Lunar Rose
By APIII and Fate-117
Chapter Four: Darkness
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Jaune peeked over the shield, sword arm low and close to his body, on alert for any Grimm, body tense despite his best efforts to remain calm. The sun was quickly descending, painting the sky a plethora of pretty colors that were currently being neglected.
"It's getting dark." Ruby mumbled from her post at the other end of the wide door. The teams had decided upon making camp in a two story building, with the first floor being what looked like a hotel.
The teams had, at their professional Huntsman's advice, chosen to split the team up according to who they considered best for their role. Ruby's scythe would prove too unwieldy for cramped combat in the narrow hallways, and would be best be suited to standing guard at the front doors. Pyrrha, with her shield and Milo in its spear form, proved invaluable and would be leading the raid in the lower floor and basement, with Blake and Ren following behind her. Professor Port, accompanied by Yang and Nora, would be sweeping the three floors above them.
That left Jaune, who would have normally held Port's position, as an outlier. That placed him in the same role as Ruby, guard duty.
"They'll be finishing up soon, I hope." He added as an afterthought, receiving an elbow from his fellow leader and an attempt at an angry face for his efforts. "I'm sure there's nothing in there that they can't handle, and we won't let anything else in after them, alright?"
"Yeah, you're right." Ruby affirmed, though the way she continued to tap her foot against the dusty floor suggested otherwise. Jaune had noticed that she still seemed to be unusually nervous on the mission, but hadn't been able to think of a way of broaching the subject again, and fear of pushing the issue had him biding his tongue. Maybe he was misconstruing it all anyways, and he misinterpreted jittery nerves anxious to fight some Grimm as fear. Seeing as how Ruby normally charged into battle with an excited grin seldom seen inside in the classroom, the line of reasoning wasn't too far-fetched. "So, uh, what's up with you?"
Or maybe not.
"Me? Nothing much, you know? Pretty boring, as far as things go, have some homework on the back of my mind, thinking about investing some stocks with the SDC, scoping out some prime real estate for a home, how's Patch these days? Good school zones?" Jaune listed off the generically boring lies with a straight face, smirking when Ruby elbowed him in the side in a show of appreciation for his creativity.
"Just trying to fill the silence, you big jerk…" She mumbled aloud, her voice giving away her lack of anger. "But, uh, Patch is really nice, actually. We've got Signal, which I think is a kick-ass school, has awesome teachers, too, my dad, Uncle Qrow and all." The hooded girl blundered on, nothing but sincerity lacing her words. "What about your home?" She asked, oblivious about the sore subject for the Arc.
"My home? It's...it's a great place." He answered hesitantly, faltering for a moment. "The weather was always nice, had the occasional rainfall, but I really loved it, even if everyone else didn't, 'specially the farmers. School was nice, had bullies and stuff like all of them, but that just goes to show that it was normal."
"Oh, I wouldn't know too much about bullies, Yang and all… my main problem was making friends really. Patch was big enough to be too spread out to have a lot of nearby friends, but not enough to have a lot to pick from either." Ruby softly admitted, eyes gazing across the empty streets once more, searching diligently for Grimm even amidst the casual conversation.
"I didn't have too much trouble making friends, honestly. I was just like everyone else, wasn't super popular, but no one was really a loner either, at least, not when we were younger. You would've had a lot of friends at my school, I know it." Jaune added, mindlessly trying to console her, even if it was in an empty assurance of a situation that probably wasn't worth the breath it was expressed with. Ruby appreciated it nonetheless.
"Everything is clear."
The manner in which Ruby jumped back, fumbling with Crescent Rose in her hand, certainly wouldn't suggest she had been as aware of her surroundings as she should've been as a leader on a mission, though, to be fair, Jaune spun around in shock as well.
"What?" Blake asked, eyes alight with mirth at their reactions. "Did I scare you two, or did I interrupt something?"
"No!" The redhead replied quickly, referring to both questions, and Jaune would've very likely said the same, if Crescent Rose hadn't extended into its scythe form at that very moment, knocking the blond into the wall, where he proceeded to slide down onto the ground from.
"Jaune!" She cried out, aghast in horror and embarrassment as she folded Crescent Rose back into its sniper form, lest she suffer another slip of a hand and proceed to shoot someone, or some equally awful thing.
