[X] A refugee town was reporting that it's numbers were getting too large for the town to supply, and were requesting Hunters to come in and clear a path to other nearby Towns. The people there had lived hard enough lives, any help they could get would mean the world to them.
"Have you been watching the Mistral Tournament?" Blast asked.
Yang shrugged. "Been busy, and the finals aren't for a bit longer anyway. Why, did I miss any good matches?"
"A few." Blast replied. "It's been fast this year. Nikos has been tearing through them as fast as usual, but there's a few newcomers that might actually give her a challenge."
"Really?" Yang asked. "I mean, she still hasn't been touched, so people actually think she could lose this one?"
"She's still the favourite." Blast replied. "But her next round is against another one of the favourite. Newcomer explained his Semblance before the first round, and it's bullshit."
"Oh?"
"His Aura regenerates in the sunlight fast enough to be effectively infinite."
"...Some people get all the luck." Yang complained. "That's got to be a pain in the ass to fight, isn't it?"
"Only if the weather's good." Blast noted. "But it's the match everyone's looking forward to at the moment. People are surprised it's happening before the final round."
Yang shrugged. "Maybe they know something we don't? Maybe the weather's gonna be terrible when the finals come around and they want to get the fun fight out of the way when they can."
"Maybe." Blast considered. "But on the bright side, judging by the predictions, most of the most likely final rounds are going to be a some cute girls beating the hell out of each other. I really don't wanna miss that."
"If you want to watch pretty people get into fights, just wait a moment." Yang replied. "Winter should be done evaluating Piran's skills in a moment, and I don't mind people watching me fight."
"It's not about pretty people fighting." Blast corrected. "I get that all the time when I fight. There's just something special about two girls, the same age and general level of skill and power, punching each other. There's just so much beauty, you know?"
"So, are you saying you
don't want to see me fight?"
"I didn't say that." Blast replied. "I'd love to. I can only admire my own beauty for so long, you know? I need someone else to admire, to contrast and better appreciate how good looking I am."
"You think you look better than me?" Yang asked. "You
must be delusional."
"Oho? Doth the fair maiden think so highly of thouself?"
"I'm pretty sure that's not how you talk old timey." Yang pointed out. "Also, I have no idea what you're trying to say."
"I'll be more simply about it, then." Blast decided. "You're pretty, but I'm prettier. More beautiful. More handsome. Whatever word you want to use."
Yang looked at Blast for a moment. Then, slowly, deliberately, turned her gaze towards the window, where her reflection was vaguely visible.
"...Nah."
"Shall we seek a third party opinion?" Blast asked, just as the door opened.
Piran walked in, panting in exhaustion. Yang and Blast turned to him.
"Tell them I look better." They said, in unison.
Piran blinked, and looked at them for a moment.
"...You're both pretty, ladies." He said. "And I'm tired. So I'm leaving. Yang, Winter wants to test you next."
"Cool." Yang noted. "Come on, Blast."
"She also said she didn't want watchers." Piran continued. "Something about keeping the test a surprise."
"Aw." Blast complained. "In that case, I guess I'll just annoy Piran for a while."
The boy groaned. "I hate you. I hate you so much."
"Don't let him bother you, Piran." Yang noted. "If he gets too annoying, just put a mirror in front of him and run while he's distracted."
"So mean." Blast complained, as Yang walked away.
Walking through the door of the airship, Yang found herself in a large room, with dents and scorch marks covering the walls and floor.
In the centre, Winter stood, completely untouched despite the poor state of the room.
"This is going to take a while to fix." Yang noted.
"No matter." Winter replied. "This room was built to be easily fixed. Once the month is up, it can get repaired."
"What's it made of, if it got damaged so easily in the first place?" She asked.
"Easily?" Winter asked. "Oh, it wasn't any small amount of force that did this damage."
A glyph appeared at her feet, and from it, a great number of ghostly Beowulf's appeared.
"You will fight until you cannot anymore." Winter declared. "I want to see what you're capable of. You will not be given time to rest between rounds. Begin."
And as one, the ghostly figures dashed at Yang.
Caught off guard, Yang jumped upwards. It was a good thing she'd listened when Winter recommended keeping her weapon on her at all times. Ember Celica shot downwards, propelling Yang further into the air, as well as forcing away the closer figures.
She knew the proper method of dealing with swarms of Grimm up close. Stay mobile, never get pinned down, and never be surrounded. Unfortunately, Winter already took away that first point by summoning the Beowulf's everywhere in the room, but as long as she had a way out they couldn't cut off, she would be fine.
The closest ghostly Beowulf found Yang's foot hitting her face, a second before she leapt off it, pushing down on it to knock it to the ground and firing at it as she did so. The propulsion this time was more vertical, allowing her to really get moving.
It was easy enough, keeping mobile from there. Winter's replica Grimm seemed to be holding back, and weren't really working hard to hit her. Which made sense. This was testing what Yang could do, and was just the first round. She shouldn't have to worry about them getting tactical until Winter got a taste of Yang's abilities.
As the Beowulf's numbers began to thin, Yang decided it was safe to set foot on the ground again. Before she could fall to her feet, though, she saw a movement out of the corner of her eye.
Turning her head to face it, Yang was just in time to see the Boarbatusk charging at her position. Quickly firing at it, Yang used the explosion to move out of the way and land elsewhere, even as the shot failed to harm the Grimm through it's armour.
Round two was starting unannounced, then.
Three more Boarbatusk's appeared around Yang, and the girl dodged out of their path, firing at them to keep them distracted.
