[jjb2158]

Moving around slowly, the Deathstalker proceeded to move back towards one of the walls instead of attacking the first years. The Beringel, however, was quite the opposite as it worked its way into a frenzy. letting out a loud roar, the Grimm proceeded to charge headfirst at Argent, it's mouth frothing at the thought of a quick and easy kill.


"You best move quickly before the Beringel aggravates the Deathstalker!" Suntalia exclaimed, clapping her hands out of sheer delight as she watched the other students spread out in hopes of catching the Grimm by surprise. Dangling her legs off the edge of the pillar, Suntalia proceeded to hum to herself as she smiled down towards the fight that was to ensue.


Rolling his eyes as he heard Suntalia yell advice to the others, Savas proceeded to shake his head slightly. Don't tell them what to do... he thought irritably though kept his mouth shut as he continued to stand in defense of the only way in or out of the Arena. Though...they would do best to listen to her advice he mused, clenching his fists around Sandalphon and Metatron. Despite his efforts to remain calm during this session, he had to resist the urge to go down there and kill both Grimms. After what had happened to his first team, to Auburn, he had made the decision that he would do everything in his own power to not let anyone else fall to the same tragedy that befell him. Cracking his neck, Savas proceeded to rolling his shoulders as he warmed up his joints, in case he was needed to save the team down below.

[willow_lark]

Sherwood winces as the upperclassman girl shouts out advice. He was dead wrong, Grimm aren't animals, they're smart enough to not attack each other. He shakes his head slightly, dismissing the little voice pointing out his first call as a leader was wrong. He can't dwell on these things, he's got to keep at it. The team is expecting him to make calls and lead and do this, and one mistake can't be grounds to quit.

"Might be some sort of cheating, but Ah'd say follow her idea! Noctis and Ah can keep the Deathstalker away while Argent and Persimmon take out the Berlingel!" he shouts. Hopefully it didn't sound any less confident. He turns to Noctis.

"You're not as heavy a fighter as Argent right? So flank the Deathstalker. I'll attack it from one side and you attack it from the other. We'll keep peppering it to keep it's attention on us while the others do their part." He says to Noctis. His eyes flicker with a moment of doubt, but in the space of a blink he focuses.

Sherwood jogs to the north west, expecting the Berlingel and those fighting it to head south. Close to the wall, Sherwood sets his stance and lets a steel arrow fly, aiming for the largest, if most armored part of the Deathstalker, just in case it moves. If he could get Tristram to the maximum draw weight he might be able to crack through, but he knows he doesn't have the time to spend on it. Not to mention staying mobile is a very good idea.

At least with this he isn't barking commands anymore. Nocking another arrow, Sherwood sheepishly smirks. Dangerous situation this may be, shooting is still helps calm his mind.

[MissyMidna]

Well shit there goes the initial plan. So they needed to keep Harambe and little ol scorpio away from one another. Noctis knew that this couldn't be that easy. He heard Sherwood tell him to play distraction again and maybe that might be his permanent job on this team. He drew his right handed gun that was preloaded with fire dust to get the Death Stalker's attention.

Noctis broke away from Sherwood's side to send a sea of bullets to the white armor on top of the grimms body. He did his best to keep from falling thanks to the logs toppled over on the ground.

"Hey there fake scorpion king come play with me!" Noctis called continuing his onslaught sea of red bullets. He knew he'd run out of bullets eventually, lets just hope the grimm was distracted enough by the puffs of red and his obnoxious motives.

[Flooberoid]

"Guess it's up to me to bail you out, huh?" Persimmon said this into his scroll, but avoided using too smug a tone of voice in case Argent couldn't hear him. Not that he wasn't feeling smug. So much so that he would use his least favorite ammo type just to make a scene. He loaded a gravity dust shot and took aim directly in front of the Beringel, hoping to at least stagger it with the intense shockwave effect.

