It took longer to get to the pickup zone than Jake had originally anticipated. Being forced off the beaten trail, they had to navigate through the thick vegetation of the Forest of Forever Fall.

"So you're telling me that you've never gone to a combat school? How did you get into Beacon?" Myrilly asked him, following closely behind him.

Jake held down a branch and let Myrilly pass through. "Nope, never been. And I have no idea how I was offered a spot in Beacon."

"Hmm… That's really odd. So you have no combat experience at all?"

"None." He paused of a second, and then realized her implications. "Ah! Sorry. I'll just be a dead weight to the team."

"No worries! Even a sack of potatoes has their uses in combat."

"Err… Thanks?" he replied, unsure how to respond to being compared with vegetables.

They went silent again and the forest seemed to act in accordance, as the only sounds they could hear were the crunching of fallen leaves under their feet. As they got closer towards the pick up zone, streaks of light trickled past through the dense treetops of the forest. What was once a dark forest began to lighten up and they found themselves now walking through lightly scattered trees. The eerie silence of the crimson thickets turned into the sounds the calming rustling of the leaves as a gentle breeze flowed through the trees.

The moment of bliss was soon interrupted by the shouts of distress.

"Get! Away!" shouted a familiar voice from nearby.

Jake ran over to the source of the shouting, followed by Myrilly, who had already drawn her weapon. Jake pulled out his own pistol as well, now creeping closer to the clearing, where the situation was occurring.

Aureolin was fighting a huge ursa major, wielding his longsword and tower shield. His partner, a girl, was lying unconscious in a growing pool of blood behind Aureolin, her ornate staff still in hand.

There was a large metal crash, as Aureolin deflected a powerful swipe from the ursa with his large shield. The boy countered with a lunge to the exposed underbelly, his sword piecing its thick hide. The monster roared with anguish and sent Aureolin flying with a strong slam, the sword still lodged in its stomach.

Jake saw his chance to help. He fired at the ursa no longer in fear of hitting Aureolin, emptying the entire clip. Multiple bullets found their target, but none of them caused any fatal damage. Then Myrilly sprang out from the bushes, chainsaw in hand, and charged towards the beast.

The revving of her chainsaw temporarily stunned the injured Grimm, but it quickly regained focus, parrying her initial strike using the armor on its forearms. Her attack blocked, Myrilly was slow to recover with her heavy weapon, and was left vulnerable from the ursa's powerful claws. With Myrilly in such close proximity to the ursa, Jake couldn't do anything but watch her get ripped to shreds.

Suddenly Aureolin rushed in, shield raised, knocking back the beast. The ursa downed, he quickly pulled out his sword, the ursa roaring in agony.

"You want a piece of me?" he shouted at the beast.

It roared back and then regained its offensive stance. But it was too late. Aureolin already closed the distance between the two and before it could defend itself, he let out a fury of slashes in combination with a few shield bashes. The thousands of repetitions showed, as the impeccably timed strikes dealt their damage to the undefended underside of the ursa major. He thrust forward with his sword catching the oversized Grimm in the chest, throwing it over his head and sent it a considerable distance.

The beast now lay limp, bleeding profusely from its belly. Jake rushed out of the bush and double tapped it to make sure it was dead, where Myrilly shortly joined him. Aureolin wasn't next to them admiring his kill, but rather was kneeling next to his partner, swiftly trying to heal her with his aura.

"C'mon… C'mon!" he mumbled.

"Urg," groaned the girl, coming back into consciousness.

"Hey, wake up. Ursa's dead. We have to get going," he told the girl.

She sat up and looked around, her eyes barely open. Only now did Jake see that the back of her outfit displayed a distinct slash marks from the ursa. The bleeding had stopped, the wounds now replaced with fine white scars.

Aureolin helped the girl up, "Feeling better?" he asked her.

"Yeah… Thanks," she mumbled back, still a bit dazed.

He turned to Jake and Myrilly.

"Thank you very much for aiding us. Damned Grimm ambushed us."

He indicated to the slash marks on his partner's outfit.

The girl was looking a bit better, now dusting herself off.

"David Aureolin. Nice to meet you."

"Jake Kohle."

"Myrilly Flare."

He shook both their hands.

