Chapter 16: Hunting Bulls

Weiss Schnee Heiress

"I'm excited! Are you excited? We get to go hunting for real! For an academy for killing monsters you'd think we would do it more." Ruby was almost troublingly excited about hunts, adventures even if just out to the Emerald Forest on a bird murder spree. Weiss was more interested in seeing exactly how their chaperone, the supposed expert on Nevermores, handled the large beasts of the sky. She seemed ill fit for aerial combat, burdened by heavy archaic armor and an oversized sword.

"You'll get plenty of it soon, young blood. I promise. Soon you'll be begging for a break," Coco announced from behind. CFVY, their now third year escorts, had been brought along due to Velvet's odd placing in their classes. She clearly wasn't too stupid. Perhaps Velvet skipped a grade? Either way her team came along, the casual cool of their leader a little unnerving, though Weiss would be lying if she said she doubted a second of that woman's ferocity in battle.

"Never fear, Coco! My team has an inexhaustible fire for adventure! Don't we girls?" Ruby announced fist in the air in defiance of both the sharp morning air and the general grogginess of the team. Weiss didn't say anything back while Yang groaned from sleep deprivation and unusually uncooperative hair.

"Whoo," Blake mumbled halfheartedly with a smile, poking her own fun at their over eager leader.

"Guys!" Ruby called out in complaint as they loudly marched through the Emerald Forest foliage. Just past the Beacon line, cliff edges where the city's defense met endless trees. Here the grimm were thin to allow traffic to and fro, relatively protected by the hunters of Beacon, though it was never fully safe. The creatures stumbled along in the distance, a thinned horde that could not compare to the dangers in the distant wild, outside the kingdoms.

Of course to control that, someone had to patrol the forests and leave it manageable enough for even the entry level students to be reasonably well off.

"You'll do great kid, I like your attitude," Coco complimented, the young leader patting her on the back. A slight boost of confidence and reassurance made Ruby bright, her smile wide in admiration. Maybe Weiss was getting a little jealous, but she was mostly proud. Her girl was something spectacular in her own way, better if the world realized it. "Plus you're Beacon's mascot couple, how can you lose?" she added, giving Weiss a knowing wink. Now Coco was just heckling them.

"I am not, anyone's mascot, thank you!" The heiress did the best to keep her blush down, though her pale complexion was no doubt her enemy today. No one was buying it, preferring to mock her with their insolent laughs. Ruby wasn't, her silver eyes looking sweetly at her. At least she could count on her not to poke fun.

"Would you be my mascot?" the red cape betrayer asked with such a cute and vile grin. Oh screw you.

"Shut. Up. Ruby," Weiss replied with a twirl and a proper umph, show her what for. A clearing was up ahead, empty aside from a lone beowolf, which Neptune dispatched with a single shot. Little thing strayed too far from the pack.

"Lot of you need to shut it," Azura called out from the lead, apparently paying attention more than her false stoicism might have suggested. She turned around only when the corpse began to dissipate into dust, a black ashen mix. "Alright kids, we need to get the attention of a Nevermore, bring the birds out of hiding. How might you suggest we do it?" A loaded question covered in the course material Weiss had gone over, though she had to cut down on all the methods, after all her lecture was cutting into the next class before Port told her she had to stop. For the first time ever she sympathized with the old man.

"Attract them with negativity?" a black haired girl named Noir offered from one of the other teams, Weiss didn't know her personally.

"While you all make negativity easy, no amount of midlife crises will bag you a perfect chicken." Azura seemed a hungry wolf today, her blue black hair peppered with grey, but her enthusiasm for a hunt palpable. The way she swayed side to side suggested how she thirsts, antsy in a way the heiress had never seen her before.

Weiss raised her hand, but unsurprisingly she was not called. A moment passed before Blake lifted up her arm and Azura nodded to allow it. Weiss might have been offended, but she guessed the professor wanted someone who hadn't taught the impromptu lecture on them.