He took the shot with a loud boom heard throughout the arena. He had long ago learned not to even bother trying to silence these monsters, and also not to bother trying not to wince with pain at the ridiculous recoil. Hopefully, however, he had stayed steady long enough to hit his mark.

[CptSteel]

As he saw the Beringel and Persimmon load and fire his gun, in one quick blur he shifted his own weapon into its hammer form and readied himself for the beast that lay before him.

Argent hoped his timing was better than his failed spin attack in the initiation as he lifted his hammer and was aware that he'd need to charge his aura soon enough if he was going to do some damage to the Grimm.

[jjb2158]

With a hiss, the Deathstalker reared its tail and charged straight towards Noctis, his bullets merely ricocheting off of the hardened exoskeleton of the Grimm. With the Deathstalker distracted by Noctis, the Beringel took a direct hit to its chest from Persimmon's shot. Letting out a roar as its charge was halted, the Grimm leaped over to one of the large pillars and let out another roar as it held itself halfway up the pillar. Jumping from one pillar to the next, the creature jumped down and, picking up one of the large boulders, it threw the boulder straight towards Persimmon and proceeded to picking up a nearby log and tossing that towards where Sherwood was standing.


"Ngggrh...amateurs..." Savas snorted. He wasn't too surprised by it, however. Were his past self in their position, he would've done nearly the same. Splitting the team up into two groups to address both problems was a good idea, but it drastically cut their firepower to take down one of the creatures in half by doing so. They would've been better off addressing only one of the beasts first before engaging the other, but that was something they would learn as they progressed through the coming years. Finding himself taking an involuntary step towards the team below, Savas had to stop himself. I must remain here and make sure neither creatures escape. That is my objective here he thought, planting his feet and keeping his grip on his weapons. Besides...Suntalia should be more than enough to take down both creatures if the need arises he thought, smirking slightly to himself.


"Well, that's one way of doing this" Suntalia remarked quietly to herself. Rattled slightly as the Beringel jumped to the pillar that she was sitting on, Suntalia gripped and held herself in place, while readying herself just in case the Grimm decided to go for her. Letting out a sigh as the creature jumped off, she had half hoped it would've gone for her so she could have a little fun, but decided it was better this way. "Hope you all know how to dodge!" she yelled as the large Grimm began throwing debris at the other team members. Letting out a light jingle of a laugh, Suntalia continued to watch everything happen from the safety of her perch.


That was an interesting way of approaching this Oberon thought over the light flickering of his cigar. Taking a puff, looked down to his Scroll and continued his assessment of the team. Sherwood certainly does possess the values and mentality of being a leader by pulling a quick strategy together despite the quickly escalating problems around him. The others show a mutual trust and respect towards his leadership abilities and are also quick to action to follow through. Smiling slightly to himself, he knew that this team would be a fairly well-made team and would certainly go far. However, taking a quick look over to Savas, he knew that those two traits would no be enough to protect a team from tragedies. He did not hear the full details of the event, but knew enough that it had left a huge scar on the giant's heart that would take a long time to heal. Watching your teammates get killed right before your eyes and not being able to do anything about it is enough to break any man he thought, pulling his gaze back to the first year team before him. This is what will make this lesson all the more valuable, for both Savas and this new team. Taking another puff, he continued to assess the team's abilities and teamwork capabilities.

[willow_lark]

Sherwood hears the Berlingel roar and flicks his head between the beast and Noctis, who was now the primary target of the Deathstalker. His timing was off ad he flicks back from the latter, seeing the Berlingel toss a boulder at Persimmon.

"Awh hell, watch out!" he shouts, unable to stop the rock. Persimmon would live, even he couldn't escape, but Sherwood couldn't help feeling like he should have been able to warn him. Sherwood's mind was being pulled into too many directions, and because of it he wasn't doing anything at his best. He grimaces slightly.

