HEEEELLLLLLOOOOOOO!

We're back at it with another chapter of Errant Questor! In this chapter Jaune and Weiss find themselves in a difficult situation as do Neo and Pyrrha, who find themselves eye to eyes with a giant Deathstalker! Of course, the ones in the greatest danger are not them, oh no...

It's poor Emerald and Mercury, who have found themselves teamed up with Nora.

Well with all that out of the way, ON WITH THE STORY!

Pyrrha Nikos supposed she should have felt guilty about leaving Neo behind, but considering the fact that the Deathstalker was hot on her heels as she sprinted for the cave exit, and that the short girl was still clinging to its stinger (at least Pyrrha assumed she was, as she hadn't actually turned to look, nor did she plan to until she was out of the cave) it was really like Neo was right there with her!

Well... sort of.

Relief flooded the champion as she burst out of the cave and felt the sunlight on her skin. That relief quickly faded as she turned just in time to see the Deathstalker burst out of the mouth of the cave behind her, scattering rocks and dust everywhere as our charge shattered open the too small mouth of the cave. How it had gotten in there in the first place was beyond Pyrrha, and she was too preoccupied with the massive Grimm before her and the panic the sight of it induced to give much thought to the matter.

If there was any up side to her current situation it was that Neo was still clinging to the stinger for dear life, her mouth open in a silent yet clearly terrified scream. The Deathstalker's tail swung back and forth viscously in an attempt to dislodge Pyrrha's partner, but she clung on for dear life.

Then the Deathstalker pulled its tail back and launched it forward, like the throwing arm of a catapult.

And like a boulder thrown by said catapult, Neo was sent sailing through the air, tumbling end over end.

Pyrrha watched in horror and astonishment as her partner flew into the horizon. A sibilant hiss brought her attention back to the Deathstalker, which was beginning to make its way to her.

Pyrrha bolted in the same direction Neo had been thrown, the gigantic arachnoid Grimm hot on her heels once more.

Jaune was a Stormcast Eternal. While his body had been inexplicably changed he retained the heart and mind of a warrior with centuries of experience battling some of the most terrible servants of evil, feeling no fear or remorse, regardless of the odds stacked against him. This experience, iron will, and his faith in the God King Sigmar were the only thing keeping him from panicking, despite everything that had been thrown at him in the past few hours.

The same could not be said for Weiss.

The both of them dangled from the talons of the Nevermore. Jaune was forcing himself to remain calm as he considered his situation. Both of them were a couple hundred feet up in the air and rising fast, dangling from the claws of a giant black feathered bird... daemon... thing, their partners were pursuing the beast on the ground, though had made no actions to bring it down presumably fearing harming the two of them, and-

he winced as a loud sharp shriek hit his ears. One could be forgiven for thinking it was coming from the Nevermore, but it wasn't.

Weiss was screaming at the top of her lungs.

Jaune supposed it was a natural response, though it was a foreign one to him. He hadn't felt fear in centuries, not since-

He grit his teeth. Now was not the time for that. He looked over at Weiss, who was still in full panic mode. "Weiss!" he called out over the howling wind and her screaming, then louder when she didn't hear him, "Weiss!"

She looked at him. "What?!" Her eyes were wide with panic.

"Stop screaming!" He called to her, projecting his voice. "We must be calm, else we will find ourselves in an untenable situation."

Weiss waved her rapier at the ground below them. Several hundred feet below them. "I think this qualifies as an untenable situation!"

He looked at the ground below them. It was passing by in a blur. "Perhaps," he admitted, "but we must act, else it will become even more untenable, and I'm not keen to see where this thing is taking us. I don't suppose you have anything we can use?"

Her eyes brightened. "As a matter of fact..."

Ruby zipped up a particularly tall tree and leveled Crescent Rose at the Nevermore. As tempting as it was to take the shot, the risk of hitting Weiss or Jaune or the Nevermore dropping them when it was hit was too great. Jaune, and admittedly Weiss too, had told her that she needed to be more aware of her surroundings. Maybe she could find an elevated position, somewhere high up enough that a fall wouldn't injure or kill either her partner or her new friend, goad the Nevermore into pursuing her towards it, then shoot it until-

And then the Nevermore dropped both of them, hundreds of feet above the earth.