She wasn't strong enough to damage the boar Grimm, or to knock them over and hit their unarmoured stomachs. But she couldn't let herself get hit by one. Normal Boarbatusk's were smart enough to grapple with someone and keep them pinned, and ones controlled by Miss Schnee were definitely going to be smarter than normal.
...Which just meant she needed to damage herself to her use her Semblance.
Standing still for a moment, Yang waited, baiting the Grimm into charging at her. She took the moment to fire at the leftover Beowulf's, thin their numbers. Then, as the first Boarbatusk approached, she jumped at it. Skimming over the top of it, she fired downward, hitting both it and herself with a small explosion.
The Boarbatusk was unharmed, but Yang was able to use the propulsion to fling herself higher in the air. At the peak of her ascent, she fired Ember Celica upwards, propelling herself down.
A second before she hit the ground, she slammed down her fist and fired again. Between the gravity and the explosion, her Aura had taken some damage.
Good.
Another Boarbatusk charged at her, and Yang ran at it. It's tusks moved to lock in her arm, but her Semblance had kicked in. She'd taken damage, and now she was stronger. Once it was within arms reach, she was able to kick upwards against it, sending it into the air with the force and leaving in vulnerable to an Ember Celica shot to the stomach.
Ready for the next opponent, Yang looked around, only to realise all the Grimm had disappeared.
"...Is it over?" She asked, turning towards the Schnee.
Winter didn't reply, and a moment later, Yang heard a roar behind her.
Whipping around, Yang barely dodged out of the way of a large Creep, easily three times her size. She jumped under it's legs when she saw it coming, and took a moment to get a good look at the apparition.
The white ghostly being that Winter had created had an odd greenish tint to it, and was bigger than the usual Creep. Which meant it was probably stronger.
Before another thought could pass through her mind, the Creep detonated, sending out an explosive force that sent her slamming into the wall.
"That's enough." Winter decided.
"...Nah." Yang replied, picking herself off the floor and breathing heavily. "I'm still good."
"I've seen enough." Winter replied. "You're competent. Able to deal with lesser Grimm, and make plans to deal with stronger ones. You know how to take advantage of your Semblance. But an unexpected threat left you unprepared.
"Since when do Creep's explode?" Yang asked.
"Not the point." Winter replied. "This isn't the Emerald Forest. The Grimm there are culled and controlled, under the assumption that Signal students would sneak in before they are meant to on dares and bets. The Grimm there are ones you are expected to know about."
As someone who had sneaked into the forest near Beacon based on a dare once, Yang didn't need much convincing that people would be prepared for that.
"Anything you encounter outside the Kingdoms could be a surprise." Winter continued. "Did you know there are Grimm that use weaker Grimm as bait to lure people into trap? Variants of Grimm that disguise themselves as weaker forms to catch people offguard?"
Yang didn't reply, catching her breath.
"Consider this a lesson." Winter continued. "If you assume you understand a threat, it will have consequences. Don't grow complacent just because you think you recognise the threat. Outside the Kingdoms, assume nothing about your foes."
Looking over Yang for a moment, Winter nodded.
"Regardless, you are competent enough." She declared. "If you encounter something too powerful for you, with the level of competence you have shown should suffice for you to either escape or survive long enough for me to arrive."
"Thanks?" Yang questioned.
"You are excused." Winter decided. "It won't be long until we arrive at our destination, and I have yet to test Blast Yellowstone. Please send him in."
Yang nodded, and left.
~~~~~
"Hey, Piran." Yang greeted, sitting down in a corner.
"Yang." The boy said. "Is there something you wanted?"
"Not much." She replied. "Just wanted to talk."
"If this is going to be something as annoying as Blast was talking about-"
"Not here to tease, for once." Yang said. "We're stuck together for a month, so we may as well get along."
"...A decent point." Piran admitted. "Perhaps this month will be tolerable after all."
"I know a bit about Blast." Yang went on. "But not much about you. What do you do for fun?"
"Now's hardly an appropriate time for 'Fun.'" Piran replied. "This may be a training trip of sorts, but it's still a mission. People's lives rely on our success. Don't they deserve to know that we're taking this seriously?"
"I mean, we're not on the mission yet." Yang replied.
"Perhaps." Piran countered. "But it's still something that's coming. I'm not the sort of person who would just be able to relax while knowing that lives hand in the balance depending on my coming actions."
"That's a kinda cynical outlook." Yang pointed out. "If you thought like that, you'll never stop worrying."
"I can relax later." Piran replied. "After the mission. But.. It just rubs me the wrong way, to not focus on what's coming. You and Blast can do what you want, but don't try and drag me into your banter when I'm trying to focus, please."
"...If you insist." Yang relented. "But once we help these people out, I'm dragging you to a party or something. No buts."
"Fine then." Piran shrugged. "Sounds like fun."
"We should be approaching the refugee village now." Yang pointed out. "Want to go see if we can see it from the cockpit?"
"Sure."
It was a short walk there, and the cockpit was empty when they arrived. The autopilot on the thing was good enough to get from point A to point B, though there was still a control panel for someone to manually control the thing in emergencies.
"Can you see it?" Yang asked.
"Not yet." Piran replied. "But there's a timer here, see? Just another ten minutes."
"Cool." Yang said. "Should we go tell Winter and Blast that we're nearly there?"
"Winter should know." Piran replied. "She's probably keeping track of..."
He trailed off, and Yang looked at him, concerned. "Is there a problem?"
"Yang." He said, a tone of worry in his voice. "Is it just me, or is there smoke on the horizon?"
It took another moment for the town to be close enough to confirm, but there was no denying it.
The town was burning.
[X] This isn't just some accident. This is an attack. Find out who's leading it and take them down.
[X] There's got to be people in there. Find anyone still in there and get them out of the path of danger.
