During the battles of The Great War
There came only a simple man who fought for The Kingdom Of Vale
He wore mighty green armor, and he was meaner than the most fearsome of Grimm
In his hands, he held a powerful sword named Sigurd
Some say he came from the stars, blessed by Gods
Some say he was a blacksmith who rose up against Mantle's oppression
Whatever the case…
This man became Vale's Emerald Knight

-Excerpt from "The History Of Vale: The Great War"

Many Years Ago….

Vacuo
The Great War

King Ozman Dias of Vale watched the display on his horse, and the man couldn't help but be amazed by it all…

He watched as a warrior, clad in green armor charged through the desert storms with only a broadsword in his hands. He had no reinforcements, he was all alone, and yet he was fighting against the Knights Of Mantle, the enemy of Vale.

The two knights were prepared and brought their swords up, both accepted this green warrior's challenge, and both attempted to kill their foe.

Oz watched as the swords clashed against each other, the two Mantilian Knights tried so hard to kill their foe, but it was for naught.

The knight in green easily slayed them, he showed no mercy. He struck with his broadsword, slicing off one knight's arm, and then stabbing the other one.

The green warrior began fighting against even more knights, and he easily cut them down one by one. His skill was unmatched, he used the unorthodox and the orthodox.

The enemies he faced in these close quarters could not outwit him, and so they tried to use brute force, and yet no matter how many there were, the knight in green easily overpowered them with his own strength.

"If any of our riflemen can see him, shoot him!" screamed one knight before he was decapitated.

The warrior began moving, and suddenly his broadsword turned into a strange bullpup rifle with a scope attached on the top. It was almost like magic, but Oz knew otherwise. This was Mantle's concept which the warrior known as The Emerald Knight had stolen from them, the concept known as "Mecha Shift." This concept, despite being in a prototype stage, revolutionized weaponry, and with it, weapons could change and have completely new forms or they could simply have the properties of another weapon. This concept was key to making The Emerald Knight's weapon, the mighty sword known as Sigurd.

With great speed, The Emerald Knight crouched down and began picking off many of the riflemen who had managed to get a look at their target. Chills went down Oz's spine as he heard every burst of gunfire. The Mantilian Riflemen didn't even have a chance to take down their target as they swiftly dropped.

"When are you going to show?" Ozman asked nobody in particular. The man held onto the reigns of his horse tightly, he was prepared to go into battle, to end this long dreadful war.

Until finally, the person he had been waiting for soon appeared.

A man wearing the brilliant white armor of Mantle arrived into the sandstorm, however this armor was… different. It had many dents and it looked somewhat dirty, and it also had many red markings put onto it. If the armor had been painted black, Oz would have expected this man to be apart of the many cults which praised The Grimm.

But no, this man was no cultist, nor was he an ordinary knight, this man was The Commander Of The Mantilian Knights, Wulf Geats. This man was known for engaging The Emerald Knight on several occasions, whether it be indirectly or directly, there was no true victor between the two.

Ozman however, was promised that would change, and he knew that promise would be held true.

He looked to his small squad of men, who had been waiting for the order to finally enter the battle and as he looked at them… he gave the order.

"Come, my most loyal of soldiers! Wulf Geats has been drawn out, and with that we shall charge into the battlefield and aide The Master Chief!" he shouted.

Then, he further began accessing his powers, the powers that were gifted to him by them and sent a wave of fire into the sky, this signal was for Queen Boudicca of Vacuo, who had promised to assist him.

"Our reinforcements shall come shortly, let us engage the enemy now!" King Ozman Dias of Vale cried.

And thus, they all charged into the battlefield. Swords and rifles were raised, targets were acquired, all that was left…

Was to win the battle.

Ozman easily slayed many of Mantle's knights. His horse, Mesekt had been killed and thus he was forced to fight on the ground.

He first avenged the death of his horse using his powers alone, sending many shards of ice into the rifleman that had shot his beloved mount, and then fought many of his knights with his saber.

