TEAM 3 - Winter Forest

Luna grinned, letting the fireball disappear so she could hold her other sword. Once she took a hold of it, it glowed a soft white. Nodding in response to Ambrose, she stepped forward to follow Nick, her tail wagging a bit in excitement.

"Let's just hope that our fourth teammate didn't get killed," she said, shaking snowflakes from her hair and tail.

Nick wanted to conserve his power as much as he could, so he leaped from tree branch to tree branch, only blinking between distances too far to jump unassisted. For the first few hundred yards, the forest was quiet, all sound muffled by the snow save for his own breathing. The Faunus halted, crouching, on one branch, his ears twitching, trying to glean some information from the mute world around him.

He heard the crunch of snow beneath his teammates' feet, only about twenty yards behind and below.

He heard a pile of snow that had grown too heavy fall from a nearby branch to land on the snow piling around the tree's trunk.

And he heard something else... Something he just couldn't quite identify. Nick held his breath, focusing on that sound, ready to fight or flee as necessary. He joined his eyes to the effort, scanning the surrounding forest floor and branches.

"Come out, come out, where ever you are..." He muttered as he watched and listened.

Ambrose followed Nick on foot, running through the snow, its softness slowing him down a little. He saw a pile of snow fall from a tree, but shortly after he saw his teammate stop moving through the trees.

It became apparent that his teammate was focusing on something. Ambrose came to a stop and paid full attention to his senses when he heard it too. He wasn't sure what the noise was, but he didn't want to take any risks here. He raised his rifle to a ready position, finger just off the trigger, and started moving quietly to the tree Nick was in.

Luna ran ahead of Ambrose, only stopping when she realized that both had become still and quiet. Taking a couple more steps and finally stopping, she glanced at the two before crouching down and readying her swords.

She listened hard, looking around the forest for any sign of movement. Her tail flicked back and forth slowly, her eyes unblinking.

Suddenly, Nick heard a screech from above. His eyes grew wide and his ears drooped in fear. "Ohhhh..." He slowly looked towards the sky from his perch. The Nevermore screeched in its rage upon spotting the Faunus, circling overhead. Suddenly, fefathers flew from its wings like javelines, rocketing down towards the students.

"Nope!" Nick exclaimed, kicking off from the tree branch just before it exploded into splinters. He blinked down to teh ground with a backflip.

"A bird! It had to be a bird!" He complained loudly. Hiding behind a tree as the bird turned for another pass, he looked for his teammates among the trees and feathers. "Either of you guys have a ranged attack?" He shouted.

((OOC - did Vox or Kooplah message you what's going on?))

"Sure do," Ambrose replied, jumping behind a tree and aiming up at the Nevermore. "Actually I have the perfect weapon for this," He continued, his finger starting to squeeze the trigger "air is a poor conductor of electricity, these lightning dust rounds should be able to build up quite a charge on it while it's in the flying."

Ambrose fired his weapon at the nevermore "If were lucky it build up enough that it will fry when it touches the ground, but more likely notice the static in its feathers and land before that. But that still works out just fine, we'll be at an advantage if it's on the ground."

Luna let out a squeak when she heard the Nevermore. Seeing it pass overhead and rocket feathers toward them, she gasped and dodged a feather narrowly, sprinting behind a tree and peering up at the creature of Grimm.

"I only have close range weapons!" she shouted back, hitching her swords and looking through the feathers. She heard Ambrose speak, and she narrowed her eyes as he fired his weapon. Now, to wait for the Nevermore to land..

((OOC: Nope, but I got tired of waiting *hypocritical shrug*))

Nick nodded at Ambrose's explanation, readying his Shadow Claws. "I can't reach it in the air," he said, grinning playfully, "But take it down and we can to the rest, right Luna?"

He watched, feline eyes dilated to thin slits as he tracked the massive bird's movements. How are we supposed to take that thing on? He asked himself. His grin widened, showing teeth. "One strike at a time, that's how," He growled.

((OOC- Oh well, worst case scenario we can just edit later))

Ambrose was now firing at a quick, steady pace. 'The good thing about it being so big is that it is an easy target' he thought to himself as he reloaded his weapon and once again took aim.

But as Ambrose was about to resume firing he saw a rain of feathers streaking towards him. He quickly ran, jumped, and rolled, getting back up behind a somewhat thicker tree with a trail of feathers sticking in the ground behind him. Not wasting any time he resumed firing at the nevermore, "any minute now," he muttered.