"I'm...fine." He stated weakly, dismissing Ruby's and Blake's extended hands, shaking his head as he propped his arm against the floor and steadily rose to his feet. "I'm alright, seriously." The Arc continued when the Reaper proceeded to ignore his words, running her hands along his chest plate in a vain search for cuts before she realized how close she was standing to him, hands moving to dust off imaginary dart as she darted back all the two steps the doorway allowed her.
"O-kay, I'm going to meet up with everyone else, feel free to join me when you want." Blake remarked slowly, amber eyes darting back and forth between the duo a few times before she turned her back to the both of them, proceeding to walk away as she had declared.
Jaune gave Ruby a final smile to assure her that he was fine and immediately made to follow after Blake to show that he was indeed in good health, the Reaper following suit after a short pause.
"Pyrrha, I'm fine."
'You sure are.'
"You won't find anything."
'Not with all these clothes on, I won't!"
"Pyr, we should be focusing on the shift!"
" Any other person and I'd be inclined to agree."
"W-What do you mean?"
Oh, she had said that last part aloud, hadn't she?
"You have a limp, either tell me what happened or I won't stop." It was a bold ultimatum, and one that Pyrrha normally wouldn't make, but she had stammered it out in a frenzied attempt to distract him from her gravely slip of tongue.
In her defense, her partner did have a limp, even if it was small and almost unnoticeable. The redheaded Amazonian wouldn't have blinked twice if he hadn't gotten it while he had been on a supposedly uneventful guard duty shift, and it hadn't persisted for a majority of the night.
Everyone had regrouped, Port suggesting they set up a rotating night shift, as they discovered that the hotel had various entry points for Grimm to enter from at higher floors. They seemed too small for anymore Nevermore to come from, and they were far too high for anything like a Beowolf or a Boarbatusk to reach, but Port had, for once, vaguely alluded that they could still be to susceptible to other types of Grimm, urging them forward to continue their sweep.
If there were any silver lining to take away from the situation, it was that it gave the Champion an excuse to join Jaune for his shift, for she had been hoping to have a private moment between the two for over a week at that point, having never seized the opportunities afforded to her at Beacon, anxiety having her reason that the perfect moment would soon make itself known to her, an excuse to not act at that very moment.
It seemed that Fate had taken mercy upon her, and given them the last two slots in the rotation. That had not only given her an hour to once more rehearse everything she had wanted to tell him once more, but an easy excuse to remain awake with the blond, for she truly wouldn't gain much rest in the single hour he covered anyways.
"I had an accident and ended up hurting myself a bit on the way down, okay? I didn't want to tell anyone because it would be embarrassing…" Jaune admitted after a moment, sighing in a way that had Pyrrha's heart turning heavy.
"I..I'm sorry, I pestered you again, haven't I?" She asked in a soft voice, turning away from him. The Champion was more than aware of all the "Den Mother" jokes they made about her when it came to Jaune, and the merit the words carried. She loathed the idea that she was acting so cringeworthy, but her feelings for the Arc often made that forget so in the moment, and the only thing she hated more than that was how Jaune felt about it all, more specifically, how she didn't know how he felt about it.
Sure, he took it all in stride, occasionally visibly embarrassed, but Pyrrha knew people wore masks, she would know. Did he really not mind? Or did it bother him a lot more than he let on? Did he find it endearing, like some people would find it? Or was he only putting up with it because she was his partner. She had fears, but fears of the unknown was ingrained into the human brain, and the effect was tied exponentially to her infatuation with the blond. Maybe it would be better if she tried on a different time, the right moment wou-
"No, never, Pyrrha! You're just worrying over me, like Ren and Nora do over on another, it's sweet, really." Jaune dismissed her paranoia almost instantly with a soft smile, although his choice of words didn't calm her whirring mind.
Ren and Nora, he said. The friends for years who weren't together-together. Despite her suspicions about the ginger-haired girl… Regardless, that wasn't a situation Pyrrha wanted to envision herself in, not when she could more if she could just push herself. With a deep breathe, the Champion stopped in place, Jaune noticing a moment later, turning to face her, face belaying his confusion at the action. It was like her agent always said, be forward and seize life by the horns.
"Jaune, would you go on a date with me?"
