Hey everyone, it's acw28 here with a brand new story!
I know quite a few of you are probably wondering, "What's this guy doing, starting ANOTHER story!' Yeah, I know I've got quite a few ongoing projects that I really should work on (I've got three updates that are works in progress, I promise!), but I've had this idea, among many others, for awhile know. I first got the inspiration for the story after looking at dracohalo117's profile where I found the following story challenge:
Bearer of the Legendary Sword: As Pyrrha and Jaune enter the cavern where the Deathstalker lies, the floor beneath their feet is not as stable as they first though. The cavern floor crumbles beneath them, as they fall into a hidden catacomb, long forgotten, filled with Grimm. In the freefall, Jaune lost his sword, and in a mad dash to re-arm himself, he grabs onto what he thinks is his sword, only to discover that his is not the only weapon that laid abandoned down here.
Jaune comes into possession of a legendary blade of some kind, either from an existing franchise, mythology, a sword of your own making, etc. However, that is not all, the blade passes on the skills of the wielder of the blade, either the most recent wielder, the one who wielded the blade the most, a combination of the previous wielders, or whatever you feel is best. However, the sword alters itself to fit Jaune's current physical state, while influencing Jaune's physical growth to better fit the soul remnant which resides within the blade, and slowly his physical structure changes to fit the wielder, as not only must Jaune face the creatures of Grimm, and other evils of the world, but he must do battle with the remnants of a lost soul in his own body, he will either succumb, overcome, or be lost forever.
Automatically my mind went to Jaune getting Soul Edge, but shortly after a different idea came to mind, but seeing as I was actively working on a few other updates at the time the story stayed there. However, the idea never left my mind and after watching the Volume 4 final I finally decided to take a crack at it. That said, like most of my stories, don't expect frequent updates, I'm very preoccupied in my real life at the moment, and updates will probably be like the initial RWBY episodes, short. Now, let's get on with the show!
Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or the Soulcalibur series.
As he led his partner through the cave, Jaune Arc couldn't help but have a nagging thought that he didn't belong here. True, like every other student at Beacon Academy his dream was to be a Huntsman, to fight the creatures of Grimm and protect the innocent, but that was were the similarities stopped. Everyone else had attended a combat school in preparation for admittance into Beacon, he just happened to stumble upon a set of blank transcripts and filled in what was needed. How hard would it be, he had asked himself, sure that he would pick things up through his time learning. His family seemed to agree with him to a point, his parents allowing him to take the old family sword, Crocea Mors, with him but saying not to feel bad if it turned out hero life just wasn't for him.
It took Jaune less than a day to figure out he didn't belong. After suffering through the airship ride to the school, he had meet Ruby Rose, a young girl whose abilities far exceeded his own and allowed her early admittance into Beacon. Then he saw the girl's weapon, a giant hybrid scythe and sniper rifle that she'd built herself. That was just one more thing that set Jaune apart from everyone else, while everyone had some sort of range attack he could only rely on his blade.
From there everything just kept going downhill. After trying to set himself up for a good team with the beautiful Weiss Schnee he was rejected rather harshly. What followed was the "landing strategy" fiasco that would have resulted in him becoming a stain on the Emerald Forest floor if he hadn't been saved by his partner.
Said partner spoke up, saying "I'm not sure this is it." Out of the corner of his eye, Jaune glanced at the one and only Pyrrha Nikos, the glorious red haired, green eyed, four-time Mistral Tournament winner who happened to be his partner. Honestly Jaune didn't know why she had taken such an interest in him, especially after he only recognized her for being a cereal mascot, but after she'd saved him with her transforming sword, spear, rifle thing and unlocked his Aura, he was determined to prove that he wouldn't be dead weight.
Hence the pair's current situation. After exploring the forest for a bit looking for the temple ruins, Jaune had sighted the cave. Noting that Professor Ozpin, the headmaster of the school, never said where the temple would be, Jaune had the idea that the ruins maybe hidden from the students. So after quickly making a torch with a stick and some spare cloth, the blond lead his partner into the darkness. That was around twenty minutes ago, and Jaune was almost ready to agree with his partner, if it wasn't for his pride. After releasing a sigh, Jaune replied, "Pyrrha, I made a torch. Could you humor me for maybe, five more minutes?"