Eventually, Queen Boudicca's forces had arrived. The deadly brutes of Vacuo made short work of The Mantilian forces who attempted to retreat, all that was left was…

The battle between Oz's friend, The Master Chief and Wulf Geats.

Their blades clashed. The mighty sword named Sigurd that Chief held within his hands clashed against the black sword named Hrunting.

CLANG

CLANG

CLANG

The two swung and swung, they both parried each other's swings, and sometimes one would gain the advantage, but then the other would suddenly gain the upper hand.

This lasted for a while, that was until The Master Chief performed the final strikes…

In an instant, The Emerald Knight dodged a swing and then brought his sword up as fast as he could, the force of the impact snapped Hrunting in half but before Geats could register this, The Master Chief swung his sword at the opponent, forcing him onto the ground!

The Master Chief then pointed Sigurd at his enemy's throat and simply said one thing,

"Yield,"

The battle was finished after that simple command was spoken, everyone knew it, and everyone knew what would be said next.

"I refuse! Kill me now, Emerald Knight! If you have any respect for me as a Knight Of Mantle, then you will slay me here and now so I may die honorably with my men!" cried Geats.

The desert field went silent… what would The Master Chief do next?

Even Ozman was curious about what would be done.

The Master Chief simply took Sigurd and… turned it into its rifle form, and placed it on his back.

"I do not let you go out of disrespect, however… King Dias is making a new world for all of us to live in. You, Wulf Geats despite being my enemy, are a good man. I have faced many who were dishonorable, and I have faced things worse than any demon you could possibly think of, but you, Wulf Geats are a man who should live." he stated. "I have killed enough people in my life… I'd like to finally rest, and put an end to it all." finished The Emerald Knight.

With that he stepped away. Everyone was surprised by this action, even Ozman himself was surprised.

However he was not angry nor disappointed with the choice of his friend.

Then…

The dream ended.

Mistral Outskirts
Present Day

Oscar Pine woke up from his slumber, the boy sweated profusely and then sighed. He questioned, what exactly did he witness? What did he dream of-

"What you just experienced was one of my former lives... whenever I was The King Of Vale during The Great War." Said Ozpin, the man who called himself the Wizard and resided within the mind of the young boy.

"What was that though? That battle, and that man!" Said Oscar, who was honestly surprised by everything he had just seen.

"It was one of the final battles of The Great War, and the man that fought with me was known as The Master Chief, though to everyone else... he is The Emerald Knight, a legendary hero who slew Captain Wulf Geats of Mantle, and went onto bring peace and freedom to the four Kingdoms along with King Oz." The Wizard responded.

"But that man, he was Wulf Geats, right? The Knight didn't slay him!" Said Oscar.

"Of course. History seems to have overlooked that tiny detail, though what they didn't seem to notice was that The Emerald Knight currently lives."

"Lives? Like you? Is he a voice in the head of some other kid also?"

"No, not like that... no, his tale is much different than mine. I will tell you it, and since you're up... you can go ahead and begin moving. We're not too far from Mistral," Said Ozpin. Oscar sighed as he finally did get up, the young boy stretched his arms and let out a yawn, he turned and then began rolling up his sleeping bag.

"The Emerald Knight is not his true name, as you heard earlier... I called him The Master Chief." said Ozpin. "He came from a distant world, or universe and his ship crash landed here in Mistral, of all places. All he had was his armor, one companion, and his advanced weaponry."

"Was his armor actually indestructible?" Asked Oscar.

"No, that was just superstition made up by the common people, and later turned into a fairy tale. Historians actually believed that he could have potentially carried a shield with him perhaps, or his armor was actually constructed by Mantilian Blacksmith's who rebelled against their emperor, however, his armor was also part of that advanced technology that I mentioned earlier, and it had energy shields."

"Energy shields? That technology wasn't even developed then, how is that possible?" questioned Oscar

"It wasn't developed then in Remnant, but again... he came from somewhere else, he was an alien, but yet human like you and I." said The Wizard. "In fact, I'd say he was the best that humanity could ever have. In his home, he was a soldier called a SPARTAN, and after fighting in a long war against a terrifying threat, his ship would become damaged and float adrift in space." said Ozpin. "Eventually we would come across his ship, and he had been fending off The Mistralian Rangers, whose skills with the bow and with dust were no match against The Master Chief and his superior firepower, but also The Grimm."

