The Black Rose Has Thorns

Chapter 7

Atreus watches Ruby's friends from a safe distance. They were fighting grimm in the woods. He smiles. Maybe I should introduce myself, he thought to himself. He follows them from a closer distance. The grimm basically avoided him and he shook his head at them. "Are you going to attack or just stare at me like the idiot mutated animals you are?"

The grimm converge on him and he grabs his staff that turns into a sword and a gun. The edges were sharp and fine. The only difference was that his weapon didn't hold bullets, it held poison-tipped needles. He shot several needles at them and they disintegrated instantly, the poison making them let out a blood curdling scream.

This got the attention of Qrow and the others. They got their weapons out. They approach the location where the scream was coming from. Qrow looks around. "Just be careful. There are probably grimm everywhere around here."

Atreus stays close behind a tree. He uses his semblance to create more grimm to keep Ruby's friends busy. Black smoke surrounded all of them and more grimm emerged. Qrow and the others start fighting them off.

Atreus comes out of the shadows, hatching a plan. He was studying them enough to know about their semblances, especially Ren's. If he didn't play his cards right, Ren would find out his intentions. He had to be careful.

"Are you idiot grimm done already?" Atreus asked out loud. The grimm started going for him but he was too quick, gunning every last one of them down.

Everyone stood and stared in amazement. Ren went over to him. "How did you do that?"

Atreus smiles. "A lot of practice. My mother is the one that trained me but she died so many years ago. I guess you could just say I was at the right place at the right time."

"What's your name, kid?" Qrow asked.

"Alexander," Atreus said.

"What academy did you train in?" Blake asked.

"Haven Academy but my mother was really the one that trained me. Lionheart was a stubborn old fool. I never wanted to be in that school with a professor so cowardly. He should be in Menagerie with the other useless faunus. How do you run an academy to train huntsmen and huntresses when you run away from a fight?"

Blake crossed her arms and glared at Atreus. He back tracked his statement quickly. "Sorry, miss. That faunus statement wasn't about you."

Blake waved it away. "It's okay. Do you want to accompany us?"

"I would love to," Atreus said. He goes with them and steers clear of Ren, keeping his intentions hidden.