Ruby yawned, shifting in an attempt to find a more comfortable position. It was she was met with the same degree of discomfort did her consciousness truly awaken, and her eyes lazily drifted open. She witnessed a green-tinted blur focus into the shape of Yang, who seemed to be packing up, before everything clicked and the entirety of the mission and the reason she wasn't in her bed back at Beacon came rushing back to her, along with the soreness of a less than pleasant night of sleep. The little sunlight that trickled into the room from the grimy windows of the room suggesting that the sun had only recently peaked the horizon.
She sat up, wiping the last of the sleep out of her eyes as she heard steps approaching. The Reaper opened her eyes to see that it was her sister's partner, holding out a water bottle. Ruby took it with a thankful nod, only realizing how dry her mouth was when she saw the water, downing half of it before sub-consciously realizing it may not all be for her.
"Keep it, I already packed up all my things, I have enough of my own anyways. Everyone is nearly ready, we're just getting the last of the stuff. I wanted to wake you earlier, but your sister assured us you can manage to be done at the same time as everyone else, so yell at her for writing that check for you." Blake said in her own unique manner of teasing, nodding at Ruby before walking away, presumably to help out however she could.
Groggily, she got to work, progressively speeding up throughout until the end, by which she was completely revitalized, as energetic as ever purely because her mind pumped itself at the thought of being out in the field. The smile she wore on her face only got larger as Jaune walked up to her, his own face lit up in a giant smile. "Good morning!" Ruby practically chirped, adding in a, "you too, Yang!" when her sister also walked over, slinging an arm over the Arc.
"Wow, looks like everyone is in a great mood today, who asked you out on a date, Ruby?" Yang asked with a laugh, eyes alight with mirth as Jaune averted his gaze abashedly.
"What do you guys mean? Did Ren and Nora finally…?" She trailed off, looking between the two for an answer, her eyes boring into Yang's when the older girl's gaze turned reluctant. It was Jaune's words that tore her away from lilac, shifting to impossibly endless blue.
"No, no, eh, it was…" he trailed off, visibly squirming in discomfort. "Well, Pyrrha asked me out, crazy, I know." Despite the obvious reluctance, the words brought out a shining smile from the Arc, who was all but glowing.
"Stole the words right from my mouth, Vomit Boy. Makes a girl wonder what she saw that no one else did, what are you holding out on us, eh?" He didn't get a chance to answer as Professor Port demanded everyone's attention.
"Alright everyone, today is the day we reach our objective. As you know, we'll be doing our best to try and cleanse one of the various tunnel systems of Grimm in an effort to cut down the risk of another breach incident. We believe to have found one area that's still cut off from the others, though nothing is for certain, and I'd rather have you all prepare for the worst. At my word, no matter what, we retreat, backpedal to the entrance. There shouldn't be any Grimm capable of escaping, and if there are, I'll see to it myself, are we understood?" Gone was any boastful bravado from Port's words, and his furrowed brow only cemented his seriousness into everyone. No one verbally agreed, but the solemn nods they all gave were more than enough, as Port swung his battle axe over his shoulder and took the lead.
Silver eyes stared into silver eyes. Ruby was holding her breath, not daring to breathe.
"These things are pretty wicked, aren't they?" Yang said, giving the machine a slap on the back, the visor where the lifeless eyes would've been bobbing.
"Yang! Be careful! These things are the newest Atlesian Knights! I just wish I could've gotten the chance to see inside one of these things' arm cannons!" The redhead cried immaturely, far too absorbed with the pristine machine to care about keeping up looks.
"Yeah, be careful, Yang. You shouldn't slap these things around so much. Who knows, these things might just see us as a threat and open fire on all of us because of you." Blake said from the entrance, far away from the rest of Team RWBY and the Tin Men guarding the blocked off tunnel entrance, glaring venomously at the machines as she reprimanded her blonde bombshell of a partner.
"Someone sounds unnecessarily afraid." Yang said, amusement lacing her words as she quirked an eyebrow at the Faunus of her team.
"These things are top of the line, nothing short of being a Grimm or attacking random civilians will ever make these things see you as a threat, Blake, no need to be intimidated!" Ruby said cheerily as she lifted of the Knight's arms, trying to find the magic button that would make the gun appear.
"Tch, add stealing mere crates of Dust to that list." Blake muttered to herself, the tone still the same, but who it was directed Blake couldn't be sure of.
