Nothing But Ruins

Minutes passed and Gray felt like he wasn’t going to meet a single soul out here in these woods. Minutes felt like hours when nothing else seemed to happen after taking down that Ursa. Minutes dragged on in the silence of nature.

For a moment Gray thought he could smell something burning and wondered if the forest was on fire. More minutes of walking and the smell was gone. He shrugged and cautiously kept moving forward.

Birdsong briefly played above his head. The buzzing of some insect would whiz by his ears. But the silence always prevailed.

Until Gray’s scroll let out two small beeps.

He stopped walking to take a look. The map, mostly dark except for the paths that he had taken, was displaying two small blue dots ahead of his location. Estimated to be about fifty meters ahead in the dark unexplored zone of his map.

“Finally!” Gray exclaimed, having gotten a little frustrated with his own progress.

With renewed purpose he set off again at a stealthy jog. Both Semblance and skill still active.

Rushing past trees and bushes, hopping over roots and shallow ground while glancing at his map occasionally, Gray closed in on what must be two students. His scroll was likely picking up on their scroll’s signals.

Whittling down the distance, he thought he could hear voices from up ahead. Further along he could make out what he thought was a girl's voice. Seeming to be in luck Gray ended up sprinting the last few meters.

“...the dumbest idea ever!!” A feminine voice screamed out.

Gray didn’t know what to make of that but kept going, turning off his powers so that the teachers watching could see him make eye contact with someone. If that was how it worked, he thought. Maybe since there were already two people ahead, that meant he would have to find someone else?

Regardless, he wanted to meet up with another human being. If just for his sanity.

“Don’t worry so much!!”

That voice had Gray perk up. It sounded a lot like Ruby Rose, the shy introverted girl that could take on thugs robbing a Dust store.

He could hear other noises too. Like something big rushing through the air and what sounded like... squawks?

“I am most definitely worrying!!” The first voice screeched out. A screech that also sounded familiar.

Gray could see a break in the tree line up ahead. He ran as fast as he could without tripping on uneven ground. Breaking an ankle didn’t sound pleasant.

“Just grab on tight! You’ll be fine!!” Ruby screamed back.

Gray finally made it to the tree line and had to immediately put on the breaks. The trees opened up to a cliff with a steep drop overlooking a large valley basin. Gray dug in his heels just barely saving himself from falling over the edge.

Immediately upon stopping he noticed a large black mass flapping its wings threateningly before an ear-splitting screech had him flinching. The creature was a Nevermore. A bird like Grimm that could grow from the size of a large crow or raven to truly massive proportions. This one was quite large but not quite a Goliath-class Grimm.

Large enough, however, to carry two people on its back as it took flight. Its wings flapped, kicking up dust and generating so much wind that Gray had to squint past his hand. The big bird gained air and brought its passengers up to eye level with him.

“Ruby?!” Was all Gray could really say. He had no idea what was going on and was just gaping at the sight of two girls riding shotgun on a Nevermore’s back.

The girl in a red cloak whipped her head around in surprise as the bird continued to climb higher. She saw Gray and blinked before raising a hand and yelling above the wind, “Hi, Gray!!”

And the black bird carried her and Weiss Schnee, who was clinging to the feathers just behind Ruby, into the sky.

Gray just stood there, dumbfounded and staring at the dark blob in the sky.

“Huh?”

---

Sometime later found Gray trekking once again through the forest. His mind kept going back to that odd encounter with Ruby and Weiss. He had wondered, after the fact, if they were in trouble, but they seemed to have deliberately jumped on the bird Grimm, judging by Ruby’s words. He then wondered if he should have followed them and see if he could assist them, but there was no way to catch up with something that had wings.

That Nevermore had quickly taken them away before he even had the chance to look around and devise a plan of action. One moment they were in front of him, the next they were carried half a mile away.

Gray wanted to believe that Ruby had a plan and that they would be alright, but he couldn’t help but worry about the petite reaper. And the haughty princess, he supposed. Gray begrudgingly admitted that he didn’t want that girl to get hurt either. Although, since he had seen Ruby in action before, the chances of anything happening were rather low.

And they were together. Two Huntresses were better than one. In a number of ways...

Anyway, Gray had his own problems to face. Namely, finding his own partner. Unless, making eye contact with Ruby actually counted, but he didn’t want to bank on that being the case.

