“The first person you make eye contact with…”
The girl muttered to herself as she jogged across the snow covered tundra, bordering directly on the edge of the mineshaft. “I should probably be focusing on how to get down into that thing safely instead of my partner… But…”
The girl recalled her time in the airship. Her first meeting with one of these supposed future students. Needless to say, it didn’t leave the best impression. She frowned.
“But that’s only one person…” She reminded herself. “Surely none of the other students are like that!”
*
“I guess I should probably go find that relic, huh.” The faunus boy muttered to himself. With that, he took a few steps towards the edge of the mineshaft, and peered downwards. “Whole lotta nothing.”
With that, the boy shrugged and simply leapt into the darkened hole. Much like the earlier drop from the airship, he plummeted. The main difference this time was the scenery. As he fell he spotted various branching tunnels, visible only thanks to his natural faunus night vision, along with various pieces of abandoned machinery and piles of rubble.
“This seems like a good spot.” He muttered, after a few seconds of falling. Immediately, his aura glowed brightly once more and his gravity shifted, giving him another safe landing. Squinting his eyes, the faunus took in his surroundings. He found himself at the mouth of a large cavern, with the dull glow of dust crystals visible, embedded within the stone walls. The faunus took a step forward into the darkness with his usual carefree attitude.
He traveled down the cavern, idly glancing at the various dust crystals located within the walls. After a few minutes of travel, there was still no relic in sight. The boy did happen upon something else, however. A fork in the road. Two seemingly identical pathways forward. Without taking longer than a second to analyse each path, he turned down a left pathway. No sooner than he did, the faunus boy noticed movement in his peripheral vision. Something that lurked in the tunnel ahead. This did not phase him one bit.
“Hello there! I’m Phlox Forp, what’s your-”
Phlox was interrupted by an animalistic screech, as he finally caught a glimpse of whatever it was that he had seen earlier. Something was making its way towards him, burrowing through the ground, evident by the displacement and shifting of stone along the floor in front of him.
“I may have made a mistake.” He stated calmly.
*
“Jeez, don’t tell me I’m just gonna have to jump again…” The girl muttered to herself as she continued to trace the outer rim of the mines, without a single safe mode of descent in sight. That was, until she ascended a hill and spotted something in the distance.
“A tree…?” She questioned. Sure enough, standing before her only a few thousand meters away was a massive pine tree, weirdly with some of its branches destroyed or missing. Not only that, she spotted something… Or rather someone, lying at the base of the tree.
“A person! Finally!” She exclaimed, sliding down the hill towards her goal. “There’s no way that it’s the same person from the airship, that would be silly… I mean there’s thirty-six people in this initiation, the chances of running into that guy from before would just be…”
The girl trailed off as she neared the tree and the person came into view. The same tattered clothing, the same top hat and the same baggy pants. She paused for a moment as she stared at his unmoving body, before suddenly letting out a loud shout.
“FUCK!”
*
“Huh, I think I just heard someone scream ‘fuck’” Raco muttered to himself. The boy was still several hundred meters away from the ground, making his way towards the large gaping hole that was the mineshaft with all the speed of a snail. His metallic bird was still struggling to keep him afloat, and the strain was now really showing on its body. “Perhaps they encountered a creature of Grimm. Haha! I certainly wouldn’t be panicking in that situation! After all, I’m the strongest student in this entire-”
It was at that moment Raco was knocked cleanly out of the sky by something. A dark shape that had flown past, taking out his metal bird and causing its destroyed remnants to rain down upon the mines below. With nothing keeping him afloat, Raco soon joined them in falling.
“YOU THINK THIS WILL HINDER ME?!” He shouted at nobody in particular whilst reaching to his back. As the ground grew closer and he drew his weapon, his foe finally came into view. A malevolent raptor-like Grimm, with a pair of reptilian wings, sharp teeth and pointed claws.
“A teryx…!” He muttered to himself. “But no match for me!”
The teryx swooped in once more at the now seemingly defenceless student. With a grin Raco readied his weapon, a long barbed spear, pointing it at the approaching Grimm. The teryx made the first move, closing the distance and attempting to slash at its foe with the sharp claws located on either one of its hands. Raco effortlessly blocked the slash, despite still being in the process of falling towards the mines. By this point, he had nearly reached the ground, though he still had a decent bit of distance left to fall thanks to the mine’s depth.
