N.N.J.A. Volume 1 (A RWBY Story)

Chapter 7: The Emerald Forest

ALEX

One hour.

One hour in this godforsaken forest. And I hate it.

Sure, the forest is beautiful, but not that beautiful. It's not like I want to spend an hour running through this place.

But, to be fair, it was probably my fault. I made the mistake of picking the platform on the far left and I was actually quite surprised when my platform catapulted me me across the sky. So surprised, in fact, I wasn't able to maintain my semblance use on my armor and hammer, which dragged me down. If I could have made it lighter, I probably would have landed closer to other people.

I dash through the seemingly never-ending tunnel of trees, keeping a watch for students and Grimm. Where is everyone? Ah, they probably all have partners already.

I put on more speed, barrelling forward at a breakneck pace. I even use my semblance to make myself lighter and faster. Too fast, in fact, as I failed to notice the man in red coming out of an underbrush right ahead of me.

I crash headfirst into him and we crash to the forest floor, his sword flying out of his hand and landing a few feet away. When my head clears, we're lying in a heap on the ground.

"Ow!" He groans in pain and frustration, "Ah, can you get off of me?"

"Yeah." I reply, "That's my bad here"

I disentangle myself from him and he sits up.

"Aagh. First, I have to forage through thorns for like an hour, then I get plowed into by a guy in heavy armor." He gripes.

"Thorns don't seem too bad." I reply, "You have a fair amount of armor on yourself."

"Touche. I guess it wasn't so much the thorns rather than the time it took to wade through them. Especially since I'm not able to use my powers, as we are in a forest and all." He says while standing up.

"Why is that? What's your power"

He smiles and holds out his hand. A small ball of fire blazes to life over his palm. That explains it.

"Pyrokinetic." I say, "Nice ability"

"It's useful, in most circumstances." He replies

"But not in a forest." I add.

The flame goes out and he smiles, "Yeah."

We stand there for a second, solidly locking eyes with each other, sizing each other up.

"That settles it then." He declares, "Guess we're partners"

I hold out my hand and he shakes it firmly.

"Nice to meet you. I'm Alexander Wolfe" I say. I leave out the full title. He doesn't need to know that yet.

"Jack Lawrence. Likewise" He responds.

He lets go of my hand and points north. "Forest temple should be that way, according to the Professor."

"Lead the way." I agree.

He smiles and starts walking north. I follow behind him.

We aren't walking for very long when we encounter our first attack. Grimm. Too many for a simple encounter. It's an ambush.

We're suddenly surrounded by beowolves. But we've trained for this. I step closer to Jack and, without even communicating, he does the same. Back-to-back, no blind spots.

"I can't use my powers here, everything's too flammable." He says to me.

"Got it. You can still fight though, right?"

"Of course. I'm just not as powerful here."

"Understood. I'll take the ones on the left, you take the ones on the right."

"What about the alpha?"

The alpha, a larger, spikier beowolf, is hanging back from the crowd. It's letting it's friends take the damage while it reaps the rewards. Some Grimm are more human than we'd care to believe.

"We'll take it afterwards. It seems to want it's friends to tank damage for it. Knock out the rest, then take down the alpha." I tell him

"Got it. On your signal."

"Go!"

I lunge forward, bashing a beowulf across the snout with my hammer. Jack does the same on his end, cutting down another wolf with his sword.

I spin, taking out two more wolves. One lunges at me from behind, but I use my gravity manipulation to push it back into a few of its comrades.

I throw my hammer, smashing it into another wolf. Two more lunge and slash at me, but I duck down and slam them into each other with my semblance. I reach out and my hammer returns to my hand.

I roll out of the way of another wolf's slash and slide to a stop. I leap back toward it and bring my hammer down over its head. It dissolves to shadows on the ground.

I turn back to Jack, "You good on your end?"

He slashes through the last beowolf on his side. "No sweat!" He calls out.

The alpha looks around, realizing it's now alone, then growls at us. It's razor sharps claws extend out from it's fingers.

I look over at Jack and he nods at me. Good to know he has a plan. I return the nod and he charges.

He charges the alpha, sidestepping it's slash and stabbing it's side. I lunge in right after him and slam my hammer into it's knee.

The beowolf howls in pain and slashes at us. Jack parries the strike with his sword. "One more time!"

Jack pushes back with his sword and charges again. He steps to the left and drives his sword straight into the alpha's gut. I leap up behind him, lessening my gravity to gain some extra height, and slam my hammer down directly on it's face. It crumples to the ground.

"Nice work" Jack says as he pulls his sword out of the beowolf as it dissolves into shadows. "Couldn't have done it better myself."

"Thanks. You did well yourself. Coming up with a plan on the fly like that."

He holds up his hand and I high five him.

"The temple shouldn't be too far from here." Jack says "we should get moving."

"Lead on then" I agree.

We sheathe and holster our weapons and start walking again. A few minutes later, we approach a clearing. In the middle of an open meadow, there is a stone structure.

Once beautiful, it's more a ruin than a temple. Rubble surrounds an open stone circle with about 20 pedestals. On each pedestal rests a small object, I can't tell what it is from this far away.

More importantly is who's at the temple. Two men are standing in the circle, looking at the pedestals. One is dressed in a green jacket and green armor, with a bow in his hand, quiver on his back, and pistol at his belt. The other is dressed in black, with a cloak and a hood on. He holds twin revolvers in his hands.

They notice our arrival and turn to face us. Things are going to get interesting.