"The Mistralian Rangers? The guys who perfected the art of hit and run tactics? How did he manage that?" asked Oscar.

Ozpin couldn't help but chuckle, "It'd be easier if I show you," he spoke.

With that, the small camp and everything around Oscar changed, and soon… he was brought into The Great War.

"Do? I think that's obvious, Chief. Make him a Squad Leader."

The Great War
Mistral Outskirts

King Dias stared at the sight, a large construct made of metal had landed into the ground, there were flames that were slowly being put out thanks to the rain, and there were the sounds of rapid gunfire... The King was in awe, how many marksmen were putting up a fight? There was no way that one single gunman could be doing this.

"Knights, to me! Let us support these warriors in combat, if we do not then the Grimm will overrun them, and if not them then surely the bastards of Mistral!" Cried Oz. His Knights all shouted,

"Sir, yes sir!" Then drew their swords.

"Riflemen, give us covering fire! With our luck, we'll wipe our foes out in one move!" Ordered The King. They all nodded and drew their rifles. Simple lever action rifles that worked well for ranged combat. The men all began charging, with King Oz at the front, his bright and shining sword in hand and his revolver in the other.

"It's King Dias and his men!" Shouted a Ranger.

"Dammit, we didn't expect this! Turn back, turn back now!" Shouted another. As Oz came closer and closer to the scene, his knights and riflemen quickly began attacking the enemies, but at the center of all this fighting... there was one man, a behemoth really, clad in the strangest green armor fighting many Mistralian Rangers, with nothing but some sort of weapon. It appeared to look like a rifle, but there was a strange pump under the weapon's barrel.

This behemoth simply kicked a ranger down and fired the weapon at him. He pumped the firearm and then aimed at another ranger who tried jumping onto the soldier but he simply shot him down as well. The King was shocked, how could a man take down two Mistralian Rangers, men who were known for being the most vicious of cutthroats down with ease? He was amazed by this performance! However, King Oz was worried. Eventually, this man would be overrun, and he would need to be saved. He urged his horse to go to the scene of the battle faster, and it obeyed him. The beautiful white stallion began galloping faster, and faster until Oz jumped off, and fired his revolver at two Rangers coming from behind the behemoth. The armored warrior turned, seeing the figure who fired the rounds and was about to fire until Oz landed onto the floor, sword, and revolver in his hands.

"Do not attack me, I am here to help you!" Shouted Oz, who shot another Ranger to the floor.

"Who are you?" Asked the warrior.

"I am King Ozman Dias of Vale, we are here to overthrow the tyrannical and oppressive Mistral King." said the King. He watched as the man quickly pulled out a silver pistol from his holster and fire, it wasn't aimed at him but instead at another Mistral Ranger.

"Call me Chief," He said. Ozman simply nodded, finally he used his sword and charged at a ranger coming from his left. Using the blade, he sent several slashes and then, when the man's aura was cut through he sliced the ranger's arm off. He dropped the knife and let out a scream of pain, which ended when Dias shot him square in the face.

"We have more enemies coming!" shouted The Chief.

"How do you know?" asked Dias

"There's a rada-"

"My liege! Grimm are coming from our 9 o'clock!" shouted one of Oz's knights.

"Damn! I didn't think they'd get here so soon!" Said Dias. He stared at the Chief, who wielded his powerful weapons, using them against the fleeing Mistralian Rangers, easily putting them down.

"What are Grimm?" asked Chief.

"Creatures that are hostile to all living beings, they feed off of negative energy... for example, this conflict is creating a lot of negativity, therefore? They're very attracted to it. They take all kinds of different shapes and forms, however, you can easily identify a creature of Grimm by their natural black and white colors, they also have bright red eyes and a red symbol somewhere on the body, though the first three are usually a good indicator." Ozman explained.

"Understood," said Chief.

In only a few short seconds later, a rifleman began shouting,

"Hellhounds! They're coming in waves!" He said.

