Pyre welcomed the embrace from her fellow bird faunus, though she did feel a tinge of fear at the thought of potentially getting squeezed to death. Thankfully that feeling didn't last too long as she was soon released from Cryus' grasp. Pyre gave Cryus a hearty thumbs-up before turning towards Tina and returning her meek wave with one that was wide and energetic. As Cryus beckoned the team onward, a timid Tina passed by, her eyes glued to the ground. Pyre let off a soft "Hmm" as she watched Tina trail behind Cyrus.

Turning back to the issue at hand, Pyre looked around the immediate vicinity looking for her weapon only to find it several meters away thanks to the guidance of Nathan who gave her a quick point in the right direction. She wrapped her hands around the handle of her weapon, nudging it around to see how badly stuck it was, before suddenly jolting it back and forth like a dentist ripping out a tooth and popping it free from the earth at last. She smirked, satisfied, before following the others making their way toward the objective.

Pyre gave Nathan a couple pats on the back as a thanks for his assistance and realized he was still soaked from the battle. She inflamed her weapon and angled it slightly toward him, an offer to assist him with his situation.

Nathan let go of his partner as soon as the resistance gave way, her head now presumably free from the confines of the ground. To his mild surprise, however, she stayed upside-down in a handstand - something somewhat impressive considering the incline. She 'walked' around a bit, seemingly coming to grips with her current situation, before doing what Nathan could only describe as 'a flip' and landing on her feet, safe and sound.

He watched as she brushed off the loose dirt on herself - to decent effect, if it wasn't for the rest of the dirt, deeply rubbed into both her face and clothes - and extended out her hand in a decisively upbeat greeting. Nathan smiled back (not that most people would notice movement of his facial features) and took the invitation, responding with a barely lilting "Nathan." He briefly considered the fact that all his clothes were utterly drenched before the thought evaporated, the comparison with his dirt-covered interlocutor making the situation trivial.

He was about to let go of the hand after what would have likely been a mutually-decided upon length of time when a booming voice reached him from the other incline, making him jump a bit and garnering all of his attention. He didn't have much time to react, however, as the large mass of black and colour approached at great speed before squeezing both himself and Pyre against it. Great, a hug bear.

The mass' subsequent words provided some explanation, thankfully. Right, team member. That made sense. He thanked whatever there was to thank when the enormous man let go of him and, after listening to the brief sentences, climbed down the incline and back into the river where the giant had started walking. Ergia still in his left hand and making sure the red-mohawked man was intently looking away, he dusted himself off - this was purely psychological and he knew it, but he didn't like being hugged like that out of nowhere.

After a few tugs, Pyre's head eventually popped out of the ground; with a few added sound effects, it would've seemed almost straight out of a cartoon. She squinted and shielded her eyes. As soon as her eyes readjusted to the light, she pressed her hands against the ground that was currently 'above' her head and balanced herself onto a handstand. Pyre took a few steps away, each accompanied by a random noise, before performing a quick, acrobatic maneuver to get back onto her feet. She quickly brushed off any remaining dirt on her body before extending a hand out toward her freshly-minted partner.

With a bright smile she said, "Appreciate the help! I'm Pyre. You?" She looked at him expectantly.

Despite his relative preparedness, the blast still caught Nathan off guard. He'd still been in the process of actually standing up, but the heat that flashed across his face from the flames made him decide otherwise - he reflexively moved to curl into a ball, protecting his face and head with his arms - staff still in hand.

Whether this was a justified move is still out for debate, but the result wouldn't have changed regardless; he was sent rolling backwards along the stream's path from the blast's force. The sphere of person came to a stop several metres away, back to the ground. He unceremoniously unfolded himself, limbs sprawled half in the very shallow water. After a moment to collect his senses, he got back up at a somewhat leisurely pace. Ergia had, by will or miracle, remained in his left hand throughout his tumbling journey.

He took a brief look at the rapidly evaporating deathstalker, looked to its left - a large hammer was firmly planted in the incline - then to its right - his teammate was seemingly passed out in a similar position, head included.

Remembering that he was in the middle of the Emerald Forest and that killing one Grimm, however large, didn't mean he was home safe, he ran at a jogging pace to his partner and, after planting Ergia in the ground, passed his arms around her midriff and pulled, attempting to dislodge her from the earth's grasp.

There were a lot of things going on at once, but Cloe was not fazed. The sounds of friendlies incoming and the presence of Grimm nearby didn’t distract her from her primary objective: bumping fists with her new partner. It was a necessary vibe check, one that would inform her on whether or not he was in fact a cool dude. As such, she was incredibly bummed to see him turn away and leave her hanging.

”... Okay, lamp boy. Be that way,” she muttered with a roll of her eyes.

Losing much of her enthusiasm in that brief moment, Cloe disappointedly turned her attention towards the others. Maybe she would have better luck with them, but it seemed that further greetings would have to wait. One of the Beowolves had begun to charge. Cloe glanced at her partner, wondering for a moment if she would have to step in. Right as she was about to say something, he unleashed a blast of wind that sent the monster tumbling back. Okay, maybe he wasn’t totally lame, but he was not yet forgiven.

"I can push them into the circle with wind dust, and the purple light is gravity dust that will slow down the Grimm inside. If someone can knock them on their ass, they'd be pinned!"

As he informed them of the plan, Cloe pulled two shells from the pouch on her hip and loaded them into her weapon. She wasn’t very happy about how this was going so far, but she didn’t have any good enough reasons to argue with him. Gripping her bat in both hands, Cloe started to walk in a wide a circle around the group of enemies, taking aim at the Beowolves that were struggling to stand. Bang! The first scattered shot hit two of the monsters at once, staggering them some more. Bang! Many more pellets sank into another, leaving it dead before the harsh gravity could yank it to ground. Cloe proceeded to fire off her last two loaded shells, knocking down a couple more Beowolves before she had to stop and reach for ammunition.

”Just a little more!” Cloe shouted to her allies as she reloaded her weapon. Despite her confidently fulfilling her role in the plan, Cloe had no idea where this was going and just really hoped that it was leading up to something awesome.