Poor Ruby, though. Being paired off with Weiss Schnee of all people. The sheer dumb luck that girl had.

Anyway, once again he needed to focus on his own troubles. He needed to pick up the pace and reach the northern end of the forest. That’s where he would likely come across the most people.

Making sure all his gear was in place, Gray decided to go hands free and jog for a bit. He knew enough about the unfamiliar terrain to keep his footing even as he ran. His eyes darted all over as he planted his feet on sturdy surfaces. He also kept a keen eye out for threats as he zipped through the trees.

Occasionally stopping to check his scroll he felt like he was making good progress. However, for the next ten minutes he came across no one.

Deciding to take a breather Gray stopped by a tree and leaned against it. His lungs weren’t exactly burning from the jog. He’s had a lot worse exercise routines courtesy of Tanner. The reason was that running non-stop through a forest was a sure-fire way to go off course. So, he resolved to stop every ten minutes to realign himself with the North arrow on his map.

Taking slow and deep breaths Gray checked his map now. He turned and faced the right direction, rotated the map a little and even zoomed out to see if there was anything interesting--

Gray frowned.

The map showed him that not too far away from his position appeared to be some kind of unnatural structure.

A large structure.

Gray looked up and in its direction. All he saw were trees.

Looking back at the map Gray tried zooming in on the area in question. He saw what looked to be large rectangular blocks hidden beneath all the trees. He counted at least ten, two stacks of five side by side.

He couldn’t make out much but if he had to guess, the place looked like some kind of street as wide as two tennis courts. It had to be man-made too. Natural formations didn’t have those ninety-degree angles.

Could this be the temple Ozpin mentioned?

“But I’m still not at the northern end of the forest...” Gray mumbled to himself.

He debated with himself for a few moments on whether or not he should investigate.

He went anyway.

It was a slight detour of about thirty meters off the... unbeaten path. Gray climbed over roots and pulled himself up some branches to get through some really dense vegetation. The air grew noticeably more humid as the trees were more bunched together here. Finally, Gray managed to break through into a more open area. He pulled himself over a particularly large tree root and skidded to the forest floor.

Dusting himself off he looked around. He found himself in a gloomy looking corridor of trees. The air was thick and slightly hard to breath. The light from the sun barely touched the loamy earth below.

Up ahead the corridor opened up wider, with only it being a little bit lighter to illuminate the floor. Gray stepped forward and checked his map. He wasn’t far from the first block. It looked like he was going to approach from a corner and it just so happened that the corridor of trees was headed that way anyway.

Eventually his feet landed on smooth stone prompting him to look down. Underneath his boots was what looked like a huge slab of even stone, with a light dusting of dirt to cover parts of it from view. Now that he could see the place for himself and knew what to look for Gray also spotted the other stone slab to the right of it. Both were connected lengthwise like two Lego blocks. The other massive stone blocks came after them like two rows of church pews. Except they seemed more like paving stones for a wide road.

Gray looked around and could tell that if he had just stumbled upon this place without knowing about the stone blocks in the ground, he definitely would not have recognized what he was looking at. Nature did a very good job of almost covering everything up. But he did know, and so he could pick out the stone from the dirt.

Trees and thick vegetation kept the long forest corridor mostly closed off from everything else, giving the place a hushed and almost reverent sort of air. The procession of large road blocks carried on into the middle distance, where Gray could see a wall of trees closing off the other end. Occasionally a small tree would interrupt the stone blocks linear appearance, the original seedling having found a pocket from which to grow and crack through with its roots. This gave the impression of street lanes as if there would have been traffic on either side.

Now, though, the only traffic this probable road saw was animal in nature.

Gray placed a pin of interest on his map, then kept walking.

Halfway across, as Gray was wondering at the purpose of this place, he began to feel like he was being watched. And considering how his Semblance didn’t work on Grimm, there didn’t seem to be any room to guess as to who was watching him.

Gray stopped in his tracks and calmly and slowly looked around. He released his Semblance and stretched his arms out a little, then shook his hands before pulling out Mist and Wisp. Holding his two pistols low so as to not look threatening he started to move forward again. Ears straining to catch anything.

Several steps forward and nothing happened. Yet the feeling persisted. Briefly, he considered heading into the trees for cover since being in the open like this was giving away his position but before he could think more on doing that, he heard it.