"Shite! Swordsman, bring up your shields, riflemen, mark your targets and fire on my command!" said King Dias, who then turned to the Chief.

"Hellhounds are ferocious dogs, easy to kill but beware of the flames that they can breathe, and as well as their tails. Their tails are that of snakes, and if they bite you, well... you're done for, their poison can make a man drop to the floor dead." The King explained

"Do you have any other firearms? We may be here for a while," Dias finally asked, noticing that all Chief had were his two firearms, and he was sure that the pump action weapon and his pistol would be of no use.

"I do, but I want the swordsmen to stand back. How competent are your riflemen?" Chief questioned

"They're the best that Vale has to offer, Chief. I suppose you have a plan?" asked Dias.

The Master Chief nodded and went to explain his plan,

"I have heavy ordinance with me, I can use that to take down a majority of the horde while your riflemen can get rid of the stragglers."

"Understood, will you need covering fire?" asked Oz.

"No, focus on defending yourselves. I'll be out soon and my armor can easily handle whatever these Hellhounds can throw at me."

The Chief then put his primary weapon on his back and began running, drawing his pistol and fired at the oncoming horde of Hellhounds that were rushing to King Dias and his men as if they were like hungry animals, prepared to feast on their flesh.

"As soon as you get these disgusting mongrels in sight, shoot them down!" Ozman ordered his riflemen, then he stared at his swordsmen, whose shields were up and swords pointed at their foe.

"Stay on the defensive, if those dogs get you, you're going to be a dead man!" he told them.

Time had gone by, and the men had fended off the area as best as they could

Ozman stared at The Chief, who wielded a large double-barreled weapon, it looked odd, strange and honestly in his mind, a pile of bulky good looking junk. However, as soon as The Chief pulled the trigger, his views of the weapon changed.

A large explosive was launched from the first barrel and slammed straight into a horde of Hellhounds, they were quickly killed as soon as the explosive hit the first hound. He took aim once again at another horde, this time they were charging towards him, but he didn't seem to mind. The Chief simply took only a few steps back and fired once more. The horde's size dwindled, but it wasn't enough.

So, the large man simply dropped his explosive launcher and pulled out a large gray rifle with a drum underneath it. Ozman wondered how this man's weapons worked, they were so strange, but yet... they were so powerful.

He then watched as The Chief pulled the trigger and the weapon began firing bullets at a rapid speed, faster than any rifle, and hell, faster than any gatling guns that he'd ever witnessed.

RAKATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATA!

Hellhounds fell over, their black fur and flesh were being torn apart by these powerful bullets that The Chief's large machine gun fired. The hounds of Grimm were falling one by one, they were like sheep to the slaughter. Oz stared and watched, each and every hound let out a loud yelp as they fell to the floor, and their bodies quickly began decaying.

Another horde tried to flank The Chief, but he simply pulled out two devices which Oz was easily able to recognize as fragmentation grenades, and threw them at the direction from where the horde was coming from, the scary part about it was, was the fact that the Chief's throw was one hundred percent accurate, the first grenade hit the face of a hound, and the loud crack of the hound's jaw breaking was heard among the men, despite the fact that the loud rifles were still being fired.

In a split second, The Chief turned around, his weapon of mass destruction was held tightly in his hands and as soon as the barrel met the two grenades and the hounds... he pulled the trigger once more.

KATHOOM! KATHOOM!

RAKATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATA!

Two powerful explosions were heard, seen and felt all at once. Oz's eyes widened as he only saw The Chief move forward, the Hellhounds weren't even coming to King Oz and his men anymore, what little remained were rushing towards The Chief, but the large soldier simply cut them down with his powerful rifle, with each bullet that impacted them they dropped like flies. Oz and all of his men even witnessed The Chief grip a Hellhound by the throat, lift it up and then slam it to the ground. He stomped on its throat and fired a few rounds into it easily taking it down.

"By The Gods..." muttered a Knight.

