RWBY: Ascent

---The next day---

Ryze was woken up by the loud conversation a certain redhead was having with a guy who looked dead on his feet.

"Come on Ren hurry up! I bet they're serving pancakes in the cafeteria here and I gotta get there first! Ain't no one getting any before I do!"

With that, the girl dragged Ren off to who knows where. That entire scene managed to thoroughly wake Ryze up as he rolled up his sleeping bag and headed to the bathroom to get ready.

A few minutes later Ryze walked into the locker room to grab his jacket from the locker he had been assigned to the day before. However, right in front of his locker was a pair of girls he was all too familiar with. A certain white haired girl with a scar across one eye and a tall, well built girl with striking red hair.

"-and that's why I think we'd make great partners Pyrrha!"

"Sorry to interrupt, but would you mind moving out of the way? I need to grab my jacket from my locker," Ryze casually said as he walked towards the both of them.

"Do you mind? I'm trying to secure my partner here! And do you even know who this is? I'm surprised you haven't said anything," Weiss pompously said to Ryze while pointing at Pyrrha.

"Hello there," Pyrrha waived to Ryze with a polite smile and wave.

"Hey. And no, I have no clue who she is. Am I supposed to?"

"Excuse me? Of course you're supposed to! She's a four time champion of the fighting tournament in Mistral," Weiss exclaimed with disbelief written across her face.

"Yeah, I've never heard of that. Sounds impressive I guess. Congrats. Sorry for not knowing about you I guess. What was your name again?"

With a now much happier smile and a glint in her eyes, Pyrrha replied to Ryze, "My names Pyrrha. It's no problem at all actually! It's perfectly fine that you don't know about me. It's great to meet you!"

"B-but Pyrrha! He didn't even know who you were!"

"And that's perfectly fine by me Weiss."

"Well if you'll excuse me, I think it's time I head out now that I've got my jacket," Ryze said quickly before walking off to the end of the locker room. 

As he walked away, Pyrrha looked towards him with a strange look in her eyes and a small smile while Weiss just continued to have a look of minor disbelief.

---A few minutes later---

Everyone was lined up on gray squares at the edge of a cliff, waiting for Ozpin to begin speaking. Ozpin then strolled forward with Professor Goodwitch trailing behind him.

"Students, I'd like to make the rules clear before we start. Each of you will be launched off the cliff into the Emerald Forest. The first person you make eye contact will be your partner for the next four years should you pass."

"What?!"

Ruby's expression looked absolutely crestfallen after she heard what Ozpin said.

"After finding your partner, you will all have to locate where I've had certain relics placed. It will be your job for you and your partner to acquire one of these relics before returning back here. If you succeed in doing this, you will have passed initiation."

Right as he finished his sentence, the person closest to him was launched into the forest by the pad underneath them. Following down the line, everyone was launched one by one. Eventually, it was Ryze's turn to be launched. As he soared through the air his thoughts began to race.

'I could easily just tank the fall, but where would be the fun in that? I have all these abilities available to me, so it's time to get creative. Just because some of my powers are based off of Sukuna doesn't mean I can't innovate with them.'

Ryze kicked his feet downwards while he was flying through the air. Something interesting happened as he did so. To an outside perspective, Ryze seemed to kick off of nothing and push himself forward towards the ground. In actuality though, it was something completely different.

Ryze had created a slash to be launched from his feet with dismantle. However, instead of launching the invisible slash, he instead used it as a foothold to boost off of. With this new innovation of Sukuna's technique, Ryze could essentially run through the air.

Just as Ryze was launching himself forward though, a bronze javelin flew towards him. Reacting instantly, he caught it and began to descend towards the forest. He looked towards where it came from and briefly saw the figure of Pyrrha.

"That girl is crazy," Ryze whispered to himself as he achieved a soft landing.