The Grimm, undeterred, attacked again and again. Slash after slash blocked in a flurry of sparks and spin of a spear.
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“You’re simply too slow! It was unfortunate that you chose to attack me first!” Raco gloated, blocking one last attack before finally making his move. Finding an opening between the attacks sent his way, the student jabbed his spear past the teryx’s arm and directly into its back.
The Grimm immediately began to writhe in pain, screeching and doing its best to try and shake Raco off. All of this was futile, as the barbs coating his spear prevented the weapon from coming loose. The rest was all up to the boy’s physical strength, and he had plenty to spare. As a direct result of now being forced to carry a rather heavy teenager as well as its injury, the Grimm began to lose altitude. It faltered in its flight, slowly and desperately attempting to keep itself aloft to no avail. Both Raco and the Grimm were heading towards the gaping hole of the mineshaft at a quickening pace.
*
“Are you kidding me?! This initiation is rigged!”
The girl yelled into the open air as she paced around the boy, who still lay on the ground unmoving.
“Then again… I have to look on the bright side.” She peered down at his seemingly unconscious form. “What if he’s dead? Then I’m sure an exception would be made and I wouldn’t have to be his partner…”
In order to test this theory, the girl picked up a nearby tree branch that lay on the ground next to the boy. She prodded him slightly with the branch. Nothing. She prodded him further with the branch. Still nothing. She slowly tapped him on the head. Absolutely no sign of movement. She grinned.
“Oh no, what a shame.” She exclaimed sarcastically, dropping the stick. With that, the girl turned on her heels and began to march in the opposite direction.
“What the… Oh, good morning.”
A sudden voice emanating from behind her caused the student to freeze in her tracks.
“No… There’s no way…”
“Oh hey it’s you again, what brings you to my trash can?” The boy questioned nonchalantly, before taking a glance around. “Wait a second… We’re not in an alleyway… You’re not the homeless guy who lives in the sewer…”
“Oh god… He’s poor too?” She muttered to herself distastefully, whilst reluctantly turning around to face him.
“Excuse me ma’am, where are we? And why am I covered in wood… And pine needles… And blood, wait is that mine?” The boy stared at himself blankly, noticing the various cuts and bruises that coated his skin from his landing. He nonchalantly activated his aura.
“It’s even worse than I imagined…” The girl sighed, walking over to him. She grabbed him by his cloak and began to drag him towards the mineshaft. “Long story short, we have to go inside a big hole and grab a thing.”
“Oh. Ok.” Was all he said in response, putting up no struggle against the dragging. “By the way, I’m Languid.”
“I’m Purpura.” Purpura stated blankly.
The two continued their trip towards the entry point of the mine in complete silence.
*
Phlox continued to back up as the shifting rocks grew closer and closer to his position. They were gaining distance quickly, and would surely outrun him if he tried to flee. Thinking quickly, he activated his semblance once more, shifting his gravity. He immediately flipped upside down, rising up to the ceiling where he firmly planted his feet.
Staring down, or in his case up, at the ground below him, he watched as the thing reached the point where he once stood. Bursting up from the stone was a centipede-esc Grimm, adorned with an armoured, white exo-skeleton and powerful mandibles surrounding a gaping jaw.
“A centinel. Gross.” Was all Phlox said as he stared at the creature below. The faunus wasn’t out of danger quite yet, however. His gaze soon fell upon two more burrowing centinels headed towards his position. Rather than attack from the ground, this pair had adapted to his new situation and were burrowing through the roof of the cavern. Thinking quickly, Phlox reached to his belt and extracted… A simple metallic laser pointer on a keychain. Hitting a small button on the side, the laser pointer began to grow in size until he was now clutching… A bigger laser pointer.
Phlox aimed this plus sized laser pointer towards the Grimm below him, and hit a second button on the side. Exploding out from the ‘point’ of the laser pointer, was a powerful projectile. It careened through the air, slamming into the centinel with the force of a thousand laser pointers. The Grimm was destroyed on impact, being blasted into several pieces of chitin and globs of ichor, all of which were scattered around the cavern. Phlox grinned.