"Have teams of people, one to flush the Nevermore out and another with high fire power to knock it out of the sky?" Blake's answer was solid, just what Weiss expected.

"Yes, and we will be doing that. SNNA and SSSN take the left forest, as I marked exactly in your scrolls. CFVY and JNPR will take the right, again on your scrolls. Who fires the big guns and who scares the chickens, I don't care. I'll go with team RWBY. Weiss you'll be with me. I have a big gun, but a magic user like you is good support. RBY will be our hunting dogs. Sound good?" No one argued, though Weiss would have preferred not being tagged to the professor, Ruby would have wanted to be with Weiss, and Blake desired probably to watch her hero. Still, nothing too bad. RWBY was part of the vanguard, respectable thing to write home to father about.

"Before that, I want to show you something." The wolf faunus walked into the open field, her shield, a small circle of runes lighting up, activating for something that came this way, "How we do it alone, you find the bird, you find out what its routine is. Slow and meticulous, but you can trust it." Dark wings in the distance became visible, a large one, bigger than the beast from the opening challenge glided forward from dawn. Azura's sword glowed a blue as she walked, stepping idly forward with no care or reservation. "Then you cut its little fat wings off," she shouted as the dark grimm locked onto her, flying low, feathers like darts pointing her way. Students bolted to the sides for cover, Nevermore feathers like daggers in the wind. Azura stood still, braced even, her body low and leaning forward, the shield in front, glowing with the light of the runes.

It rained black knives, their points stabbing right into the holographic shield, the runes brightening as every dark bolts stuck into its magical sphere of influence. Dust embedded weapons truly were a godsend. At a loss, unable to pelt its prey to death, the Nevermore began to circle around for another run. Azura had no desire to wait and her sword split open, the edges sliding to the ends of the hand guard. Waves of electricity ran down in a metronome, a steady bolt between the split blade. The center of the quillion glowed with the bright intensity of lightning dust. It was a rail gun.

It fired a single shot, heavy like a cannon, the full force of magnetics launching a block of unknown metal into the air. It vaporized the massive Nevermore's limb where it struck, robbing the bird of a wing, its call a scream before it dropped into a free fall. Azura smirked, her sword expelling its dust canister from the center. That was the huntress' pride.

"Uhhh, that was cool! But I don't think its dead," Nora called out from the back.

"I know it's not dead! Can't fly without a pair of wings either!" she shouted back at her, mourning the moment one might have called her cool. Azura sighed, hefting the sword back onto her shoulder. It left trails of soot and smoke rising off the center while the rail gun pulled itself into a regular blade, the contraption a one shot per load deal clearly. "I can finish it off in a bit. Damn, you all can't let me just have my moment. Everyone, I planned this specifically because whatever you run into out there, you can take. If for some reason something happens, run back to Beacon, only if you can't win. Pretend you're all alone out here. If there's an emergency," she paused to point to a small button on the bottom of her weapon, a switch that dimly glowed. It seemed modular and removable, leading up to a small canister attached to the side of the blade. "I'll light a flare and we'll regroup on me, got it?"

Everyone nodded in agreement, some happier than others. The respective teams formed up, Ruby giving Weiss an uncomfortable jump hug before departing with her sister and a strangely nervous looking Blake, as she never liked dividing teams. CFVY waited a moment, their famed lieutenant looking off into the misty arrow pelted field, a slight pout on her lips.

"I've done better," Coco mumbled to Velvet, her friend giggling in reply.

"They were also half the size of that one Coco," her faunus companion replied, putting a hand on her leader's shoulder.

"Still did it."

"You're too quiet," Miss Thrym stated some five minutes into the long trek towards what was their downed black feather monster. Couldn't have crawled very far without wings and a great deal of blood loss, or whatever the red dust like smoke that emptied out of their open wounds more accurately was.