For the next few minutes Ryze wandered around the forest, easily dispatching a few beowolves that came across his way. He then heard a rustling sound coming from his left, but it didn't shock him as he had sensed the presence a while back approaching him.

"Hello there! Sorry for leaving you with my Akouo there."

"I don't mind too much, but I do have to wonder why you threw it towards me?"

"I noticed you didn't have a weapon, so I thought you could borrow mine since I have my shield Milo here."

"Well that's kind of you, but I don't need any weapon Pyrrha. I can handle myself just fine without one. However, since we're here talking with each other, I guess that makes us partners, huh?"

With a serene smile across her face, Pyrrha agreed wholeheartedly.

"Yes, I guess it does, doesn't it?"

For a little while after, the two trudge around the forest while participating in a bit of small talk here and there. After some walking, they manage to find a cave with markings on the side of it.

"I don't know about this Pyrrha. Sure there could be relics in here, but it doesn't look all that... settled," Ryze commented as Pyrrha walked in front of him in the cave.

"I think it's fine if we just briefly check it out. No harm in that, right? What's the worst that could happen from simply checking out a cav-"

Right as Pyrrha said that, a golden stinger glinted in the cave before striking towards them. Pyrrha swiftly dodged and began to sprint to the entrance of the cave, Ryze hot on her heels.

"No harm, huh Pyrrha?"

"You can make fun of me later! Right now keep running!"

---In another part of the forest---

"Did that girl just ride in on an ursa?"

"I-"

A second later Yang watches as Ruby falls through the sky, saving herself from a rough landing by using the recoil of her Scythe's sniper shots along with her semblance.

At that same moment, Pyrrha bursts into the clearing with a deathstalker hot on her tail, Ryze nowhere in sight. 

"I can't take it anymore! Could everyone just chill out for two seconds before something crazy happens again?!"

In a burst of flames, Yang yells out to everyone around her. Unfortunately, that happens to be the moment when Weiss starts to fall from the sky off of a nevermore.

"Someone help me!"

Within less than a second, a figure blurs through the sky, snatching Weiss out of the air before landing a short distance away, leaving skid marks in the ground from their feet digging into the dirt.

"You really should be more careful. I heard flying with nevermore airlines sucks," Ryze cheekily comments while holding a shocked Weiss in his arms.

"W-what the..." Weiss sputters out with a prominent blush on her face while looking at Ryze.

"Nice catch, am I right? I gotta say, I've got some pretty good skills considering the catch I just made. Now let's go group up with the others over there."

"...okay," Weiss says in a small voice, glancing away shyly from him before they jog over to the others.

"Great! The gang's all here. Now we can die together," Yang exclaims with pessimistic optimism.

"Not if I can help it!"

Before anyone can stop her, Ruby dashes straight towards the deathstalker while unfurling Crescent Rose. Unfortunately for her, the moment she tried to hit the deathstalker, it swatted her back with little effort.

"D-don't worry! Totally fine!"

Ruby was, in fact, not fine. She turned to run back to the group, but before she could the nevermore above her shot down feathers from its wings, pinning her down by her cape. Yang tried to help, but a few of the nevermore feathers blocked her path.

"Ruby! Get out of there!"

Yang yelled at Ruby as Ruby tried to tug her cape free, but the deathstalker rapidly approached her. It pulled it's massive stinger back before launching it straight at her.

"No!"

A loud crackling sound was heard before a flash of blue lightning erupted in front of everyone's eyes. For a brief second all of their eyes were closed. When they opened them, the sight they saw was something they couldn't believe.

Standing in front of Ruby while holding the stinger back with one hand was Ryze. It didn't even look like he was exerting any effort while doing so.

"You really oughtta be more careful. You never know when something dangerous could happen."

With a flick of his hand, the deathstalker was sent reeling backwards. Ryze then turned towards Ruby and plucked the giant feather that was holding her cape down from where it was embedded in.