“They told it me it was stupid… They told me it was pointless, a waste of time… They told me, ‘no Phlox, you can’t just make a laser point that turns into a railgun!!’ WELL LOOK WHO’S LAUGHING NOW!” Phlox exclaimed as he burst into laughter.
Sadly for him, this laughter distracted him from a rather important topic at hand. The two centinels pursuing him, which had at this point closed the distance and burst forth out of the ceiling.
“I may have made a second mistake.” He stated, as the closest of the two Grimm lashed out, clamping its mandibles and jaw onto his arm. His expression changed from relatively calm, to panicked as he did his best to try and shake the creature off of him, to no avail. During this time, the second centinel neared and claimed his left leg, latching on and refusing to let go. Phlox could feel his aura dropping, and with the creature having incapacitated the hand holding his weapon, he desperately thought of a plan.
Said plan came to him rather quickly, as he glanced upwards at the cavern floor. With a quick shift in his gravitational pull, he was once again forcibly grabbed and pulled towards the stone floor. This time however, Phlox angled himself in a specific direction, placing the centinel that had latched onto his arm between himself and the ground. The result was the Grimm meeting the cold, hard ground in a powerful slam, thanks to the momentum provided from falling off the ceiling. The centinel’s tough outer shell was cracked and broken, and one of its mandibles was snapped, both with a sickening crunch, freeing Phlox. The faunus didn’t hesitate now that he had his arm freed. He aimed the laser point-railgun at the Grimm attached to his leg and pulled the metaphorical trigger, reducing the Grimm to ichor and dust.
“That was awful.” Phlox said calmly, brushing thick globs of ichor off his suit. “Now… Who’s next?”
As if to answer his question, he was met with a low rumbling. It echoed through the cavern walls, vibrating small pebbles and stones, and causing the whole tunnel to shake. In the distant reaches of said tunnel, Phlox spotted it. Dozens upon dozens of centinels, all burrowing towards him en masse.
“Well ok then.”
After those brief words, Phlox didn’t stick around. He turned tail and ran, bolting down the way he had just come. Using whatever he could muster from his slightly damaged aura, he focused the energy to his feet. The result was a substantial boost in movement, allowing him to slightly outpace the creatures.
The cave shook around him as he ran, filled with the sound of rock being broken and displaced from all around. Phlox didn’t dare stop or even look back for a second. He kept on sprinting as fast as his legs would carry him.
The cavern he had just traversed kept on going and going… Until he spotted it in the distance. An opening the lead into a much wider area. His ticket out of this tunnel as far as he was concerned. Mustering one last bit of stamina, Phlox ran at full speed towards the exit of the cavern, bursting out of it triumphantly… And slamming directly into a boy riding on a flying teryx.
“What the-!” Phlox exclaimed as he ran head first into the screeching and hollering beast.
“AHAHAHA! CARRY ME TO VICTORY YOU FOOLISH GRI- Oh, hello!” Raco said nonchalantly, greeting Phlox. The teryx he was previously riding slammed into the ground, dead. Ichor leaked out from its spear wound and onto the ground. Raco promptly extracted the spear with a sharp tug and the squeamish sound of the creature’s scales being ripped apart. Phlox stared at the boy blankly. He then spoke up.
“Hello there! I’m Phlox Forp, what’s your name?”
“You, my friend, may call me Raco M-!”
Before Raco could state his full name, a loud screech followed by the familiar sound of rumbling and burrowing interrupted him. His attention immediately moved to the cave that Phlox had just burst out of.
“Oh yeah, it looks like I forgot to mention that I’m currently being chased by several bloodthirsty centinels.” Phlox said.
“I can tell. Well, it should be no issue. I could kill at least forty nine centinels… While asleep that is!”
“Wow… Imagine what you could do while awake.” Phlox said, mesmerized.
“You won’t have to imagine it, my friend!” Raco exclaimed with a grin, as he shifted his attention to the rapidly approaching Grimm.
“Very cool.” The faunus boy said, drawing his weapon and aiming it at the horde.