Luna watched Ambrose dodge the feathers, her tail bristling with worry. What she was worried about the most is what they would do when the bird finally fell.

She hitched her swords, tail flicking back and forth. Out of all things, it had to be a Nevermore...

"Wooh! Take 'im down, Ambrose!" Nick cheered. He tied his hair back out of his eyes with a blue-green strip of cloth. This'll be a good fight, the Faunus thought. He could not help but wonder though: Was this beast their goal? Or was it guarding their goal?

Someone had already passed (Without the rest of them, Nick was peeved to recollect), so either there were more than one of the collosal birds, or they didn't have to kill it. Just get past it to the summit, perhaps.

He blinked next to Luna. "Don't worry," He told her with a reassuring smile. "Ambrose'll be fine, look." He noticed that she had seemed distraught. Worried about their teammate, he guessed. But he thought the human was doing amazingly.

Looking at the nevermore, Ambrose could see the static building in its feathers. Thinking about the feathers strewn across the ground he realized something 'I made it temporarily more dangerous, didn't I?'

Hearing his teammate bought him back to focus, looking back at the nevermore it was clear that it too had realized the effect of the lightning dust rounds as it searched for a place to land. "In addition to being an easy target, another good thing about its size is that it has limited places to land in the forest. Quick, let's follow it down!" He called out to his teammates.

'The real challenge starts now' Ambrose thought to himself.

Luna jumped when Nick blinked next to her, letting out a loud squeak. That...would take some time to get used to. She opened her mouth to reply, but closed it to listen to Ambrose.

Tail flicking again, she ran forward to him and began to follow him as she chased down the Nevermore. She glanced back to make sure that Nick was following them or in the trees somewhere.

She just had a bad feeling about this...

"Woohoo!" The cat-eared Faunus exclaimed as the bird began to descend. "Our turn!" He ran after his teammates as they tracked the Nevermore's descent.

That sure is a big bird though, he thought, a hint of fear darkening his apparent bliss.

He followed his teammates eagerly, Shadow Claws extended and arms trailing at his sides. "So what's the plan? Someone's gonna have to keep this thing down so we can kill it. No use if it just goes back into the air again." He shouted over the screeches of the descending bird.

Following the nevermore down they could now see where it was going to land, a large clearing in the forest. Being surrounded by trees could be advantageous by having somewhere with cover the large bird couldn't enter.

"He's already mad at me, how about I shoot at him from the treeline to distract him while you two get close to attack?" Ambrose asked while continuing to chase after it.

Approaching the clearing they could see the nevermore lowering itself straight down, wings flapping to sow the descent. When its claws touched the bird shrieked as a jolt surged through it equalizing with the ground. Stopping at the edge of the trees Ambrose asked "Any objections?"

Luna stopped beside Ambrose, panting and tail flicking. She watched the bird shriek, flinching and covering her ears. Man, did she hate loud noises...

She uncovered her ears and listened to Ambrose, smirking and raising her swords a bit.

"Nope," she said, grinning. She flinched again though when the bird shrieked once more.

"Not a one," Nick replied, backing Luna's statement with a signature Cheshire smile. "I'll go high if you go low. Ready? Let's go!" He shouted over the bird's cries. Without waiting, he rushed forward, leaping into the trees at the edge of the clearing and launching himself above the Nevermore.

The creature of Grim tracked his ascent from where it had landed and launched a flight of feathers up at him like an anti-air weapon.

"Uh-oh!" The Faunus twisted midair, Blinking to change his trajectory and dodge. He descended towards and then past the enemy, raking one of his claws against its side. He landed behind it and rolled in the snow. When he looked back, he discovered that he hadn't even scratched the monster. Well that didn't work, he thought.

"A distraction won't work properly if you charge in first," Ambrose shouted to Nick. Continuing with the plan, he began his run along the edge of the clearing.

"You two are going to have to work together in order to get some real damage done," he continued as he began firing his rifle at the beast once more. As expected it was not very pleased to be hit from the weapon again and turned towards Ambrose, launching yet another bunch of feathers at him.

But that was why he chose this position, diving into the forest he took cover behind a tree as the feather landed around him. Not wasting time continued running and shooting, making sure to be close enough to jump to cover when the nevermore would inevitably attack again.

Luna nodded and grinned, flashing her sharp, wolf-like canines. As Nick leaped above the Nevermore, she ran straight at it, curving around it as it was distracted by him. She decided to go for it's legs, hoping to at least cripple it so it wouldn't fly off on them.

