuh-uh. No way!"

"Alice! He's your partner! Come on!" Ebon grabbed Alice by the arm and started making a run for the trees.

"Everyone just hold on!" Roland shouted. He was already helping Navy up, "Alice, Ebon, stay put. We don't need to take any chances by splitting up any further. Thought Timbre would have learned by now at least…" he watched the edge of the clearing, "I thought I saw someone earlier. At first I thought it was just you guys, but it was whatever just took Turf. I'm sure of it."

"Oh no… oh no…" Arty dropped his weapon and began pacing wildly, "This is bad… this is very very bad!... We need to get Timbre and Turf and get out of this forest!"

"Team FREZ is still out there," Ebon said quickly, "They might have no idea that we're not alone out here."

Roland clenched his fists, "That thing can't be friendly. If it's just Timbre and Turf out there, then they'll definitely get hurt… or worse..." he didn't know what to do. If they all ran after Turf, then they could be ambushed in the trees. If they separated, then they might get picked off one by one, "Arty, do we all go or do we all stay?"

Despite being one of the only two team leaders there, Arty didn't know what to say. What if he made the wrong choice? They had no idea what was going on or what they were up against. How could he make a decision based upon little to no information?

"We all go. Strength in numbas," After a short glare at Arty, Alice was taking charge. "We don't know if there are more of them out there. It's best if we all stay togetha ta look for FREZ, Turf, and Timbre. We also need to start making our way back ta the cliff. The fartha we get from the school, the more trouble we'll be in. Good thing is, Turf and Timbre are over that way, so we don't 'ave ta go any fartha in the wrong direction."

"Shouldn't one of us head back and get the teachers?!" Arty tried to reason.

"There's no time, Umber!" Navy snapped as he walked up to Arty, "Like Alice said, it's best if we all stay together. We don't have time for you to assign jobs and split everyone up!" he began jabbing his finger repeatedly into Arty's chest, "There's still Grimm out here, and being alone and scared will be like painting a big red target on your back!"

"If you didn't want a target on your back, then you should have just stayed in your little dorms playing cards and board games," a voice came from behind the group, "Maybe gone over to the CCT and chatted up your friends back in the other kingdoms."

The students all turned to see a figure in a black cloak with red fractures pulsing across the fabric. Underneath the hood was a mask made from white bone. It took on the traits of some kind of twisted kangaroo, a Grimm. A tenth person had joined in.

"What? Is my cloak dirty? Did I step in some mud or something?" the figure asked while seemingly looking over itself. Its voice echoed through the mask, but seemed to be female, though it was hard to tell for sure.

The remaining six students stood their ground with their weapons at the ready, all aimed at the uninvited contestant to their game.

"Who are you!?" Arty demanded, his fearful tone gone as he tried to regain his position of leader, "What did you do with our friends?!"

"Who am I? As if I'd tell you!" the cloaked figure swayed from side to side, "You all can call me Oro, though! You know, like those creatures you kill for fun. As for your friends, that wasn't exactly me, but it was, but it wasn't. A lackie of mine if you will. It's simple, really."

Roland readied his weapon, "Alice, take Ebon and Navy to help the others," the paper and ink trailing off of his arm formed the blade of an axe, "Arty, get your head in the game. You, me, and Sepia can take this freak."

Arty's mind was racing. Who was this person? Why were they here? His knees began to buckle when he remembered something Timbre had said a couple of weeks prior, "Are you one of those people that attacked Korus Stadium last summer?"

"Oh, you mean the Grimm Brotherhood, right?" Oro laughed, "I thought that much was obvious. You're the painter, so I would have thought that you knew about symbolism," she tapped the Grimm mask and cocked her head to the side.

Ignoring her, Roland turned and glared at Alice and her teammates, "Damnit, I said go! There could be more waiting nearby! Go help-"

"Oh yeah, there are definitely more. Not just my little helpers either! You'd better get a move on before my precious little angel gets hungry and comes looking for a snack!" Oro cackled behind her mask.

Hesitantly, Alice led Ebon and Navy away to find Turf and Timbre.

Oro didn't break her gaze with the remainder of Team ARTS. "Have fun, Team ANTE!" she jumped in malicious joy, "Like I said, I'm not the scariest thing in this forest! Not. Even. Close!" she ceased her childish show of excitement and examined the three teens standing before her, "My, my, I've gotta say. You guys have grown!"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Arty asked.

Sick of the needless talking, Roland rushed the figure with his axe raised. He was just about to bring it down on the enemy, but then something peculiar happened. All of the air was knocked out of him at once. He was sent rocketing back.

He slid against the dirt and grass, finally coming to a stop behind Arty and Sepia. The pain of the impact surged through his middle. A purple shimmer shattered over him, and a trickle of blood made its way out of the corner of his mouth. Whatever that thing that she hit him with was, it shattered his aura instantly.

Seeing the shimmer of Roland's aura, Sepia ran to his side and held her guns up to defend him. This isn't good. We have to figure out a way to contact the professors. If she could have spoken, then maybe she could have gotten a plan together with Arty.

"We don't really focus on killing Grimm like you guys do, so we like to make sure our weapons hit hard enough to make quick work of aura, you know?!" Oro held what looked to be a black battering ram attached to her left arm, but the head of it slowly retracted back into the body of the weapon. The hiss of hydraulics radiated from the beast of a machine, "People are more resilient than Grimm, so we do lots of testing to ensure that aura won't be a problem."

Arty looked to Sepia. The fear in her eyes told him that they were both thinking the same thing: This wasn't an enemy they could take on by themselves. With Roland's aura gone, he was useless in a fight. Inkheart couldn't work without aura, and judging from what Oro had already said she more than likely already knew that. This was a fight they couldn't win. "Roland. Get behind us," he commanded firmly.

"No, I'm fine…" Roland pushed off the ground, but fell back in the dirt immediately. A large blotch of blood formed on his stomach. He looked up at Sepia and Arty, "I'm not fine…" he muttered and coughed. More blood. Whatever that weapon did to him wasn't good, "You got this…?"

Sepia was horrified. Here Roland was, and he was helpless even with her there. She was useless. This monster crossed the line. She stood with her guns readied. Please last long enough to get help… Please… she thought.

"As much as we can have this, bud," Arty held Palette's muzzle level to Oro's Grimm mask, "Your move."

"Oh, goodie!" Oro held her brutal weapon to her side and took a running leap with it ready to slam down on Arty's head.

"Guys, what is going on?! What was that thing?! Was it a Grimm?! Was it a person?!" Ebon was shocked. He held his head in confusion as him, Alice, and Navy ran after their teammate and Timbre, "Why did we go?! They're gonna kill Arty, Sepia, and Roland! How could we just leave them?!" he was panicking. This whole challenge went from fun to a fight for their lives in a matter of seconds.

"They'll be fine!" Alice yelled back, "They're good fighters, they can handle themselves against that maniac."

"You so sure about that?" Navy retorted.

"Now's not the time for your negativity, Navy!" Alice shouted back. Like Ebon, she began to feel the panic sinking in. "It's somethin' we're being trained ta do!"

A group of bushes began rustling behind them.

Alice threw an explosive card into the shrubbery.