"What was that, Blake?" The blonde of the other sex asked, a lot closer than the informal ninja ever realized he was.
"No-nothing! Nothing at all." Blake nearly yelled, her voice rising in shock, coming off as anger to the rest of the denizens of the small building.
"Alright. I'll just…be over there." Jaune said sheepishly, not sure why Blake was so pissed, and walked over to take a seat next to Pyrrha, who tried her hardest to not let it show how pleased she was with the results of Blake's outcry.
"When are we going ahead and bashing in some evil doer skulls!" Nora cried out randomly, and everyone turned to look at their Huntsman, more or less asking the same question, even if they would've worded it a bit differently. They all felt the urge to facepalm, and Jaune did, as they stared at the red burgundy back of Professor Port as he sat cross-legged on the floor, obscuring their view of what he was doing with the Atlesian Knight he had forced to its knees in front of him. Before anyone could comment, Ren released a sigh and stood up, walking over to the burly man to act as the ambassador of the trainees.
"Excuse me, Professor. I know that you are bent on making the machine indulge in your games with you, but we all believe we should begin clearing the tunnels of the Grimm now."
"Yes, you're right. When we return, hopefully then will I manage to make one of these infernal machines challenge me to an arm wrestling match. Standing up and swinging his blunderbuss axe over his shoulder, the portly man turned to address all of his dear students.
"Ladies," he said with a wink, "and gentleman, for now I must forgo the match that would've finally answered the question of who is mightier, man or machine," the burly Professor paused very briefly and flexed his right arm at his words, "in order to fulfill our duty as Huntsmen and Huntresses."
"It is sacrifices like these that define our lifestyles, but take heart, and know that we're all working to answering the question soon. Onward then!" Port finished his small speech by holding his axe up and marching along to the blockaded entrance that would lead to the tomb of the former citizens of Mt. Glenn, swinging his arms far too merrily with Jaune behind him, mimicking the man, to which Pyrrha and Ruby snickered. Team RWBY and JNPR lined up behind the Professor, with Yang and Ruby taking up the back.
"Do those things really unnerve you so much?" Yang asked, deciding to keep the teasing tone she usually had out of her question. The bow wearing girl gave a weary glance ahead of her and decided it was safe once she realized Nora's antics would ensure Ren wouldn't have the time or the ability to eavesdrop on the two girls, but she slowed her pace to give them room nonetheless.
"It's not just the machines… They may be a small part of it." Blake admitted.
"The fact that we'll have some guns pointed at our backs while the Grimm rush us isn't very reassuring." Blake pointed out with a roll of her eyes. " You know I've…had issues with the Schnee Dust Company before and I had no qualms with destroying one, or a couple dozen, of their automated defenses. So, to have twenty nearby, ready and alert, is disheartening. Plus, the history of this place… it's a bloody tomb, Yang! But you know that. I dunno, I guess my nerves are just shot to hell with all the uncomfortableness."
"I can understand that." Yang said rubbing her arm. "When Ruby was little, she was a fervent believer of spirits and ghosts and the like. More than once I had to console a terrified Ruby in the middle of the night. As time went on, she grew out of the silly habit, and incidentally got me thinking. I'm not superstitious, but this place is seriously a mood dampener." Yang said, keeping her eyes on the rest of the group who were nearing the entrance.
"But the robots are convenient, you have to admit. Armed men, stuck guarding a building with Grimm behind andin front of them? Their fear alone would be enough to attract everything for a mile, whereas those Tin Men, well, you can't fear if you can't even feel." Yang finished with a shrug, noticing that they had caught up with the rest of the group who were now by the blockade that separated the underground remains of Mt. Glenn from Remnant.
"Here we are. If you would allow me…" Port trailed off as he went up to the bulky door, giving the door's wheel a great heave before the rusty metal began to shriek in protest, finally sliding all the way and allowing the door to open. Stepping back, even Port shivered slightly to himself as a cool gust of wind was released and blew past the students and the intricate Knights alike. Without a word, they all shook off their fears, doubts, and insecurities and began walking in, only a certain scythe-wielder reacting when the heavy door swung shut loudly behind them.
