AN: Remeber how I said I don't like adding OC characters...? This chapter will not support my claim. I did try to think out his character more than most OCs that I would make, but I started to think that if I have to add one more, my story will break. I don't know, maybe he will just turn out well.
P.S. Jaune comes in for the save.
Chapter 4
Clearing Skies
It was yet another day on the road. Forest to the right, forest to the left. Luckily, for team JNRR, they had not encountered any Grimm yet. The snow even decided to take a day off. Everything seemed like it was going to be a great day, until they saw a swordsman wandering in a clearing. It was Ruby who first noticed him. She gave a sign to the group to stop.
"It looks like there is a guy in the clearing. Be quiet," she warned, trying to hide herself behind a fallen tree.
"Ow!" Jaune cried as a branch Nora had been holding bend smacked him in the face.
"Sorry," whispered Nora back at him trying to move around to get a batter look at the man.
The three of them, excluding Jaune who was still getting up, were watching a swordsman with dark-red hair walk around the clearing confused.
"Do you think he is friendly?" asked Ruby to the others.
"He does seem to need help," pointed out Rin, "And I doubt he would kill everyone that tried to help him even if he was a possible enemy."
Jaune had gotten up and join the rest of the group.
"So who is this guy? Can I see?" asked Jaune.
Rin had stood up a little, which just left Jaune with a small hole to see through.
"Oh," Jaune said, "I see a sword. Maybe we should just go around."
"Yeah," said Nora, "I heard about stories where people would try to help a person in the woods, but the person turns out to be a thief."
Jaune started to get restless.
"See," he said, "Nora agrees. Everyone in favor of going around this clearing say 'Aye'."
No one said 'Aye' because they were too focused on the swordsman, who had just walked back through a patch of bushes for the fourth time.
"Maybe I can just…," said Ruby trying to lean a little further over the log to get a better look at the guy.
"Ruby," said Jaune as he reached out to try to pull her back.
At the presence of Jaune's hands trying to pull her back, she instinctually jumped forwards, making her land in front of the log in a noisy crash. This alerted the swordsman of their presence.
"Who's there?" asked the red-haired swordsman shocked at the sudden arrival of Ruby.
"Ruby!" exclaimed Nora as she and Rin jumped over the log, yet again accidently knocking Jaune over.
As the group came to Ruby's rescue, pulling out their weapons along the way, the swordsman reacted.
"I heard that there might be some people like you along the way," he said slowly pulling out his sword.
It was a curved sword, king of like a katana, but it was as red as his hair and lacked a guard at the hilt. He posed as though ready to fight.
"What are you doing here?" asked Ruby trying to at least see if this could still be friendly.
"I don't have to tell anyone, and I won't let you get in my way."
At this confirmed 'bad guy' quote, Ruby gave a nod to Nora and Rin telling them that they can fight, but they need to continue afterwards. Ruby herself pulled out her scythe.
"Jaune," she said back at Jaune who has made little progress in pulling his head out of the snow, "I need you to get up. The guy turned out to be bad."
She couldn't tell, but a 'My mold moo mo' came from Jaune. Turning back to the situation at hand, Ruby took a look at the swordsman's fighting stance to look for a way through it, but she couldn't. It must just have to be a battle of skill and numbers against him, so she decided on a first move. She looked at Nora and Rin and the plan was set. Nora converted her Hammer into a grenade launcher and she fired a shot.
A large cloud of snow and smoke came up near the swordsman. Ruby used that opportunity to make a quick attack. With a little bit of rose petals falling in her wake, she rocketed towards the swordsman and swung her scythe down at him, but he met her attack with a perfectly timed block. She used a shot to propel herself off of his sword while leaving him a little stunned so Rin could come into the opening.
Rin came flying from behind the swordsman with his machine gun/knives ready for him; however, the swordsman was able to move around to block his attack as well. This left him open as Nora ran in delivering the first blow with the end of the hammer. This only knocked him over though.
"Oh," he said getting back up, "aren't you three a bag of tricks. I think I need to get more serious here."
He stood back up and entered his stance again. This time it seemed a bit different, but Ruby couldn't see how.
Rin switched to using his guns. With quick movements, the swordsman had moved out of the way of his guns and even blocked some of the bullets with his sword. Nora then ran in from his left swing her hammer, this time, to deliver a dangerously strong blow; however, the swordsman dodged her attack and then swung his sword at her hammer afterwards knocking it from her hands.
"Jaune!" Ruby shouted, "Hurry!"
Jaune finally popped his head out of the snow as Ruby shot herself off again towards the swordsman.
"Wait!" shouted Jaune, but no one could hear him.
Ruby swung her scythe down at the red-haired swordsman again and started to unleash a flurry of attacks at him. All of this time, Jaune had been heading into the clearing.
The swordsman knocked away Ruby's last attack, placed his sword back into his sheath, and then jumped back a fair distance.
"It's over now," declared the swordsman.
A bright red light started to emanate from where his sword met his sheath.
"WAIT!" shouted Jaune.
With his last final plea, everything stopped. Ruby, Nora, and Rin were looking at him and so was the swordsman. The red light faded away from his sheathe as he looked at Jaune. Only one word was spoken by any of them.
"Sorry," said the swordsman as he unhanded his sword.
Jaune was standing there as though he knew the swordsman, and the swordsman stood there as if he knew Jaune.
"I'm sorry for the trouble that I caused," said the swordsman, who had started to kneel, "I beg your forgiveness prince."
"PRINCE!?" exclaimed the group.
With this royal shock running through the group, none of them might have been thinking of the girl around Beacon Academy as she started her plan on what she was going to do.
…To Be Continued?