"This is Lia Ceil."

"Hello, nice to meet you Jake, Myrilly." the brunette girl said, nodding at each.

Lia's voice had an elegant and smooth trill, almost resembling a low purr.

Jake examined the girl without looking too suspicious. She seemed a bit different than most people, notably with her long, straight hair that rolled gently over her shoulders adorned with two silver-white tufts on her head.

Jake's efforts were in futile, as Lia noticed his staring and cocked her head to the side.

"I'm an owl faunus, if you were curious, Jake," she told in a matter-of-fact manner.

Jake blushed and looked away, but said nothing.

In the mean time, Aureolin had made his way over towards the fallen beast, and came back with a retrieved object.

"The king of hearts," he told said, showing them the trophy, "A fine prize, if you ask me."

It wasn't too long after when they reached the pick up zone, marked by a large red X on the top of a hill. On the opposite side of the hill was a steep cliff, overseeing the entire Forest of Forever Fall. They could just make out the figure of Beacon in the horizon, still grand as ever from a considerable distance away.

"So… How do we get back?" asked Myrilly.

No one knew.

"Damned trees!" they heard a voice shout behind them.

Nalythia was the first one to come into view. Next was Serrah, followed by two other people, a boy and a girl.

"Ah! Jake!" Serrah called out to him.

Jake waved back at the newly arrived crew.

They settled down on the fine yellow-red grass a quick rest. Myrilly was the first one to talk.

"Did you get the trophy?"

Four cards were produced. Jake and Myrilly had the ace of spades, Aureolin and Lia got the king of hearts, Serrah and Nalythia obtained the ace of hearts, and the boy and the girl, whose names turned out to be Zack and Pearl, had retrieved the king of spades.

"What do you think they mean?" Pearl asked.

"Probably they determine the teams," Lia offered.

"By suit? Or by face?" Jake asked.

"No clue," Serrah replied.

They fell into another moment of silence.

"So does anyone know how to signal them to pick us up?" Myrilly asked out of the blue.

Zack pulled out a small red colored gun.

"A flare gun!" Myrilly cried, very much familiar with the device. "Can I? Can I? Can I?" she jumped up and down, her eyes gleaming with excitement.

He offered it to her. But rather than firing it in the air, she took it and opened it up. At the sight of the exposed round, she scoffed and let out a burst of frustration. She opened her pouch that she carried by her hip and dug her arm in, pulling out a customized dust round. After emptying the contents of the flare gun on the ground, she plopped in the perfectly sized dust round and cocked the gun.

"Are you ready?" she asked the crew, most of them a bit uneasy.

"Uhh yeah?" Aureolin replied.

"Let the show begin!" she exclaimed

She fired the round into the sky and it sailed through the sky gracefully. Like a normal flare gunshot, the round detonated at a certain height. Instead of a brilliant show of lights, dust particles were dispersed overhead. There was a moment of awe as the initial burst echoed through the forest, when all of a sudden the dust ignited in a huge cloud of fire. Even at 100m above them, the light was blinding and they could even feel the shockwave from the explosion.

"Are you crazy?!" cried Nalythia, her hands still covering her ears.

"Umm yeah!" shouted back Myrilly.

Before they could get into an argument, three bullheads appeared from beneath the cliff.

"It worked!" the girl exclaimed.

"Of course it works you idiot! You almost lit up the entire forest!" Nalythia shouted.

A man opened up the side door on the airship and beckoned them on. Quickly, but cautiously, they jumped on one by one onto the hovering airship.

In less than an hour, they would be back safe and sound in Beacon, initiation completed successfully. Or that was what Jake thought. A piecing shriek filled the sky, as multiple black shadows descended upon the airships.

The nevermore have arrived.

You'd think that one would have plenty of time to write during the winter break. Nope! Here in Toronto, we suffered a 2+ day blackout due to freezing rain. Damn, as pretty as it looked, it was hell'a dangerous. Now for this chapter, I'd like to apologize how short and rough it is (and late). But like I promised, here is the chapter and I hope I can put out another one this week before next Tuesday's. Oh! Before I forget, Merry Christmas! Enjoy this week's chapter, Initiation Pt. 2 (Uncreative name, I know.)