“What a day.”
Merlot collapsed into her bed, Ash doing the same across from her.
“That was the worst!” Bruno complained, sitting down in his usual spot on the ground.
“I must say, I wasn’t expecting to spend the day helping to haul rubble. At least there weren’t any Grimm.” Robert said, pulling off his dirtied tunic.
“I don’t know what you guys are complaining about. Back on the farm, I did work like this all the time.” Ash shrugged, before heading towards the washroom. “I call first dibs on the shower by the way.”
“What?! Screw you!” Bruno said.
“We have to be up early for Leon’s assignment anyways Bruno. I don’t know about you but I’m going right to sleep.” Merlot said, tossing off her dirtied shirt and grabbing her blanket.
“You can’t tell me when to go to sleep!” He said, before curling up on the ground. “But I’ve decided that I am very tired and now is a good time. Goodnight.”
Merlot rolled her eyes, falling backwards onto her bed. She was out almost as soon as her head hit the pillow.
***
Merlot was falling.
She was plummeting through the bright morning sky, the wind whistling around her and the ground growing ever closer. The ground in question was no forest, tundra, abandoned mineshaft or any other manner of natural testing grounds for a new student. Rather, it was manmade, a hedge maze spanning kilometres in every direction. Its walls comprised of leaves and other greenery were high, almost as tall as buildings.
Somewhat luckily, Merlot wasn’t falling alone. All around her were others of her age, future Haven Academy students in their late teens, all plummeting towards this maze after having been launched off of a nearby cliff by Headmaster Lionheart.
“Landing strategy… Oh god, what’s a landing strategy?” She said to herself as the ground grew ever closer. At the same time, the girl caught something out of the corner of her eye. A landmark within a clearing of the maze, a stone statue showcasing a warrior of some kind, with its sword raised high.
Thinking quickly, the girl drew one of her chakrams, tossing it like a frisbee towards the statue. Bulls eye. It slid over the tip of the sword, hooking around the stone weapon. From there, she activated the gravity dust component of her weapon, pulling herself towards it rather than the other way around. Her fall was slowed in the process, allowing her to land on the base of the statue relatively safely.
After taking a moment to catch her breath, Merlot glanced around. She was in an open portion of the maze, with four exits, one in each direction. The statue stood in the direct middle, a large imposing monument of a huntsman raising his sword, easily around ten feet tall in height.
During this brief moment of rest, Merlot recalled her objective in the initiation. Their task was to retrieve a relic from the centre of the maze, and make it back out in one piece. The maze was supposedly filled with Grimm, and the only way forward was to pay attention and look for clues in the environment. Simply breaking through the maze wasn’t possible as Professor Lionheart had informed them that doing so would result in instantaneous failure of the initiation. Merlot had at first questioned how he’d know, before realising that the entire ceremony was most likely being monitored by the school faculty. Perhaps most exciting, or nerve wracking, of all was the system of forming partners. The first person that Merlot made eye contact with would be her partner for the next four years.
Taking in the area, Merlot glanced at each of the four exits at her disposal. Each looked just as foreboding as the last, with no real away to tell them apart. Her gaze travelled from there to the statue behind her… And then to its sword. A metaphorical lightbulb appeared over her head, as she followed the point of the sword to one of the four exits. That had to be the one.
Merlot grinned, stepping off the statue’s base and moving towards the exit that the sword was pointing to. Perhaps this initiation would be easier than she expected.
Not two steps forward, she was interrupted by the sound of stone grinding against stone, causing her to freeze instantly. She turned her head just in time to see a large stone sword flying through the air towards her. With mere seconds left to act, Merlot leapt out of the way. The sword hit the ground, cleaving into the grass and kicking up dirt.
Merlot’s magenta aura flashed to life as she set eyes on the statue once more. The concrete huntsman was no longer stationary. In fact, it had leapt off its pedestal, cracks appearing at each of its joints, and now stared Merlot down with stone cold, unblinking eyes.
“Are you kidding me…” She mumbled, taking a step back and drawing her other chakram.
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The statue was not in fact kidding her, as it charged forward and swung at the girl once more. She dodged the attack, throwing out both chakrams. Each simply skidded against the statue’s tough exterior, dealing no damage and quickly returning to her grasp.
Merlot didn’t waste another second in putting more distance between herself and the statue, as its massive sword left slash marks in the ground with each miss. The girl made a beeline for one of the exits, hoping that it was the one she had deduced earlier. Everything looked the same and it was difficult to check again whilst being pursued by a living statue.
Just before her foot crossed the threshold into the pathway ahead, Merlot’s plight was halted as a figure suddenly came into view. Someone moving at incredible speeds, rushing towards her. She didn’t have the time to stop, and the person collided with her, sending both students flying back into the clearing, and directly through the legs of the statue.
The two tumbled across the ground, before coming to a stop at one of the hedges. Quickly reassessing the situation, Merlot turned to the person that had crashed into her.
“WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT FOR?!” An enraged Bruno looked back at her, his scorpion tail curling up behind him as he leap to his feet. The two locked eyes.
“Geez, sorry partner.” Merlot replied, also getting to her feet.
“Yeah you’d better be-! Wait, what did you just call me?” Bruno asked, his tone of voice lowering substantially.
“Partner.”
“Wait a second. Damn it!”
“Huh?”
“I can’t believe I have to partner up with a girl!” Bruno exclaimed.