"Is everyone OK?" Called out The Chief, the large drum that was attached underneath the rifle dropped to the dirt ground, and he simply put another drum inside the weapon, like it was no big deal. Like it was an average day for him.

"We've taken several casualties and we're running low on ammo. We need to retreat while we still can, come, Chief! We have a camp not too far from here, come with us, friend!" King Oz said as he walked towards The Chief, he stretched his arm out, lending the much larger soldier take it, but he did not. He only stared at King Oz and finally... he spoke,

"You don't know where I came from, you don't know who I really am, are you sure you could trust me, King Oz?" asked The Chief.

"Your name is Chief, and as far as I'm concerned, you became our friend as soon as you fought against Mistral with us," Ozman said.

"I would be honored if I could have a man with talents such as yours fight alongside my men and I." he continued.

"That's nice and all, but... we'd like to know what we're getting into." A feminine voice spoke, echoing through the Chief's helmet. The King drew his sword in an instant, prompting the Chief to stand back and pull out his sidearm, the same pistol he heard before.

"The voice of that damned witch! Do you serve her?" cried Ozman.

"Witch?" Asked Chief, as he finally pulled out something from his helmet, a chip of some sort. The chip lit up, and soon a beautiful blue woman was staring at Oz.

"I don't think I'm a witch, though many scientists believed that people in the Middle Ages would think of the technology we have nowadays to be in fact, witchcraft." She said. The startled king soon calmed down, and finally sheathed his sword, giving a sigh of relief.

"Apologies, you sounded... familiar, a woman I once knew. Though, that is a story for another day." Ozman said, then nodded.

"Yes, I will gladly explain everything to you at the camp. You will be fed there as well, and tomorrow if you wish to join us, we will be attacking the front gates of Mistral." he finally spoke.

Mistral Outskirts
Present Day

"So.. who was the woman?" asked Oscar.

"Her name was Cortana, she was the Chief's artificial intelligence and companion, and probably the one person he held dear the most. She provided him with everything, whether it be simple intelligence or someone to talk to." Ozpin said.

"But she was a machine?" Asked the boy, still curious about The Chief's and Cortana's relationship.

"In a way, she was both. The Master Chief did not explain much to me, but he said that she had a heart and could feel all kinds of emotions just like you and I." Ozpin explained. Oscar simply nodded, finally understanding The Chief's ally.

"So, what happened after the war? You said The Emerald Knight or Chief still lives... right?" asked the boy.

"Yes, I did... his ship, The Forward Unto Dawn, still had power inside of it. After we made the Mantilian Emperor surrender, as well as accomplish a few other things regarding Remnant's new government, The Master Chief told us that he wished to sleep, and asked for us to wake him only if his people were to find his ship, or should something catastrophic happen on Remnant. I agreed to request, and he went to sleep once more, and in order to better protect and hide the Chief, I used my magic to cast an illusion, making the remnants of The Dawn into that of a mountain." explained Ozpin.

Oscar continued to walk, and thought and thought and then finally... he spoke up.

"We should find The Emerald Knight,"

"Pardon?" Asked Ozpin, genuinely surprised.

"Well… I saw everything that happened on TV and from everything you've told me about Salem… she's going to stop at nothing to get rid of us, and the rest of mankind. She already took down your home turf with no sweat, don't you think it'll be just as easy for her if she attacks Haven next?" asked the boy.

"We can still save this, all we have to do is reunite with Leonardo-" replied Ozpin, but Oscar shook his head.

"You said it yourself! She has a Fall Maiden under her control, a woman who wields all sorts of crazy magic!" he replied. "I know you want to respect The Knight's wishes, but… this is bad, Ozpin." said the boy.

The two reached a fork in the middle of the dirt road they walked across, and there was now only silence.

"Take a left," Ozpin finally, which confused Oscar, as he stared at a sign which said that the Kingdom Of Mistral was to the right.

"If you take a left on this road, there you will find The Mountain where The Master Chief sleeps. I only hope that he doesn't push us away in these dire times..." The Wizard said. Oscar smiled, the boy was happy that Ozpin was listening and even happier that he was going to be able to meet a legend, a legend like The Emerald Knight.