"You'll need these." Port said, reaching into his pack and pulling out a box, which he handed to Jaune and Ruby. They looked on in confusion until they opened their packages and realized they were glow sticks. Ruby snapped hers and gave it a good shake, amazed when the red liquid inside the tube began to swirl and illuminate nearly ten feet around her.
"Dust infused." Port explained. "It'll burn as brightly as a sun and about just as long, like a certain beauty we have here." The professor said, raising an eyebrow at the trio that was Yang, Pyrrha, and Nora. Yang rolled her eyes, assuming Port meant her. Pyrrha gave a small smile and tried not to disturb herself too much over how the large man could shamelessly flirt with women more than half his age. Nora completely ignored him, her thoughts far too preoccupied with all the things she'd do with her pancakes back at Beacon. Port turned around as he grabbed a glow stick for himself, missing the glares Jaune shot him.
"Here you go, Blake, not that you'll need it." Jaune said, offering the usually quiet member of RWBY an unsnapped glow stick. He considered the fact that Blake had stayed at the back of the group when everyone else went up to grab because she didn't have to bother.
"And why would you say that?" Blake said, narrowing her eyes fiercely at Jaune.
'Ohshit,ohshit,ohshit,ohshit,ohshit,ohshit,ohshit!' Jaune internally cried out as he realized his fatal error. While he honestly didn't think he was too in the wrong here, seeing as he was only told of a secret and had done a great job of keeping it to himself until then, he knew Ruby would be in serious trouble later on. So, with a mental groan at the stupidity of his own plan, Jaune Arc winged it.
'He knows.'
A few months ago, hell, a few weeks ago, this would've been a major problem for Blake. Absolutely no one, not even her teammates, knew she was a faunus and Blake was damn well happy with it. She was fairly certain she had even duped the teachers, who were none the wiser. Ozpin knew, but the strange Headmaster was a wild card and therefore not worth the trouble worrying over.
"And why would you say that?" 'Ruby told him, without a doubt, it was Ruby.' Blake thought, gritting her teeth at Jaune, choosing to be angry at him rather than pent it up later for her Leader. She'd just make some more rage when she needed it. Blake half expected Jaune to literally reel in shock as he let the little 'secret' slip, but was quite surprised when he put on his suave smirk and raised an eyebrow at her.
"You see, it's rather embarrassing." He said, scratching at his cheek lazily.
"By all means, do go on, friend." Blake retorted sharply, emphasizing friend in an ambiguous way, as Adam had taught her oh so long ago. Why bother trying to terrify someone when you can half ass it and just imply violence, the victim's mind would do the rest.
"Well," the blonde said as he looked down at the floor for a moment before looking back up, the suave smirk still there, just with a tint of pink added.
"Well, when one appreciates true beauty so much, and gets the opportunity to admire it closely, one tends to notice certain things. I noticed two things," he winks, "and they happened to be your cute ears. I assume they're cute if they're anything like you."
'Ohshit, ohshit, ohshit, ohshit, ohshit,ohshit, ohshit!'
Blake blinked at Jaune, and it was terrifying.
'She's going to cleave me into pieces! And EAT ME! Is that racist? No, no, she'd never risk eating me, not with her teammates around. Well, with Ruby around anyways. No, Blake's one of those smart people. Yeah, yeah, she'll probably feed me to a Grimm. Tell them all I died fighting, probably tripped over my own feet. Well, it won't be the worst way to g-'
Jaune never got to finish his internal death memorandum as Blake blinked once more before coughing into her fist, a rather fierce blush on the pale girl's face dreadfully obvious, even with their only source of light being red sticks of possibly volatile Dust.
"Well, um…good for you, handsome?" Blake said meekly.
'Good for you handsome? What, am I asking myself?!' The agile girl was honestly dazed at that point. She never expected Jaune, of all people, to notice her secret, and for him to be so damn smooth about it too! Honestly, Blake tried not dwell on how much it sounded like something the protagonist of her favorite book Ninjas of Love would say. So where did it leave her? The beautiful yet mysterious, morally grey, female. With him, in a cave. Fighting off the even lewder thoughts, she tried to recover.
"Well, I'm sorry to have wasted your time then. We should get moving." She said, making a point to avoid his gaze. Jaune hadn't always been like that, Blake was certain of it. Had he finally peaked the cusp of puberty and lost the awkwardness that was all but integral to the Jaune she knew him as? Was… was Jaune the person Ruby liked all of a sudden?
