The Emerald Forest stretched endlessly ahead, towering trees blotting out the sky and staining the ground in long, cold shadows.
Kaiser's body argued with every step, bruises, exhaustion, and the lingering sting of earlier fights. Everything in him wanted to stop.
He couldn't.
Slow means dead.
When the trees finally thinned, he almost didn't believe it. A clearing opened like a breath held too long, and at its heart stood the ruins Ozpin had mentioned, an abandoned temple half-swallowed by vines, flanked by crumbling pillars and stonework that looked older than the idea of mercy.
Relief hit so hard his knees threatened to buckle.
Then he saw the altars.
A circle of stone pedestals arranged with deliberate symmetry, each holding a single chess piece, perfectly clean, perfectly untouched. Pristine relics sitting inside a ruin that should've ground them down to dust.
Pairs grabbed a piece. Temporary partners. Matching pieces formed teams of four.
Simple.
Except Kaiser's mind snagged on the details the way it always did.
There were twenty altars. Twenty pieces.
But only sixteen students had launched earlier.
So what, leftovers? Pieces from previous years? Spares?
If not all pieces were meant to be claimed, then the "choice" was less choice and more… a test of who arrived first.
His eyes flicked over the pieces, counting without thinking. From what he remembered, Yang and Blake already had the white knight. Ren and Nora would take the queen. That left the rest for anyone still bleeding their way through the trees.
And him.
Unpaired.
His hand hovered over a black pawn, then stopped.
Taking a piece without a partner felt wrong in a way he couldn't fully explain, like claiming a victory he hadn't earned. But leaving with nothing wasn't an option either. The rules didn't care about guilt.
Before he could decide, a voice cut into the clearing.
"Hey! It's you."
Kaiser turned.
Yang Xiao Long approached with easy confidence that made even exhaustion look optional. She looked scraped and dusty like the rest of them, but wore it like a badge. Blake Belladonna walked at her side, quiet as shadow, eyes scanning the ruins before they ever settled on him.
Yang's grin widened. "Didn't think we'd see you out here alone."
"Likewise," Kaiser said, keeping his tone even. "I assumed you'd be halfway through a heroic montage by now."
Yang laughed. "Oh, we were. Then it turned into running and screaming. Great character development."
Blake's gaze flicked to his arm, the torn sleeve, the dried blood. Her expression didn't change, but something in her eyes sharpened, like she was filing the detail away.
"You're unpaired," she observed.
"I noticed," Kaiser replied.
Yang leaned back against a broken pillar and folded her arms. "How'd that happen? You just… not look anyone in the eyes on the way down?"
"I was busy not dying," Kaiser said.
Yang opened her mouth, probably to make a joke—
Blake cut in, calm and flat. "Choose a piece. If you're still here when the Grimm show, you'll regret it."
That snapped something into place. Not fear, focus.
Yang pushed off the pillar and nodded toward the altars. "She's right. We already grabbed ours. White knight." She jerked a thumb at herself and Blake. "So unless you're planning to be a lone-wolf king out here—"
"Don't tempt me," Kaiser muttered.
Yang's grin turned mischievous. "Oh, so you do have a sense of humor."
Blake's eyes lingered on his face a beat too long, as if she was comparing what he said to how he said it. Then she looked away again, back to the trees.
Kaiser's fingers closed around the white king.
Cold stone.
Simple weight.
He lifted it off the altar and felt, absurdly, like he'd just made a decision he didn't understand yet.
A streak of red blazed overhead.
Ruby Rose and Jaune Arc collided in a messy tangle of limbs and panic, landing on a thick branch with a groan. They tried to untangle and nearly fell again.
Yang burst out laughing. "Guess you could say they took the fall for each other! Great team-building exercise!"
Even Kaiser let out a small, exhausted chuckle. Everyone else gave her a deadpan stare.
"What?" Yang winked. "Too soon?"
A scream cut through the air.