"Come on, you need to get back to the others. Even Pyrrha already got the relic piece for me and her," Ryze told Ruby with a grin on his face.

With disbelief still plastered on her face, Ruby nodded.

"U-uhuh, yeah. Gotta get back to the others..."

Ruby and Ryze regrouped with the others near where the pieces had been. Everyone just looked at Ryze with wide eyes.

"How in the hell did you catch the stinger of a deathstalker with one hand?!"

Yang's question was exactly what everyone else had in mind, but unfortunately for them Ryze didn't have much time to answer that question.

"I don't think we should be worrying about that right now. The nevermore is circling back and the deathstalker looks mad," Blake shared with a worried tone to everyone.

"Well we have all of our pieces, why don't we just leave? Our objective is complete," Weiss suggested.

"Well I doubt those things are gonna just let us leave. They'll probably chase us down no matter where we go," Ryze commented with a sigh.

"Any bright plans then? I'm open to any ideas that aren't dying," Yang asked with a tone of pleading in her voice. 

"Just let me take care of it."

With that simple sentence, Ryze's form vanished in another flash of lightning. Everyone's head snapped towards the direction of the deathstalker and nevermore.

Ryze landed a devastating kick to the skull of the deathstalker, caving in the armor on it's head. The grimm cried out in pain before trying to swat him off with one of its claws. Ryze simply pushed off its head and flipped through the air.

The moment Ryze was in the middle of the air, the nevermore above him launched another volley of feather at him. Ryze twisted himself sideways midair, dodging a few of the feathers. The other ones still coming towards him he deflected by releasing small bolts of lightning. One last feather was rushing towards him which he grabbed.

Ryze swung his entire body around and catapulted the feather from his hand straight into one of the eyes of the deathstalker. As it stumbled around in agony, Ryze landed on the ground and swiftly swiped his hand through the air. The three legs on the left side of its body were brutally sliced off by an invisible force.

The deathstalker collapsed to the side writhing on the ground. Then, the area was filled with the sound of what seemed like the chirping of hundreds of birds.

"Raikiri."

Ryze's form passed clean through the deathstalker leaving a trail of lighting behind, the grimm split cleanly in two before slowly disintegrating.

Silence. That was all there was in the clearing. The nevermore had stalled in the air, the only movement from it being it's slowly flapping wings. Everyone else still nearby the ruins with the pieces were speechless. They couldn't process what had just happened.

Someone who wasn't even a student yet that was their age had singlehandedly killed a deathstalker, an A rank grimm. Something that most professional hunters would struggle to do. He also did it while being attacked by another A rank grimm. It just wasn't possible. Yet they had all seen it. They had seen him do it with ease too.

"What... what in the world?"

It was the only thing that made it out of Weiss' mouth. The rest just remained in shock.

"Who is this guy? Even uncle Qrow wouldn't have killed that thing that fast," Yang whispered to herself.

The nevermore seemed to be terrified, which was shocking for anyone to say about a grimm. It then did something none of the others had ever seen a grimm do before. It began to flee.

"Now who said you got to leave? I'm not done with you yet."

 Blasting off the ground, Ryze leaped in the air straight at the nevermore. He grabbed it by one of its wings and swung himself and the nevermore around in the air before throwing it at blistering speeds face first into the dirt. 

"Collapsing Strike."

An ungodly amount of lightning surrounded Ryze's right hand as he pulled it back behind him. It illuminated the sky and nearly blinded everyone looking at it. Then, he threw his arm forward and released it all in one shot.

The sound of thunder and lightning had nothing on what came next.

A ginormous stream of lightning catapulted at the buried nevermore and reduced its bodies to ashes. The resulting sound from the move was like a lightning strike but enhanced a hundred time. The area around where the nevermore had once been was charred black.

Ryze then landed on the grounded with a resounding thud. For a moment he simply stood there, gazing at the charred spot of earth. He then turned towards the group and let out a small chuckle.

"Told you guys I had it."