Was it this new behavior that stemmed the interest? Blake couldn't say she hung out with team JNPR when the rest of RWBY wasn't along for the ride, but from what little exposure that afforded her, the two had always acted like the dorkiest of friends, not one ever giving so much as an iota towards the suggestion that there were any thoughts of something more.
The question Blake dreaded, however, pertained to her. He had flirted with her openly, was it just friendly teasing, or did he have an interest in her?
Both prospects made her heart sink in different respects. If he was just teasing, was he doing the same with Ruby, and would she misconstrue such a thing as genuine?
Or was he being serious? Jaune had shown even less interest in getting to know Blake as a friend than he had trying to be romantic with Ruby, or Pyrrha, or anyone! Was he just flirting with anyone he could, hoping for a fun time and no commitment?
'Now I really got to sell it.' Jaune thought to himself, more nervous than ever because of what he planned to do next. As Blake tried to walk past him, he put a hand on her shoulder and grabbed her other hand.
"Hey. I'd never say time spent with you is ever wasted." Jaune said, managing to put a bit of sincerity into his words as his blue eyes locked with her steely eyes, which shrouded every emotion she had.
'His eyes are staring into my soul.' Blake mentally groaned, uncomfortable with how her heart rate spiked at his touch.
'This can't be real. I refuse the dorky, clumsy, introvert, blue onesie wearing Arc is the brave, suave, smooth, hunk of a….No! No, bad Blake! Just…make your feelings known. Leave him knowing the feeling isn't reciprocated.'
"Eeep." She managed to squeak out before finding the most interesting piece of moss on the floor….
'Wow, I left her speechless. Well...shit.'
Frowning at his internal cursing, Jaune let go of Blake's hand and patted her shoulder, before handing her the glow stick.
"Here, for appearance's sake." He said as he began to lightly jog away, trying to catch up with the rest of the group. "Try to keep up, kitty!" He shouted over his shoulder.
Blake stared at the blond's back for a moment before once more just letting the whole scene sink in and blush even more.
"Jaune, you dolt…" The Ninja muttered to herself with a small smile. Ladies man or not, he couldn't have changed so drastically that he wasn't ever anything less than a decent person with a good head on his shoulders and a heart of gold.
"Contact!" The Professor yelled out happily, his voice booming loudly in the confined tunnel. Port didn't so much as break a sweat as the combined glares of Several Grimm and all of his trainees all glared at him, some with more deadly intent than others, but Ren would never act on it.
"Here we go!" Yang said, yelling out in order to try and pump everyone up a bit. She slammed her fists together before grinning at the Beowolf who was apparently the bravest, or stupidest, considering it was the first of its brothers to lunge at the group of meat bags.
With a quick one-two combo, Yang managed to dislocate the Grimm's jaw before sending it flying back to its brothers, a tad bit more dead than it had departed.
"Excellent thinking there!" Port commended Yang as he spun around and hefted his battle-axe upwards into an Ursa's meaty throat.
"I don't get it, what did she do?" Jaune yelled at Pyrrha as he chopped as a Beowolf, slashing its snout and dazing it long enough for Ren to leap forward and slash its chest open.
"Conserving ammo." Pyrrha yelled back as she launched Milo at the thigh of an Ursa Major who had managed to pass her in its attempts to claw the hammer-wielding girl who had taken out several of its brethren with one mighty strike. Jaune spun around and slashed at the exposed nape of the Grimm before turning around once more and stopping a vicious swipe with his shield.
"Oh yeah, because I'm constantly worrying about that." Jaune snorted with a small chuckle as a red blur came to his rescue, killing the Beowolf and the six behind it.
"Remember our talk Jaune; respect the classics." Ruby chastised her blond crush with a small smile on her face as she swung Crescent Rose neatly in nearly vertical swings that nearly grazed her shoulders, mowing down whichever creature was unlucky enough to be in front of the young girl.