Weiss Schnee plummeted from above, arms flailing. Jaune lunged forward like he was born to be dramatic and caught her—
—or tried to.
He hit the ground like a cushion with opinions.
Weiss sat up in his arms with a breathless glare. "My hero…"
Jaune wheezed something that sounded like a prayer.
More rustling. More movement.
"There you guys are!" Nora Valkyrie burst into the clearing like a cannonball. "You would not believe the ride I had!"
Ren followed, calm as always, eyes sweeping the temple like he was already mapping escape routes.
Nora spotted the altar, snatched up the queen piece, and immediately scrambled up onto a broken section of wall like it was a throne. She planted her hands on her hips, beaming.
"I'm the queen of the castle! I'm queen of the castle!"
The tension didn't vanish, but it softened around the edges. Nora's joy was infectious, whether anyone wanted it or not. Kaiser found himself smiling before he could stop it.
Ren sighed as if this were his natural state. "Nora," he said evenly, "could you please come down? We're not in the safest environment."
"Aww, you're no fun," she pouted—but hopped down anyway, landing with a flourish. "Fine. Your kingly wisdom has been heard."
Ren's shoulders loosened by a fraction. His gaze returned to the clearing. "It seems everyone's arrived."
Kaiser opened his mouth to answer—
The ground trembled.
A low click-click-click rolled through the trees, heavy and metallic. The sound grew louder, closer, like something sharpening itself on the air.
No.
The Deathstalker emerged from the shadows.
The armored body is massive. Pincers raised like execution blades. Stinger arched high with a cruel certainty that made Kaiser's skin crawl. It moved as if the clearing were its territory, and they were trespassers in their own exam.
Pyrrha sprinted forward to intercept.
The Deathstalker struck fast, swatting her aside with a brutal sweep that sent her sliding across the ground to their feet.
"We've got company…" Pyrrha groaned, breathless.
Yang grinned like she was trying to make fear flinch first. "Great. Everyone's here. Now we can all die together."
Ruby took that as a challenge.
"Not if I can help it!" she shouted, sprinting straight toward the sky.
The Nevermore circled above, huge and patient, a shadow with wings. Ruby leapt, scythe arcing upward in a bold strike—
The bird reacted with one powerful wingbeat.
Ruby got swatted out of the air and slammed into the dirt, then popped back up like stubbornness was an Aura of its own. She fired at it. Bullets sparked and ricocheted harmlessly off armored feathers.
Frustration flashed across her face. She retreated, panting, rejoining them.
The Nevermore circled overhead, wings carving shadows across the clearing.
Kaiser swallowed and forced his voice steady. "Well. That's… encouraging."
Ruby shot him a look.
The corner of his mouth twitched despite himself. "Giant bird. Excellent timing."
Yang snorted once before sprinting toward her sister. "Hang on, Rubes!"
The Nevermore shrieked and unleashed a volley of quills, pinning Ruby's cape to the ground.
Yang charged through the crossfire, then stalled as quills slammed into stone around her, trapping her for a heartbeat.
The Deathstalker didn't hesitate.
It lunged, stinger driving straight for Ruby's face—
A burst of frost erupted from the ground in front of her. Ice surged upward in a sharp, clean wall.
Weiss stepped forward, rapier glowing faintly, posture rigid with control she refused to lose.
"Ruby," Weiss snapped, voice tight. "You are immature, scatterbrained, and far too energetic, almost like a child. And your fighting style is… ridiculous."
Ruby blinked. "Wha—"
Weiss lifted a hand. "However." A breath. "I am not blameless either. If we're going to survive, I will attempt to be more… reasonable."
"Really?" Ruby asked.
Weiss's eyes narrowed. "On one condition."
Ruby swallowed. "What condition?"
"Stop showing off."
Ruby's shoulders dropped slightly. "I wasn't trying to show off. I just wanted to prove I could be a proper Huntress."