Screaming like a banshee Ruby bolted towards where they were falling.

In the face of mutual danger Weiss and Jaune had forgotten their earlier spat, understanding that if they wanted to survive they needed to work together. Weiss had, much to her chagrin, been too busy panicking to think of a way to escape the Nevermore. Jaune however had remained calm and collected. He had helped her calm down and think instead of succumbing to blind panic, but it was Weiss herself who would save the both of them. On Jaune's signal the both of them had stabbed their blades into the Nevermore's talons, causing it to release them. Normally doing this several hundred feet in the air would have been suicide, but as Jaune looped an arm around her waist Weiss closed her eyes and began to concentrate. Beneath their feet, a glowing sigil appeared. It appeared at an angle, as did the next several after it, forming a ramp for the two of them to slide down until they reached the last glyph, which they stopped on.

"Good work," Jaune said as they skidded to a halt. "Now we just have to-"

A multi colored blur slammed into him and he was sent flying.

Neopolitan wasn't having a good day.

Oh sure, it had started out just fine, and gotten even better when Cinder had found herself with a different partner. Things had really started looking up when Neo had found herself a celebrity as her own partner.

But she had forgotten a very important lesson Roman had taught her.

"Neo, if a deal looks good to be true then it probably is. Unless you've got a gun to the other guy's head, in which case the deal is probably exactly what it looks like. Survival instinct is a wonderful thing."

Of course, Neo lacked the ability to hold a gun to the universe's head, so the last part was useless in her current situation. The point was, Neopolitan should have known that something would have gone wrong sooner or later.

"Though I don't think I would have been capable of expecting just how wrong things would go," that small, somehow still rational part of her mind mused as she hurtled through the air. The other ninety to ninety five percent of her mind was more focused on blind panic. Her mouth was open in a silent scream as she tumbled out of control, and she could actually feel the trajectory of her flight beginning to lower, bringing her closer to impacting the earth below at what was, if not terminal velocity, still fast enough to leave her as a pink, white, and brown stain on the ground..

She had initially thought to use her umbrella to slow herself, but when she'd reached for the weapon on her hip she'd found it missing, probably falling off at some point during her flight.

As the ground sped ever closer, Neopolitan closed her eyes, no longer able to watch her impending death draw inevitably closer. "Roman..."

Then she slammed into something.

At first she'd thought it was the ground, but she could still feel herself falling, and as far as she knew the ground didn't go "oof!" when you slammed into it, and it certainly didn't lock arms around your waist.

Neo opened her eyes and saw she was in the arms of a young man, long messy blonde hair flying about his face as the two of them fell. Neo recognized him as the boy that Cinder has inadvertently wound up with as a partner.

"Er... hi?" He said uncertainly, remarkably calm given then situation. She waved at him and looked past him at the rapidly approaching ground. Her eyes widened and she pointed at the massive oak tree the both of them were headed towards. The boy turned and looked, then cursed. "By Sigmar, hold onto me!" He tightened his grip on her waist with one arm, then pressed her head into his chest with the other hand.

Jaune tightened his grip on the girl who'd slammed into him, determined to shield her from the worst of the impact.

What would happen to him, if he died here? He had no doubt that he would, for at the speed he was falling the impact with the tree would kill him, aura or not.

Normally the question would have been an easy one to answer. He would return to Azyr to be reforged upon the anvil of Apotheosis, as all Stormcast were. Now however, the answer was not so clear. Would whatever had been done to him to make him mortal stop his soul from returning to the Sigmarabulum? Would he die and his soul travel to Hyish, the realm of the dead, or would his essence be obliterated entirely? He almost hoped it was the latter. Nagash, god of the dead, had a long standing grudge against Sigmar for the creation of the Stormcast, as he saw the souls of the ancient heroes of the Stormhosts as his property. A Stormcast whose soul was lost to Hyish would not find rest.