An almost silent rush of wind. A short whoosh of air.

Gray jumped and rolled to the side. An impact hit the ground where he had stood moments ago.

He rolled into a short sprint before turning to get a look at what was attacking him. His guns were up and ready to fire.

There in a cloud of dirt and dust was a crouched mass of darkness. The dirt fell away before the dust could settle. The creature unfurled itself slowly as the dust dispersed.

Four red glowing eyes peered out towards Gray menacingly. Resentment burning from within. The bone white plating on the elongated head gave the impression of a bird skull. An imitation of bird wings unfurled away from a body standing on four legs. The front legs sported talons like that of a bird of prey, while the back had hindlegs with claws like some kind of large cat. Gray could also see a tail behind it with white bone spikes at the end swishing to and fro. There were also bone spikes along the front edge of the wings.

The creature of Grimm spread out its wings wide and let out a piercing screech.

This was a Griffon.

Bigger than a Beowolf and with more mass than a regular Ursa, this thing stood at almost nine feet tall with its head raised. From beak to the tip of its tail it was around fifteen feet. And its wing span was... fuck knows. All Gray knew was that they blocked out a lot of his vision in that moment.

Not exactly grown to be a Goliath-class or even a Giant-class Grimm just yet, this somewhat young Griffon would likely still be a lot of trouble for Gray. If it was by itself then he was confident that he could handl--

Another screech pierced the air from behind Gray making him jump back again. Another impact hit the dirt where he had just stood.

A second Griffon raised its head out of the dust and dirt.

“Well fuck.”

Gray started firing his guns while gaining some distance. He took short hops backward and strafed to the side. The Griffons took the hits in stride as one of them leaped forward hoping to cut him off. He strafed again, just in time as it took a swipe at him with one taloned front paw. The sharp digits passed through air as he rolled aside.

Coming back up Gray had switched out his guns for Obscurity, spinning it into a guard position. The two creatures of Grimm ran after him. He leaped back again just as an explosion of fire and kinetic **** enveloped the dark beings. Gray covered his eyes as dirt flew his way.

Grinning at the fact that his trap had worked, a grenade placed on the ground as he was rolling back, he didn’t waste time and jumped toward the resulting dust cloud. Gray pulled out something else from a pocket in his coat. A capsule that could very well have been another grenade but was instead a container filled with a volatile powder.

He threw the capsule, spun his staff towards the cloud, made a small jump and shot some fire dust. Another small explosion erupted in the cloud. A wave of fire burned and hissed as drops of some viscous liquid flew everywhere. It almost engulfed Gray except that the shot from his staff propelled him backwards away from the blast.

With momentum he landed with a skid and a backwards roll and a somersault.

Standing at the ready again, he now attached Wisp to Obscurity. But not to the end of the staff. It clipped into the side this time. Next, he pulled out an extra ammo clip from his coat and slammed it into another part of his staff, effectively transforming it into a rifle. The staff shortened itself in response to a comfortable length. Next, he pulled out Haze the dagger from his left side and fixed it into place like a bayonet. Lastly, he pulled the empty sheath of Mist from his hip and clipped it into place just ahead of the ammo clip.

Gray now stood there with one of his best weapons. Dusk Light - ****.

He did all this within a few seconds and finished setting up just as the two birdbrains jumped out of the hissing cloud of fire. They screamed as fire seemed to cling to them. No matter how much they shook or bucked the fire continued to burn their bodies.

The powder within that capsule becomes a sticky and flammable sludge when in contact with air and fire. So, it looked like it was doing its job.

Not wasting a moment Gray took aim at one beast and fired. This time the heavier shots from his **** rifle seemed to visibly hurt the Griffon on the right. It bucked harder from the barrage of bullets and screamed bloody ****.

The other Griffon spotted him and rushed towards him despite the pain. The burning Griffon lit up his vision as it got close. Gray tried dodging to the side to avoid a collision but noticed almost a second too late the barbed tail whip towards his head.

He lifted his rifle/staff to block the hit but wasn’t taking the best stance and ended up taking the hit poorly. Gray went flying back, hitting the ground and rolling twice and coming to a stop on his back. The Griffon chased after him and hopped into the air.