Weiss hesitated, then sighed. "You're… fine," she muttered, turning back to the Grimm.
Silence lingered for half a second too long.
"Good," Kaiser said quietly. "We'll need that."
No one glared this time. No theatrics. Just the fight closing in again.
Before anyone could regroup, two figures burst from the tree line—
Cardin and Russell, panting, weapons raised, fear stripping the bravado from their faces.
"Move! Move!" Cardin barked. "It's right behind us!"
Jaune started, "What is—" and never finished.
A wet, gurgling roar rolled through the clearing.
Something massive slithered between the trees, chitin glinting. Then a head emerged—bony and plated, mandibles curved like hooks.
A King Taijitu.
Bigger. Older. Scarred.
Its twin heads moved in eerie sync, one snapping at the trees, the other locking onto them like they were a menu.
The ground rumbled as its coils dragged forward.
Kaiser gripped the white king until his fingers hurt.
Ren's voice came low beside him. "I struggled against it before," he admitted. "But… I couldn't finish. I only managed to wound it."
Weiss exhaled sharply. "We're officially surrounded."
Yang flexed her hands. "So what's the plan? Hit hard, hit fast. Take down the snake first."
Weiss shot her a look. "Brilliant. Let's charge at the giant Grimm with no strategy whatsoever. What could possibly go wrong."
Ren stepped in, calm but firm. "We need more than brute force. If we're not careful, we'll be overwhelmed."
Nora pointed at the Taijitu as if she were picking a toy off a shelf. "But it's just one snake! Okay, two heads, sure, but still one snake! Let's smash it!"
Pyrrha, still pushing herself up, spoke through a wince. "We can't fight all of them head-on. That would be suicide."
Jaune stepped forward, hands raised like he was trying to stop a brawl between earthquakes. "Wait—listen. I have an idea."
Ruby blinked. "You have a plan?"
Jaune nodded, swallowing. "The temple ruins could work. If we lure them in, we can trap them, or at least control the battlefield."
Blake's gaze narrowed. "And if we get cornered instead?"
Jaune gestured weakly at the monsters. "We're already cornered."
He steadied himself, voice stronger. "But the ruins give us angles. Obstacles. Places to funnel them."
Pyrrha nodded. "It's worth trying."
Yang's grin snapped back into place. "Alright! Let's lead those ugly things into the ruins and teach them the power of teamwork!"
Weiss looked like she wanted to argue, then didn't. "Fine. But we coordinate. We don't split too far."
Ruby's eyes lit up. "Okay! Jaune, what do we do?"
Jaune hesitated a fraction. Pyrrha's hand touched his shoulder, a quiet reassurance.
He straightened. "RWBY, focus on the Nevermore. Keep it away from the rest. My team will handle the Deathstalker and the Taijitu. We lure them toward the center and trap them."
Ruby clapped. "Alright, everyone! Move! And remember, don't die!"
"Solid advice," Kaiser muttered.
They ran.
The temple ruins swallowed them, cracked stone, broken pillars, and air that felt too old to breathe comfortably. Every footfall kicked up dust that should've been undisturbed.
Behind them, the Deathstalker's claws hammered the earth. The Taijitu hissed, coils tearing through brush like something dragging a nightmare into daylight. Above, the Nevermore screamed and banked, patient as a guillotine.
"This is it," Jaune panted, eyes flicking to the bridge. "If we can lure them here—"
It wasn't comforting. It was still better than dying in an open forest.
They sprinted toward the narrow stone bridge connecting the temple platform to the shrines beyond. The bridge trembled under their feet, vibrations sharpening as the Grimm closed.
The Nevermore perched high, wings spread wide, black silhouette against the sky.
"The big bird's got the high ground," Yang said, cracking her knuckles. "So what's the move?"
Ren's voice stayed level. "I'll draw its attention. Buy time. Get everyone across."
"I'll back him up!" Nora chirped, already priming Magnhild. "Bird's not gonna know what hit it!"
