Bloody Rose

Chapter 4 White Knight

"Let's go, Ice Queen," Ruby commanded, starting the trek toward the treasures. Grumbling under her breath, Weiss trailed behind the slightly shorter girl toward the group of ruins ahead of them.

'I can't believe I'm following this girl. She's probably hiding her ugly face under that cloak while I—a perfect huntress in training—follow her to Oum knows where.' Weiss ranted on within the privacy of her own thoughts, staring blankly at the outline of the girl's weapon beneath her cloak. 'She hasn't even told me—the heiress to the Schnee Dust Company—her name. The nerve of some people!'

Breaking off her current thought, a screech roared across the forest and both girls turned toward the source. Tailing the two was a giant black bird that screeched nearly as loud as a banshee while it dove toward the pair of partners.

"Weiss! Move!" Ruby exclaimed, bursting into a crimson bullet so she could rocket herself up to a tree branch. Meanwhile, Weiss grit her teeth, pulled out her rapier, and spun the dust chamber until a pale yellow bullet was locked in place. "That's a Nevermore! It can literally eat you whole!" Ruby shouted from afar, seeing the stance that Weiss was taking.

"Just give me covering fire!" Weiss barked back, rearing her dominant hand back and narrowing her eyes at her target. 'Just like you practiced, Weiss.' She told herself while the Nevermore continued to dive toward her.

Unfolding her weapon, the cloaked girl kneeled down on the wide branch and aimed her rifle at the giant bird. Moving her sight from its head to the base of its wings, she pulled the trigger, unleashing a bullet that broke apart the hollow bones attached to the wings.

Down below, Weiss leaned forward slightly before releasing her next glyph, bringing everything to a crawl while she charged forward faster than ever. In just the blink of an eye, Weiss stabbed the bird through the wings and back before her semblance wore off. Jumping away from the creature, it fell to the side, landing on its extremely damaged wing.

"Let's go get that treasure!" Weiss shouted, dashing toward the ruins again. Dropping down from her perch, Ruby carried her weapon in front of her and caught up to Weiss.

"On your left," she whispered, matching the heiress's speed perfectly. "So, are we just going to trust that the Nevermore will disintegrate?"

"I stabbed its spine multiple times and we both decimated its left wing. If it's not dead, then it might as well be a zombie." The other girl joked, breaking out a smile on her own face but not her partners.

Facing the destination ahead of her, Ruby muttered. "If that thing comes back, I blame you."

Without any more words, the two sped up and entered the clearing that held the ruins and treasures at its center. But when the two ceased running, both noticed that two pairs of partners were already stationed there. There were the ginger girl and a young man with a pink highlight among his black hair to one side. On the other, the young Belladonna and a blonde brawler revealing too much skin casually conversed with each other.

Noticing the new pair of partners, the blonde dragged the Belladonna over. "Hey, Weiss, I can't believe you actually found a partner!" The blonde shouted, stopping the two before they could go grab a treasure and leave.

"Yang, I told you we are not friends, so don't act like we are." The white-haired girl responded while her partner avoided the conversation and sauntered over to the treasure pedestals.

When she had left that meeting, Ruby had only one thought in her mind, 'Yang! Please don't pull down my hood!'

"Anyway, who's your partner?" Yang asked, grabbing onto Blake's shoulder to pull the bookworm closer. "I got stuck with Blake, but she's got these awesome moves to tie up Grimm, letting me punch them with my full strength."