"Not like you are saying anything either," Weiss hitched herself, knowing she just snapped at a teacher, "Professor." Weiss was fairly social when the time required it, a lifetime of formal parties and balls were proof of that, though this teacher uneased her. She was negative, stoic, moody, and more importantly someone close to Ruby, which meant Weiss was always going to be on trial whenever they spoke. Made silences much more comfortable than talking.

"Fair point. I've lost some of my youthful enthusiasm, my apologies," Azura replied with something of a smile as she ducked under a high branch, the tall faunus constantly bobbing and weaving to avoid the sucker punches constantly thrown out by tree limbs.

"You had enthusiasm?" Weiss mumbled, keeping a much straighter path, tactical superiority of her height situation made clear to those nay-sayers. Azura, who apparently heard her, chuckled a little, finding it more funny than offensive, thank goodness.

"Well no, but I use to be fairly well known for a joke or two. Quite the life of the party, so long as the party consisted of my old friends Charles and Murray, or someone I liked," Azura replied with a touch of pride, her helmet tucked under her free arm the scarred face of her's with a bit of a nostalgic smile, "Well, maybe not life of the party, but believe it or not I had friends, kid."

"There goes one thing we have in common," Weiss moaned with an eye roll, "I'm joking." She only half was. She did technically have friends after all.

"Alright," the professor replied with the hint a Fort Castle accent, "we both need to work on it."

Silence resumed for a moment after that, but now without the much enjoyed comfortable quality it had earlier. This is why one should never talk about a silence. Suddenly it had to be an awkward stroll through the monster infested woods and not a lovely mid spring hike. Azura had ruined it, someone needed to say something now, starting a silent game of chicken between them. Who could resist this horrifying void, neither the wind nor an animal willing to make a peep to fill in the rift. Weiss stared deeply into the back of her professor's head, maybe for a full minute, daring her to speak, then practically begging her to at two minutes, then cracking at three.

"So, were those your teammates at Beacon?" It was an awkward starter, but at least something filled the painful rupture in sound.

"Wait, wasn't paying attention," Azura answered back with a listless mumble, eyes fogged in something, one feeling or another, which it was Weiss didn't know. Instead she was embarrassed. For the first time in her life, she lost a duel while the other person didn't even know they were in it. Mortifying.

"The people you mentioned, were they classmates?" It was too late to turn back, she was in too deep. This conversation was happening.

"No, war friends," Azura replied back, highlighting the forty year old conflict that had shaped most of Weiss' teen life, a haunting of decisions that lead to many things, both scars emotionally and physically.

"I forgot you were that old," Weiss toyed back, trying to avoid the morose with mocking humor, her only humor. Azura glared at her for a moment, eye raised in mock indignation, "I meant that experienced of course." Merely a tactical retreat.

"Smart move, Ice Queen." The utterance of that arduous and annoying alias which spread both too quickly and too widely made Weiss shudder with distaste.

"Oh not you too?! This is gotten to the point of bullying!" Weiss stopped her foot down and like a switch Azura laughed.

"It's not a bad nickname, has a ring to it. Very regal. Much better thing than what I've been called."

"Is it because you are a faunus?"

There was the suggestion hanging on the tip of her tongue now, a thing that bothered her, as well as everyone else. The faunus woman seemed so distant and so far, the names Charles and Murray, they were the first mention of the war, beside her hate for Schnees. "Did you fight my family? I know you hate us, but… you never mentioned why?" Weiss added, own curiosity getting the better of her good sense.

"Casual racism not enough?" The younger huntress scrunched her brow in response, not finding it nearly as funny as Azura was. The woman made a joke of subjects that were simply anything but. Weiss hated that. "I did. Lost a lot of people to that war, but everyone in your family that ever harmed me are gone. All debts are paid. The only one that got away in the end isn't even a human. Schnees just remind me of mistakes. It's not your fault." Azura seemed honest, her deep blue eyes tightening in anger, but not at Weiss, instead off into the forest.

"Should I ask how they paid?" Weiss asked, reflexively grasping the hilt of her sword. Memories of lost relatives came to mind. Many cousins, an uncle, an aunt, plenty of people she had never met.

"No, I don't feel like talking about it. I'll tell you when you hate me less. Re-fan the flames at the right time," she laughed, again Weiss did not, "Loosen up, I didn't do anything illegal. Only attempt at anything like that was in the Vytal festival and I never got the chance." Weiss eased up some, but her palm never left her beloved sword.

"Alright, you are just baiting me on this story." Professor Thrym smiled, caught red handed.

"Nothing too much. A faunus woman whom I intended to murder entered the Vytal tournament, but got away. So I won." Brevity might rightly be the soul of wit, but here it made her seem both a tall talker and annoyingly egotistical.

"You talk about the Vytal tournament like it's not a very big. Hunters and Huntresses dream of winning it most of their lives." It was a moment one could prove their worth, stand above as a paragon, a symbol of the art. Bring new honor and respect even to the most entrenched families, a chance to redeem a name.

"You dream of it, Miss Schnee?" the wolf faunus asked.

"I aim to try again, certainly. I think it's a respectable goal!" Weiss answered, lifting her chin up in a dignified stance, not willing to be shamed over a healthy ambition.

"Is now, wasn't then. Court finally won faunus the right to compete 'cause of the treaty. That unfortunately led to many people refusing to do so. Some wanting to protest, others wanted to insure faunus won at least once, many more seeing it as a farce and skipping until the world worked out its politics. Suddenly more and more novices and less and less real Hunters entered. I wasn't the best. Ozpin could, and can, beat me. Glynda as well, but neither of them entered. Qrow forfeited to let me pass, jerk." Qrow was Ruby's uncle; Weiss knew that, and Azura's old partner. She could hear the familiar and nostalgic way Azura referred to him and wondered if Ruby would do the same for her in thirty years. "I beat the bad hunters, lucked out against good ones like Ironwood. My target was in the opposite bracket. Day of the final, the day I planned to go above and beyond the match, she retires and I become the first faunus to win the Vytal Championship. Didn't deserve it. Didn't want it," Azura's eyes grew more vibrant, a flash of yellow, the color of her rage perhaps. No one had and likely ever would be so disappointed to be declared champion. "Made me lots of money though so I think it wasn't too awful, eh?" The yellow was gone.

"For what it's worth I'm glad you didn't. Ruby seems to care a lot about you. You wouldn't be around if you went to jail," Weiss offered as some comfort. She did her best to tie Ruby to it, a string of genuine selfish sympathy to make up for her lack of empathy for this rather rude professor.

"Yeah, she is a bright spot for sure. Keep letting her down though," Azura punctuated with a sigh, a look of real regret, or perhaps resignation, that colored her complexion a paler white, "Thank you for being good to her." Her last sentence was a ghost from a conversation before, another one where she seemed as detached and remorseful.

"Didn't you already say that?" Weiss said, making it no secret.

"Worth repeating?" Azura replied with a smile, knowing she had been clever.

"Well I do it for her, not for you," Weiss shot back, more aggressive than she meant, but that was a bad habit of her's for sure, "But you're welcome. You're not so bad." That wasn't a total lie, though she stood for everything that repulsed Weiss, but in some ways so did Ruby. Perhaps that was why Weiss was so easily enwrapped, entangled, and engrossed in her affections.

"I've liked our chat to be honest. I think, another time we could have been friends. I really mean that." There was resignation in her voice now, not just the eyes, and a sense of defeat. One that seemed practiced perfectly.

