As the beringel screamed in fury and pain, Jaune bashed his shield into its face before slashing Crocea Mors, which was currently buried in its chest. The Grimm tried to get in one last strike even as it began to fade, but the blonde knight stepped backwards and watched as it fell, quickly dissipating into nothingness.

Jaune breathed heavily as he tried to catch his breath. It was his first time fighting the gorilla like Grimm, and they were just as tough as Port's lessons had suggested. Thankfully it was one of the lectures Pyrrha had managed to keep him awake for, so he remembered its weaknesses. It had still been a grueling fight, lasting almost thirty long, exhausting minutes. He took a deep gulp from his canteen as he leaned against a tree, quickly wiping sweat from his face.

It had been a week since he saw the bullhead flying overhead, crushing his spirit that much more. He'd had to fight for his life a lot for some time after that, his despair and fury drawing Grimm to him in large quantities. He was almost out of medical supplies, having taken so many hits, and his prized Pumpkin Pete hoodie was ripped and bloody in multiple locations from where he'd taken hits after his aura shield had broken.

Thankfully he had managed to gain some control of his emotions after the first couple of days and the flood of Grimm trying to rip him to shreds had slowed, though in keeping with the Deathlands' reputation, he still fought more than any traveler would in a normal part of the world.

If there was any upside to his situation it was that his combat skills had gone up by a truly incredible amount. He was likely never going to be an overwhelming force in combat like Pyrrha was, but his ability to think tactically and exploit his opponents' weaknesses became that much more fearsome as they were refined through constant combat. He idly wondered how he'd do in combat class now. A day in the Deathlands was worth twenty in Beacon, as far as he was concerned.

Sighing he began moving again, bow and arrow at the ready in case of any more unwelcome visitors. He'd been headed to where he could hear running water when he'd been intercepted by the beringel. He was planning to catch some fish after filling up his canteen, though one thing he hoped was that the water was deep enough to allow him to have a quick bath. He didn't care that the water would most likely be pretty cold, he was filthy, sweaty and smelly. He reached up and rubbed his chin and jaw, feeling the stubble. A shave would be good too, unlikely as it was. Thank goodness he was slow at growing facial hair. He didn't want to imagine the kind of itchy hell a dirty, tangled beard would be in this situation.

He reached the stream he had heard and was gratified to see that it wasn't very strong or wide, but it was decently deep enough for a bath.

He filled up his canteen before starting to fish, wanting to catch something before he scared them all away when he got in the water. He pulled his shoes off before slowly and carefully entering the water, looking around for fish to catch, using a sharpened length of wood he'd prepared specifically for the task.

Fifteen minutes later he had three large fish on a flat stone by the bank of the river. Satisfied, he got his clothes off before slipping back into the water, wading in till he was submerged up to his waist. He shivered at the cold, but eagerly began washing himself, getting the sweat and other general unpleasantness off of himself, all while longingly thinking of the hot showers in the Beacon dorms, or the large bathtub back at his family home that he rarely got to use without one of his sisters complaining.

Such thoughts inevitably brought his mind to his friends and family. He wondered how they were doing without him. Did they think he was dead? How were they handling that? Would his team be getting a new member to replace him?

That last thought made his chest tighten. Part of him thought that they'd probably be better off without him. He wasn't even a mediocre student, and there was no way he should have become leader over Pyrrha or Ren. He'd done his best to live up to the position, but that didn't change the fact that the team as a whole would be much stronger with a replacement that actually knew what they were doing.

His self-pitying thoughts were interrupted when something bit at a rather sensitive part of his anatomy. "Ah! Holy fuck!" He screamed as he flailed, feeling more small bites all over his lower body. He immediately began to scramble to get out of the water, trying to get away for the constant pain. When he got out of the water he collapsed onto the ground, panting at the sudden panic, before turning to see what had attacked him. What he saw made him blink, his brain stalling as it tried to comprehend the absurdity of what he was seeing.

Gathered at the bank of the stream were a group of black fish half the size of salmon covered in bone plating, sharklike masks on their faces. They were staring in his direction, as though expecting him to wade back into the water for them to continue eating.

Jaune's eye twitched. "Grimm… fish…" Another twitch. "You've got to be kidding me…" His head thumped onto the ground, overwhelmed by the sheer absurdity of what he was seeing.

Finally he sighed and got dressed, his clothes sticking to his wet body, and began preparing the fish he caught, doing his best to ignore the small Grimm still staring at him.