Sherwood flicks his head back to the Deathstalker, making sure poor Noctis wasn't about to be sliced in two. "Get some space Noctis, I'll try and pull it my way!" he says, launching one arrow at the Grimm and nocking his next. The poundage of the base strength is nothing to sneeze at, nor the iron arrows, but Deathstalkers have thick skin and Sherwood would feel much more comfortable with more weight behind his weapon. He doesn't have the time though, nor the piece of mind to shoot how he would as a hunter.

He flicks his head towards the others between arrows. "Argent, knock down the pill-" Before Sherwood could get out the words a log is mere inches from his face. He twists with all the energy he can muster and keeps the log from hitting his face. It does however plow into his chest and torso, knocking him back into the wall with an audible slam. Thankfully, the angle the log was thrown at prevented it from pinning him to the wall, it smashing to the ground right nearby Sherwood.

"Augh..." He groans. His aura felt that. With a small tsk and a wince he works his way to his feet. "Okay... Keep track of allies, enemies, tactics, and myself. Don't forget the latter. Give myself orders too." He mutters on the way up.

Grasping his bow, he fires the arrow that fell out of it when he was hit at the Deathstalker, subconsciously shooting in just the way he wasn't supposed to. He had been stunned for a few precious seconds, and who knows how the field had changed. Hopefully the others are fairing better.

[MissyMidna]

"Yes sir," Noctis says putting his gun away and taking off to another section of the area but away from the other two to keep the Grimm away from one another.

Noctis paused to look at his sword's dust chamber to double check if he wanted to use the thunder dust that he had left in there. As long as I don't hurt myself again I should be fine, he tells himself. When he looked back the Death stalker was a little too close for comfort and he didn't have much time to get himself out of the tight spot. He watched one of Sherwood's arrows hit the deathstalker giving him time to escape.

"You alright Sherwood?" Noctis called once he had felt comfortable with the distance between he and the grimm.

[Flooberoid]

Persimmon noticed the boulder coming his way and ducked behind his own boulder at the last possible second. Strange that years of this kind of behavior made it a reflex for him to play it close like this, but maybe this time it was advantageous. Maybe the Beringel would think it killed him... and maybe that was wishful thinking.

Whatever it was, Persimmon's movement didn't turn out perfect for himself. He watched the thrown boulder crash over his head, launching rock debris all over. He tried not to breath with all the powdered boulder in the air, but a few stray fragments struck him in the head and made that easier said than done. As soon as his vision cleared enough to orient himself, Persimmon rushed out of the rubble and inhaled sharply, causing him to cough. Several moments later, once he could breath well enough to sound calm, he lifted up his scroll and checked in with Argent.

"Yo! Sorry for the break there- I was kinda stuck between a rock and a... bunch of broken bits of rock. You ready to take this overgrown chimp down?"

[CptSteel]

"When you are, yes, I am." Argent was getting annoyed now, as he back-stepped to get a feel for the situation. When he thought he had a good enough picture in his mind his grip on his hammer tightened and he looked up to Beringel with determination in his eyes, and shouted,"Persimmon, back me up!"  and the large faunus began to stride over to the Grimm, almost without thought.

The head of his hammer opened and Argent was ready to fire gravity dust from it, though he knew he would have to get close for it to even have an effect on the Beringel.

[jjb2158]

Letting out a roar of frustration at not killing off anyone, the Beringel continued by throwing another at Sherwood. Noticing Argent running straight towards it, the Grimm slammed the ground a few times with its massive arms before grabbing two small, head-size rocks and throwing those at Argent. At the same time, the Deathstalker continued its pursuit of Noctis, all the while taking an arrow into one of its legs. Letting out a hiss, the Deathstalker changed its target to Sherwood as it quickly closed the distance to where  Sherwood was standing.


"Poor guy" Suntalia remarked, watching as both Grimm attacked the same student one after the other. Resting her chin in both her hands, she leaned forward and rested her elbows on her legs as she continued to watch. "He's definitely gonna be feeling it tomorrow" she mused. Smiling down at the other students, Suntalia proceeded to swinging her legs as she continued to watch and wait. "You should probably go for the unarmored sections!" she yelled, laughing lightly as an after thought.


