As Jaune flew through the air, multiple thoughts were going through his mind. A landing strategy was not one of them however. He already had one that he had used plenty of times with one hundred percent success rate. It was to simply crash through everything till he came to a stop. It was simple, it was ingenious, it was-
Stupid and reckless.
Jaune held Grave Officium in front him with the flat side facing the incoming trees. The young huntsman ploughed right through the trees like they were made of glass. When Jaune finally hit the ground he created a small crater. He was quick to stand up and held his sword at the ready for any incoming Grimm. When none came he rested his sword on his shoulder and looked around to find the highest tree to use as a viewing point. Failing to find one he started to walk in a random direction while looking around for something. After sometime Jaune sighed and swung his weapon at a low hanging branch. He removed all the smaller side branches and leaves till he had a relative straight stick.
Suddenly he grabbed Grave Officium and swung it with one hand behind him. A Beowolf that tried to sneak up on him was cut in half from its mouth till half way its back. Jaune spunned on his the balls of his foot while standing up till he face the rest of the pack. When Jaune counted twelve Beowolfs he smiled. This was going to be too easy. He took a deep breath and roared at the Grimm. The Grimm roared back and charged at him all at ones. Jaune swung Grave Officium ones more to behead four of the wolfs while grabbing Crocea Mors with his left hand and used it to cut one more Beowolf down. He quickly backpedalled to buy himself some time to swing Grave Officium again. While he could swing Grave Officium with one hand it took some time to stop the blade because of its sheer weight and to momentum it generated to get another swing in. When one of the Grimm lunged at his throat he head butted it right in the snout breaking it. He then thrusted Crocea Mors into its chest. He swung Grave Officium back and took another three down. This time he spun with the momentum to the right in a full spin take two more out. He threw Crocea Mors at the last one but missed it barely so he brought Grave Officium above his head and slammed it down on the Grimm cleaving it clean in half. He gave the area a quick look to see if more Grimm had arrived. The only new arrival was Pyrrha who was holding Crocea Mors.
"That was impressive" Pyrrha said while walking over and handed Jaune his sword back. Jaune put it back in its sheath.
"Thank but it would have been better if I had hit the last one"
"Maybe you should invest in throwing knifes. It would be a lot easier and would allow you to keep your sword near" Jaune pondered on that. It was a pretty good idea. Jaune walked back to where he dropped his stick. Pyrrha gave Jaune a strange look.
"Uhm Jaune, what's up with that stick"?
"This is my compass" Pyrrha looked confused. How could a stick be a compass?
"Come on partner, let's find that relic"
As Pyrrha and Jaune walked through the forest with relative ease, just a few Grimm here and there, the two walked in silence. Pyrrha wanted to break it but didn't know how.
"So I didn't catch where you're from" Pyrrha clumsy began.
"Oh I'm from Zannost" Pyrrha suddenly felt empty. Everyone knew about the thick tension between Zannost and Mistral. Her partner was probably just being polite and out of fighting situations didn't want to talk to her.
"Is there something wrong"? Jaune was suddenly in front of her.
"Ah, no it's nothing" Pyrrha replied. She was a little surprised that Jaune was suddenly in front of her. I didn't even notice him moving Pyrrha thought to herself.
"Is it because I'm from Zannost"? Pyrrha just looked away. Jaune sighed and removed his helmet.
"Pyrrha look at me" Jaune ordered. Pyrrha looked back only to see piercing blue eyes. She blushed a little bit.
"Where you the one who caused the incident"? Jaune asked. The red head shook her head negative. The Faunus gave her a big goofy smile. Pyrrha's blush got a little worse." Then there is nothing to worry about. Just because we are from two kingdoms that hate each other, doesn't mean that we have to hate one other" Jaune moved back and put his helmet back on."beside it would be immature to hate you just because you were born in Mistral". Pyrrha stared at Jaune for a while till she gave a smile that her sponsors would love to have on their products.
"Oh can I ask you something"?
"Sure, what is it"? Pyrrha replied.
"What's up with your outfit"? Jaune asked. Pyrrha blinked.
"What do you mean by that"?
"Well it because you got armoured greaves and vambrace but then you got this leather piece for your torso. Add that you don't have cuisses or rerebrace I find it a weird combination. At least you got a head piece" Jaune said while poking the corset and taping the circlet.
"But my sponsors said it was great" Pyrrha replied confused.
"Wait, you're a model as well as a champion"?
"That right" Jaune deadpanned at the answer.
"Suddenly everything makes sense" Jaune said. Pyrrha gave a confused sound. "Pyrrha your outfit is a mixture of a models clothing and a warrior's armour. This means that while it looks good on tv and for photoshoots, it's pretty much useless in a really fight".
"But I have been in fights before" Pyrrha argued.
"True but you fights got a name in Duri" Jaune shot back. "Safe fighting. And what it means is that even if you fight there is a safety net. You aren't allowed to do blows that would kill someone on purpose and the match stops when one of the fighters aura drops to fifteen percent or lower".
"But that is the standard for every tournament" Pyrrha said "They are there so that the chance of death is as low as possible".
Jaune nodded "True but as a future huntress this will hurt you even if you don't realize it. Huntsman and huntresses are meant to protect humanity. Sadly that isn't always the Grimm. Sometimes it's humans that are the threat. By not allowing killing blows you will not use them, even if they can change the flow of a fight. Doesn't matter if they miss or are blocked. By choosing to not use them can even disrupt your fight momentum". Pyrrha looked very uncomfortable. Jaune caught on this.