"Haha! Nice try Queen of Hearts!" a somewhat squeaky voice rang out farther back in the underbrush.

Team ANTE turned to find Rime riding on Everest's shoulder.

"Go get em' Everest! We're winning this for Team FREZ!" she cheered as she held a hand against Everest's arm. Ice crystals slowly coated his upper arm.

"Dammit! No! Rime! You need ta stop!" Alice shouted at her frantically.

"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Everest screamed and ran towards Alice, Ebon, and Navy with his club raised. He brought it around in an arc. The club slapped Alice in the side and sent her flying into a nearby tree.

Alice screamed as she hit the tree. The impact wasn't as painful as when the sudden stop hit her. It felt like her eyes were going to pop out of her head, and like her organs were being stomped on. Her already weak aura was nearly fully depleted.

"You're not looking so hot there Alice!" Rime pulled a ball of solid ice from her necklace. She held it up, ready to lob it at the stunned girl's head, "Looks like you guys already took out Roland, so If I take you guys out you gotta go back, and Team FREZ will take the gold!" she laughed triumphantly as she hurled the ball with a surprising amount of force for someone her size.

The ice ball struck Alice directly in the abdomen. That was all that it took for her aura to completely shatter. She fell from her impact crater in the tree and face first into the dirt. Once again, she was going to need another trip to the infirmary. Her stupid weak aura did a shabby job of protecting her. For the third time, she was completely incapacitated by another student, but this time it was when they were in real danger.

"Haha! Now one of you have to take her back to the cliff! Now it's truly just ARTS against FREZ now, and we're catching up quick! Isn't that right, Everest? Frost was right! You and me taking on the other students was a good idea!" Rime said as the icy patch on Everest's arm began to fade, his rage and power lessening.

"Rime! Do you have any idea what you just did?!" Ebon ran to Alice's side, "Some crazy person is out in the clearing attacking Arty, Roland, and Sepia! Turf and Timbre are out there alone and now we're down a man if more of them show up!" he shouted at the girl perched atop Everest.

Rime rolled her eyes, "Please, Ebon. You honestly expect me to believe that crazy story?" She leapt down to the ground, "You should just be glad I was the one to take her out. Frost wouldn't let her live it down if she was in my place-" Rime felt firm hands shove her. She fell to the ground, landing on top of Everest's fur boots. Shocked, she looked up to see Navy towering above her.

"You idiot!" he fumed, "We could all die out here! What part of that do you not understand?!"

Everest, still hopped up on the effects of his Semblance, snarled at Navy, his fists clenched and ready to punch his face in.

Ebon helped Alice to her feet. She couldn't walk on her own. "Hey hey hey. Everest, Navy. Calm down," Ebon said calmly, trying to get Navy to stop screaming, "All that anger's only gonna drag more Grimm to us. We all need to stay calm."

"Calm?! How can we be calm?!" Navy snapped back, "Because of this brat we're virtually down two team members, and we don't know how many more of the Grimm Brotherhood are out here!"

Rime snapped to attention as an angry Everest helped her up. "Did… did you say Grimm Brotherhood?"

"Some crazy person calling themselves Oro started attacking us! We had to leave Arty, Roland, and Sepia to go help Turf, who got snatched out of the sky and into the forest! Timbre is out there on her own trying to find him! We came to find Team FREZ, too to warn you guys." Ebon tried to pull back his emotions. He was starting to freak out again, but he had to control himself, "We need to get out of here. We're down two people now, maybe more depending on how Frost and Zero are doing."

Rime was still skeptical, but it was very unlike a Huntsman-in-training to freak out this bad unless something really was going wrong. She ran over to Alice and took her off of Ebon's shoulder, "I messed up, I'll carry her."

"B-but you're the only one that can make the walking mountain stronger," Ebon replied.

"Not true. You may actually be able to do it more controlled than I can, Ebon." Rime explained, "You can shoot ice from a range, right? Everest just needs cold, not specifically my cold. Capiche?"

"Right, I've got it…" Ebon stepped back and looked up at Everest.

Everest placed a hand on Ebon's shoulder, "Everest. See. Fear," he told Ebon, "You. Warrior. Like. Me. So. Be. Strong," he looked Ebon in the eyes as he spoke. Though Everest wasn't the brightest, he knew what it meant to be on a dangerous hunt. Though he didn't find them often, this situation was a situation that he could understand.

Craters dotted the clearing from the missed impacts of Oro's weapon. She stood between Arty and Sepia with her weapon lowered. Her opponents huffed and coughed in exhaustion, but she was still ready to go another round.

"You two might want to wrap this up before the Faunus boy bleeds out," she giggled beneath her mask. The burning, unblinking eyes of the mask made her seem more like a hyper-intelligent Grimm than a human, and she might have been just that as far as Arty and Sepia knew.

She's right. This has been going on too long, but how could we speed things up? Sepia thought as she analyzed Oro's movements. Every motion was fluid. There weren't any obvious weak points. That had to be wrong, though. No one could skirt by in a fight without having some kind of weak point.

Arty held up Palette. His aim was thrown off by his trembling hand. He was terrified of this opponent. For the first time, he witnessed someone who actually wanted to kill him, and had a weapon that could do that no problem. The fight could have been over quick if he could use the Nova Dust that Roland had given him, but he didn't have the slightest clue as to what kind of explosion that might produce. With Roland in his injured state, any kind of explosion that was too close might kill him.

Oro heaved up her weapon and activated the impact drive. The head of the device rocked in and out, faster and faster. Just a second of direct contact, and anyone's aura would shatter. This was bad, "I'm still feeling feisty! Let's keep this fight going guys! It's just too much fun to finally have the chance to duke it out with you!"

That's when Sepia saw it. Every oscillation of the weapon caused Oro's arms to shift a little bit. She was trying to keep it from moving too much and was doing well, but she still moved back ever so slightly when the hammer retracted and before it extended.

"I have an idea! Trust me!" Sepia mouthed to Arty in hopes that he would see in the bright moonlight.

Do it quick, then, Arty thought to himself. It seemed that Oro was focused on taking Arty out after Roland, so maybe he could serve as a distraction while Sepia did… whatever she was planning to do.

"Your move, Painter-Boy," Oro held her weapon back. She crouched to get better leverage on the piece of heavy machinery that she held.

So I was right, huh? Sepia watched for the right moment. She knew that Oro had to be waiting for her to strike just as much as Arty. When Arty fired off an Ice Dust paintball, Sepia flew into action.

Oro's hammer knocked away the paintball, but the hammer was on the retreat when she tried to bring it back to strike. A whip of bullets and film wrapped around Oro's upper arm and pulled tight, cutting off the blood to the muscles used to brace the souped up battering ram. Her fingers uncurled, releasing it from her grasp.

The weapon was flung across the battlefield. It landed with a thud just a few feet from Roland, who was still laying in the grass with his arms over his stomach.

"You disarmed me?!" Oro shouted in surprise. She was yanked back by her arm, and felt her shoulder jerk and pop in its socket. When the whip was reeled in completely, Sepia bashed Oro across the back of the head with the butt of her other pistol.