Before the Spartan could reply, Jaune tripped on the cave's uneven floor and dropped the torch into a puddle of water, instantly enveloping the two in darkness. Instead of being angry, Pyrrha asked, "Do you feel that?"
"Soul crushing regret?" Jaune asked, referring not only to dropping their only source of light, but thinking he could pull off going to Beacon.
"No," Pyrrha replied, "it's warm." Now it was the red head's turn to lead as Jaune tried his best to follow in the darkness. After stumbling for a few minutes, the pair rounded a corner and were bathed in a soft, warm, yellow light. Jaune was excited, believing they had found the relic required for final admittance into Beacon, but before he could move his eyes caught the outline of what appeared to be a giant scorpion. As if to confirm his suspicions, Jaune's partner hesitantly called out, "Jaune?"
"Yeah, we should get out of here." The knight stated as the pair slowly backed away from the Deathstalker. Seeing its prey about the escape, the giant Grimm screeched before launching its glowing stinger forward. The good news, both Jaune and Pyrrha were able to dodge the deadly weapon as it plunged into the cavern floor. The bad news, a mighty crack was heard when the monster drew back its stinger. There was nothing that could be done as the weakened floor collapsed.
Jaune screamed on the way down. While acting on instinct he'd angled his body parallel to the ever approaching ground and by sheer luck had managed to get a glimpse of the cave floor before he hit, making him able to accomplish a messy and somewhat painful roll. Pyrrha unfortunately wasn't so lucky. Alerted to his partner's location by a sharp scream, Jaune was able to stumble his way towards the red head to find her sitting on the ground using her shield Akoúo̱ to help steady her rifle Miló. After making sure he wasn't about to be mistaken for a Grimm, Jaune asked, "Are you okay?"
"Landed badly, feels like I've either twisted or rolled my ankle." Pyrrha admitted before stating, "At least the Deathstalker got crushed in the fall." Looking behind his partner, the teen saw this was indeed true as all that was visible of the beast was its stinger, the rest was crushed under a number of massive boulders.
Only now did Jaune think to look up and see how far they'd fallen. To his surprise he could just see the edge of the pit, perhaps sixty to seventy feet up. Although he'd likely fallen a greater distance this morning, Jaune couldn't help but think aloud, "Thank God for Aura."
"Indeed," Pyrrha agreed, "I should be good to go in a few minutes but until then we're stuck down here."
"Alright then," Jaune began as he looked around the cavern, spotting a side cavern as his eyes adjusting to the darkness, "you rest up and call if you need anything, I'm going to check this out." Before Pyrrha could voice her opinion of the plan being a bad idea, Jaune had already moved down the passage.
With his eyes adjusting to the darkness as he moved further down the passage, Jaune ideally ran he hand along the cave wall, listening to the slight scrapes of his fingers against the rock. However that wasn't the only sound present, further in the darkness the teen heard a series of growls, and they were coming closer. After a slight stall, Jaune acted quickly and moved to unsheathe his sword and shield, only to grasp thin air. His heart beating quicker, Jaune took a quick glance down, which only confirmed that he'd somehow lost the family blade! 'Great.' the blond began to rant in his head, 'First I almost died in the forest, and now I'm stuck down here without a weapon, I'm doomed!'
"Maybe not," a deep voice spoke aloud. Before Jaune could ask who was there, and if they were reading his mind, an eerie red light illuminated a side passage the teen hadn't previously noticed. As the light slightly lessened, Jaune was greeted to the sight of an odd looking short sword, completely red in color, a skull resting in the center of the hilt, a large eye with a yellow iris just below it. As he further studied the blade, the Arc saw it was imbedded in the ground, some strange blue crystals surrounding it. Thinking he was going crazy, Jaune was about to walk away when he heard the voice again, "Do you wish to die?"
Not sure who he was talking to, Jaune hesitantly called out, "No."
"Then come here," by some on seen force, Jaune felt himself drawn to the strange blade, "remove me from this cursed cave, claim my power as your own and smite your enemies!" Jaune reached out his hand towards the handle, but stopped short. Something about this sword just radiated evil, causing Jaune to draw his hand back. The next words spoken proved the teen made the right decision, "What do you think you're doing whelp! Get back here and release me!"