Jaune grit his teeth and stared at the blue sky overhead. If he was to die, he wanted his last sight to be of the heavens, Sigmar's holy domain.

Then his back hit something that was decidedly un-treelike.

For starters it glowed weirdly, and he hit it at an angle and was sliding down it. Then he slid off of it into open air again, only to slide across another one a moment later. He looked back in the directing he'd been falling and saw a glowing white glyph, then saw Weiss in the distance standing on her own glyph pointing her rapier at them. Even from here he could see the strain on her face.

Immediately he realized what she was doing. The girl was forming a ramp of glyphs similar to the ones she'd used to halt their fall. If nothing else she was a fast thinker.

Soon their descent ended with Jaune skidding to a halt on the earth on his back, the little girl who'd slammed into him, still laying atop him. He unwound his arms and looked at her. "Are you alright?"

The girl sat up straddling his waist, and Jaune realized his initial assessment of her was incorrect. She was little to be sure, perhaps shorter than Ruby, but this was no girl. She was a young woman, somewhere in her late teens, and had a fit, lithe figure to match dressed in an outfit that was clearly designed to accentuate that figure and draw attention to certain ah, assets. A quick look over was all Jaune needed to be sure she was unharmed, but the way one corner of her lips curled up in a wry smile told Jaune she didn't think he was checking her for injuries.

"Hi, he said a tad awkwardly, "if you don't mind, I'd like to get up miss."

The girl cocked her head the side and pursed her lips, as though examining him and thinking carefully. Then with a shrug she bent down and kissed his cheek. With that she hopped up and skipped away, leaving a bewildered Jaune on the ground. He stood up and dusted himself off. "There seems to be no end to this realm's strangeness."

"JAUNE!"

He looked up and saw Ruby bearing down on him, a flurry of rose petals in her wake and Cinder running after her. His eyes widened and he held up his hands. "Ruby, don't- oof!"

Relief washed over the young huntress in training as she wrapped her arms around his neck. "You're okay!" She shouted happily.

"Hrk... breathe..." he gasped, and Ruby loosesened her grip on his neck. "Are you okay?" She asked worriedly as she looked up at him, arms still around his neck. He was tall enough that she had to stand on the very edge of her boots to keep her arms around his neck. She'd seen how he and Weiss had stopped their fall with the glyphs, and when that girl had slammed into him. She'd seen how Weiss had guided them down safely. She'd also seen the girl kiss him before getting up off of him and leaving. Did she know him? Were they... together?

"I'm fine," he said with a kind smile as he ruffled her hair. "Weiss saved our- wait, where is Weiss?"

"She's fine," Ruby assured him. She released him and pointed over his shoulder. "She's just drifting down on her glyph."

Right as Ruby said that Weiss limply swayed to one side and fell off the glyph. "Oh, come on!" the crimsonette shouted as she and Jaune sprinted to her. In the distance she could see other people running towards the falling heiress, but Ruby could tell that none of them would reach her in time. The young huntress looked around, desperately trying to think of something she could do. She had Crescent Rose and her semblance, surely there was something she could do to save Weiss? Perhaps she could- no then she'd just- wait, yes!

Ruby activated her semblance darted forward as a red and black blur, leaving a trail of rose petals in her wake. She activated Crescent Rose, aimed the barrel at the ground, and simultaneously leapt into the air and fired.

The combined force of her semblance powered leap and the recoil from Crescent Rose catapulted her right up to Weiss. She wrapped the arm not gripping Crescent Rose around her partner's waist. As she fell towards the ground she activated the blade on her scythe rifle and plunged it into the a tree as she fell past it. Ruby's momentum sent her spinning around the tree, the unreasonably sharp edge of the weapon splitting the wood like paper, until she skidded to a halt on the ground. She lowered the heiress to the ground and looked her over. The girl's eyes were shut. "Weiss?" Ruby shook her shoulders gently.

"She's fine," Jaune said as he knelt next to her, pressing his fingers against her wrist to check her pulse. "She's exhausted, but uninjured." He looked up at her. "Her magic is exceptionally powerful. I'm not surprised she collapsed after using it as much as she had."