Ozpin's hands clenched around his cane as he glared at the screens displaying the members of the Vale Council, his normal stoic calm at its breaking point. "You cannot be serious."

"It's been almost two weeks, Ozpin." One of the councilors said. "Experienced Huntsmen have lasted less time than your student has been in the Deathlands. The odds of him still being alive are negligible. We won't authorize risking further resources on a fruitless search. As of now, the search for Jaune Arc is at an end, and he will be classified as KIA."

Ironwood stepped forward beside Ozpin as said man grit his teeth. "Councilors, please reconsider. My troops are minimizing the danger while increasing the chances of success. Give us at least another week."

"The decision has been made, General." The female councilor said. "We don't enjoy making it, but we debated over it for some time before doing so. This conversation is over, gentlemen. I would suggest you focus on preparing for the tournament." The call abruptly ended, leaving Ozpin's office silent but for the ticking of the various gears.

Glynda had her eyes closed as she tried to keep her emotions under control. It had been inevitable, really. Honestly, it was surprising that it hadn't happened sooner. As Ironwood had stated when Jaune first went missing, official policy was to essentially leave anybody stranded in the Deathlands for dead for fear of losing more people in the search. The council had looked the other way for almost two weeks, but apparently their patience was up.

"What do we do now?" Glynda asked slowly.

Ironwood shook his head. "Not much we can do. The council has made their decision, and we have to abide by it." He sighed and ran a hand through his hair.

Ozpin's shoulders slumped before he let out a long sigh and moving to sit behind his desk. He closed his eyes and lay his head back. "Unfortunately, James is right, Glynda. We could get away with sending search parties before under the technicality that the council hadn't yet given a specific order against it. That has changed." He reached for his mug and brought it to his lips, uncaring that the coffee was now cold. "Glynda, please inform Mr. Arc's friends of the news. I… shall contact his family."

Glynda closed her eyes again, pained as she remembered NPR and RWBY's current state. "This will destroy them…"

Ozpin nodded sadly. "Very likely. But they have a right to know. It's not like we'll be able to keep it a secret for long."

Ironwood hesitated. "Let me know if there's anything I can do to help."

Ozpin looked up at his friend and subordinate. "Could you contact Winter Schnee and have her come with all due haste? Her presence might at the least help her sister deal with her grief and guilt. I'll contact Taiyang after I finish the call to the Arcs."

Ironwood nodded. "I can do that." He began to walk out of the office, pulling his scroll out of his pocket. Glynda followed behind him, preparing herself for her unenviable task.

Ozpin sighed once again as they left before taking a deep breath to brace himself and beginning the call to the Arc family.


The sun was on its way down, telling Jaune that he needed to find shelter for the night. He kept an eye out for something suitable while he carried his latest kill, a rabbit, in his hand, ready to be butchered.

He'd gotten rather good at finding useful locations, including a couple more buildings that were mostly hidden by overgrown vegetation but still served their purpose. He mostly slept in trees, however. It wasn't completely safe, as he had to keep a wary eye out for any nevermores, but it was still safer than sleeping on the ground, where any beowulf, ursa or creep could attack him in his sleep.

He smiled, pleased, when he spotted an opening in the rocks of the small hill he was travelling beside. He quickly readied his bow and made his way into the cave, wary for any Grimm. He stopped when he heard what sounded almost like yelping cackling. He backed away when several pairs of red eyes appeared in the gloom, gazing at him malevolently. He was almost back outside when one of the pairs rushed at him, and he barely managed to drop the bow and get his shield up in time as something bashed against it with great force. He stumbled back out into the fading sunlight and continued backpedaling as his assailants revealed themselves.

They were yet another type of Grimm he'd never seen before. They were fox like, though much larger than any normal fox. They had surprisingly little bone plate on their bodies, mostly along their shoulders and spine, their masks emphasizing their foxlike appearance.

Their oddest feature was that each one had multiple tails. He didn't have a chance to count them, but he'd guess they had about ten, more or less. The more worrisome aspect of their tails was that they had sharp looking bone plating at the ends, meaning they were most likely used as weapons.

One of the three Grimm yipped at him menacingly as its companions spread out to flank him. Jaune kept his shield up as he drew his blade, preparing himself for their inevitable attack. When the one to his right rushed him he performed an aura enhanced jump backwards, getting him away from its slashing claws. Unfortunately, he'd underestimated the length of the tails, as a couple of them swung themselves at him, hitting him in the chest and making him fall backward with a cry.

