As Jaune walked towards the center of the village, he found that many people looked at him and his companions in severe curiosity, the village's supplies all being trailers.
Seeing these made the boy gradually realize this was a nomadic village.
The trailers would then make perfect sense, should they need to get moving at any point at a moment's notice.
That would explain most of the villagers who carried weapons holding long range weapons instead of close-range ones.
It'd be best to fend off Grimm that way.
He walked forward, keeping close to his professor as the large man walked towards a tent in the very center of the village.
When Professor Port reached the tent, he pushed aside the tent opening, Jaune finding it to be dark inside as he entered behind the huntsman.
"It's been a long time hasn't it Peter." Jaune heard a deep voice call towards them.
"Yes, it most definitely has," the professor spoke with a smile in his voice, "but based on the urgency of the requests you've given us, I feel it to be an accurate assumption that there are much more pressing matters than chatting."
Jaune refused the temptation to comment on how obvious this fact was, the man who spoke to them responding calmly, "Your assumption is right. The village right now is in need of more supplies, and since you sent for the city's location to be cleared of lower level Grimm a day or so ago, can I trust that it's going well so far?"
"The mission was already completed."
"Then all the less chances of us getting in the way of some other team." The man said, "We'll be ready to move when you are."
"Alright then," the professor turned to everyone, "As the mission description stated, we'll be escorting members of the village into a nearby city for well-needed supplies. While their weapons have proved sufficient in the time of the village's existence, the city should have things that could be useful to them for the next several months. Our objective is to act as a support for when the members of the village need it, though we won't be the only ones fighting. Do all four of you think that you're ready to start the mission?"
The question was rhetorical, a simple courtesy instilled inside of the teacher from working at his profession to the point that asking had become reflex.
The question being so obviously rhetorical didn't stop Jaune's eyes from automatically turning to the only other male in his team however.
"Ren? Was there anything you wanted to do before we left?"
Ren shook his head, "No, nothing really."
Jaune looked at him for a short moment, "Are you sure? You seemed like the one who was the most adamant about heading over here, so I thought that maybe you..."
Though his body language reflected his honesty, Jaune still trailed off, as he really didn't know what he thought Ren might've wanted to come here for.
All he really thought was that he hoped to do something while he was inside of the village.
Ren gave a light smile of reassurance, "Don't worry Jaune. It's fine. I'll be ready when you three are."
Nora looked at her friend for a short moment, but at his repeated denial, she nodded, smiling at Jaune, "I'm ready too."
Jaune smiled, then looked at Pyrrha, "Pyrrha?"
"I'm ready." Pyrrha smiled.
"Alright," Jaune turned back to his professor, "We're all ready to go Professor."
Mercury's steps were rapid as he closed the distance between himself and Yang, Yang bringing up her clenched fists up as he came within striking distance of her, Mercury stamping both of his feet flat against the floor and sliding on it while turning his body to the right, him taking the first hit by swinging his right foot up, the front of his ankle kicking her right gauntlet out of the way to her face, the metal he hit when he did this not bothering him in the slightest.
Though the kick didn't release any bullets, Yang felt her forearm get pushed away, Mercury not taking the opening he'd just made but instead trying to widen it, his already extended right leg bending and kicking her other gauntlet away from her face, Yang's left arm being forcibly jerked lower and lower from her face, her dodging his fourth attempt at hitting her gauntlet by jerking her arm back before jumping back to gain some distance between herself and Mercury, the boy slamming his foot on the ground with a low clap and looking at her, curiosity only having the chance to fill his eyes for a split second before Yang punched the air before her with a grunt, Mercury seeing the incoming rocket like projectile coming towards him.
His body became still as he concentrated, like an archer just before they released an arrow, and he turned himself to the right while grinding his feet into the ground, him lifting his left leg due to the angle the projectile was aimed towards, kicking harshly into the air with a bullet of his own shooting out at her's.
Though his bullets were much smaller in comparison to hers, it hit its target, the amount of force behind it enough to shatter the projectile the second the two forces collided, many reddened pieces of metal falling and melting into the floor.
He narrowed his eyes again as he saw another few shooting at him, Mercury taking aim with his mind's eye, the movements he'd made set up in his mind before he even started to move, his leg moving in a fluid motion, time almost feeling as though it had slowed down for him, a heartbeat pulsing in his ears and temple as exhiliration filled his veins.
He kicked into the air, once, twice, three times, each one hitting its mark without fail, Mercury recovering his footing just as he heard Yang yelling, him easily dodging the right fist she sent his way when she had closed the distance between them while sprinting.
He dodged in a rotating type of way, him doing a simple backwards twirl to his right with Yang punching into a rib cage of air.
Mercury smiled at the back of her head, his smile remaining even as Yang swung around and threw her left fist at him, the boy dodging her second close range attempt at hitting him with a simple move of his right shoulder.
She seemed to grow easily frustrated from the missed hits she sent to him, and with another loud grunt, she stamped her left foot on the ground and swung another right fist at Mercury.
Mercury's reaction would be better called a simple evasion rather than a dodge, him moving forward and missing her fist as it was aimed at his face, Mercury bending his legs ever so slightly before jumping a short distance up, his right leg straightening for a split second before it bended just as quickly, it ramming itself under Yang's jaw as her head was suddenly thrown back.
From a mixture of the unexpected counter and the large amount of pain his knee to her jaw had caused, Yang stumbled back, her recovering quickly and opening her now closed eyes, Mercury smiling happily when he saw her eyes were now a burning crimson, her hair starting to look like a yellow flame.
Her speed greatly increased as she closed the distance between them again, yet even then, Mercury soon grew bored of her attacks, him dodging every last attack she threw at him, his dodges and evasions becoming like a very unpracticed dance, Mercury finding there was no rhythm to be found within his movements to dodge and counter her.
Soon, Yang understandably started to tire out, her arms starting to become heavy as she swung punch after punch at him, only to be dodged, legs screaming at her to stop in pain when she sent kick after kick at Mercury, only for them to either be batted away roughly with his arms or kicked away by his much stronger leg.
The girl was eventually breathing too hard, Mercury not even trying to hit her anymore, this truth being acknowledged by them both.
Yang was sweating heavily as she stared up at Mercury, chest heaving and falling rapidly as her clothes clung to her skin, her hands on her knees as she bent herself down, throat so dry she could eat her own tongue, her looking with a glare of determination in her eyes despite all of this.
She still hadn't hit him once the entire time, Mercury thought to himself.
Yang clenched her fists tightly against her knees, getting up and standing in her fighting position, her standing up a bit more shakily than before, her still breathing hard as her face shined against the light of the auditorium.
Mercury mentally sighed, walking forward as she hesitated a moment, before she herself started running at him.
She threw another punch at him, him moving his hand so that all his fingers were curled tightly with only the tips touching his palms, thrusting his palm up against the bottom of the forearm part of the gauntlet Yang threw.
The gauntlet was pushed forcibly up above Yang's head, the girl closing her eyes and bracing herself for the hit that'd surely come, Mercury's knee ramming deep into Yang's stomach.
Her eyes opened up wide, the wind getting knocked out of her.
The rest of their fight was like a domino effect after that.
Yang leaned forward against Mercury's knee, then started a gradual descent to the ground when he pulled himself away, her falling heavily onto her knees, Yang avoiding hitting the ground face first and landing on her cheek.
Though she wanted to get up, Yang's body refused to listen to her, her fatigue finally defeating her willpower as she tried coaxing herself to do this.
Her eyes were closed as she tried to regain her breath, so she didn't see Mercury staring down at her for the moment of silence that followed.
He bent himself down, grasping Yang's shoulder as he pulled it up, a low groan emitting itself in Yang's throat as he turned her onto her back, her blue eyes finally opening up to look up at him when she fell there.
"You're... pretty strong..." She said between breaths.
"Not really. You're just kind of slow, it's not that I'm strong." Mercury commented.
"What do you mean?"
"You look like you have a lot of potential as a fighter, but not so much as a huntress." He said bluntly.
"Huh?"
"Your punches are pretty strong, so the gauntlet weapons you have are a good choice. Your problem is that you rely on your semblance too much."
"No I don't."
"Yes you do. You kept letting yourself get hit and never dodged anything I threw at you unless it was a bullet."
Yang was a bit confused, as she honestly wasn't expecting criticism out of this.
Mercury's bored face had even undergone a change, it no longer holding curiosity but simply holding something of a disappointment.
It didn't take her long to realize that he was disappointed in her.
As she reflected on her past fights, Yang forced herself to get up, sitting up slowly with a low grunt of pain under her breath, her eyes closed throughout this until she'd successfully gotten up, her looking Mercury in the eye as she responded, "Okay, fine, I do do that. But that isn't a problem. My semblance lets me get stronger for everytime I'm hit."