There she goes again, running her mouth... Savas thought, shaking his head slightly. They will never learn if you keep spoon feeding them the solution. Finishing with his light warm up, Savas placed the hammer head of Metatron on the ground, while standing Sandalphon on its tip. Holding both weapons steady, he finished up by trying to crack his neck again, letting out a couple more cracks as he loosened himself up. Despite what Suntalia was saying, she had given them the one advantage they can have if they were to take down both creatures. Regardless of how strong their armored skeleton was, there were always holes in their armor, which were to be heavily used to their advantage if they were to take any of them down. Should they use that to their advantage, then the fight will be over fairly quickly and they could move on to the next portion of the lesson.

[willow_lark]

Sherwood blinks at the Deathstalker spins around with more speed than he thought the large Grimm could muster, in any kind of fair world. His only concern as it charged towards him was why Noctis hasn't complained more about being the distraction. He'd be justified to do so. He also feels justified in focusing on him right now. He can only hope the others won't mind him not saying anything while he gets himself out of trouble.

As the Deathstalker approaches, Sherwood fires a single arrow into the ground, towards the center of the arena. Activating his semblance, he channels a bolt of electricity into the arrow, and links the arrow in a circuit with the one embedded in the Deathstalker. The lightning forms a chain between the two points, and hopefully that will be enough of a distraction for the beast because...

Sherwood dives to the ground, the only way he can feasibly avoid the thrown log with the time he has left to dodge it. It'd go over his head and everything would be fine. At least, assuming that the electricity slowed down the Deathstalker enough that it didn't end up literally on top of him, as at it's current pace, it'd have the speed to do that before he got up.

And hopefully nothing happens to the team too. He'd have been hit by something if he didn't give all his attention to himself, and he did not want another log to the face. Hopefully the others won't mind that he took his attention from the team for a moment. They're expecting him to call out trouble for them and such, but with any lucky nothing will happen while he's distracted and it won't matter that he was. Hopefully.

[MissyMidna]

Noctis jumps back seeing the link of thunder strike the deathstalker. He draws his gun again to switch to his ice dust clips to pin the Grimm down to the ground. Noctis hates lining up shots with his non dominant hand but it would have to do since he may need to use Divine sooner than he thinks. With Scepter in his hand Noctis fires the ice dust at the Grimm legs and ground. Hopefully that didn't interfere with Sherwood's semblance since ice is a poor conductor of electricity.

[Flooberoid]

Persimmon wasn't really clear on how exactly Argent intended on him backing him up, but one thing was clear: Neither enemy gave a shit about him. With this in mind, his next "perch" was just an overturned log that he decided to kneel behind. From here, he took action in two different ways:

First, he loaded an ice shot and took aim at the ground between Sherwood and the Deathstalker. Hopefully the ice spikes that emerged from the point of impact would provide him with some kind of cover. Second, he turned to the Beringel and started repeatedly firing impact shots into its head and neck area as quickly as he could. He estimated that the ten meter range at which his muffled shots could be heard did not encompass either enemy.

Suntalia's obvious advice wasn't, well, useful per se, but Persimmon certainly noted it. Awww, she cares about our well being. How nice, he thought to himself, sarcastic even in his own mind.

[CptSteel]

"Oh, sh--" As soon as he sees the rocks being hurled toward him, Argent began to dodge, side-stepping to his right.  He managed to dodge one completely, the other hit Argent right in his chest. Argent felt that his aura depleted a good bit, as he suppressed a cry of pain. He heard Persimmon open fire on the Beringel, and that was his sign.

Argent began to run at the beast, as fast as he could with his large hammer in his hand. When he got close enough he was going to raise his hammer and charge his Semblance. Hopefully he wouldn't get another rock thrown at him.