Ruby stared at him in confusion. "Magic?"

He nodded. "Her glyphs. I've never seen a spell like it before."

"That's... not magic," Ruby explained hesitantly. "It's her semblance."

It was Jaune's turn to look confused. "A what?"

Sometimes Ruby forgot that Jaune was an amnesiac. "They're special abilities everyone has. Each one is unique to the person who has it. People with their auras unlocked can use their semblances. It's kind of like a super power."

"Or like magic."

Ruby shook her head. "Magic is more like... summoning lightning storms, and stuff."

"And how is summoning glyphs any less magical?" Jaune queried.

Ruby's mouth opened and closed, unsure of how to respond to that. "I... don't know," she admitted a few moments later.

He smiled kindly, the way her teachers back at Signal had when they were about to share wisdom born from experience with their students. "Then perhaps one should not disregard it as a possibility." He looked around m, as though a thought had just occurred to him. "Where is Cinder?"

Ruby frowned. "She was right behind me. Where'd she go?"

It took a lot of willpower from Cinder to stop herself from running to the ruins.

She kept herself to a brisk walk, eager to team up with them. Even if she couldn't have the team she wanted, at least she could have two out of three.

As she moved to the ruins two women darted past her. One of them, the blonde one, was shouting Ruby's name as she ran.

She could see Neo at the ruins, toying with a Black Knight piece. Cinder has seen identical pieces in the hands of the two girls she had passed. The small woman looked at the person who was supposed to be her boss and grinned mischievously.

Cinder ignored her, intent on her destination. It was enough to know which team the girl would be on. She could see Emerald and Mercury talking with two other people, a calm man in a green suit with a dash of pink in his hair, and a hyperactive ginger girl. Or rather, the ginger girl was talking at Emerald and Mercury while the boy watched on impassively. Her two minions looked like the sheer force of Will coming from the girl was eating away at them.

When they saw Cinder their eyes widened. Mercury looked at Emerald and twitched his head at the Fall Maiden. Emerald looked at him and shook her head no imperceptibly. The silver haired boy twitched his head at the ginger girl and stared at Emerald with a raised eyebrow, as though asking, "do you want to be the one to deal with this?"

Emerald looked at Nora, then at Cinder, and seemed to weigh her options. With a sigh she began to make her way to the onyx haired beauty while Mercury made the ultimate sacrifice, and began actually trying to respond to the short ginger and hold her attention. The black haired boy, who Cinder realized had pink eyes now that she was closer, looked at Emerald and then at Cinder with a curious glance, then shrugged indifferently and watched his friend badger Mercury. She could have sworn there was a small smile of contentment on the boy's face.

When she was close enough for them to hold a conversation in low voices Emerald spoke. "Cinder, I-"

"The relic," Cinder interrupted, the aggravation she'd been experiencing since meeting Jaune seeping into her voice, "give it to me, before anything else goes wrong."

Emerald seemed to wither away where she stood. "I... the relic-"

"HIIIIII!" The ginger girl sprinted up to them and skidded to a halt, nearly bowling over the green haired girl. "I'm Nora!"

Cinder blinked, more taken aback then anything. "I'm Cinder."

"Cinder? That's a cool name! Do you know Emerald? I know Emerald, cause we're together! Well not together together because I don't like girls that way but if I did I think I'd totally go for someone like her, but together as in we're teammates because we both have theeeeese!" Nora pulled out a golden rook from her pocket in one hand and another seemed to simply materialize in her other hand. Emerald blanched and began frantically checking herself over for her relic, finding nothing.

It took Cinder a couple moments to process what Nora had just said and the importance of the two golden rooks in her hand. When she did process it her mouth went dry. "You... you two are on a team together?"

"Yup!"

Emerald looked ready to bolt.

"Okay Cinder, don't panic. This is still salvageable. This Nora girl seems as dumb as a sack of rocks. All you have to do is sweet talk her into giving you the relic, and all will be well. Ozpin may not like it, but I'm sure I can explain it off as simply wanting to be on a team with people I know with him being none the wiser."