"That doesn't mean pain is a good," Mercury deadpanned, "What's the point of getting stronger for a short amount of time if it isn't going to be worth it? You might be able to beat people in a fight like that. But against Grimm you have to be more careful."
"I know that."
"Really? Because from what you've shown me, you can barely take missing a few times without starting to lose your head."
"That's because you're so hard to hit."
"I'm really not that hard to hit. I barely blocked anything during that whole fight."
She decided to rephrase her words, "You're hard to hit for me."
"Was it because your way of fighting is to block until you find an opening?"
She nodded.
"I thought so. So it's because I always had some type of opening for you to use."
"Yeah."
"But still, that's not an excuse. You'd probably get mad a little less easily if you actually blocked a bit. At least then you won't get brought down as easily."
"So far I've rarely been brought down by anyone."
"Do you know if they were fighting as hard they could?"
"I assume they all were."
"I'm only asking because I really could've beaten you in a couple of minutes."
"Just because you beat me doesn't mean you have to rub it in." Yang said with a light scowl.
"With all the openings you gave me you really think I couldn't?"
"You beat me quickly, but you can't beat me THAT quickly."
Mercury stood back up on his feet, looking down at her, "Let me show you."
He lifted a foot, then took one leisurely step to his right, yet the next second he disappeared.
Yang's eyes widened, her whipping her head around.
"Where did he...?"
"Over here." Mercury called, him leaning against a wall and looking at her.
"How did you get over there?" She asked while looking back at him.
"Take a wild guess." He took a step forward again, and he was suddenly in front of Yang again, him crouching down so they were at an equal eye level.
Seeing this, Yang started to realize the truth.
"Is speed your semblance?" She asked for confirmnation.
"Bingo." He said with a calm voice.
"If you could use it the whole time when we fought then why didn't you?"
"I'm a bored guy who likes to fight." Mercury repeated himself from the moment the two had met.
"But still..."
"Regardless, if you're really trying to fight in the tournament, don't bother," Mercury pushed himself up to stand straight, him turning and walking away, "No one's going to want to watch you get beat up. You honestly can't expect to win that way."
Yang wanted to retort, but she found no words to answer, her simply watching the boy leave in silence.
Then, with a sigh, she looked forward before falling on her back again with a low thud, eyes closed.
This wasn't looking like it'd be a good two weeks for her.
First there was Blake working herself to death to find the White Fang, then there was her convincing Weiss to pull herself out of her short bout of depression to go to the dance, then there was Ruby screwing Jaune on tape, with the girl turning up missing in a ghost town of a city just the next day, then Yang had gotten beaten up by a short woman weilding an umbrella before being beaten up again by a guy who was barely trying all that hard to beat her.
"I just can't WAIT to see what else this week has in store for me." Yang said with a heavy amount of sarcasm in her voice to the air.
Mercury had already walked out of the arena, and as he reflected on how boring the fight turned out to be, he sighed.
"That wasn't a waste of time." He said to himself, the conscious lie he told himself not working to its purpose for very long.
"I don't think I've ever seen you this disappointed." Emerald said in front of him, Mercury looking up to see she had a pleased smile on her face despite her words.
"Xiao Long wasn't even much of a fight. It was just her trying to hit me and me dodging and blocking everything." Mercury kept walking forward, and Emerald walked besides him.
"Isn't that how most fights go for you?"
"That's against Grimm and amateurs. When I actually get a good fight there's a little more intensity to it. All I had against her was just pity against brawn."
"Sucks to be you." She laughed at him.
"I don't think she's even worth targeting. We'd be better off trying to target another teacher than her."
"You're really upset about this. I can tell." Emerald commented, her having noted the bitterness in Mercury's voice.
"Of course I am," Mercury shrugged, "I hate fighting things that are too easy to beat. She just felt like a walking punching bag to me. She never blocked, she never dodged..."
"I get it Mercury, she didn't size up to you in a fight, let it go," Emerald laughed, "You should lower your expectations. She's just a first year, she can't be as good as Nikos."
"Boy do first impressions suck..." Mercury sighed.
"They can, " Emerald stopped walking when they neared the library, "I'll go to the library, see you."
Mercury called after her when she walked away, "Why're you going there?"
"I doubt they have it, but I'm gonna see if they have "Third Crusade" in there." Emerald glanced back at him as she yelled.