"Well we still can be," Weiss offered, realizing they were just a touch away from a breakthrough in their relationship, just a step away from true civility, to making some sort of familial connection between them and Ruby, "I mean within the understand that you are a professor and I am a student of course. I mean professionally no, but personally I think we can be friends. I really doubt I'll be able to avoid you post-graduation. Say if Ruby and I were to eventually marry, it would make for a poor event if you didn't like me. I mean if we did," Weiss mumbled the last bit out in a horrible verbal slip, catching herself only at the end with how childish, silly, and impossible that was, "That was a joke!"

Azura laughed, smiled, and looked a dreadful sad all at once. Melancholy made corporeal was her expression.

"I would be happy if that happened," the wolf answered putting on her helmet, a steel casing that hid her faunus ears behind the same animal she shared resemblance. The tree line was ending ahead, just a few steps, light that once never passed the canopy was flooding the forest in front of Weiss, blocked only by her professor. "Make sure your weapon is fully loaded and no matter what you do, do not let your guard down, and take care of anyone behind me. I'm more of a frontal assault kind of woman."

It was only when Weiss reached the clearing, still behind Azura, did she realize why.

The white wolves that haunted her life, same wolves that had been all but crushed a year ago. No, some were younger, fresher; their grimm bone masks hiding their faces, obscuring their identities, through the veterans could be separated from the novices by their demeanor. Despite being crushed, the White Fang were not poorly equipped, their swords and rifles were still of the best Atlas military quality, their front force backed up by two of the armored battle suits more commonly used by Ironwood's outfit, Weiss remembered their massive resilient structure. The entire clearing was a broken ambush, broken by a bleeding, dissipating, bird.

"You dropped at Nevermore on us." Weiss recognized the growling voice one of the leading men spoke with, another ill-fated memory, a White Fang Lieutenant with an oversized chainsaw, blades ready and roaring. Weiss had wanted badly a rematch with her dust in full stock, but that was in theory more a one on one fight, not a two on twenty match, even if about ten seemed too green.

"Seems I did," Azura answered in reply, tone tinted with anger, though her face was completely hidden by her own black wolf helmet. She did not, as Weiss was surprised to see, fire her flare, or even ready her weapon like Weiss already had. Instead she merely let the zweihander rest on her shoulder, fingers near, but not on the triggers of its rail system.

"It doesn't matter, give us the girl!" the true commander, some man with horns through his hair shouted out. He looked suspiciously like Adam, Blake's former mentor they had clashed with, briefly, albeit memorably. They all swore not to talk about him, but this leader was too young, perhaps a member of his family.

"Where is the Taurus," Azura asked with growl, almost like a wolf warning its pack mates away from its kill. Weiss didn't feel like being some dying deer, they would have to kill her before taking her hostage.

"You'll meet with Adam after we have the hostage." It was becoming clear now, yet not. This was a betrayal, yet she had warned her to pack her ammo, that they would try to surround them. Weiss' cynicism called Azura the same as the rest of her lying kin, but the hopeful believed maybe this was a sting, maybe Ozpin and Ironwood set it up, Atlas forces would appear and ambush the ambushers.

"Not the boy, I don't want your leader, I want your founder, his grandmother, the Taurus. I want Akagura. It was promised!" Weiss recognized the name, Akagura Taurus, the old lady that held the traditional title to the far north of Vale, the country's only faunus of the former nobility. Though the elite of society often intermingled, Weiss' father refused any invitation to any event she was present, a feud between them persevered even at the financial level, both holding corporate positions. She was the financial support. She was the money. The one who paid for Adam's militaristic machinations post Roman's fall.

She was Azura's target.

"Maybe, but you also assured us she would be unarmed. Schnee bitch still has her sword." Weiss would make that chainsaw wielding maniac pay for that. No one called Weiss, the child of years of training and generations of fine breeding, a gods damn dog.

"I also dropped a giant deadly chicken on your head. If you haven't noticed I don't like you lot very much." This was spiraling out of control. Weiss scanned the tree line for support, but there was only White Fang, too many to watch all at once. Though every step forward Azura would glare them back, but one dreaded person can only stare at so many. They were approaching.

"Enough, old wolf, give us the Schnee girl. You are not in control here," with the horned man's utterance of old, Azura's fingers were on the triggers.

"Boy, who in a pack eats first, the old wolves or new?" the professor asked with a razor smile.

"Us," the horned man shouted, raising his sword, a curved blade like Adam's, but not as steady or advanced in design.

"Wrong, it's the strongest." The sword, The Royal Charlie, swung down off her shoulder, split apart, waves of lightning running down the center. One instant there was a man with horns; another there was a lower body with but blood and threats left in the air to remind someone there was even a person before.

Weiss reacted like a runner at the line. A shot rang out and she burst in motion, Myrtenaster's canister spinning, hammer landing on the glowing ice dust and she fired, the force bursting from the ground, a wall of frost forming where her semblance so decided. An immediate defense for the two of them as the pounding sound of dust based rifles and cannons fired into their wall, flakes of ice blasting apart already.

"When is going on?! Did you just try and sell me!?" Weiss nearly screeched voice high with anger and emotion. Her professor was busy reloading her sword, a one shot based cannon ill fitted for multiple opponents. Should have at least fired at one of the Atlas Paladins.

"I was never going to! They were supposed to bring our target and we'd crush them," Azura replied a little too calmly and her sword reformed to its melee form.

"And when were you going to tell me I was chosen for a sting!" One of the young fighters tried to go around; Weiss turned the gage to red, fire, ready and triggered it. A snake of flame burst forth and encapsulated her target along with more of the trees.

"You have been chosen to assist me in a sting. Happy?" The professor lined her body up, left side pressed against the ice wall, both her hands on the sword, the blade resting on the earth, ready to whip around, right into the ice. Her eyes glowed yellow, shining through the helmet. Animal eyes. Visual semblance like Yang's.

"What about the others? The flare!" Weiss shouted suddenly afraid for Ruby, though she could hear the sound of fire and explosions all through the forest. They were in danger.

"Set them up to ambush the ambushes meant for them! Smart, eh?" her words triggered a recent memory, the briefing. 'I planned this specifically because whatever you run into out there, you can take.' She really had planned it. So no back up. It was just them. Breathe, Weiss reminded herself, breathe, you are a huntress. Calm barely set in when the wall crumbled apart, the Paladin bursting from the other side right where Azura had been standing, had before she pressed herself to the wall and swung her blade, the massive sword cleaving clean through the mechanized leg. The metal frame was torn completely asunder as the professor tossed all her might into one massive swipe.

The Paladin lost balance, tumbling to the ground, arms and body operational, but without a leg to stand on it lay in the dirt and struggled like a flipped turtle. Weiss thought to shout out something, but before any words formed on her tongue, Azura roared, an animal like howl. Eye ablaze in amber. The second Paladin came for her, firing shell after shell form the cannons, but the wolf faunus danced through it, her body low to the ground, too swift for armor her size. She leapt, treating her free hand like another leg to push her forward. Body twisting in the air, she became a spiral of motion, the sword's massive weight giving her the bulk of which to twirl, a bladed summersault. She dropped down on the second Paladin, carving off a chunk of its center and dismembering an arm. It tried its best to turn and fire, but there was no hope. Thrym roared again, dragging her sword across the ground as she ran around it faster than it could hope to turn and lifted the ziehender in a crescent slice, removing that one's leg as well.

Watching the professor fight was akin to watching an unleashed animal. Every attack had all of her in it, body, muscle, sound, fury, no part reserved or resigned as her amber eyes burned below the shade of evergreens. It was an animal like berserk, her semblance channeling unknowable strength with every guttural howl.