Cinder cleared her throat. "Nora, you see, Emerald and Mercury are indeed my friends. We've known each other almost our entire lives, and when we came to Beacon we hoped to all be on the same team. I couldn't imagine having to be on a separate team from them. I know you claimed the relic first, but I would greatly appreciate it if you'd consider choosing another relic. The girl I wanted to partner with," she inclined her head at Neo, "had stumbled across someone else by mistake before I could find her, and if I can't team up with Mercury and Emerald I would be on a team of strangers, separated from my childhood friends for the first time in, well... forever." She adopted an expression designed to encourage pity, even as she fought the urge to gag.

The look on Nora's face made it all worth it though. The girl looked at the Golden rook in her hands, then at Cinder. "Well..."

There was a loud crash and the sound of splintering wood behind them. Cinder turned to see a massive Deathstalker burst into the clearing pursuing Ruby, the blonde girl, who was now carrying Weiss over one shoulder and Jaune over the other, the black haired girl, and a red headed girl Cinder recognized as Pyrrha Nikos even at this distance.

Nora gasped. "Is that a Deathstalker?" Cinder turned to look at her. She almost backed away when she saw the dangerous gleam in her eyes. The girl hefted her massive hammer. "Renny! Imma kill me a Deathstalker!"

The boy, evidently given the unfortunate name of Renny, blanched. "Nora, don't-"

She was already halfway towards it by the time he'd finished saying her name.

He sighed and ran after her, leaving Cinder standing there with her two lackeys who looked ready to run themselves, just not towards the Deathstalker.

Cinder materialized her swords in each hand. Mercury and Emerald eyed her warily, as though afraid she would attack them. She just might have, if she thought she could get away with it. Fortunately for them, she couldn't. "We will speak of this later," she said in a low and dangerous voice. "For now, I need to go work off some frustration." She charged down the hill after Nora, determined to carve the Deathstalker into little pieces.

"Ruby!"

Jaune looked up too see two young women rushing towards them, one blonde, the other dark haired. The blonde one had shouted his friend's name, and Ruby responded. "Yang!" She darted over to the girl as Jaune watched, surprised. This was her sister? The two looked nothing alike. Where one was short and lithe, the other was tall, buxom, and muscular. She also seemed to possess either less modesty or more confidence in her body than her sister if her outfit was any indicator.

He watched as Yang wrapped the smaller girl up in a massive bear hug. "There you are! I was starting to get worried when I couldn't find you!"

"Yang... air..."

"Oh, sorry." She put Ruby down and ruffled her hair. Jaune noticed it was already pretty messy, probably thanks to him. He thought about making his way over and introducing himself, but looked at Weiss and decided against it. This place was still dangerous, and he wouldn't leave Weiss alone and vulnerable.

"So, this your partner?" Yang asked as the three came over. She had gestured at Jaune when she had said that. He stood and dusted himself off.

"Regrettably, no I am not Ruby's partner, but she's a fine young warrior." He held a hand out to Yang. "I am Jaune, the Oathblade."

Yang stared at him curiously, and took his hand. "Nice to meet you Mr. Oathblade. I'm Yang."

He smiled. "I know. Ruby has told me of you. Only good things, I assure you."

Yang grinned. "I like him." She nudged her sister's side with an elbow, waggling her eyebrows suggestively. "If I didn't already have my partner I'd want him for myself."

Ruby's face flushed. "Yang..."

Jaune recognized the flirtation for what it was. Unbeknownst to most people outside the Stormhosts, Stormcast did sometimes have romantic relationships with one another, or even mortals on rare occasions. They were still more or less human after all.

"I'm afraid I'm spoken for," he said with an exaggerated sigh, "by a distant yet stunning onyx haired beauty." He looked at the girl behind Yang, who was also an onyx haired beauty, and smiled to include her in the joke. She smiled back, if only just. "I'm sure you understand."

Yang snickered. "Yeah, I get that." She pointed a thumb at the other girl. "I'm in the same boat. This is my partner, Blake."

