The group was finally near the cave and had stopped to formulate a plan for dealing with the Death Stalkers.

"So does anyone have any ideas?" Coco asked as the group gathered in a circle.

"Well I thought that we could have our faster fighters cause a distraction while the ranged and explosive ones kill the juvenile Death Stalkers that will come out if the cave." Jaune suggested, gaining the attention of the group.

"It seems like a decent plan but what if the adult Death Stalkers come out with them?" Fox asked while he looked at Jaune for a solution.

"Then we should try to take them out first while the speed fighters take out the younger ones since their armor shouldn't be as dense as the fully grown ones." Jaune replied earning a slight nod from the people in the group.

"Ok the we will have Ruby, Weiss, Blake, Ren, and Fox on the speed team and Nora, Yang, Velvet, Jaune and myself with the explosives while Pyrrah and Yatsuhashi stay back and see if either team needs help." Coco ordered causing the groups to organize.

Jaune had gone with his group while the others went near the cave and started to fire off several bullets into it, eventually a bunch of the the young Death Stalkers and two of the adults charged out of the cave while the team moved back to get some distance. Jaune then readied a fire arrow and fired it at one of the adults, the arrow flew into the Grimm's tail and detonated sending pieces of it everywhere as it let out a horrific screech. Then Nora and Yang were unleashing an onslaught of bullets and grenades on the crippled Grimm that put several cracks and holes in its boney exoskeleton.

"Don't let up!" Coco ordered as she started to mow down some of the juvenile ones with her mini gun.

While they were doing that the other group was taking out the majority of the juvenile Death Stalkers. Ruby was with Blake and the two were slicing through them while Ren was covering them with his guns.

They then stopped when they felt the ground shake as a giant Death Stalker slowly made it's way out of the cave and let out a terrifying screech, stunning the group.

"Pyrrah, Yatsuhashi stall it!" Coco shouted, causing the two to join the battle with Yatsuhashi leaping from the tree and landing on the giant Grimm's bone armor while stabbing his sword into it.

"Wait up!" Pyrrah called as she rolled out of some bushes and fired several rounds from Miló in rifle form at the Grimm with no effect.

The bullets had only irritated the Death Stalker causing it to shake Yatsuhashi off with his sword, revealing that the massive blade had only left a small dent in its shell.

"We need to get over there and help them!" Ruby panicked as she dodged a strike from one of the young Death Stalkers.

"Do you guys think you can handle the rest of them?" Fox asked in a cold tone as he smashed his fist into one of the Grimm, sending it flying away into the one that had attacked Ruby.

"Sure just be careful." Ruby replied as she avoided another attack.

Fox then raced over to Pyrrah and Yatsuhashi to help them with their opponent.

"Velvet go help them with that overgrown insect." Coco told her teammate with a look of confidence on her face.

"Okay." Velvet answered as she went to go help the others.

"Was that a good idea?" Jaune asked as he launched another explosive arrow at the adult Death Stalkers.

"Don't worry about her, she was with our part of the group for a reason." Coco replied with a small smile on her face.

Velvet was now standing next to Pyrrah and had pulled out her box and opened it, pulling out what looked like a small wooden wand. The box and the wand then began to glow a scarlet red color, gaining the attention of her two teammates who were a lot closer to the Grimm.

"Oh shit we better get away from this thing." Fox told Yatsuhashi, getting the two to sprint away from the creature.

After the two had moved several small balls of red dust raced out off the box and flew above the giant Death Stalker with a small trail of fire behind each sphere. Then Velvet swung her wand down causing the spheres to break apart and send a large cloud of red dust onto the creature that suddenly ignited and created a chain of explosions that engulfed the Grimm and some of the area around it.

"Did I get it?" Velvet asked herself as the smoke from the explosion drifted away revealing the a Death Stalker with it's claws and tail over it's torso and legs which prevented most of the explosion from doing any major damage even though it now had several scorch marks on it.

"It barely hurt it!" Velvet said disappointed that the attack didn't do more damage.

The Death Stalker then let out another high pitched screech and charged towards Velvet and Pyrrah preparing to rip them apart with its claws. As it got closer the two had a look of fear on their faces as it got close and raised it's pincers to smash the two only for them to be stopped by Fox and Yatsuhashi.

"Thanks guys." Velvet sighed in relief not noticing that the scorpion was raising it's stinger to skewer the Faunus.

But as the Grimm was about to strike an arrow hit in between the stinger and tail and then detonated, leaving only a stub from where it was.

"Are you guys ok!" Jaune shouted from his position as he readied another arrow.

"Yeah we're fine, thanks Jaune!" Pyrrah yelled back, letting the blonde return to his fight.

Meanwhile Ruby, Blake, Weiss, and Ren were almost done with the young Death Stalkers.

"Ok after this we should go help Pyrrah with the Queen." Ruby told the group as she sliced through another Grimm with Crescent Rose.

"Queen?" Ren asked, wondering why Ruby had called it that.

"You know since it's bigger than the rest and because they're bugs." Ruby explained.

"Will you two just focus!" Weiss shouted as she used some fire dust from her Rapier to burn several of the other Grimm to death.

"Fine." Ruby grumbled.

The rest of their fight ended quickly as they mercilessly killed the remaining Death Stalkers and got ready to help with the 'Queen'.