Pain echoed in Oro's head for a few moments. Her ears rang and her sinuses felt like they might collapse. She tried to pull away, but had no such luck in her disoriented state. She began cackling. "You're much better than I thought you'd be." She rushed towards Sepia.

Sepia tried to get some bullets off on Oro, but was taken back by the sudden onslaught of punches and kicks. She tried to fight back, but every now and then, she'd feel a fist or a foot connect with her aura, slowly breaking it down.

Despite his concern for Sepia, Arty saw the chance and made a mad dash for Oro's weapon. His fingers curled around the handles, but he hardly had the strength to pull it up. Grunt and strain as he did, he still couldn't lift it off the ground.

"Hold on," Roland pushed himself up off the ground. His face was devoid of any color. His movements were sluggish, but this a fight for their lives. He had to push through to help get them out of this situation.

"No, stay on the groun-"

Roland grabbed the other side of the weapon and ground his teeth together as the pain hit him like a truck. Still, he helped Arty pull it up, "Sepia can't hold her for much longer. I can face the consequences of this later." He pulled the lever that activated the weapon and braced for the impact of the moving hydraulics. Every oscillation sent another rocket of pain through him, but he had to keep going. He refused to lose anyone else.

Arty took as much of the weight of Oro's weapon as he could. Roland wasn't dying on his watch. He and his partner ran towards Oro and Sepia with the weapon ready to strike.

Oro was tired of dealing with the film whips of Sepia's weapons, which Sepia had figured out how to use as if by some miracle in the middle of their duel. She tore away from Sepia's guns and ripped the bullets and film off of her arm. One swift punch into Sepia's face sent her sprawling to the ground. Oro couldn't celebrate for long as she learned that this was exactly what Sepia had wanted to happen.

The hammer pounded into Oro's unguarded back and sent her flying across the clearing. She tumbled over and over across the ground before finally sliding to a stop. She laid motionless in the dirt and dead grass only a hundred or so feet away.

"Run! RUN!" Timbre yelled as hard as she could. Turf was halfway on her shoulder, and halfway on Frost's.

"What is that thing?!" Frost yelled, uncharacteristically frightened.

Behind them, Zero fired shotgun blasts blindly at the large mass running after them. In the darkness, only it's burning red eyes could be seen as its massive feet shook the earth with a loud thud each time it stomped.

"Doesn't matter! Get Turf the hell out of here!" Zero shouted from behind. He jumped from tree to tree away from whatever kind of Grimm was on their tail, occasionally firing his shotgun backwards. Stealth wasn't important anymore, so he had no qualms about using this form of his weapon, "How long until we're back with the others, Timbre?!"

"I… I don't know! I just ran away!" Timbre yelled. She almost tripped over a root and began to stumble.

Frost yelled as she grabbed onto Timbre's arm before she could fall completely into the dirt and take Turf with her. "Please, refrain from tripping on us now, Forté!" If any of them stopped running, they were dead.

Zero narrowly avoided the snap of a set of jaws that could tear through steel like tissue paper. He fired a round into the thick hide of the Grimm's snout and kicked off of it, "It's closing in! Frost! Daze it!"

"Is now really the time?!" Frost yelled back.

Zero leapt towards the girls and Turf and took Frost's place. He hoisted Turf up by the hip so that he could take some of his weight off of Timbre, "Damnit Frost, just do it!"

Frost ran to keep up with the group. The miniature quakes were growing closer. She needed the shot to count. She took a quick glance back at the monster chasing them. The burning ember eyes were only a matter of feet away from her, and its sharp ivory teeth were even closer as they protruded from the darkness towards her. She reached her right arm straight back behind her. She could feel and smell the putrid warm breath of the creature. A bright rainbow of light began circling her arm as she focused. After a few moments of intensifying, the light shot outwards in the direction her fingers were pointing, right at the beast.

A brilliant explosion of color doused the path in bright streamers of blues, greens, and reds. In the moments she could see through her Semblance's effects, she could make out the massive silhouette of the monster. The large spikes, the massive head, the thick body and tail, the angled legs ending in large clawed feet. It stopped, dazed, and reared back. A blood-curdling roar echoed through the night as it screamed into the sky.

Frost had never been more scared in her entire life. In one last ditch effort to call for help from the others, she raised her arm straight up above her, "Please… please… help…" another stream of light fired from her hand.

The explosion of color that lit up the sky could be seen for miles around.

With Oro knocked out, Arty and Sepia could finally take a short break.

"Nice…" Roland groaned and let go of Oro's weapon. His legs buckled as the adrenaline rush left him, and he collapsed with a thud. By helping Arty ram Oro, he used up what little strength that he had left.

Sepia knelt at his side and turned him onto his back. Rest you reckless jerk, she thought to herself while checking over his injuries. When she opened up his shirt and took a look at his abdomen, she gasped. His entire middle was squishy and dark purple. He was bleeding internally, and some of it seeped through the pores of his skin. Streams of blood trickled down his side.

She began signing to Arty with the few words that she knew that he had picked up, 'He may die if we don't get help. He's losing blood. Fast.' Dread was beginning to fall on her heart, partly from seeing Roland in this state, partly from not being able to do anything about it.

Arty knew she was right, but he still had no clue how to get them out in time. From fighting her, he'd learned that Oro was fast. Very fast. He had hoped that the blow from her own weapon would take her out of commision, but he could see that she was already stirring, and he hadn't seen the shimmer of a broken aura. The fight obviously was nowhere near over.

His attention was suddenly torn away from his opponent as the entire forest was bathed in bright colorful light. Above them, red, green, and blue ribbons began fluttering among the stars in the inky black sky. An aurora had formed.

"Wow! That's so pretty!" a figure that looked identical to Oro sat beside her. Her mask was a vibrant red color instead of the white that Oro had. It stared up at the sky and giggled, "Hey! Girls! The head honcho is down!" it shouted.

From the trees at the edge of the clearing came five identical figures in black with the same red masks. They had to be the "lackies" that Oro had mentioned.

"Yoink!" A seventh one of them darted past Arty, Roland, and Sepia from behind and snatched up Oro's weapon. It returned to its master and gently placed the machine in front of her, "I bet you want this back. Would you like us to start round two?"

"Yeah…" Oro growled and pushed herself up using her weapon. She was obviously battered, but her aura hadn't broken from the impact of her own weapon. A question pried at Arty and Sepia due to Oro's ability to even properly stand: What is she?

"Oh, how wonderful! Come on girls!" the minion that delivered the weapon shot up and darted off in the direction that Timbre had originally ran. Four of the other minions followed, but two stayed with Oro.

Sepia clenched her fists around the grips of her guns. Her heart began to race as she stared down Oro and her goons. I can't just play around this time, she reminded herself. A nod from her told Arty that she was ready, If she doesn't close the distance too fast… she looked to Arty and mouthed, "Nova!"

There wasn't any other choice left. With enemies like these, risks had to be taken if they were going to get out alive.

"Roland," Arty said as he activated the shifting mechanism within his weapon, "Have you actually managed to test your suicidal plasma Dust yet?" He reached to his belt, where the swirling yellow and red paintballs glowed vibrantly in their glass vials.

Roland nodded slowly, "Not at all…" he managed to get out, "A few specks of it can vaporize paper, though… but you already know about that."