"Ruby." Was all the black blur that rushed past Jaune said before it dashed past a few of the Grimm and began to spin around a bow of some kind, and Jaune realized that Blake had neatly decapitated nearly 10 feet of Grimm in front of them. Wordlessly, the deadly girl clad in black jumped back as Ruby hopped into the small circle, Grimm already filling it in again. Taking the small space she was given, Ruby placed Crescent Rose on her shoulders and swung hardier with her arms extended, confident now that she could take full advantage of her weapon's length without having to worry about her allies being caught up in the weapon's deadly arcs. Jaune nearly went slack jawed as he saw the redhead literally take out dozen upon dozen of Grimm, all futilely trying to swarm the deadly opponent and overpower her with sheer numbers. It was all for naught, and Jaune's attention was only pulled away from the bloody spectacle when the other redhead in his life also threw herself into the fray.
Where Ruby chopped through multiple Grimm, Pyrrha killed only one with every small twist and turn, and Pyrrha Nikos moved a lotin a fight. With quick, jerky movements, he watched as the Mistral Champion shoved Milo past four Grimm, killing one far behind the rest, before shaking Milo left and right twice, pulling it as she did so, all five Grimm hitting the floor with one second between each other.
Jaune decided to join Ren and Yang, who, to his surprise, had paired together. He realized that Nora and Professor Port were having the time of their lives as the effortlessly held the line and even seemed to be pushing back the Grimm with the steady alternations of their weapons slow swings.
Since they deemed it necessary to conserve ammo, Yang and Ren weren't as efficient as they could've been, and Jaune was left to pick up the slack, or lying occasionally a gunshot go off as pressure forced the students to use their ammo.
Without the aid of the bursts from the gunshots, Yang's fists were only slightly monstrous, only managing to kill the Grimm she was punching, as opposed to the multiple Grimm she could be taking out if she were launching the sturdy bag of bones and muscle forward at their adversaries. Ren was also struggling with the limitation, since he was used to firing off a few bullets and stunning his enemies before leaping in for the kill, and using his aura for larger enemies that couldn't be taken down conventionally. For every three Grimm the duo killed, two slipped by them and charged the Knight in not so shiny armor.
Utilizing strategy from a book that Pyrrha had practically forced Jaune to read, he picked up on a lot of one vs one techniques for a sword wielder that weren't versatile enough for the Redheaded Amazonian to bother learning, and Jaune found the entire concept of studying convenient, for once. Slashing at the Ursa's front paw, he forced the creature to spread its leg and lose its balance, before pulling out the sword, lightly letting his grip falter on Crocea Mors so he could reverse his grip, before bluntly shoving the sword straight into the Ursa's eye. Jaune began to feel pretty damn amazed at himself when he realized that he was no longer standing his ground but actually leaping forward at his enemies, pushing back the Grimm as was the rest of the teams. After a few more minutes of fighting, Jaune leapt back for a small breather, now that the Grimm had slightly thinned. He finally took in his surroundings and realized that the tunnel had opened up into a large dome, the area spreading out like a plaza. Then he noticed the Deathstalker.
Ren did too, when it grabbed him with its large pincer. At least twice the size of the beast they battled at initiation, yet this was had not only pushed aside waves of Grimm on its way to them, but did so nearly dead silent as well.
The Deathstalker demanded the attention of the Huntsmen and Huntresses as the rest of the Grimm surged forward, as if the presence of their larger brother rallied them.
"Ren!" Nora screamed, her voice cracking with fury as she launched herself forward, soaring over black fur and white bone.
"Wait!" Port shouted before dashing off after the girl, raising his axe in front of him and firing round after round into the Deathstalker, only killing the Grimm that he couldn't pass, shrugging off the blows of the rest. The deafening sound of gunfire brought the rest of the group out of their shock and they all opened fire, ammo conservation the last thing on their mind.
Jaune began the wild dash towards the beast, right on the heels of Port. He knew that if he thought too much about what he was doing, practically running towards his death, he'd stop dead in his tracks. So, with a mighty war cry, he ran forward, Crocea Mors raised over his head to deliver a devastating strike, actually slipping past Port and the Grimm who held the larger man back, his smaller frame affording him more opportunities to slip forward and actually reach the Deathstalker.
Unfortunately, the Deathstalker had a good fifteen feet on Jaune and its stinger towered over him before dashing right for his chest. He wasn't too sure when he felt it. It being Ruby as she slashed at the Stinger, sending it skyward. The appendage was firmly lodged into the ceiling above them all. Jaune was about ready to cover Ruby when he felt her pick him up and then the world turned into a blur. The last thing he heard was the world caving in on itself.
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