Ruby, Ren, and Blake started to shoot at the Death Stalker to distract it while Weiss had used ice dust to freeze it's legs to the ground.

"Yatsuhashi let's take out the arms." Fox said as he raced over to the Grimm and broke off one of its arms while Yatsuhashi used his sword to cut the other one off.

"Velvet finish it off!" Fox shouted as the group jumped away from the large Death Stalker.

Velvet then used her wand to send out more dust spheres that then turned into several red spikes which were sent at the Grimm piercing into it's bone shell and then detonating, leaving the Grimm with several holes in it's body as it bled out.

Jaune, Yang, and Nora were now down to the last adult Death Stalker. Jaune had switched to his sword and charged at the Grimm. The Death Stalker tried to swipe at Jaune only for him to jump on its claw and cut off it's stinger. Jaune then leaped off the Grim while Nora shot several grenades at it, covering it with several pink explosions which left nothing but a charred Grimm which Yang proceeded to destroy by hitting it's head with her Gauntlets.

"Good job everyone." Coco said as the groups met back up in front of the cave to rest.

"Should we check the cave for any more Death Stalkers?" Ruby asked the group while she put away Crescent Rose.

"Don't worry about it, Velvet can you go and take care of the cave." Coco said while she looked into the cave.

"Ok." Velvet said quietly and then used her wand to send fire dust into the cave which then detonated, causing the cave to collapse with anything inside it.

"Good now we should start moving to the next Grimm nest." Coco told the group as she pulled out her scroll to see what the next location was.

"It looks like it's in a forest just North of here and seems to be a hunting ground for a large pack of Beowolves." Coco stated and then put the scroll back.

"Then let's get moving!" Nora shouted as she grabbed Ren's arm and started to sprint south.

"Nora it's the other way." Ren told his girlfriend in a somber tone.

The group was now heading south to the next Grimm nest with each person having several things on their minds about the future.

'So Tukson how've you been doing?' Jaune asked his companion, trying to get a conversation going.

'I've been fine, although it's kinda boring just sitting here in your subconscious.' Tukson replied with a sigh.

'Well that's not good, anything you want to talk about?' Jaune questioned in hopes that he could get a conversation going.

'A couple of things actually. But let's start with that job Roman wants you to do when you get back to Vale.' Tukson said to his host, awaiting a response.

'I don't see anything wrong with it I get to gather an old family relic and get rid of a Grimm nest the only thing he'll be getting out of the job is a small abandoned dust mine.' Jaune replied nonchalantly as he continued to walk with the group.

'Really you're going to be working with the mute chick again and you don't even know why Roman wants all the dust that's still in the mine.' Tukson argued back.

'Well she wasn't that bad to work with and I doubt that Roman will do anything to sinister or else he'd just be stealing the dust like the last time. Can we just change the subject?' Jaune said, getting slightly annoyed with the ghost.

'Fine, how about we talk about all the girls going after you?' Tukson asked with a devious smirk.

'What?!?' Jaune replied as he tripped and fell face first into the dirt.

"Jaune are you ok?" Blake asked with slight look of concern on her face along with a couple of the other girls who were with the group who had stopped to check on Jaune.

"Yeah I'm fine I just got a little distracted." Jaune replied as he got back up to continue walking.

"Well that's good to know just be more careful." Pyrrah said and then went back to her spot in the formation.

"Yeah, the last thing we need is to carry a knocked out vomit boy the rest of the way." Yang mocked as she slapped him on the back, while she walked over to her spot.

"Would you stop calling me that!" Jaune shouted at his fellow blonde.

"Nah it's to much fun to mess with you." Yang replied with a large smile across her face.

"Sis just leave him alone." Ruby complained as she glared at Yang.

"Fine I'll leave him alone for now." Yang said to appease her.

"Would you all stop talking we need to get moving! Jaune you get up here so you don't distract the team." Coco shouted from the front causing the group to snap out of it and start moving again with Jaune now up in the front of the group.

'Thanks a lot Tukson now I'm in trouble.' Jaune said to the ghost sarcastically.

'Hey I don't see a problem with you falling flat on your face it was hilarious.' Tukson said while he held in some laughs.

'Whatever I just hope we can get back to Vale soon.' Jaune replied in a sour tone as the group continued to walk in the direction of the next nest.

Meanwhile in Vale

Roman was visiting Junior in his club to discuss business with Neo being closely behind him.

"So Junior how's it been?" Roman asked as he took a seat in one of the booths.

"It's been fine there hasn't been any problems with the job you've been having my henchmen do but we're running low on dust to complete it." Junior replied as he took a seat and waved to one of his thugs to get him a drink.

"Don't worry about it you'll have all the dust you could ever need in a couple of weeks." Roman assured the man.

"Well that's good I guess, but what have you been doing while we've been finishing our part of the job?" Junior questioned with a slight look of concern on his face.

"That's not your problem all you need to do is fallow your instructions and then we'll all be filthy rich by the end of the year." Roman responded as he got up and left the club with Neo tailing behind him.

"Neo I want you to see if you can keep some tabs on Blondie." Roman told the girl as they continued to walk.

Neo only responded with a small nod and a smile as she disappeared in an instant.