The White Fang didn't leave her to just gaze, however, but Weiss preferred it that way. They came at her, sometimes one at a time, sometimes two, but few could hope to stand up to her. Guard left, riposte. Step back then dive forward. Turn and engage the next opponent. Riposte, attack, riposte, attack. Every move was catalogued, considered, acted on with practiced and complete perfection. The thugs in white could not hope to touch her competence; none posed any threat, but an oversized, manic ghost from the past. The White Fang lieutenant.

"Traitor isn't here to save you this time, Schnee." His voice was pungent despite the roaring of both his chainsaw and the professor. The faunus was the same as a year before, black hair still buzz cut, sleeveless jacket revealing prominent muscles and tan skin.

"This time I didn't half to loan someone half my dust," Weiss was so looking forward to ending this psychopath, "and this time I'm just better than you." She could not see his face, but she imagined it red with rage.

"I'm stronger!" he called, making a sweeping charge. Yes, Weiss noted, but slower and dimmer. Ruby had taught Weiss the value in speed, and though she lacked her semblance, she had her own talent and gifts. Dust infused the air and her semblance became stronger, glyphs that slowed time surrounded them, but left her unaffected. Another boosted her speed as she charged like a deadly needle. To him she was a blinding bolt of speed. He blocked, just barely as sparks flew where they collided. She spun around again, remembering the strategies Ruby and her planned out and bolted faster. He blocked again, but only diverted the pin point blade from his heart, the edge catching the meat of his arm.

Each time she turned and moved again, faster, time further dilated, each taking tiny slivers out of his arms, bloody scratches that made him slower and angrier. That drove him to a moment of madness, swinging right into Weiss' stab, shattering her focus, but she was still feeling the stamina boosting dust enhance her aura and dodged under, coming up from underneath and dragging the rapier across his chest. Not a mortal wound, but a deep one.

Whatever sense he had was lost to him, slashing rapidly at Weiss, ignoring the bleeding wounds she had riddled him with. The time glyphs had faded, a technique that required too much of her focus to maintain on the defensive. Instead she took steps back, dodging rather than blocking the chainsaw's hefty might. He was getting slower.

"Stop moving, you bitch!" he shouted, slamming the chainsaw into the ground, trap caught him. Under the dirt an ice glyph formed, encasing the blade and soil in frost, an adhesive if only for a moment, but a moment was what she needed. Kicking back, Weiss vaulted in the air, catching herself on a black glyph that pushed her forward, a pin point projectile propelled right at him, only missing by the meagerest margin. Myrtenaster still managed to mark him, making a deep cut into his mask that bleed crimson dripping down his cheek.

She landed behind him. Low to the ground she stood, the tip of her blade touching the soil behind her. She had missed and the lieutenant was only one step away, one step into a swing, one step he made, one step onto a black glyph Weiss summoned with the tip of her sword. A force glyph.

He screamed as it launched him into the air, the small open field more suited to her combat than his. Bulky, inelegant, defeated. Weiss turned around, walking a few steps to where he would land. Myrtenaster providing the catalyst dust, she applied another glyph, bright and vibrant, bursting with electric force. So she released it, this unnatural lightning that struck up, up at the falling faunus. What landed was not her tormenter, but a beaten, bloodied, benign creature writhing from the pain. He was done, but Weiss was careful, stunning glyphs held him to the floor as the fighting around her finally finished. She had won, everything was going to be okay, and that cocky smile she so rarely wore was shining bright on Weiss' face.

"Is he dead?" It was her professor, Azura Thrym, her breathing heavy, eyes still amber, but not as bright, the glow dimmed in the midday heat.

"No," Weiss answered, "But professor, we have to light the flare and go back to Beacon, tell Ozpin what's happened—"

"You! Boy! Where's the Taurus?" the professor ignored her, focused only on the target. It irritated her that she was not thinking of Ruby or the others, whom she had brought into danger. Weiss hoped that maybe it was a side effect of her semblance, the animal in her not calm enough to think of anything but the prey. Ozpin was famous for his secretive plots to keep Vale safe, but this was just endangerment. Unthinkable to send students after the White Fang without even a word about what they found.

