Grunting as he felt something force itself into his side, Slate tumbled onto his backside. As he blinked the spots out of his gaze, he climbed back onto his feet sweeping the area with his gaze to find the attacker. Eventually, his gaze settled on a familiar figure. "Ms. Kawashima, I would ask that you watch where you are going." He droned out, arching an eyebrow as he held his hand out in assistance. "I suppose this would make us, partners, is it?" A part of him was disappointed him, wanting to be partnered with Merlot. That part of quickly squashed down, after all, there was no use in crying over spilled dust, as the saying goes.
Taura blinked as she looked at who she ran into. Oh heavens...it was that jet black garbed one in the group earlier...granted "Ms. Kawashima" wasn't unheard of as a greeting back in Mistral, having him use it in a school setting was rather...odd. "I apologise...I didn't--" Or rather, she couldn't. "--see you there. I knew someone was in this vicinity, but I couldn't see anyone...it turned out to be you..." She was almost wishing she had someone easier to engage with...like Rosa...but she swallowed her resolve. "Yes, we are partners for now." Taura didn't bother hiding her nervousness. If she mucked up, he had to pay for her mistakes too...and she would not want that... "So, where do you suppose we head, Mister...uhh..." She racked her brain in trying to remember his name. "...Slate?"
Ignoring most of the rambling, Slate frowned as thought on the question, raking his gaze across the treeline as he considered it. "I confess, I'm uncertain where we could go. This forest looked simple from the outside but it's been very easy to get lost. The best option would be to split up and search, we'd have a better chance at finding the objective that way although the risks are great." Sighing, Slate shrugged his shoulders at his new partner, "I'd prefer not risking the death of myself, or my partner, so early on over something like this. So I suggest we pick a direction and stick with it." Spinning on his heel, he pointed in a random direction before glancing over at Taura. "What about this direction? I think it's.. south? South East?"
“Name’s Hunter, my weapon is Emerald Tempest a switch axe that can transform into a great sword and a sniper rifle.” He drew the weapon to give her a quick look before returning it to his back. ”As for my semblance, is Wind Vacuum is a lot more useful than it sounds trust me. Just try to take cover if I tell you to since my semblance don’t distinct between friend or foe.“ He certainly couldn’t complain about ending up partnered with someone that had an agile fighting style, he was use to that from going on missions with his sister. Getting a feeling him and the Quarzo girl’s semblances would work well together in battle, he pulled up his headband as it’d started to wander before following his new partner giving her a nod and smile in response. “Hold on a moment, did you hear that?” Hunter put a hand on Rosa’s shoulder trying to get her to stop after they’d walked for a while. Listening closely the boy was sure he’d heard something, but what and where had it come from? He heard the sound again, rustling, something was here and it wasn’t hard to guess what it was. A pair of large bushes move to the side as an ursa stuck its head and shoulders out looking straight at the pair before roaring as it started moving towards them. “Well you wanted to hunt grimm, here’s your chance.” He’d drawn Emerald Tempest, transforming it into a rifle in the process. Taking aim at the grimm before opening fire, time to find out if he’d been lucky getting paired up with this girl.
Rosa just grinned at her new partner and went into her starting position, Viola Luna in her hands, ready to be used. Remembering that the weak point was the stomach, she sprinted towards the Ursa before jumping into the air, spinning as she gained a bit of height. When she reached the apex of her jump she shot two of her smaller rings filled with Fire Dust to the Ursa that merged in seamlessly into the shots that Hunter was firing off. When they reached the grimm, they exploded obscuring the vision of the Ursa for a bit. The huntress in training used this opportunity to close the distance and deliver a few slashes to the beast's stomach and dance out of reach in the same sequence before hook shotting up to the treetops. As she approached the tree branch she had been aiming for, she quickly spun around and pushed off, aiming to get a big slash on the grimm's neck.
She nodded as they walked down the path he proposed. Feeling uneasiness creeping into her being...which was not because of him, she looked around. Having conducted a scan around the area "This path is peppered with other humans. And Grimm are nearby..." Looking back to him, she wondered if there was any possible room for them to get to know each other. "Well, um...do you often hunt for Grimm?"