"Well…" Arty dumped the contents of the vials into the hopper at the end of his bat. He threw the empty vials to the side, where they shattered against the nearby rocks. "I guess now's a better time than never!" Without thinking about the consequences, he dashed towards the three hooded people standing across the clearing from him. His boots crunched against the grass and leaves. His heart felt like it was racing at a million beats a minute. He wasn't going to let his team get hurt any more than they already were.

"Oh, this is too good…" Oro laughed and held her weapon to her side. Her minions revealed what looked to be fold-out batons and readied them, "What's a little Magma Dust gonna do, huh?" she asked. From her distance, the paintballs that Arty loaded just looked orange, "You gonna try to blow us up like you did Atlas Academy?!"

Arty ducked as one of the minions took a swing at him. He gripped his bat tightly and tried to ready himself for whatever would come next as he returned the swing.

Intense orange light exploded outwards as the bat connected with the cloaked figure's chest. Jagged streaks of white hot plasma shot out, launching Arty and the Grimm Brotherhood lackey away from each other at incredible speeds.

"What the hell?!" Oro shouted as her minion shot back into the trees. From somewhere in the forest, a explosive crack could be heard. Soon after, a tree fell and boomed as it slammed into the earth. She watched as Arty shot across the clearing before slamming hard into a tree, "What are you waiting for?! After him!" she shouted at her remaining minion.

Arty tumbled to the ground, bouncing hard as he rolled into the nearby creek. He pushed himself up, sopping wet and still dizzy from the impact. That one hit definitely took a good chunk of his aura. He looked down to the glowing paintballs in his weapon, "Oh yeah… I can definitely get used to this stuff… if it doesn't kill me first..."

Oro's minion lunged at Arty with its baton raised high in the air, "This is for Oro!" it screamed and thrust it downwards.

Arty held his bat horizontally in front of him to block the blow, but the maniac had a different plan.

With a quick spin, Oro's lackey ducked low and sideswiped Arty's legs, sending him back into the creek.

Arty tried to push himself back up, but found his face being pushed into the water. It wasn't too deep, but it was enough to get the job done. He couldn't breathe. She was trying to drown him. He tried to struggle back and save his own life, but the psycho in the glowing mask was far too strong.

"Not so tough now, huh?!" the minion shouted and used her full weight to push Arty's face further into the water, "You hurt my sister! How dare you! I'll make you pay!"

Sepia shot to her feet and sprinted over to the minion. She tackled it, sending them both tumbling into the creek. She fired rounds wildly, most of them just flying aimlessly into the open air. A few of them managed to hit their target, but she couldn't land enough to do any real damage in the fray.

Arty fell to his back on the edge of the creek, gasping for air. He saw Palette a few feet away. Still coughing, he began to crawl towards it.

As they slowed down, Sepia latched onto the cloak of the minion and dug her heels into the rocks and mud in the creekbed. With the minion in her grasp, she lifted her up for Arty to give her a taste of Nova Dust.

Arty's fingers finally curled around Palette's handle. He saw Sepia holding the minion. Had he not been a few more seconds from drowning, he would have found it funny how strong Sepia was in order to hold the Grimm Brotherhood grunt in place. He just hoped his teammate knew to jump out of the way. He ran up and brought his bat down on the minion, similar to the move he used to launch Turf before Oro had shown up. The explosion launched Arty backwards. After a few flailing flips, he managed to find his feet connect with a tree, stopping his flight path into the underbrush. The impact to his aura was nowhere near as bad as the first use of the Nova paintballs. He saw Oro standing at the edge of the clearing. He was tired of fighting. With the two minions out of the way, he saw the opportunity to end it. He flipped the bat around, holding it upside down in his hand. "Sorry Roland, but I need to move fast." Feeling as if he was wasting the paintball on something reckless, he jabbed the tip of the bat against the bark of the tree.

The tree immediately blew in half. In another explosion of plasma that made his hair stand on end, Arty rocketed towards Oro. The rush of air made his eyes water, but he didn't care. He held his bat back ready to slam it into the middle of her back.

Oro turned around just in time to show that she was clutching Roland by the throat. Her weapon was already placed against his injured abdomen, ready to deliver a finishing blow. He tried to struggle against her, but didn't have near enough strength left in him to even squirm. All he could do was look to Arty pleadingly.

"Do you want him to die?!" she shouted.

Arty panicked and tried to stop. He moved his boot down, but the friction sent him face-first into the dirt. He slid a good twenty feet before coming to a stop at Oro's feet. Palette had fallen out of his hand in the tumble. He reached for it, but found the heel of Oro's boot stomping his hand into the ground. He yelled out in pain as she ground her heel into his hand, scraping his palm against the dirt and rocks.

With two of Sepia's teammates incapacitated, Oro turned her head to get a good look at her, "Lower your weapons, Moviemaker," she ordered.

Sepia's eyes were red and puffy from crying. She left Roland's side, and now his life was in peril. How could she have been so stupid? She slowly lowered her weapons and dropped them into the creek.

"Good girl…" Oro squeezed on Roland's neck harder, "You two haven't gotten to fight my little angel yet. That's why I'm here, you idiots," she giggled as her victim choked and gasped for air, "Now, are we going to play nice and wait patiently, or do I have to make sure that you regret coming out here? I don't know any color words that you could make from A, T, and S alone…"

"Turf! Please! Wake up!" Timbre cried out as she shook Turf's shoulders. She, Zero, and Frost had all helped lift the bruised and battered Faunus up into a large tree after gaining some distance between them and… whatever that thing was that was chasing them.

"Wake up, dammit!" She ordered while slapping his cheek.

"That is… not… going… to help him…" Frost panted as she clutched at her chest. She felt as if her legs were going to fall off and her lungs were collapsing. "His aura was broken and it looks like he got a decent beating afterwards.

Timbre kept a hand on Turf's shoulder, gripping him tightly, "Frost…" with her other hand, she held her scroll out to her, "please… call Arty. Make sure they're okay."

"We are in no position to be worrying about oth-"

"I said call Arty!" she demanded.

Reluctantly, Frost took Timbre's scroll and began to dial Arty, "I am scared that the signal will not be strong enough to-"

"It has to be!" Timbre cried, "It has to be…"

"Timbre, stop," Frost glared at her, "We have a huge Grimm out looking to kill anyone in this forest, and I am not dying because you are sitting here crying. Suck it up, and focus or else you'll draw it straight to us," she ordered. Though these kinds of orders were unlike her, this was an emergency situation. They didn't have time to discuss feelings.

Before Timbre could respond, someone picked up on Arty's end. Frost cautiously held the scroll to her ear, "Umber, it is Frost. Timbre, Zero, and I have Turf. We found him beaten up pretty bad, but in a relatively stable condition. There is a massive Grimm searching for us, but we are safe for the time being. Give me a status report on your end," she demanded.

"Frost Aurora! It's so good to finally hear from you! Glad to know that my pet's gonna have plenty of students to snack on!" a hollow, feminine voice came from the other end, "I cannot wait to see all of you!"

Frost's eyes widened. That voice didn't belong to anyone that she knew, "Who is this?" she asked slowly. She looked to Timbre with terror in her eyes.