Jaune inclined his head to her. "Its a pleasure to meet you, Blake."

She nodded back. "Likewise."

"I don't guess your onyx haired beauty is in a red dress, looks like she swallowed a lemon? We passed her just a minute ago. She's making a beeline for the ruins."

"That's the one," Jaune confirmed.

"Looks like real charmer," she joked, "you lucked out." Yang looked at Ruby. "So if Jaune is spoken for..." she looked at Weiss, who was still passed out on the ground. "She's your partner."

The crimsonette slumped and nodded. "Sorry kiddo," Yang said sympathetically, "but that's life. Maybe you two will learn to get along." Ruby grumbled something that conveyed her lack of hope for that.

Jaune noticed that both Blake and Yang were clutching what looked to be identical chess pieces. "What are those?" He asked curiously.

Yang looked at the chess piece, then at him in confusion. A lot of people had been doing that lately. "They're the relics. The ones Ozpin sent us to collect for initiation."

"I've heard people talk about this initiation before. What is it for? Some right of passage?"

Yang's expression only grew more confused until Ruby cut in. "Yang... we think Jaune suffered a head injury on the way down. He's got some sort of amnesia. There's a lot of stuff he can't remember"

"Oh." Yang blinked. "I'm uh, sorry to hear that," she said awkwardly.

Jaune shrugged. "Think nothing of it. I can still fight, and my mind remains sharp. That is all that matters." Though that wasn't entirely true. There was a lot more that mattered, such as their collective lack of knowledge regarding Sigmar, the realms, and a myriad of other things, and also whatever in the hells had happened to him to turn him into a mortal man again. For now though, he was content to let them think he was an amnesiac until he could find answers to his many questions.

"So whichever chess piece we take determines who we will be in a team with, correct?"

Yang nodded. "Yup. If you and your friend took the Black Knight pieces, then you'd be on a team with me and Blakey!"

"Blakey?" The girl in question stared at her partner with a raised eyebrow. Yang pretended not to notice.

Jaune looked at Ruby. "Perhaps we should try to be on a team together?" He suggested.

She shuffled her feet shyly. "I kinda wanted to be on a team with my sister," she admitted sheepishly, "sorry Jaune."

"Nope!" Yang spoke up before Jaune could say anything. "Sorry little sis, but I know you. If I let you team up with me you'll cling to me and refuse to make any friends."

"But I've already made one friend!" Ruby retorted, waving her arms vigorously at Jaune.

"Whiiiiiich is why you two should team up!" Yang said as she pushed Ruby towards Jaune. "That way you'll be on a team with someone you know you like, and you can make friends out of your other teammates."

"Even Weiss?"

"Most of your teammates," Yang corrected. "Who knows, maybe the ice queen will come around and see how awesome my cute baby sis is!" Yang pitched Ruby's cheeks while the poor girl squawked in outrage and tried to struggle away. Jaune suddenly suffered a coughing fit that only got worse when he looked at the two sisters, and even Blake was wearing a smile.

"Besides, I won't totally abandon you!" She turned her gaze on Jaune, and for a moment he could have sworn her lilac eyes had flashed red. "Someone's going to have to break your friend's bones if he tries anything nasty."

"Yang, don't threaten my first friend at Beacon!"

Jaune grinned and shrugged. "You'll have no issues from me, you have my word on that."

"Good!" Yang clapped a hand on his shoulder and squeezed. Jaune nearly collapsed then and there. By Sigmar, her grip was astoundingly strong.

Then the ground began to rumble.

"What's that?" Ruby asked, looking around in confusion.

"There's something in the trees," Blake said, her amber eyes narrowed as she scanned the forest. "Look, right there." She pointed at a dark spot deeper in the forest. It was rapidly growing larger.

Jaune drew Quicksilver from her sheathe. "Grimm almost certainly, and a big one judging from how the ground quakes." His eyes narrowed as he noticed something else. "Wait... there's someone coming this way!"

Indeed there was. Though he could not make out much in the way of detail, it was clearly a woman running hard for them. As she grew closer he could make out more details both of her, and of what was following her.