Gray saw the next attack coming and rolled out of the way. The Griffon came down hard on the ground with its two front feet. The dirt was slammed hard, the vibrating thump could be felt by Gray who had managed to roll away and come back up in a defensive position.

Fortunately, he was able to hold onto his weapon throughout all of that. Ignoring the heat as best he could, he lunged forward with the bayonet. It sunk into the creature's neck. Gray pulled the trigger and emptied the rest of the clip.

The thing screamed like the other had.

Once the clip was empty Gray jumped back in order to avoid retaliation. What he hadn’t counted on was being blindsided while the light from the fire on the Grimm in front of him took up his sight. The other Griffon had recovered while he was engaged with this one and had charged at him.

Its head collided with Gray full on. This time he couldn’t hold onto his rifle as he was lifted off his feet and thrown through the air. He hit the ground and tumbled again. This time he was winded and gaped like a fish trying to breath on land. His lungs wouldn’t respond and an eternity seemed to pass by before they began to pump air again.

He was in danger and knew that he couldn’t stay down. Those Grimm would rip him apart if he couldn’t get up. So, trying to ignore the pain and the burning in his lungs he kept an eye on his enemies and crawled into a crouch. He tried focusing his Aura’s healing capabilities into his chest and stomach to hurry the process up. Unfortunately, the Grimm weren’t going to wait.

Both had recovered despite the flames still licking their bodies and were making their way to him.

Gray spotted his gun lying in the dirt directly in their path.

He was getting **** to breathe again and the moment his Aura got his lungs working again he took a deep breath and stood up.

Gray could see that he was going to have to throw everything he had at these Griffons. Or he might actually die. So, he focused. He stilled his mind and opened himself to his surroundings. He took in everything and burned away all other emotions. He needed to be a weapon right now. He let his Aura pulse all around him. It flowed along his limbs and licked the air around him.

The Grimm seemed to sense the change in Gray because all of a sudden, they charged.

He charged too.

Just as they were about to meet head on, Gray threw something on the ground and a cloud of smoke erupted, engulfing all of them. In the cloud Gray focused his Aura so strongly, flexing it more than he usually did and activated his camouflage skill. He put so much into it that he basically became invisible in the smoke.

There lying on the ground was Dusk Light, right where it had landed between him and the Grimm. Now the smoke covered him as he yanked it back up.

Now, to anyone watching from the outside, what happened next would just sound like a lot of slashing and screaming. With nothing to see but smoke. Within the smoke the dark beings would have been difficult to see, except for the dying embers still licking their bodies. Because of that fire Gray was able to see them, but they couldn’t see him.

So, Gray fueled his Aura skill and his limbs and went to town hacking and slashing. He dodged any of their blind slashes and tail whips. The two dark beings often hitting each other.

Eventually the smoke cleared.

Grey smoke and black smoke hissed as only one Griffon stood standing with Gray himself swinging a double-ended spear, Dusk Light - Gemini. The blade on one side swiped through the throat of the last creature. Time seemed to move slowly, the Griffon standing still before it too began to hiss and dissipate.

Silence prevailed.

Gray took a long breath and sighed while rubbing his stomach. He looked around, making sure there were no more threats.

“Could have been worse,” Gray muttered to himself once he determined there was nothing more to see. “Could have been three of them...”

Feeling like he just jinxed himself he darted his eyes around again. He still found nothing.

He sighed once more and put everything away. He didn’t feel like exploring anymore and he still had a long walk ahead of him.

---

The sun was close to the horizon now and Gray finally reached the northern end of the forest. The trees opened up into a wide almost flat area. Grass swayed gently across the field as he stepped out from the endless ocean of tree trunks.

There at the end of the small valley stood a stone structure that had definitely seen better days. Large blocks of grey stone made up the entirety of the temple structure. Circular in design, with seven columns, five of which were still present and holding up a broken ring of more stone blocks. A wall must have encased much of the building at some point but now only covered about a third of the outside.

Gray got closer and could see bits of rubble littered the area around the building. Short steps led up onto a wide circular stone floor with an intricate design. It almost looked like a large flower with four petals, or perhaps it was the sun with four sun rays.

Around the rim of the circular stone platform stood these small stone plinths. They looked like they were meant to hold something each. All twenty of them stood empty.

Gray couldn’t help but have a sinking feeling.