The other two immediately pounced, prompting Jaune to roll away despite the deep ache in his ribs. He'd gotten used to working through pain. He'd have been dead already otherwise. Quickly springing up he swung at the closest Grimm, scoring a lucky shot and removing one of its legs, making it yelp and fall back clumsily.

Unfortunately this cost him, as one of the others clamped its jaws around his sword arm as its tails began to pummel him, the bone plating at the end causing him a lot of pain and draining his aura rapidly. Even with his prodigious reserves, he wasn't going to last much longer.

Quickly shifting his shield into its sheathe form he took hold of it and brought it down on the Grimm's neck like a blunt sword. The instant he made impact he triggered the shift from sheath to shield, the added force of the shield springing open helping him break the thing's neck. It immediately released him and fell to the ground, already dissipating.

The last intact fox Grimm circled him warily, eyeing him with its burning red eyes. It bared its fangs as its tails lashed around, carving furrows in the dirt. Jaune got into his stance, ready for anything. Or at least, he thought he was, till an orange glow appeared in the Grimm's jaws. Alarms ringing in his head he jumped to the side just as a powerful blast of fire was launched at him, impacting a tree with explosive force, carving a huge hole in the wood.

Jaune blinked, surprised, but was caught off guard as another fireball hit him in the side where he was already injured, launching him against another tree with immense force as he cried out. He fell to the ground after impacting the tree, aura breaking and his shield slipping off his arm and tumbling away. He looked up shakily to see that the Grimm he'd crippled had been the one to launch the opportunistic attack while he hadn't been looking.

Jaune groaned and tried to get up, but the intact Grimm pounced on him and stood on his back. Its tails unfurled, ready to stab at Jaune as he continued struggling.

The blonde continued trying to get up. "I'm not dying here, dammit. I'm not!" The Grimm seemed to be savoring his growing despair, but finally it had enough and readied to attack. He looked back at the Grimm with rage in his eyes, not noticing his armor begin to glow slightly with the white of his aura. "GET OFF!" He yelled as the Grimm's tails stabbed down.

Jaune cried out in pain when he felt the pointed ends stab into his flesh. However, the pain was momentary as when several tails hit his armor there was a flash of light and the Grimm was sent flying with a surprised yelp, launched high in the air. Several of his tails had outright detached due to the force, before it impacted face first against a sturdy tree with great force, its mask shattering to pieces as its head turned to pulp. It was already so much smoke as it hit the ground.

Jaune lay on the ground, panting as he bled from his wounds. He felt more exhausted than he ever had before, his limbs aching more than they had even when he'd taken up Nora's challenge to try to keep up with her workout routine. However, a shuffling from nearby reminded him that there was still a remaining Grimm.

Struggling to get onto his knees he looked up to find the crippled Grimm preparing another fireball. Well aware that taking a hit from another one of those would kill him without a doubt, he managed to roll away when it was launched at him, the fireball missing him by inches, letting him feel the heat as it passed him by and hit another tree. As the fox panted, catching its breath, Jaune staggered to his feet and launched himself at his enemy blade first. Well, it was more of a semi controlled fall onto the little monster, but he managed to stab his blade into the Grimm's side as he dropped. The thing let out an angry, hateful growl before it dropped, dissipating quickly.

Jaune lay on the ground, panting as he tried to keep from passing out. He could see blackness approaching the edges of his vision, and he knew he needed to get to safety before he allowed unconsciousness to take him. With the last of his strength he began dragging himself into the cave, grunting with exertion, hands becoming scraped and slightly bloody as they scrambled on the rough, cracked rock of the cave entrance.

It seemed like an eternity, but after ten minutes he managed to craw inside and to a far corner of the surprisingly roomy cave, even managing to snag the rabbit and bow he'd dropped at the entrance. As he curled up against the cool stone wall he knew he needed to treat his wounds, but he simply didn't have the energy to do anything but lay there.

As his eyes slowly shut he wondered how his friends were doing without him.


"That's bullshit!" Yang roared, glaring at Goodwitch with crimson eyes.

Normally the blonde wouldn't even consider acting that way towards the stern disciplinarian, but the teacher had just informed RWBY and NPR that the search for Jaune had been called off, and it was hitting everybody hard.

Pyrrha had simply sat down, staring dazedly into nothing, an absolutely broken look on her face. Nora was curled up against Ren, tears slipping down her cheeks as she tried to contain her sobs. For his part, