Velvet and Yatsuhashi looked around. They looked up into the sparse trees and the rocky terrain rising on either side of the narrow passage they were in. There was no place even a single person could hide, let alone a large group of people.

Suddenly a Creep rounded the corner and rushed for Velvet. She was so startled she stepped backward, stumbled over a rock, and went down, barely rolling out of the way of its attack. She scrambled up into a crouch as the two-legged Grimm skidded, turned, and faced her. There was no time for her to pull a weapon. She squinted, estimating the best time to jump to clear it on its next charge.

It barreled toward her, faster than she had expected, faster than it should be possible for something like that to move.

“I hate these things!” Yatsuhashi shouted. Then his greatsword smashed into it, with enough concussive force to not only definitively obliterate it but to make the ground shake and fracture the bedrock in an eight-foot radius around it. The blast sent Velvet tumbling back head over heels. A flying piece of stone or skull smacked her in the forehead. She lay on her back, winded and dazed.

“Velvet!” Yatsuhashi dropped his sword with a heavy clang and rushed to her side.

“I’m okay!” she said.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I’m just …” He frowned. “This is starting to get to me.”

She put a hand on his cheek. “It’s all right.” None of them had had much of a chance to rest, let alone sleep. The constant barrage of Grimm was getting to her, too. She knew Yatsu needed time to re-center himself, to take control of his anxiety.

- RWBY: After the Fall, Chapter 11