Nora fired. Explosions flared bright, forcing the Nevermore to veer. Ren wove between falling quills with eerie control, pulling its gaze away from the bridge.
The rest of them ran.
The Deathstalker slammed a pincer into the ground, stone erupting in chunks. The Taijitu surged forward, twin heads snapping at the air, each strike close enough that Kaiser felt the wind from it.
"Keep moving!" Ruby shouted, firing at the advancing Grimm. Bullets sparked. Dust popped. Nothing slowed them enough.
Kaiser's legs screamed. His lungs burned. Every step dragged pain behind it like a chain.
Then the Nevermore moved.
With a deafening screech, it dove toward the bridge, massive talons slamming into stone.
The bridge cracked.
Stone sheared away.
Kaiser froze, just for a fraction too long.
The abyss yawned below, black and endless. Stone crumbled under his weight. His foot slipped.
Is this it?
A flash of red and silver.
Ruby's scythe hooked under his arm and wrenched him backward.
He hit solid stone hard, breath punched out of him. Dust filled his lungs. His hands shook violently against the rock.
"Got you," Ruby panted.
"Th-thanks."
She gave him a quick grin. "Don't fall. That's not part of the plan."
Behind them, the bridge finished collapsing in a roar of stone and debris.
When the dust cleared, everything was split.
On their side: Team RWBY and Kaiser.
Above them: the Nevermore.
Across the gap: Team JNPR facing the Deathstalker.
Farther along the ruins, Cardin and an injured Russell were scrambling backward as the King Taijitu surged through broken pillars.
The battlefield had fractured.
So had their advantage.
Yang cracked her knuckles. "Alright. Bird first."
Weiss adjusted her stance. "We'll need precision."
Ruby stepped forward, eyes locked upward. "We stay together."
No one looked at Kaiser as if he were a decoration.
No one needed to.
They were already moving.
The Nevermore banked wide.
It always banked wide before diving.
Yang launched upward, Ember Celica firing in controlled bursts. Weiss conjured a glyph midair, ice blooming to intercept incoming quills. Ruby dashed in a streak of petals, Crescent Rose slicing toward the sky.
The bird twisted away.
Too fast.
Across the ruins, the Deathstalker's stinger slammed down, cracking stone. Pyrrha deflected the follow-up strike, boots sliding from the impact.
The Taijitu lunged at Cardin.
One head struck.
The other repositioned.
Alternating.
Rhythm.
Kaiser forced himself to breathe.
Not chaos. Pattern.
He took a deep breath and focused. Even amidst the chaos, he started to see something others hadn't: patterns.
The Deathstalker's attacks were powerful but slow. It moved with a predictable rhythm, its stinger dipping low before every strike.
The King Taijitu's heads alternated in their strikes, a brief lull between each attempt to bite.
And the Nevermore? Its movements were erratic, but it always banked wide before diving down.
The puzzle pieces clicked in his mind amidst the chaos.
The advantage is there. They just haven't seen it yet.
He stepped forward and shouted, voice raw, "The Deathstalker! It leaves its left side wide open after every sting! Someone get behind it and strike when it overcommits!"
Pyrrha was the first to respond, nodding sharply, sprinting. Her shield met the stinger's next strike; the moment it withdrew, she slipped along its exposed flank and drove her spear into softer plating beneath.
The Grimm shrieked, hurt, not dead.
Space.
Breathing room.
Kaiser snapped his gaze to the Taijitu. "Cardin, Russell! Hit the heads when they lunge! They can't strike together, time it right, and they'll be wide open!"
Cardin glared at him, eyes sharp, but he baited the first bite anyway. The moment one head lunged, Russell slammed into the second skull while it repositioned.
Again, no victory.
But the Taijitu recoiled, suddenly more cautious, unwilling to take a clean hit twice.
The Nevermore screamed and dove lower toward Ruby and Weiss.