Shocked at the force of the words, Jaune backpedaled before tripping on something and falling on his back. Sitting up slightly and rubbing his head, Jaune saw that he'd tripped on another sword, this one odd looking as well. The blade appeared to be the standard length, and the hilt was the perfect length for two handed strikes, but the guards were shaped almost like another set of handles. Looking closer, Jaune could just make out a crescent moon in the center of the guard. So lost in thought was he that Jaune was genuinely startled when the first sword once more spoke, "What are you doing boy?" the weapon demanded, "Stop looking at that piece of junk and do your duty." Instead of following the command, Jaune reached out and grasped the blade at his feet, feeling like it was meant to be as his fingers wrapped around the hilt.
Now armed, Jaune quickly got up to deal with the Grimm before they could threaten his partner. As he walked further into the cave, the knight choose to ignore what the words he heard, "Get back here and release me you whelp! You will rue the day that you made an enemy out of Soul Edge!"
After a small jog, Jaune came to a large chamber and meet his opponents. For once he was thanking his luck as while he would be facing around eight Beowolfs, they were all immature and lacking any bone growths, including the iconic helmet. As the Grimm started advancing towards him, Jaune decided to meet the clash head on and ran towards the monsters.
As he drew closer, the Grimm out in front jumped and tried to slash at Jaune. Seeing the move coming early, Jaune reversed his grip and deflected the strike with the flat of his blade. Not losing any momentum, Jaune continued forward and realigned his grip as he swung the blade in a high arc, sinking the blade into the head of the first Beowolf, bisecting it as the blade became stuck in the Grimm. Quickly grabbing one of the guards, Jaune braced his foot against the dead Grimm and pulled a bit too strongly, accidently hitting a Beowolf in the stomach with the sword's pommel, stunning the beast. Being sure to remember that, Jaune swung the blade laterally, decapitating the Grimm.
Seeing two of their comrades fall in such sort a time, the other six began to circle the blond teen. Jaune just stood patiently until one of the beasts tried to attack, the teen striking out with his sword, only for the Grimm to avoid it at the last second while one of its comrades struck Jaune's back. Thankful for his armor, the teen quickly turned on his heel, kneeing the Beowolf in the jaw before once more swapping the grip on his sword and driving the blade straight down into the beast's chest. Once the corpse disintegrated, Jaune stood ready in the center of the pack once more, only this time he was prepared. When once more one of the Grimm tried to attack, Jaune instead crouched and turned in one fluid motion, chopping off a leg of the Beowolf that tried to surprise him. As the beast howled in pain, Jaune quickly finished it off before turning his attention back to the other Grimm.
Realizing their tactic wasn't working, the four beasts stopped moving. The cavern was silent as all present waited to see what their opponent would do. Without any warning, two of the Grimm charged at Jaune. Not having much choice, Jaune allowed the one on his left to bite onto his armguard while aiming a straight strike to the one on his right. Thankfully his attack struck home and after removing the blade from the body, Jaune was quickly able to slide the blade through the neck of the Beowolf currently attached to his arm.
With the end of the fight almost near, Jaune decided to go on the offense. Catching one of the Grimm off guard, Jaune charged forward and swung his blade, only for the beast to continue to evade his strikes. Deciding he'd need speed over reach, Jaune shifted his grip to one of the guards, holding the blade parallel to his arm. First lashing out with a kick to stun the beast, Jaune followed up with a quick slash across the Grimm's chest before driving his arm back and stabbing the point of the sword through the new wound. The beast defeated, Jaune grabbed the sword's hilt before pulling it free in a large, overhead arc.
As Jaune prepared to fact the final Grimm, he noted that the cavern was quiet. A quick look revealed no other Grimm. Thinking aloud, the teen commented, "That's weird, I could have sworn there were eight, oh well." Any further thoughts were cut short as a gunshot ran out. Quickly turning, Jaune saw the last Beowolf fall to the floor dead, his partner behind it, still holding up her rifle. Jaune was about to thank her, until he caught the look in the red head's eyes.
As Pyrrha stalked forward, she began to lecture her partner, "I told you I'd be fine and to wait for me, but what do you do? You go running off getting into who knows what kind of trouble and leave me to worry about you! Especially after I found this back in the tunnel!" With a rough shove, Pyrrha returned Crocea Mors to the blond.
Now having the chance to speak, Jaune did want any sane man would do, apologize like crazy. "I'm sorry Pyrrha." Jaune began before explaining, "We wound up in this mess because of me, so I figured I should try and get us out. You've been amazing, but I've been nothing but deadweight so I figured I should try to be useful."