“This isn’t kindergarten you know.” Merlot stated blankly.
“This is the worst!”
Merlot was pulled out of her conversation with Bruno by the sound of stone hitting the ground, the stomping of feet growing closer and closer. She quickly turned and focused back on her foe.
“Listen, we don’t have time to argue! We have to get away from this thing.”
“What even is it?”
“I don’t know, but it wants to kill us-!”
Before Merlot could say another word, Bruno had leapt into action. He clambered up the maze’s wall, before jumping off and kicking at the ground, creating a solid air platform. He launched himself towards the statue, readying his claws and slashing it directly across the face.
Bruno landed behind the beast, turning to survey the damage he had caused. Not a scratch.
“God damn it!”
“See?! We have to run!” Merlot beckoned to him quickly.
“I noticed something though. When I was up there, the head was connected to the body with some weird shadowy bit.” Bruno said, backing up as the statue turned to face him.
“Weird shadowy bit…?” The girl’s gaze moved from the neck to the cracked joints on the creature’s arms and legs. “This, this Grimm… It must be wearing the statue like some kind of armour! If we attack the joints we can attack the Grimm itself!”
Bruno only half paid attention to this. He was too busy avoiding the statue’s swipes, leaping through the air to easily dodge each attack, the sword brushing past him with each motion. A distraction. Merlot charged forward, readying her chakram. As soon as the moment presented itself, she tossed it.
The circular spinning blade flew through the air, finding its mark, sliding into the cracked joint of the Grimm, and cutting into the shadowy flesh beneath. A screech reverberated throughout the area as the statue’s left arm collapsed to the ground, crumbling to bits. Despite this, it continued its assault, swiping at Bruno with its remaining sword arm.
“You couldn’t have attacked the arm with the sword?!” Bruno asked angrily.
“I was just seeing if it would work!” Merlot shot back. "But you have a point I guess..."
Bruno dodged once more, allowing the sword to cleave through a section of hedge.
“I hope that doesn’t count…” Merlot muttered, readying her next chakram before letting it fly. This time, she was slightly off. The weapon just barely missed, instead bouncing off the stone once more.
Bruno noticed this, and acted. He slingshotted himself through the air, moving in front of the rebounding chakram. Balancing on a platform of solid air, he gave the spinning weapon a sharp kick. It flew back towards the statue, this time finding its mark and severing the sword arm from the body.
“Good catch.” Merlot complimented.
“Yeah! You’d be useless without me!” Bruno said, landing on the ground next to his partner. The two faced down the armless statue, before striking simultaneously.
Bruno went left and Merlot right. They each targeted the leg joints, Merlot severing her limb with a chakram slash and Bruno with a precise one clawed cut.
The statue toppled over, possessing no more limbs. Merlot immediately brought her chakram down on its neck, severing the head.
A moment of silence passed as the two students stared at the broken statue, before a shadowy figure materialised itself, emerging from the statue’s chest. A ghost like Grimm with a white mask and single red eye.
“A Geist! I knew it!” Merlot exclaimed. The geist immediately turned tail and ran, floating away from the two students. Bruno however, was faster. He plunged his blades into the Grimm’s head, killing it. The geist's wispy body began to evaporate into the air, fading away quickly with each passing second.
“Stupid statue! That was easy!” He proclaimed, kicking one of the bits of rubble.
“We were just luck it didn’t possess something bigger. It seemed like a younger Grimm.” Merlot replied, before turning to her partner. “Nice work out there. The name’s Merlot. Well, technically my name is Diana and Merlot’s my last name… But you can just call me that since it sounds way cooler.”
“Diana is a stupid name you’re right. Nowhere near as cool as mine. I’m Bruno.” Bruno said. “Now where do we go?”
“Well, my one clue is lying on the ground destroyed right now, but…” Merlot turned to look at the hole cleaved into the hedge by the gheist. “There was nothing in the rules about other creatures breaking the maze, just that we couldn’t.”
Bruno smirked. “I like the way you think, partner!”
“Shall we?”
“Yeah!” The faunus rushed towards the opening in the hedge, before stopping. “But if this actually is against the rules, I’m pinning it all on you! I can’t afford to get kicked out of school already”
“Whatever you say, Bruno.”
***
Merlot’s eyes flew open.
She slowly sat upright in bed, letting out a yawn before turning to her scroll on the bedside table. 7:00am. The morning sun was pouring in through the curtains nearby, partially lighting the room where her other three teammates slept.
Quiet as a mouse, Merlot slid out of bed and approached the sleeping Bruno, curled up on the floor like a cat. With a deep sigh, she nudged him with her foot.
“Hey. Time to go.”
Nothing. She let out a sigh, and leaned down grabbing hold of his tail and giving it a light but sharp tug. Instantly the boy leapt up.
“HEY! Who did that!” He noticed his leader and groaned. “Merlot, you asshole! I’ll beat the crap out of you!”
“Save it for the road. Come on.” She replied groggily, heading for the door.
“Oh I will! I’ll kick your ass!” He exclaimed.
“Shut it. You’re gonna wake the others.” Merlot said, slipping out into the hallway.
Merlot turned to close the door behind her, but stopped instead of doing so immediately. She took a moment to look at Bruno as he trudged towards the bathroom, yawning and stretching.
“I’ll be a better leader for you today, Bruno. I promise.”