Staring quizzically at Taura, Slate responded. "I don't make a habit of fighting Grimm, I'm not much of a fighter if I'm, to be honest." He murmured, his gaze narrowing as his thoughts began to focus on a single target. "In fact, most of my experience comes from fighting humans and other Faunus, particularly humans." Returning his gaze to the path in front of him, Slate continued the conversation with a question of his own. "Tell me, Kawashima, how is it you know what fills the path ahead of us?"
Taura bit her lip. She wasn't sure if she could explain it in a way he could understand...but their circumstances bid her thus. "...it's my Semblance. I am able to sense living souls within a few kilometers radius. Like a positioning system if you will... I don't know if it applies to Grimm though..." Sure enough, just as she said it, a loud screech from nearby was heard. A few Beowulves were gathered around the bushes in their path. Swallowing a little, she got her fans ready. "...I wonder if this was really what I meant to sign up for..." She muttered it under her breath as she braced herself.
The sound of a pained roar sounded out as Slates weapons made themselves known to their foes, the twin blades slicing through a Beowolf in an x shape. "Tch, came from nowhere. Guess that answers your question about the Grimm." Slate scoffed, his steely gaze taking in their surroundings. "We're surrounded, and I don't think we'd be able to take them all down." He murmured, his thoughts turning inward. 'I could escape easily with my semblance, but that means leaving her here. Tch, that sounds like something father would do.' He scowled as he slowly moved towards his partner. "We need to move."
The girl looked at all sides, and then to her newfound partner. If she could at least clear a path... With a swift switch of both her fans, she made a vertical slashing movement with her left fan, releasing a vertical arc of wind pushing two Beowulf’s aside to create a path. “H-here!” She yelped, as she beckoned Slate to follow her. She was sure that the path taken will hopefully be safer. Once she was sure they were out of the enclosure, she spun , forming a horizontal arc with Nami, her right fan, creating an arc of water, not enough to hurt them, but hopefully just to slow them down. That done, she kept looking back every now and then to ensure he was still around...lest he chose to suddenly disappear.
Snapping his head in the direction of his partner's voice, Slate quickly found himself rolling his body over the back of a Beowolf, stabbing one of his blades into its neck in the process, before sprinting after her. "Now what? They'll follow us!" He called out in irritation, ducking beneath the arc of water sent towards the Beowolf behind them. Growling in his head as he glanced back at the slowed, but still gaining, Grimm he quickly formulated a plan. "How good at cutting with those fans of yours?" He questioned loudly, despite asking a question he didn't give his partner a chance to respond, "Cut down a tree! Create an obstacle, it won't stop them but it should slow them down enough! Hopefully." Thinking the final word to himself, he glanced back nervously, lacking complete faith in his own plan.
Cutting? Taura never had to resort to cutting save for the kitchen, but after a hard learnt lesson, she had her fan blades sharpened just so she could survive. As they ran, the Beowulves caught up. Gritting her teeth, she leapt and slashed at some low hanging branches overhead. Not all the way through, but enough that they would easily snap with the slightest force. The oncoming horde were only mildly annoyed by the falling braches, which prompted her to speed up, cutting more of the branches she could see, before using Nami to send an arc of wind back again. By some miracle, they were able to outrun the Beowulves without much trouble. It turned out that the route Taura had mentioned was relatively safe...Hopefully they will get near the relics soon. She heaved a sigh of somewhat relief, but she looked back at Slate. Great, she thought, I messed up. How am I supposed to be useful to him? Though her short found moment of contemplation did not last very long. Just then, a lone Beowulf had bit at her unprotected left shoulder. She bit back a scream of pain but it came out as a stifled groan, as she wheeled around to try and fend it off.
Impressive, seemed like he’d gotten lucky with his partner and gotten one that could actually fight Hunter thought with a smirk flashing as he watched Rosa go for the ursa. “Well I guess I’ll go for the middle then.” He changed stance as his weapon transformed into an axe, charging at the grimm that was too busy paying attention to the girl that was about to slice its neck open. He swung full force into the ursa’s chest, he doubted he really had to assist in the kill but his partner had wanted to see what he could do. The ursa fell, as it started to vaporize the newly teamed up teens started moving toward their objective. “You think our little scrap was heard by other grimm?” Hunter put away his weapon and looked back at the disintegrating ursa.