"Mind if I come with?"
"I do. I concentrate a lot better when you're away from me than when you're close by."
"Suit yourself." Mercury walked away with that, going to CRDL's room to tell them the news about Yang.
The trip to the city was uneventful.
The Bullhead they had taken there had flown off to another part of the village that would allow it to leave some supplies coming from Vale, so they simply flew the rest of the way to the city.
Jaune would often look down from the aircraft and find black skinned elephants looking up at them, the white masks they wore on their faces revealing that they were Grimm.
When they arrived at the city, Jaune found himself looking at the ruins of the city as flew.
"What happened to this place?" He asked himself, not expecting an answer but getting an answer anyways.
"This city was a project made in the hopes of making a secure life for people outside of the kingdoms. However, when the Grimm invasions became too frequent, the citizens sealed themselves underground with all the arms they could carry. Even if their new home was destroyed again, the dead's sacrifices may not be in vain." Professor Port explained shortly.
"If the Grimm activity became too high then why did they ever leave?" Jaune questioned, looking down at the ghost town of an abandoned city.
"They never left. Beacon sent for a team to clear out the Grimm from the city yesterday. If I'm not mistaken, the team sent here won't be able to provide us with any support as they've already left."
Jaune looked in thought at this.
So team RWBY had been sent here to hunt down all the Grimm in the area?
Maybe they had finally let out some of the pent up anticipation they felt to fight...
He glanced up as the ship reached the ground, Jaune seeing they were in front of a massive man-hole cover.
"Go get the supplies, I'll stay here in case something goes awry." Port spoke, Ren being the first to hop out of the side of the Bullhead, the escort they had following him, Jaune, Nora and Pyrrha following the lead.
As the group of five walked toward the large man-hole cover, the man who stood with them crouched down beside it, examining the surface of it before looking back at all of them, "Anyone have any heavy artillery on them?"
Nora nodded immediately, walking up to the cover besides the man but not crouching down beside him.
"Try hitting the cover with your gun. Be ready to fight; there very well could be Grimm infested inside of there as we speak." He warned cautiously.
"You're sure the supplies will be down there?" Jaune asked.
The man shook his head, "There are several caverns that made up the village that lived here so long ago. The supplies were supposedly spread evenly between most of the caverns, but most of the supplies are said to be kept near the center of the city. There aren't too many of those opening near the center, so it shouldn't be too hard to find."
"But if it's filled with Grimm..."
"It might not be, but it's never good to deal in "mights." I needed to be sure I'd be getting the supplies out of there in one piece, so we contacted Beacon," he spoke with a tone of bitterness after this, "However, I just wish they'd sent people with more experience for this task."
"We just need to break in and see if there's Grimm or supplies inside?" Nora asked, her looking down with a rare note of seriousness in her tone.
"Yes, that's right."
"Okay then." Nora grasped her weapon from its holster, pulling it out but keeping it in its cannon form.
Jaune could feel a bit of uneasiness creep into him as she took aim.
Something didn't feel right here...
He didn't voice his concerns however, even as he and the others drew their weapons and readied themselves.
Nora gave a look towards everyone around her, "You guys ready?"
When everyone except for Jaune nodded at her, she aimed her cannon, eyes set, "Alright..."
Everyone tensed themselves, preparing for the worst.
Jaune closed his eyes a short moment.
The feeling was still there...
His eyes opened as Nora's finger placed itself on the trigger, and he spoke at the last moment, "Wait, Nora -"
He was too late to stop her, her finger pulling the trigger and shooting a missile at the cover, blowing it open.
Almost immediately, a beowolf sprinted itself out of the opening.
But no one was prepared.
Jaune calling out to Nora had strayed their attention to him in that moment.
The beowolf charged with a vengeance towards the person in its path.
Everyone turned their attention back to it, only able to see it coming before it lunged.
It moved, an animal of pure malice, towards Nora.
A/N: Ever knew how it felt to have most of a chapter done only for it all to be lost?
I do.
It happened to me several times as I wrote this chapter.
As well as five other chapters for stories I wanted to update. Two were chapters for the .hack/G.U. stories I had on here. The other three were the beginnings of stories for "Is this a zombie?", a Fate/Stay Night and Five Nights at Freddy's crossover, and a .hack/G.U. and Drakengard 3 crossover.
Life can suck when you're writing a bunch of crap on a tablet that has an eventually broken screen. (sighs)