"The name's Oro, and I'm going to kill your friends if you all don't hurry over here! Isn't that just great?!" from Oro's end came the sporadic and wet coughs of her hostage, "Oh come on Wells! From what I've been told, I thought you'd be tougher than this!"

Timbre snatched her scroll back from Frost, "Who the hell is this?! What did you do to my friends?!"

"Oh! Ms. Forté!" Oro laughed upon hearing Timbre's voice, "You can call me Oro. You know, like the Grimm? That's O for octopus, R for rabbit, and O for octopus once again. Oro. As for your friends, I've got Arty looking at me with more horror than disgust and, to my surprise, Sepia looking for my blindside while I… oh, yeah! I've got Roland by the throat, and am currently choking him to death while he bleeds a lot! It's a heck of a lot of fun!"

Timbre felt like screaming, but she felt like her throat was full of cotton as tears rolled down her face. "I'm only going to say this once. Let. My friends-"

"Let me stop you right there," Oro interrupted, "Let's continue this in person, shall we? I look forward to meeting you Ms. Forté."

Before Timbre could shout back into the phone, Oro hung up. Timbre could only stare at the picture of Arty displayed on the holographic screen of her scroll in disbelief. Her hands began to shake. In a loud shriek of frustration and despair, Timbre began to cry uncontrollably.

"Timbre! Stop it!" Frost yelled as she grabbed Timbre by the shoulders, "Pull yourself together! We are going to get your team back, just stop crying!"

Timbre wailed and grabbed at her hair, the tears streaming down her red face in torrents.

Zero watched the forest below, "Frost! Shut her up! That thing's gonna come back!"

"Nope!" a thin figure in a black hooded jacket jumped down from the branch above, the glowing red skull-mask under their hood glared at them with empty black eyes, "Well, you're kinda right. We're gonna just start leading the angel over to the clearing now! Your friends are gonna have a lot more fun!" they laughed and dove off the branch. In their hand was a baton, but seemed to be a metal antenna upon closer examination. It even had a bright red tip.

"Zero! After them!" Frost shouted.

Zero nodded and began jumping from tree to tree in hot pursuit of the person in the mask. He disappeared into the trees.

Frost took a shaky breath, "Timbre… I think that was…"

"The Grimm Brotherhood…" Timbre said weakly. She recognized that look. The black and red. The fissures. The cloak. The mask. Everything. "I… I can't let them hurt my friends!" Timbre launched herself out of the tree, using her wires to rappel through the trees in the direction Zero was chasing the girl in the hood.

"Timbre! Get back here!" Frost shouted, but Timbre had already disappeared into the dense forest below. Frost was stuck alone with someone who couldn't be of any help. She was stuck in a tree with no hope of getting out unless someone either came back, or saw her first aurora. Frost looked down to Turf. Scratches and bruises coated his exposed skin and his clothing had gotten pretty torn up. Somehow, his beanie had managed to stay on. He was a pitiful sight to behold. Frost knew she couldn't protect anyone in the conditions she was stuck in, but she refused to give up. She aimed her arm through the canopy above her again. Another beacon of light shot from her arm, ripping through the leaves above her before exploding in the night sky.

Zero weaved in and out of tree branches to catch up with his new target. He kept them in his sight, but slowed down when they landed. The person in the mask stood atop the thick, black hide of the Grimm that chased them earlier. He had a little bit of a better view this time, and could make out white bone protrusions running down the length of its back.

Timbre tore past Zero, nearly slamming him off of his perch.

"Timbre! Stop!" He yelled after her.

Timbre landed on top of the hooded figure, pinning her down against the bony spine of the monster. "Who are you people and what do you want with us?!" She screamed with tears still streaming down her face.

"I thought you were smarter than this, Ms. Forté!" they looked up at at her, "You've seen us before. You've seen what we can do," they dug their feet into Timbre's stomach and kicked her away like a kangaroo, "Now, back to what we were doing…" they stood, "Girls! Time to get the little angel to Oro!"

The Grimm shifted and growled. It stood up all of the way, and the top of its head brushed the highest branches of the surrounding trees. Whatever it was, it was hunched forwards and stood on two massive, tree trunk-like legs.

A few identical people in masks held batons and formed a line heading towards the clearing. They all waved batons with flashing red lights atop them. The Grimm seemed lulled by them, and slowly began following the lights.

Zero jumped down the branches and to the ground below. He found Timbre crumpled against the trunk of one of the trees, "Timbre! Are you okay? Did your aura break?"

"No. I'm fine!" Timbre stood and dashed in the direction of the monstrous Grimm, careful not to trip in the three-toed pits left behind by its massive feet.

Zero ran ahead to follow the Grimm, but it was moving too fast. They were nearing the clearing up ahead quicker and quicker, until he was in an all-out sprint to keep up with the monster.

Timbre had run away from her friends too many times already. Her rash decision-making had already gotten them hurt before, but on that night, she was going to make sure it kept them alive. She shot wires from both hands, latching onto trees on either side of the path created by the Grimm as it was led by the cloaked people on its controlled rampage. She began reeling them in and launched herself into the clearing.

Oro saw the ripples in the puddles of water near the creek as her project neared. She took one last long look at her hostage before dropping him on the ground, "Looks like mama's little angel is finally here! It has been so good to meet all of you!" she darted off back across the clearing. Apparently, even she didn't want to see the monster that was coming after them.

Roland held his throat and rolled onto his side. He couldn't even scream from the white hot pain in his throat and stomach. Every muscle felt like it was on fire. His vision had narrowed into one little patch of sight surrounded by darkness. All that he could think about was that this was what he imagined death to feel like.

Roland! Sepia ran to join back up with him. She fell to her knees and silently sobbed with her forehead against his arm. Oro ran away, but she didn't care. Roland's life was more important than chasing Oro.

Arty rubbed his crushed hand, luckily nothing was broken thanks to his remaining aura. He watched as a few of the hooded figures ran into the clearing. He turned towards the creek and grabbed his weapon, shifting it back into a paintball gun. If they thought that he and his friends would go down easy, they had another thing coming. He whipped his gun around, ready to fire at the Grimm Brotherhood members, but found all but one of them running back into the forest, away from Beacon.

He felt the color drain from his face as he watched a depraved version of something he had had to draw in one of the books he had ruined in the fight with Yamuna. Something like no one had ever seen alive in the modern day. A living fossil, only now it was a Grimm. He could only sit and watch with fear as one of Oro's minions stuck around in the clearing a bit too long. The huge Grimm slammed its jaws shut around them before thrashing them about violently. When it was done, it threw their mangled body back into the forest.

The giant lizard Grimm then raised its titanic head high into the air. Its gargantuan maw opened bit-by-bit as if it were on some kind of biological wench. The spear-like teeth gleamed in the light of the broken moon, and the top row was connected to the bone mask that covered its face. Molten eyes blazed in their sunken sockets. The tail alone whipped trees from their roots and sent them careening deep into the forest. Bone spikes littered the entirety, and so did the plates of bleached white bone that protected its joints. Its roar echoed through the trees, rattling the very foundation of the earth beneath the students' feet. This was the closest thing to Death himself that any of the students had ever seen.

