The snake didn’t see the pit coming until it was already slipping over the edge. It flailed around, but it was falling down the side of the man-made crater. Fox pulled his tonfa free, turned, and ran up the length of the King Taijitu toward the edge of the cliff.

Just as he leaped off, the tail end of the snake lashed out and wrapped itself around Fox, pulling him down with it.

“What?” Fox sent.

He and the King Taijitu tumbled down the canyon. Fox’s arms were free so he jammed them into the stone wall. Metal and stone screamed against each other, sparks flew, and Fox thought his arms were going to be yanked out of their sockets. But the blades held, and Fox’s descent slowed and then stopped.

The only problem was he had half a Grimm snake hanging from his waist, and it wasn’t giving up without a fight. Fox couldn’t hold on forever.

“Uh, Velvet?” Fox sent. “Help?”

“I can’t get a clear shot from here,” Velvet said. “I’ll have to come down there.”

“Never mind,” Fox sent. “How far is the drop?”

“Don’t even think about it,” Velvet said. “I can’t see the bottom, so it must be a long way down.”

Fox gritted his teeth. He yanked the blade on his left arm out of the rock face and then aimed his gun at the snake wrapped around his chest and legs. His right arm was on fire as he supported the weight of both him and the King Taijitu.

He fired several rounds into the snake at point blank. The snake spasmed and squeezed tighter.

That didn’t work as planned, Fox thought. The air was pushed out of his lungs and blood pounded in his head.

He fired again, and slowly, incredibly slowly, the Grimm loosened its hold on him. The coil around him slipped free, and the snake fell, spitting and hissing all the way down. It was a long time before he heard a distant crash of impact.

Fox swung his left arm back up and grabbed hold of a crevice in the rock wall. His shoulder joint popped and he felt a stab of pain, losing his grip.

A hand grabbed his.

“Got you,” Velvet said.

“I told you not to climb down here,” Fox said.

“Good thing I did it anyway.”

Velvet tied a loop of rope around Fox and then scampered up the rock wall. That was the last time he would underestimate her.

- RWBY: After the Fall, Chapter 4