"Jaune," Pyrrha's voice took a lighter tone, "you're not deadweight. Maybe a little inexperienced but that's why you're here at Beacon, to learn and grow." The Spartan then noticed the new blade in her partner's hand, and the dissolving Grimm corpses. With a smile she stated, "And it looks like you were able to handle yourself just fine, I didn't know you had another weapon."
"I don't, I found this in the cave." Jaune confessed.
Raisin an eyebrow, Pyrrha asked, "So then what are you going to do with it?"
"I don't know," Jaune said as he examined the blade, "seems like it would be a shame to just leave it here."
"That does seem to be the case, and you are quit proficient with it, but you can make that choice later." Pyrrha offered, "For now, how about we try to get out of here?"
"Right," Jaune said as he slide his new blade into his belt and refastened Crocea Mors before walking over to one of the offshoots of the cavern. "Come on, I think this one goes up." Smiling at seeing Jaune's self-confidence return, the champion followed after her partner up the steep incline. After a few minutes of silence, Jaune asked, "Hey Pyrrha, back when you were looking for me, did you come across anything, I don't know, weird?"
After taking a few moments to think about it, Pyrrha responded, "Not that I could think of, why do you ask?"
"No reason really, just curious what secrets this cave maybe hiding." Jaune quickly said, wondering if his encounter with the so called Soul Edge was all in his head. However, the weight of the new blade on his left hip was evidence that it was all very real, maybe he should tell the Headmaster about the seemingly evil sword. Yet if Pyrrha followed after him and didn't see the sword maybe it was possible that only he could get to it, such things often happened in legends and myths. Deciding the conundrum was too much for his brain right now, Jaune resolved to focus on getting through the day above all else as he and his partner made it back into sweet sunlight.
After the excitement in the cave, it was child's play to find the ruins Ozpin had mentioned. The fight against the giant Nevermore, however, was a little difficult, luckily Jaune, Pyrrha, Ren, and Nora were able to keep the giant bird distracted while Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang got in position to slingshot the young scythe wielder, her blade catching the Nevermore's neck as she ran up the cliff. So, after a short climb everyone was loaded up into a bullhead for the short flight back to Beacon to rest for a bit before the team naming ceremony.
After Ozpin had dismissed Team CRDL from the stage he called out, "Jaune Arc, Lie Ren, Pyrrha Nikos, Nora Valkyrie." Once the four teens had assembled in front of the headmaster, he continued, "The four of you retrieved the White Rook pieces, from this day forward you shall be Team JNPR, led by Jaune Arc." As the audience applauded Ozpin addressed Jaune directly, saying, "Congratulations young man." Jaune just smiled, but couldn't help but wonder if Headmaster Ozpin was looking at his new sword, those thoughts were abandoned as he tried to stay standing from a "friendly" love tap from Pyrrha.
After the group left the stage, Ozpin finished the ceremony by calling up Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang to declare them Team RWBY lead by Ruby. The festivities done, Ozpin dismissed everyone to their dorms to get some sleep. As they were going the same way, JNPR quickly caught up with RWBY, everyone choosing to ignore Weiss' slight pout at not being named leader. As the two teams moved towards their dorm rooms, each teen began to share their experiences within the Emerald Forest before everyone met up. The reactions ranged from amusement about Nora's sloth calls to Yang's eyes turning red at hearing how Weiss almost abandoned her little sister. Luckily before anything too bad happened Jaune was able to defuse the situation by retelling his and Pyrrha's mishap in the cave. Upon hearing her friend got a new weapon, Ruby halfway begged, halfway demanded to see the still unnamed blade, only to be slightly disappointed.
"Are you sure you can use this thing?" Ruby asked as she tried a different grip, "It's so unwieldy."
"You sure?" Jaune asked as he retook the blade, easily preforming a series of slashes before transitioning to one of the handle guards and holding the blade parallel to his arm. "Seems to handle just fine for me."
Ruby just rolled her eyes at the grinning blond before saying, "Fine, you found a weapon you're naturally good at," she soon regained her excitement as she asked, "So what are you going to name it?"
Jaune was silent for a moment as he looked over the sword before the perfect name came to mind. Almost without realizing it, Jaune said, "Kreuzgriff."
While most of the group exchanged looks of confusion, Weiss raised an eyebrow and said, "Cross Handle? Well I suppose it fits."