Sepia gazed up at the beast in horror. She knew this Grimm, but had prayed to the Gods of Light and Dark to never place her in a position to fight one of these wretched creatures. "Trex…" she mouthed. This was one of the most dangerous of a recently discovered batch of Grimm species. This eldritch thing was not supposed to exist. She held onto Roland's arm tightly and looked on helplessly.

Arty's entire body went numb with fear as he watched the towering colossus roar into the night. Palette fell to the dirt as he fell to his knees. "Wha-wha… what is that thing?..." he stuttered helplessly. He thought he was scared of Oro, but this Grimm was a whole new level of fear.

Timbre made a mad dash from behind the beast, narrowly missing its massive jaws as they snapped in on her. She knelt down and grabbed Arty, looking him in the eyes. "Arty! Arty! Listen to me!" she shook him lightly to regain his attention as his eyes kept turning towards the Trex. "Snap out of it!" she slapped him across the face. "You can't do this, Arty! You can't just sit here and lose to this thing! I thought Oro had gotten to you… and Sepia… and Roland! But she didn't! You stood up to her, so you can stand up to this thing, too!"

Arty just shook his head, "Timbre… how can we take this thing on by ourselves?... We're dead!..."

She slapped him again, "No we're not, Umber! We are going to take this thing down because we don't have any other choice! Now get up off of your ass and fight!"

Arty seemed to snap back to attention. His mind cleared as he thought about all Team ARTS had already been through together. They'd fought through so many struggles, both internal and external. Sure, none of their adversaries had been this terrifying or deadly, but it was still just a Grimm.

They were being trained to kill Grimm.

Sepia's eyes burned with hate as she gazed up at the Trex. She finally understood how Roland felt when he was this angry, and Timbre gave her the courage to act on that. She held up her guns and pulled the triggers, but no shots were fired. Her guns just clicked. They were soaked from the creek, and so were waterlogged.

She looked down at Roland. No one but him could use his weapons without Inkheart, but that changed when he made ink grenades infused with Dust. After a soft kiss to his forehead, she removed the Dust grenades from his belt. Three gravity and two Nova. I've got your back this time. You rest, she thought as she slowly stood, 'I'm ready,' she signed to Arty and Timbre.

Timbre looked to Arty, "You got a plan, Painter-Boy?"

Arty knew his and Sepia's auras were still intact. A bit depleted, but intact, but that wouldn't save them if this thing got its teeth on them, but he had an idea. He nodded as he looked to the grenades in Sepia's hands. He grinned his signature grin, showing off the gap where his tooth was missing, "I think so. Timbre, remember how you helped take down the Minotaurus during our initiation?"

She nodded, an eyebrow raised, "You honestly think Klavier can do damage to this thing?!"

Arty shook his head, "Not at all. But I need you to keep it distracted while Sepia gets in position in the trees over there. When Sepia signals you, shoot a wire near her, and figure out a way to launch her over it. Got it?"

Timbre looked surprised and confused, "And then what?!"

The Trex was done eyeing them from across the clearing. It charged, roaring with its jaws open as it ran towards them. The glowing cavity inside of its body visible through its razor-sharp teeth.

"Sepia, I think you know what to do once you two are in the air, right?!" Arty yelled as he aimed his gun at the rampaging monster, the three of them stepping back and away from it.

Sepia smiled and nodded.

"Can you two at least fill me in first?!" Timbre yelled as she ran to the left, while the other two ran to the right.

"No time! Just trust us, Timbre!" Arty yelled.

'Watch him,' Sepia signed and then pointed to Roland, 'I don't want him getting up again like earlier, understand?'

Arty didn't catch every word due to how fast they were having to run, but he understood the seriousness in Sepia's hand-motions. He nodded. "Timbre'll keep it distracted. If things go wrong, I still have some Nova Dust in Palette. We'll keep Roland safe, okay?"

She nodded and dashed towards a nearby tree. She scurried up its trunk and crouched on one of the branches. For once in her life, she was serious. This wasn't a game. This wasn't fun. This was life and death, but that had a certain excitement to it on its own. Was this what a real Huntress felt like?

Timbre ran around the Trex's legs, slashing and whipping at its ankles. Her wires merely glanced off of the bone plates. The monster didn't so much as flinch. In fact, it seemed more annoyed with her than anything, but it only needed to be annoyed to shift some of its attention onto Timbre. She leapt to dodge its snapping jaws and stomping feet, "Sepia! You ready?!" she shouted.

An ear-piercing whistle told Timbre that Sepia was in position, and so she shot a wire towards her and began reeling herself in. She zoomed right between the jaws of the Trex, and narrowly avoided the spear-sized razors that made up the teeth of the Grimm.

When Timbre neared, Sepia tugged on the wire to tell Timbre to swing around the tree. The message was well-received, and Timbre swung around the tree trunk with her feet out in front of her.

Sepia jumped and kicked off of the soles of Timbre's boots and forced a Gravity Dust grenade into her partner's hand. When Timbre kicked back, Sepia was sent rocketing over the head of the Trex. She bit down on the pin of Roland's Nova grenade and aimed up the shot.

The Trex let out earthshaking roar at her, sending globs of spittle onto her clothes and exposed skin. Gross as it was, this gave her a chance to chunk Roland's grenade down into the Grimm's throat. It closed its jaws, then began coughing, or at least as much as a dinosaur could cough. Since Sepia's aura didn't come in contact with the Dust, the grenade exploded within the mouth of the Trex and left a sticky web of swirled, yellow and red ink.

Sepia ducked and rolled when she hit the ground. When she got to her feet and began running a wide arc around the confused Grimm, she looked up to see Timbre still in the tree and holding onto a bright purple ink grenade in her hands.

This all better work, she thought while pulling the pin of the other Nova grenade and throwing it between the stubby arms of the Trex. It exploded and coated its chest with the same red and yellow ink.

Timbre began to understand what was going on and jumped down from the tree. She saw Sepia make another loop around their target and raise one of the Gravity Dust grenades. They sprinted towards one another in front of the beast, and simultaneously pulled the pins on their grenades. They tossed them where they would collide. The grenades exploded on impact and left a haze of purple ink hanging in the air.

"Here we go!" Timbre shouted as they both jumped feet first into the haze. The force of the concentrated shift in gravity rocketed the girls up the sides of the Trex's face. Timbre shot a wire to Sepia as they rose, catching under the Grimm's bottom jaw.

Sepia latched on and pulled tight while Timbre reeled in, bringing them to a stop with the wire bent in a V shape. The Grimm's jaws were slammed shut. This is for working with that bit- her thought was cut short when she felt her heels dig into the left eye of the Grimm. Timbre did the same to its right eye, causing it to let out a roar of pain before trying to shake them off.

Seeing as the trap was set, Sepia grabbed Timbre by the arm and pulled the pin on the third Gravity Dust grenade. She threw it down at their feet, and the explosion of force caused them both to be propelled high above the Grimm.

Timbre angled Klavier and shot a wire at the ground behind Arty. She began reeling in with Sepia in her arms, and they were quickly met with a face full of dirt behind their leader. Still, it was better than being caught in the jaws of a Grimm.