"What in the name of the Great Drake is that?!" Jaune shouted in alarm as the gigantic scorpion charged into view.

"Deathstalker!" Blake shouted as she drew a strangely curved blade from its sheathe.

"Death what?!"

"Deathstalker!" Yang repeated as what Jaune had mistaken as bracelets opened up into a set of large gauntlets. "Big mean Scorpion Grimm! It's sting is poisonous, it's pincers can cut a man in half, and it's hide is strong as hell!"

"Can we hurt it?" Jaune asked.

"If we hit it enough, yeah," Ruby said as she raised her weapon it's rifle form and took aim. She fired, but the round glanced harmlessly off the hide.

Jaune thought quick. "We need to pull back."

"There's six of us," Ruby protested, "we can take it!"

"Five," Blake corrected, "Weiss is still unconscious."

"Perhaps four, or less," Jaune said grimly. "Whoever that is running may be exhausted, and I can tell you right now that nothing I have can pierce that exoskeleton. And someone will have to watch over Weiss during the fight. We could be looking at having only three people who can actually harm that thing."

Ruby sighed and lowered her weapon. "What's the plan?"

"Yang, grab Weiss and retreat to the ruins. Ruby, I want you to distract the Deathstalker so our new friend can put distance between it and her. I'll help Ruby. We'll stage a fighting retreat, two of us striking it to slow it down and distract it while the others escape. Blake, you'll rotate out with Ruby on distraction when I call for it."

"Are you sure you helping distract it is the best idea?" Ruby asked doubtfully. "I know you can fight, but..."

"I thought of the plan, so I will take part in the most dangerous portion of it," Jaune said with determination. "I will not be swayed on this."

"And yoink!"

"W-what are you- put me down this instant young lady!" Jaune growled in indignation as Yang scooped him up in one arm and slung him over one shoulder, Weiss on the other.

Yang laughed and simply adjusted her grip to compensate for his struggling. "Young lady? What are you, my dad?"

"I'm older than your dad! And his dad, and your father's fathers for at least three generations!" He growled internally. "This is an indignity!"

"Yeah yeah. Look, I haven't even seen you in action and I can already tell that you'll be too slow to do anything except get yourself smacked around like a pinata, only when you break it won't be candy coming out."

Jaune growled and struggled more, but Yang's grip was like iron. She began to run towards the ruins as Ruby and Blake darted off towards the Deathstalker.

Relief coursed through Pyrrha when she saw the others coming to help. One was a small girl wiedling a scythe taller than she was, and the other held a katana in one hand and the sheathe of the katana in the other. As she watched the smaller girl darted off to one side and the black haired girl launched a ribbon out of the end of her weapon and hauled herself into the air with it, firing at the Deathstalker with her katana, which had changed form into a pistol. The giant Arachnoid Grimm turned away from Pyrrha and faced the black haired woman as she swung by. It turned again to face the smaller girl as she fired off multiple high powered bullets from the end of her scythe. "Keep going!" the tiny crimsonette shouted as she darted away from the beast, "we'll distract it!"

It grated on Pyrrha to run away and leave them to fight the Deathstalker alone, but the two were clearly much quicker and agile than Pyrrha was, and could slip away better than she could.

She burst out of the trees and saw others running away. Or rather, one of them was running and carrying the other two. One was a blonde haired boy she didn't recognize who was struggling and cursing vigorously. The other was Weiss, who wasn't moving.

There was a hissing shriek from behind her, and Pyrrha turned to see that the two girls had broken off from the attack and were running too. The Deathstalker was hot on their heels however.

"Keep running!" the blonde boy shouted. "To the ruins!"

A shadow fell over them. The champion looked up to the sky and saw a massive black silhoutte swooping down towards them.

"Nevermore!" she yelled to the others as massive black feathers rained down on them.

"Scatter!" The girl carrying the other two screamed.

As the Nevermore rained death down upon them and the Deathstalker stormed after them Jaune watched Blake and Ruby break off as a hail of feathers separated Ruby and Blake from the others. The two girls ran off in a separate path curving around where where the feathers fell, but the Nevermore seemed intent on them. The feathers tracked them as they fled, ripping up the earth in a path after them.