Now it was Jaune's turn to be confused as he asked, "You speak the old tongue?"
In reply, the Schnee nodded while saying, "A bit, it's to be expected of my family."
Now Jaune smirked as he said, "Combien de dialectes vous parlent ? Je connais deux."
Before Weiss could reply, Ruby spoke up, "Weiss, what did Jaune just say? And what do you mean by 'old tongue'?"
"If I remember correctly, the old tongue refers to any dead language from a time well before the Great War." Blake quickly supplied.
"Right," Weiss confirmed, "And Jaune just demonstrated that he's a bit smarter than we were led to believe. Perhaps I should have taken him as my partner back in the forest."
Although the atmosphere became quite tense at Weiss' words, Pyrrha quickly defused the situation by saying, "It's only the first night Weiss, couldn't you at least wait a week before you try and steal my partner?" Despite everyone laughing, Jaune couldn't help but feel like something was watching the group. As they made it to their dorm rooms, he felt that whatever being was watching the group now had its focus squarely on him.
Just as Jaune was about to close the door to his dorm room, he could have sworn he heard something say, "Not ready yet." Quickly looking both up and down the hallway, Jaune didn't know if he should have felt relieved at seeing no one. Deciding it was a mystery for another day, the Arc closed the door behind him, put Crocea Mors and Kreuzgriff by his bed, stripped off his light armor, and collapsed on the mattress, exhausted from the day. Still, he couldn't help but feel he was forgetting something. 'Oh well,' were the teen's final thoughts for the night, 'a problem for another day.'
As the students slept, Ozpin and Professor Goodwitch walked through the Emerald Forest, in search of a very specific cave. As the pair found their destination, Glynda followed the Headmaster into the depths of the cave, their only source of light being the Scroll flashlight app. After half an hour of silence, Glynda finally spoke up and asked, "Why are we out here again? We've already collected all the students who didn't make it to the temple."
"True Glynda, but tell me, did you notice something odd about Mr. Arc this evening?" Ozpin replied, not taking his eyes off the Scroll's screen.
"He had an extra weapon, not a major development since many kids in over their heads abandon theirs as they run away." Glynda replied, not seeing where her boss was going with this.
"True," Ozpin conceded, "but that sword is very distinctive. In fact I've only ever read about it once, in an old tale that I doubt few remember."
"And which one would that be?" Glynda asked, being part of the Headmaster's inner circle gave her a working knowledge of almost every fairy tale in Remnant.
Instead of answering, Ozpin kept walking until he came to a cavern lit by a dull red light. As Glynda caught up to him, the professor was shocked to find a truly odd sword stuck in the cave floor. Not even bothering to glance at his shocked employee, Ozpin said, "Glynda meet Soul Edge, one of two swords of the Hero King. Now if you would?"
Getting what Ozpin meant, Glynda reached out with her Semblance and with great effort removed the sword from the rock. While still levitating the weapon, the pair began to exit the cave as Glynda asked, "Hero King? As in the one who ended the Great War? If that's true then this maybe useful in fighting Salem."
Out of the corner of her eye, Glynda saw Ozpin give a slow shake of his head as he answered, "I'm afraid that the Hero King and Warrior King are two different individuals, the former much older. As for the sword, I'm afraid it will be no help to use, it is truly evil incarnate."
"So then I assume we are placing it in the vault so that Salem can't get to it?" Glynda hazard a guess.
"At least until we find the Hero King's other sword, then perhaps we can rid the world of at least one evil." Ozpin replied before sipping from his coffee mug, thankful to have found something of great power before the Queen turned it into another pawn.
With eight pages this is my shortest update thus far.
Again, I apologize for not updating any of my other stories in the past few months (or years if you've been reading Son of the Sun), but life has kept me busy and this idea just refuses to go away. I've got one more story idea that I'm going to start (so maybe I'll get it written and uploaded within the next six months) before I go back to updating my stories. As a thank you for sticking with me through all this insanity, I'm going to set up a poll on my profile for which story my readers prefer I update first, so be on the look out for that.
As with any story of my, there's always questions to be asked, such as…
What was that voice Jaune heard?
What will Ozpin do with Soul Edge?
Will any other weapons from Soulcalibur appear in this story?
To find out the answers to these questions and more, stay tuned for future instalments of The Lunar Lupine Blade!
Until then, I'm acw28 saying, "until next update."