The Trex followed Timbre and Sepia as they flew through the sky, only to come face to face with Arty. It roared again, though garbled with the huge amount of sticky ink coating the inside of its mouth. Despite its front being coated in the same substance, it could still run. It charged.

Arty leveled his gun upwards at the beast's face.

"Arty! You're cutting it kind of close!" Timbre yelled as the Grimm got within twenty yards.

"Just making sure I hit my mark. I only have one paintball left," he grabbed his shooting arm with his free hand, steadying his nervous shakes.

"What?! I thought you said you had some Nova left!" Timbre shouted.

"One is some, Timbre. Oro kinda emptied out Palette's hopper when she had Roland and I out of commission. Psycho left me with one paintball to fight this thing with. That's why I stayed back while you guys set everything up."

"You could've mentioned that sooner!"

"Yeah, sorry 'bout that." He shut his eye, keeping the sight lined up. Though his target was pretty big, he didn't want to leave any room for error.

Ten yards.

"Dammit, Arty! Shoot!" Timbre yelled as she began scooting backwards with Sepia.

Arty could feel the warmth from the monster's breath as its gaping maw readied to swallow the three of them whole. "Bye bye, ugly." Arty pulled the trigger, releasing his last Nova Dust paintball.

The paintball collided with the rest of the Nova Dust infused ink, causing a chain reaction through the Trex's body. All of the Dust suddenly burst into bright light, searing the dead grass in the immediate area. Its head was the first part to be vaporized, then the chest. An explosion of bright white and orange plasma exploded into spindles of burning gas and light. When the miniature supernova ceased, the Trex was gone. All that was left was a bare crater where the explosion took place.

The shockwave of heat and gas launched the three fighters backwards, back into the creek. Had they not just gotten the most difficult victory of their short educational careers, they would have been complaining about being thrown into the water for what felt like the twentieth time that night. Instead, they wrapped their arms around each other's shoulders, jumping and cheering in victory, despite their soaking wet clothes and singed hair.

"All for the cheers… but could I get some help…?" Roland groaned from nearby. He still laid in the grass where they had left him, "Please…?"

"Oh my god!" Timbre shouted and began running to their injured teammate with Arty and Sepia close behind, "It's okay, Roland. We're gonna get yo-" She suddenly found herself shoved to the side as Sepia threw herself onto her boyfriend.

Roland yelped in pain as Sepia hugged him. It felt like his organs were going to explode, but having Sepia so close again felt good. At least he knew that she was safe, even if he wasn't, "It's good to see that you're sa-"

She cut him off with a kiss, the first one that they had shared. After a few moments, she pulled away and smiled with tears in her eyes. Just being able to know that he was okay enough to be his normal self was enough for her to be overjoyed after what they had been through.

"Well… I… uh…" the color instantly came back into Roland's face, "Well… you'll be glad to know that my aura is starting to heal. I'll be bedridden for a while, but I'll live…" he winced after his status report. He fell back with Sepia still holding on and sighed in relief, "You guys kicked some serious butt, huh…?"

Arty looked back at the crater and the nearly knocked-over trees, leaning away from the blast zone, "Yeah… I guess you can say that. We couldn't have done it without you honestly, Roland."

"Oh yeah, the Nova Dust…" Roland chuckled, "Funny thing about that. Do you know why I was so suddenly interested in Dust, and specifically making a really unstable mix?"

"Uhh…" Arty thought for a moment, "planning to one up me by blowing an even bigger hole in Beacon than I did in Atlas?"

"I thought the best way to ask Sepia out was with a bang, so I wanted to use some Dust to get the effect. I was nervous, but I wanted to play into the chaos that runs through our heads," Roland leaned up and began laughing, "So you guys should really thank Sepia, and I suppose you, Arty. Your Dust inspired the grenades, and Timbre made sure that you guys positioned yourself accordingly to win that fight. Thank yourselves, not me."

Timbre's shoulders slumped, "Can we at least get out of the forest and thank all four of us when we get back to the school?..."

Arty pointed his thumb to Timbre, "I'm all for that. Mega-lizard may be gone, but there are still Grimm out here."

Timbre's eyes widened, "Oh crap! Zero!" She turned and ran across the clearing looking for the mysterious hoodie-ninja, "He was right with me before the Trex and I got here!"

All around the edge of the clearing were the fading corpses of dead Grimm. Dozens of bodies lied in pieces against the leaning trees. Zero yanked his katana out of the head of an Ursa and looked up at the group, "I took a few Grimm out. They were attracted to the whole… situation," he explained.

"Dude…" Arty said as he walked up behind Timbre to see the dissolving carnage.

"Well… that's…" Roland searched for his words, "Yeah, I don't know what I can say to that. That's impressive," based on how far the bodies were scattered, the guy must have been on the move constantly, "I take back everything that I said behind your back, Zero."

"Good to hear…" Zero sheathed his sword and walked past Arty and Timbre, "We should get back to the others."

Timbre's eyes widened in panic again, "Oh god! Oh no oh no oh no!" Timbre began running into the woods again. "Turf! Frost! I'm soorryyyyyyyy!"

"Calm down," he hooked his fingers around the back of her metal corset, "They're back at Beacon. I got a text from Frost. Professor Maple and Professor Alabaster are on their way in an airship to pick us up," he explained, "Rime was going to call them, but then Ebon tried to boost Everest. It ended with Everest knocking Ebon out, and then Navy knocked Everest out, and then Rime had to knock Navy out because he kept trying to pick fights. Alice was already knocked out during all of that…" he pointed back at Beacon, "But then the professors saw Frost's… well, beacon, and came to pick all of them up. That's the short version of the story that Rime is going to take an hour to tell when she sees us."

Timbre let out a sigh of relief, "At least they all made it back okay…"

Arty looked up to the sky. Despite it being in the early morning, it was still dark out. "Well… I guess auroras can be helpful after all. How 'bout that?"

"You owe me quite a bit of Lien." Roland laughed.

"Oh… you almost die and you remember that bet we made about Frost's Semblance?" Arty shook his head, "Awesome."

Roland weakly reached a hand out and repeatedly clenched and unclenched his fist. "Pay up, Burne."

"You have to admit, auroras are a bit more functional than bringing drawings to life," Timbre giggled.

"Hey!" Arty looked offended, "I've already saved our lives with that before, Timbre…"

She playfully punched him on the shoulder, "I'm kidding, Umber."

They all turned their attention to the sky as the bright searchlights of one of the Beacon airships soared above them.

Arty raised his hands to defend his eyes from the wind and light, "Who's ready for the new punishment that will be bestowed upon us by our elders!?" he shouted with mock excitement.

Roland stared up at the white tiled ceiling of the infirmary. This was his punishment, after all. He was to stay in the infirmary for the next week at least. He had gotten off easy though. The rest of the relatively uninjured students were stuck doing chores around the school on their break. In the beds to either side of him were Turf and Alice, the other two who received the worst injuries during the whole event.

There was suddenly a loud ruckus as Arty, Timbre, Sepia, and Ebon came into the room.

"How are you guys feelin' today!" Arty said cheerfully, struggling to carry a huge stack of books, "We come bearing goodies!"

As usual, Sepia bolted through the door and sat up on the edge of Roland's bed. After the Emerald Forest, she had only left his side if she absolutely needed to, and she guessed that he didn't mind that too much.