Kaiser's pulse spiked. No—no, not now.
Wind angle. Wing rhythm. The flare.
The bird banked wide—
Then opened its chest for one heartbeat as it adjusted to strike.
Kaiser's eyes caught a quill embedded in broken stone near the collapsed bridge, long, jagged, wedged deep like a spear.
He ran.
Weiss's voice snapped. "Kaiser, don't!"
Too late.
He grabbed the quill and tore it free.
It was heavier than it looked. His shoulder screamed. His Aura flickered to life, thin and unstable, amethyst threaded with silver fractures that spidered under strain.
This is a terrible idea.
The Nevermore flared its wings.
For one second, its chest opened.
Kaiser didn't calculate. Didn't declare fate. He just threw.
"Please… just work."
The quill left his hand awkwardly, too low, too desperate.
For a terrible heartbeat, it looked wrong.
Then the Nevermore adjusted mid-flight.
Its own movement carried its chest into the quill's path.
Impact.
Not a perfect pierce. Not a dramatic pin.
The quill struck at an angle, biting into the armored breastplate and knocking the Grimm off balance. The bird shrieked and crashed into the temple wall instead of completing its dive.
Not defeated.
Just staggered.
Kaiser's Aura snapped violently.
White-hot feedback tore up his arm. His vision swam as he hit the stone on one knee, breath shredding in his throat.
Too much. I pushed too much.
His arm went numb and burning at once, as if his nerves couldn't agree on how to panic.
But he didn't need to finish it.
Ruby was already moving. "Weiss!"
"I know!"
Glyphs ignited in rapid succession. Gravity Dust flared bright. Yang fired a blast behind Ruby for added propulsion.
The slingshot formed in seconds.
Ruby launched.
The Nevermore thrashed, ripping at the embedded quill, wings fighting for altitude, but it was off-balance and too low.
Too committed.
Ruby bounded from glyph to glyph up the cliff face, recoil propelling her higher.
The bird tried to climb—
Too late.
Crescent Rose came down in a single clean arc.
The blade cut through neck and bone.
The Nevermore's scream ended abruptly as its body crashed into the ruins below.
Silence followed, thin, stunned.
Then, distant, the Deathstalker roared as JNPR capitalized on their opening.
The Taijitu, wounded and wary, recoiled deeper into the brush and slid away between pillars, retreating rather than pressing the fight.
The initiation bled out.
Kaiser lay back against the stone, chest heaving.
Pain rushed back in all at once.
His arm throbbed with deep, grinding protest. His Aura flickered weakly, trying to knit the strain he'd caused, but it was sluggish, like a tired hand attempting to hold a torn seam together.
That throw had cost more than he meant to give.
Ruby crouched beside him. "That was reckless."
Kaiser managed a thin exhale. "It was… badly timed."
Yang crouched on his other side. "Next time? Less 'improvised spear.'"
Weiss's eyes lingered on the faint cracks still spidering through his Aura. "You nearly destabilized your reserve."
"I noticed," Kaiser said, swallowing down a wave of nausea.
Across the gap, Pyrrha met his gaze and gave him a small nod, not praise, not hero worship. Recognition.
He hadn't won the fight.
He'd made a gap.
They'd taken it.
That was enough.
Footsteps approached.
Ozpin.
Calm. Unhurried. As though the forest hadn't just tried to kill them.
He stopped beside Kaiser, hands folded behind his back.
"Well done, Kaiser," Ozpin said mildly. "Do not concern yourself with lacking a partner. We will consider alternative arrangements."
His eyes lingered just a second longer than necessary.
"You've demonstrated something quite valuable today."
Kaiser forced himself upright a fraction, wincing. "Thank you, sir."
Glynda soon called for temporary dorm assignments.
Rest.
Recovery.
Team formations tomorrow.
---
The temporary dorm was loud.
Not chaotic, alive.