"They might have, so I suggest going straight for the ruins and just taking out whatever decides to cross our path." Rosa had landed cleanly on the ground and watched as the grim turned to dust, as she spoke to her partner. She then smirked at Hunter, before sheathing her weapons. "Good hit by the way." She and Hunter would be fine partners, Rosa decided. He wasn't a reckless idiot at least, and had the strength to back up his words. He would do just fine. His weapon wasn't shabby either. She walked off with Hunter in tow as they made their way to where they thought the ruins would be. She found a bunched of cut of branches and beowolves footprints on their chosen path, and she silently pointed them out to her partner.
Hunter nodded in agreement and followed his partner “And right back at ya.” Seems like they were gonna get along just fine. She was a competent fighter as he’d just seen as well as her semblance being an interesting one; he had to admit he was a bit curious about it too and made a mental note to ask about it later. As they walked Rosa gestured towards the ground, looking at the trail of footprints and cutoff branches; it was safe to assume that other students had run into grimm as well. The problem was the trail was going towards the ruins where their objective was meaning they could run into more fighting. “Let’s keep moving but a little off to the side of the trail in case something suddenly shows up.” He moved off the trail and a few feet off to the side of the trail before continuing their fare toward the ruins.
"Good plan, let's stay clear of the path, I have a feeling that we haven't seen the worst yet. Seeing as I spotted a bigger than average Nevermore just before the test started." Rose agreed with Hunter and followed him as they made their way to the ruins. The pair didn't talk all that much as they kept an eye on their surroundings. "I think we are fairly close to the edge of the forest, or at least a large clearing," Rosa warned her partner. "The trees are beginning to thin out and there is a bit more light." She crept along the undergrowth as she tried to see what was up ahead. The ruins were probably on a flat spaced surface, where they could be spotted from a long distance.
Hearing his partner groan, Slate glanced back from where he was looking for any Beowolf and took note of the scene in front of him. A lone Grimm attacking Taura, with an animalistic growl, Slate disappeared from sight and sprinted around the Beowolf. The moment he had an opening, he launched himself into it, the tips of his blades sliding into its sides causing the creature to release a howl of pain. "Quickly!" Slate grunted out, trying to keep the creature in position despite its flailing, cursing as one of its claws came within millimetres of slashing his eye. Wishing he could just kill the thing and be done with it, but in his haste he made a stupid mistake and got his blades stuck between two of the armour plates on the Beowolfs body and removing them would give the Grimm the space it needs to follow up its attack.
Looking at Slate--who was not there, but hearing his voice left her no room to think, as she hurriedly searched for an opening. She could behead the Grimm. The dark thought sent shivers down her back as she tried to make sense of it. But Slate was in no position to attack, and any delays would get him killed. Without as much as a warning, she flitted around, using her fans to cut the parts of the Beowulf, but careful not to hit Slate, since she couldn't see him. Fortunately, her dominant hand was still in good shape, which made her job a little easier. "Forgive me." She said it aloud, uncertain to whom, as she switched her fan from Nami to Kai, before sending an arc of Wind dust towards the Beowulf and Slate. Hopefully that was enough to kill the Grimm. She also didn't want to get the Faunus drenched if she used Nami.
Creeping along next to Rosa Hunter looked around now that the trees were thinning out, which were both good and bad since fewer trees meant a better view of their surroundings but it also meant any grimm nearby could get a better view of them too. He heard something, something that sounded like a howl, probably a beowolf but it’d sounded off not like when they were getting ready to attack, “Didn’t that howl sounded a little bit off to you, or am I starting to hear things?” He whispered as he crept along now checking their rear regularly just to be sure something nasty didn’t crept up on them, last thing they needed were an ambush. “Let’s pick up the pace a little; howl or not I’m sure I heard something.” He decided to cover their rear letting his partner take the lead still scouting the surrounding for both the ruins and grimm.
"Yeah, good idea. I think those are the ruins that professor Ozpin mentioned, let's go there quickly and get the hell outta dodge before something thinks we are a nice afternoon snack." Rosa pointed at a bit of gray in the distance where she thought the ruins were and she grabbed one of her guns from her back, making sure it was the one loaded with ice and gravity dust, and in its gun mode before she ventured out of the trees. Hunter had been right when he mentions the beowulf's howl sounding off and she had no real desire to find out why. Checking with her partner once, she nodded and then they were off as fast as they could manage. The ruins came closer quickly, and surprisingly, the duo hadn't been attacked during their run.