Timbre and Ebon ran over to Turf, who sat there without his favorite beanie. The nurse wouldn't let him wear it as long as he was in the infirmary.

Ebon put Turf into a soft headlock and gave him a noogie between his perked up dog ears.

"Hey there, Fido." Timbre smiled.

Turf chuckled, "I told you not to call me that, Timbre," he said as he pushed Eubon's arms off of his head. "I'm starting to regret introducing you to Clay and Loam."

"Sorry," she placed a plastic bag on Turf's lap, "The nurse said food wouldn't be too much of a problem considering how fast you're recovering, so will this make up for it?"

"What's in the bag?" Turf asked while holding it up to the light for examination.

Ebon took the seat next to the bed, "Beef jerky, a jar of peanut butter, a tennis ball."

Turf glared at him, "Really?..."

Ebon laughed, "No. We're not that horrible. You also got a couple of root beers in there."

"Fair enough," Turf rolled his eyes.

In the next bed, Roland took a moment to look over the books that Arty had brought, "I don't want to sound like a jerk, but I've read all of those books, Arty," he couldn't help but smile at the gesture, despite this, "I do appreciate it, though. It's a kind thought."

"Well… I kinda thought you'd be bored considering how long they're keeping you cooped up in here," Arty slumped over in the nearby chair, obviously out of breath from carrying the large stack of novels all the way across the school. "Thought you might want to re-read something."

"Mind if I take a look at your collection?" Alice said, turning over to them.

"Yeah, of course! A lot of those are mom's old books, though, so there are probably a few romance novels mixed in. If you aren't into that, then that's a warning," Roland yawned and reclined back in his bed.

Arty groaned before reluctantly picking up the stack and bringing it over to Alice's bed.

Alice began scanning the titles, occasionally pulling a book out to look inside. Before Arty could walk away, she stopped him, "Thanks, Umba."

The gratitude was unexpected, partially because it was Alice, partially because he didn't know what she was thanking him for. "Uh… sorry if this sounds rude, Alice, but… what are you thanking me for?" he looked to the books, "For carrying Roland's romance collection over here?"

Alice closed the first book loudly and placed it on her lap, "Don't test me, Painta-Boy. I'm not used ta sayin' that, okay?" she leaned back against her pillow and looked out the window across the room from her. The cliffside courtyard at the front of Beacon sprawled out below, with the city farther out. "You stayed behind an' faced off with a complete loony, Umba, and you had your team by your side, even when you weren't physically togetha. I guess what I'm tryin' ta say is... thank you for showin' me that maybe, maybe, you have some inklin' of an idea of what you're doin'. You may not 'ave been there when Rime attacked me, but your team took out a monster that wasn't even supposed ta be here in Vale. Had you not done that, there's no tellin' how much more chaos that thing would've caused bein' so close ta the Academy."

Arty was dumbstruck, "I… I honestly don't know how to respond to that. I'm not used to being thanked often," he chuckled, "Guess you could say we got that in common, too."

Alice rolled her eyes, "You can start by saying 'you're welcome' and promising that you an' the rest of your team… when they're all able… will help Team ANTE set up for the welcomin' party here in the comin' weeks."

"Oh… Alabaster's still letting you guys do that?... After all that happened in the forest?..."

"We weren't breakin' any rules, Painta-Boy. They're just upset with us bein' so reckless. Besides, it's a bit too late ta find somebody else who knows how ta set up a party."

Arty nodded.

Alice suddenly found Arty's hand outstretched to her.

"I know we all kinda just dealt with some psycho Grimm worshipers and a demonic dinosaur, but, I could definitely use a creative outlet to help… y'know… forget about all that. At least for a little bit. Just promise me we can change the horrible color scheme you got going on for the ballroom."

Alice looked offended for a moment before allowing a smile to tilt the ends of her mouth. She shook Arty's hand daintily, "Ya 'ave a deal, Umba."

"So… not to break up the whole moment we've got going here, but when is the food coming around? I haven't had a decent meal since we got put in here and Sepia keeps getting caught when she tries to sneak clams in," Roland leaned up and looked around the room, "I'd even walk to the cafeteria to get some food. I'm starving!"

"We are aware of that, man. Very aware," Turf glanced at Alice, "but lunch doesn't sound too bad. I think I could stand to get up and move around. The cafeteria's not that far away."

Alice sighed, "I guess… that sounds okay. The nurse did say that I should start walking around to get the soreness out."

"Well, whaddya waiting for?" Timbre patted Turf on the shoulder, "Let's go! It's hamburger day today, and you guys know Team ASHS…"

Turf immediately jumped out of his cot, "Timbre, thanks for the jerky, but I would rather save that for later. So… yeah. Let's go. If we can get there before them we might have a chance of getting a burger… or two… or four."

"If we go in limping, then they might pity us and just give us their food!" Roland slid out of bed and stood up straight. He was definitely sore, but the promise of food was more than enough to get him to work through it.

'Let's get a move on, then! The pity party awaits!' Sepia rushed ahead and pushed open the door.

The group of them walked off for the cafeteria, all managing to laugh and joke on the way there. Life seemed to be returning to their own special sense of "normal".

Heavy metallic thuds sounded out down the dark hallway as Oro walked towards her boss's office. She had some very interesting news to report.

"You're an idiot. You know that?" a deep male voice echoed from the shadows.

Oro turned to find a man similarly dressed to her with the black cloak and white Grimm-like mask. His was more similar to a bat's skull than a kangaroo's.

"Oh come on, Echo! It was all in good fun. I know how to control my lovelies," She retorted, rolling her eyes under her mask, "I knew they weren't going to die. Hurt, sure, but die? No."

"You know that's not true. Trex's namesake almost killed that Forté girl on multiple occasions. In case you forgot, she can't die. If you and your… posse had gotten her ripped apart by that Grimm, the whole plan would be ruined, and I'm sure I'd be the one sent to get rid of the broken gears in our operation. Understand?" he shook his head, "I got Speeder to get them out there so you could see how they were progressing on their training and so you could try out the Vacuo group's pet project, not to beat them within an inch of their lives."

Oro went silent. She half considered calling her group to help take care of Echo, but she knew that the Commander and even all of the Lieutenants frowned upon Brother on Brother violence. "Fine, I'm sorry, okay Echo? I almost messed up. Key word, almost. Things went fine and I got what I went in there for, and your little trinkets helped immensely on their first run." She tossed the black baton with the red antenna to him. "Our little angel wouldn't have even found them if we hadn't used these. So congratulations, you can follow blueprints, now that you know how they work, all you have to do is learn how to make them smaller and less… stupid looking." She turned on her heels and walked to the large double doors at the end of the hall. "Oh, and Echo. Never threaten me like that again. We all may be working towards the same goal, but I do things how I do things. Vale may be your base of operations, but in case you forgot, my Lieutenant and your Lieutenant agreed that Trex and I should work on this, so stop being so pissy over it. I'm also one-hundred-percent sure the Commander will be very pleased with what we have to tell her," she scoffed, "I thought you'd at least be happy with how that Faunus boy ended up at the end of the night. I know I was."

With that, the doors slammed shut.