"Drop me!" Jaune shouted, "your sister needs help!"

"Then I can-"

"You're the only one who can carry Weiss without being slowed down," Jaune reminded her, "I can help your sister if you let me go."

Yang didn't say anything, but her grip loosened and Jaune slid off of her shoulder. He drew Quicksilver and sprinted towards Ruby and Blake. "Keep going!" He shouted to Yang and the red headed girl. He could see Cinder and others he didn't recognize rushing to help them.

He barely managed to skid to a halt as a line of feathers slammed down in front of him, cutting him off from the two girls. Two more slammed down beyond, one cutting Blake and Ruby off from each other, the third following the path Ruby ran. As he watched one snagged the end of her cloak and Ruby's retreat came to a sudden halt. The girl pulled at the cape desperately but the material wouldn't tear.

There was a menacing sibilant hiss off to the side. Jaune watched as the Deathstalker rushed towards Ruby, snapping its mandibles and its pincers.

"Ruby!" screamed Yang, fear plain in her voice. Jaune thought fast. He couldn't get to her through the feathers, and even if he could he wasn't sure he could free her before the Deathstalker was upon her.

But he could buy her time.

Jaune sheathed Quicksilver and drew Tyrannus Occisor. He sprinted towards the Deathstalker, rounding the corner where the line of feathers ended, and skidded to a halt. The Deathstalker bore down on him, inhuman rage evident in its beady, insectoid eyes. Jaune knew he didn't stand a chance alone against such a beast. Even had he still possessed the form and power of a Stormcast his survival would have been far from certain. But what else could he do? He would not leave Ruby to die. If her survival cost his life, then so be it. But he would die defiant, with blade in hand.

Jaune planted his feet and hefted his grandblade in both hands, ready to meet death.

"Who will stand against the onrushing dark, and fear it not?"

A spark of power crackled in Jaune's eyes. He drew Tryannus back for a single mighty swing of his blade, prepared to put the full might of his body behind it, and roared the battle cry of his Stormhost.

"Only the faithful!"

Oh my, seems Jaune has found himself in a rather difficult situation? How ever will he survive?

You'll just have to find out next chapter I suppose ;3.

So in this chapter teams are pretty much decided. Ren, Nora, Emerald, and Mercury are going to be in one team, Pyrhha, Neo, Blake, and Yang in another (since Neo had picked up the black knight piece) which will leave Jaune, Cinder, Weiss, and Ruby in the final team. Now, these teams are of course going to need names. Problem is I'm total crap at coming up with team names. So any suggestions for good team names any of y'all have would be appreciated.

GLOSSARY OF AGE OF SIGMAR TERMS:

Nagash: Nagash was once a part of Sigmar's pantheon of gods. He ruled over Shyish, the realm of death, where all mortal souls would go once they died. Nagash and Sigmar never liked one another, indeed they were mortal foes even upon the world that was, long before the creation of the Mortal realms, but when Sigmar began the creation of the Stormcast it was the final straw for Nagash, for those souls taken as Stormcast are among the strongest and most noble people within the realms, leaving Nagash with the dregs of society to choose from. Nagash has sworn revenge for what he sees as a slight, and in the lore of AOS Nagash has unleashed something called the Necroquake: an event that swept over all of the eight realms, raising the spirits of the dead and sewing terror in the realms. However an unexpected side effect was the creation of endless spells. These are spells that when cast do not dissipate and instead gain a level of sentience and roam the land, attacking anyone it comes across.

Shyish: Shyish is the realm of the dead, ruled by Nagash. All those who meet their final end go to Shyish, unless Sigmar claims them to be reforged into Stormcast, or if their souls are absorbed by the ruinous powers of Chaos. Though there are settlements of living men and women in Shyish, much of the land consists of various afterlives where the dead reside according to their beliefs and actions in life. Eventually the souls of the dead will dissipate into raw soul essence to be absorbed by Nagash.

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