Giving a small grunt, she raised both of her swords and aimed to cut its leg. She swung them, leaping away and landing in a crouch to dodge any counterattacks. When she glanced at its leg, she realized she barely even scratched it. Her bright orange eyes widened a bit. 'That...didn't go as planned,' she thought to herself. Backing up a few paces, she searched for another chance to go for the legs.

Nick, embarrased, put one hand behind his head as Ambrose shouted. "Right. I knew that, heh." He replied awkwardly, waving his other hand in concession. He glanced over at Luna as the bird shrieked its rage. It seemed she fared little better than he had, but at least they were all still alive. "Whoop!" Nick Blinked behind a tree as the Nevermore's beak speared the ground where he had been, the grey smoke from his Semblance roiling around the monster's head.

Where it its weakness? Everything has a weakness. Think. He watched the creature of Grim rear back, tearing snow and soil from the ground as it pulled away its head. The eyes! Nick realized. "Luna. Ambrose is right. A hawk's greatest asset is its eyes, right?" He clasped his hands together, and the Shadow Claws began to twist and click together into a jagged cylinder. "Well, they're also its greatest weakness, I think. Take them away, and..." With a final clack, like the cocking of a gun's hammer, Nick took aim and fired a pulsing Dust slug at the Nevermore.

The projectile detonated into a thick cloud of smoke that took up almost half the clearing. "We'll both focus on one point, yeah?" He grinned with sharp teeth at the girl. We can do this, he was sure of it.

Ambrose continued firing to cover Luna as she backed away from the nevermore. He heard Nick deciding to go for its eyes 'now that sounds like a plan' he thought to himself.

Smoke started filling the clearing and he took this as an opportunity to take cover and reload his weapon. With his ammo topped off, Ambrose took aim once again, this time ready to charge in with his teammates if need be.

Luna smiled gratefully over at Ambrose for covering her. She took that opportunity and made her way to the edge of the clearing, taking cover behind a thick tree.

Listening to Nick, she grinned and held up her swords as he fired a Dust slug at the Nevermore.

"That sounds like a plan!" she shouted. She glanced back at the creature of Grimm. "On the count of three, yeah?" Luna took one small step out from behind her tree, her tail bushed out and flicking.

The Nevermore thrashed, blind, clawing at the ground with its massive talons. Nick flashed a smile as the beast was enveloped in smoke. "Aye aye!" He replied to the wolf girl.

It was only a matter of time, he surmised, before the bird would think to thin the smoke with its wings or simply throw feathers in every direction in panic. and skewer one of them. The Faunus stepped from behind the tree, feline ears flat against his skull as his weapons detatched from each other.

"One!" He crouched, brandishing his Shadow Claws.

With his teammates now ready for a combined attack on the nevermore Ambrose decided it was as good a time as any to charge it with them. He separated his weapon and got into a running stance and the shield unfolded and the sword blade was brought to bear.

His eyes darted back and forth between Nick, Luna, and the nevermore, watching them to see where they were going to attack to better coordinate with them.

"Two!" He shouted in reply, shifting his weight to his rear leg.

Luna watched her teammates ready themselves, her tail upright and bristling. Glaring at the Nevermore, she hesitated a heartbeat.

Finally, she shouted, "Three!" Running from the cover of the trees, Luna bolted towards the creature of Grimm's head, stopping beside it and springing into the air, aiming to land on its back. She planned on crawling to the head and hitting one of its eyes.

Nick followed a few yards behind Luna. When she leapt for the Nevermore he went low, for the legs. He activated his Claws' critical mode. The weapons emitted a high pitched keening and a blue-grey haze, vibrating so quickly that the metal simply blurred like a smudged painting.

He slashed at the beast's ankles, the ultra-hardened steel blades a blur as he dodged the razor sharp talons of the monster above in the thick haze of his smoke bomb.

Hopefully, the blades would be enough to pierce the Nevermore's hide.

Still watching his teammates, Ambrose charged at the nevermore. He could now see that Luna was going for its head, while Nick was going for its ankles to cut it down. Quickly making his decision, he aimed for the creature's knee. Together with Nick's attack the nevermore would surely fall, making subsequent attacks easier.

As he neared his target he jumped into the air, assisted somewhat by firing his weapon, for a better angle of attack. As he reached the giant creature's leg he stabbed with his sword and fired the gun again to put even more power behind it just in time for it to come in contact with the nevermore's knee.