"Fuck you," the soldier groaned. Azura rewarded him by stomping on his stunned leg. It seemed to crack and suddenly Weiss felt sick.

"Where! Is! The Taurus!" Azure shouted, her stomps punctuating her words. Weiss felt unnerved. If this was her semblance, the professor was dangerous to everyone right now.

"Both of them are in the deeper part of the forest, in case you tried pulling this shit. They're going to come for you now! They'll skin you! You too, Schnee bitch!" Azura had enough, though Weiss didn't notice at first, she lifted the sword, massive two handed blade, and brought its point down into his chest, and for the first time in a long time Weiss watched someone die.

"You killed him!" Weiss caught herself saying, neither sure why she cared nor was surprised. He was an animal, just seeing his kind made one almost believe the years of prejudice she had been taught. Still, he was murdered.

"There was no helping him child, he would never be redeemed," Azura justified, turning to Weiss, the sword lodged in the bleeding commander's chest. Weiss raised her sword instinctively aware of Azura's greater size and stature. A walking monster some might say coated in blood. The fight had left only a few White Fang to run into the forest.

"It's alright, Miss Schnee, we have to keep moving. We need to hurry before they get away." This was crazy, Weiss was not doing crazy, her sword still out between them, yet she could not find it in her to strike at her, start the fight. This was Ruby's auntie, almost like a grandmother to her, a guardian angel. Why was she coated in blood? Why this?

"No, I'm not going. We need to head to Beacon; I need to talk to Ozpin." Azura kept stepping closer, but her eyes dimmed. She was not the animal she was a second ago.

"Its okay child, don't be scared," she whispered, accent coated in the old Fort Castle dialect. She reached out, right hand gripping the hilt of Myrtenaster to lower it, the other grasping her shoulder in comfort. "I would never harm you, no matter what you will get to Ozpin. You can tell him what you like, kiss and hug Ruby if you want." Weiss eased, despite herself, maybe fear did it, or exhaustion and the touch certainly did not do it. Either way, her sword hand loosened a little, just enough, and amber burned into Weiss' memory forever.

In a swift motion Azura pulled at Myrtenaster and kicked with her other leg, a metal boot striking Weiss in the stomach with the weight of a damn near seven foot tall monster of a woman, and when it struck, she flew, the force great enough to knock her into a tree, only last minute aura protecting her from a cracked rib.

"After I get the Taurus family," Weiss managed to gather despite her daze, almost more painful was watching the professor throw the beloved rapier into a distant tree, stabbed into it many many yards away, without it… her glyphs were… she needed it.

"You'll get home alright," Azura shouted, "but I'm hunting bulls and you're the feed."

**** HIYA EVERYONE! :D Sorry for being so late, like really late, like later than I've ever been. October was my birthday month and drama stuff then November was Nanowrimo, so I had to focus solely on my original novel! More on that at the bottom of this A/N. December were finals, but now I'm back, promise to be better and I am so sorry!

So we are one chapter away from ending this arc of MV "Old Wolves and New" and we'll be moving onto the shortest and last arc after next chapter! For those who are going to be all grumpy pants and be all like "I don't want to read AV, why you put AV characters in this!" Don't worry, all you need to know about them was just said in this chapter and they are here because well I need villains I understand the motives of and currently the only one who I kind of do in RWBY is Adam… and I am using him to do villainy stuff any who.

So fanfic related news ends with look for new choice coming soon and I will be working on that like all weekend, looking so forward to it. Thank you to LazyKatze for editing she remains the best feline on the planet, thanks so much for sticking with me and let me know what you think!

So this bit is not about my fanfics but about my original novel. I'm in between either releasing it in parts with less editing and sooner on fictionpress bit by bit or putting it into a free ebook format after I finish it, was wondering if A. Any of you care and if you answered yes to A, B. what do you all think?