Sleeping bags scattered in messy clusters. Armor clinked softly as students shifted. Laughter came in bursts, sharp, relieved, like adrenaline trying to escape through the mouth.
Kaiser sat near the window, shoulder against cool stone. The glass was cracked open a finger's width, letting in a thin draft that kept his head clear.
His arm still throbbed.
Aura overextension wasn't dramatic.
It was dull. Heavy. Like bruising from the inside.
Across the room, Yang was animated as ever.
"Okay, but did you see the way that bird's whole vibe changed when Ruby went full reaper on it?" she laughed. "Priceless."
Ruby, cross-legged on the floor, beamed. "Weiss set that up. I just swung."
Weiss sniffed lightly. "You overswung. But yes. Adequate execution."
Blake leaned against the wall nearby, arms folded. "You almost missed."
Ruby paused. "I did not almost miss."
Blake's expression didn't change. "You adjusted midair."
"…That still counts."
Yang snorted.
On the opposite side, Nora was reenacting something involving Magnhild, a pillar, and a lot of sound effects.
"And then I said—'NOPE!'—and smashed it into the wall!"
Ren sat beside her, calm as ever. "That is… approximately what happened."
Jaune rubbed the back of his neck. "I thought I was dead at least three times."
"You weren't," Pyrrha said gently. "You adapted."
Jaune smiled sheepishly.
The room glowed with shared survival.
Kaiser watched from the edges.
Not excluded.
Just… peripheral.
Jaune glanced over at him. "Hey. Those calls you made? That helped."
Kaiser shrugged lightly. "You all reacted fast."
Ruby added, "And the quill thing, yeah, that was kind of crazy."
Weiss's gaze flicked to Kaiser's arm. "Dangerously impulsive."
Accurate.
Kaiser managed a small smile. "It wasn't clean."
"It worked," Yang said.
Kaiser waved it off. "I noticed patterns. That's all."
But inside, something small and dangerous bloomed.
Belonging.
Just a flicker.
The next morning, the air felt heavier with anticipation. Teams were called one by one. Kaiser stood off to the side, waiting.
"Russel Thrush. Cardin Winchester. Dove Bronzewing. Sky Lark." Ozpin's voice carried through the hall. "You retrieved the black bishop pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team CRDL, led by Cardin Winchester."
Applause followed.
"Jaune Arc. Lie Ren. Pyrrha Nikos. Nora Valkyrie." Ozpin continued. "You retrieved the white rook pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team JNPR, led by Jaune Arc."
JNPR stepped forward, beaming.
"Blake Belladonna. Ruby Rose. Weiss Schnee. Yang Xiao Long." Ozpin said next. "You retrieved the white knight pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team RWBY, led by Ruby Rose."
Ruby looked stunned, then bright. Weiss blinked as she'd just realized this was real.
Ozpin paused.
"And lastly… Kaiser."
Kaiser stepped forward.
"You retrieved the white king piece," Ozpin said. "However, your role will be… unconventional."
Murmurs rippled through the crowd.
"From this day forward," Ozpin continued, "you will assume the responsibilities of a manager for the Huntsmen-in-training, overseeing and assisting the various student teams."
Manager.
The word landed like a weight he hadn't agreed to lift.
Applause rose, but it felt strange, like people were clapping because silence would've been rude.
Ozpin's gaze locked onto Kaiser's. "Make no mistake. This role will demand as much commitment as any fieldwork. You will observe. Coordinate. Assist. You will be held to the same standard of effort."
Kaiser swallowed. Is this a title… or a containment strategy?
Ozpin didn't answer out loud, but his eyes made Kaiser feel like the question had been heard anyway.
After the assembly ended, Ozpin approached as the crowd thinned.
"Kaiser," Ozpin said, gesturing lightly with his cane, "come to my office tomorrow morning before classes begin. We have several important matters to discuss."
Kaiser nodded once, arm still aching, mind already racing.
Tomorrow, then.