"Anyway your outfit is good for tournament but maybe get a new one for in the field. Plus you have four years to learn how fight without them" Jaune said "Anyway, let focus on finding that temple. Oh and do you want to do the second part of the initiation"?
"Hmm I don't really mind" Pyrrha said. "Do you want to do it"?
"Well yeah but if we are going to do that, I need to tell you about my semblance".
"Why that"?
"Well it may affect you especially if we are going to camp in a Grimm infected forest".
"Ok so what is your semblance"?
"I call it oathbreaker" Jaune began "What it does is that if you run away in battle with me in the area it will cause you to freeze up for one minute. At night people are more likely to run away than at daytime".
Pyrrha blinked. That was an unusual semblance. "So if I need to run away with you to prevent that"?
Jaune smiled. "Nope. It works on me as well. So if we encounter Grimm at night we need to fight them".
Pyrrha nodded. She understood now why he told her his semblance. One minute was more than enough time for the Grimm to kill you even with aura. Suddenly gunfire was heard.
"It seems our comrades have encountered the enemy"
"And it looks like someone set the forest on fire" Jaune replied as he saw smoke rising in the distant. The two huntsman continued their track towards the temple. As they walked they stumbled upon a cave.
"You think this is it"? Pyrrha asked. Jaune pointed next to the cave entrance.
"No I think this is the home of a Deathstalker" Next to the entrance was a painting of humans fighting a giant scorpion.
"Let's move on Pyrrha"
"We're not going to fight it"? Pyrrha asked.
"No, if we go in there, my fighting ability to fight would decrease. Add my semblance with it would be a death wish. Plus we don't know how big it is" The two went back to finding the temple. Finally they found the temple. They were, however, not the first one to find the temple.
"Hey foxy" Yang said.
"Hi Yang, so this is your partner"?
"Yup her name is Blake, my sassy partner" Yang replied with a grin. The now named Blake rolled her eyes.
"Heads up"! Someone said. It was weird because the voice was coming from above. Everyone looked up to see Ruby falling towards them. Jaune took two steps back and dropped his sword and caught Ruby.
"Hi Ruby" Jaune said like it was a normal thing to caught people from the sky.
"Hey Jaune" Ruby said with a smile. "Thanks for the catch"
"No problem" Jaune replied as he set her down
"Yeehaw" A girl with orange hair yelled while riding on an Ursa. The Ursa collapsed throwing the girl of its back.
"Aww it's broken" The girl said. From behind the now dead Ursa a black haired boy came, clearly exhausted.
"Nora, please. Don't do that again" The boy said. But when he stood up the girl had vanished. He then spotted her at the ruins singing about queen of the castle.
"NORA" It seems like the boy patience had run out.
"Coming Ren" The girl said as she hopped over.
"Did that girl just ride in on an Ursa"? Blake asked.
"She sure energetic" Pyrrha said unsure.
"Wait a minute, Ruby how did you fall from the sky"? Jaune asked the red reaper. Ruby pointed back at the sky. As the boy and the girl from before join them they all looked up to see Weiss clinging onto a talon of a giant Nevermore.
"How could you leave me"?! Weiss screamed.
"I said jump"
"She's gonna fall" Blake said.
"She'll be fine" Ruby said back.
"She's falling" The boy named Ren said. Jaune sighed as he walked seven paces. He held his arms out and caught Weiss.
"Let me guess, not your idea"? Jaune asked Weiss.
"Hrmph of course not"
"The Nevermore is coming back" Yang said.
"Everyone shoot the bird" Jaune said. "We got enough people here to take it down plus that Nevermore isn't going to leave us alone". The Hunters started shooting the giant Grimm. The Grimm stood no chance against the barrage that the Hunters unleashed. When it hit the ground Jaune rushed in split the Grimm's head in two.
"That was easier than I expected" Yang said.
"Well it had little to no armour" The fox faunus said as he went back to the temple and picking a golden rook.
"So, who of you guys are going to camp in the woods"? Jaune asked.
"Oh Ren can we? We can have a campfire and tell scary story"
"Sure"
"Blake what about you"? Yang asked her partner.
"Sure we probably do it easy" Blake replied.
"Looks like we're in Foxy"
"Weiss Weiss can we join can we"?
"No" Weiss said" I rather get to back to Beacon and get this over with".
"Uhm, Weiss you do know that the initiation last two days now, right"? Jaune asked.
"Are you insulting my intelligent" Weiss said angry "Of course I know that"
"Well if you go to Beacon you are going to spend a whole doing nothing cause you're not a student yet so you probably are not allowed to use their facilities" Jaune reasoned. Weiss thought about it. That could be true. Letting unregistered people used the resources of Beacon would be irresponsible. Plus she really didn't want to admit it but she had little experiences with camping she could use this to learn while not having to admit that she would have no idea how to survive in the wild.
"Fine" Weiss signed.
"Yea let find us some water" Ruby cheered. She almost sped off but Yang grabbed her cape.
'Easy there little sis" Yang said amused "Let's not split up to find you".
"Anyway I never got you twos name" Jaune said "Mine is Jaune Arc.
"Nora Valkyrie"
"Lie Ren"
Hi everyone. SoWriteIt here. I stop here because I couldn't write the whole initiation this month. It was busier than I expected. I stop here because it felt more natural then at other segments. Plus more of the world will be revealed in the next part of the story and I didn't want to ruin that by rushing it. I will try to get the next part out before February ends.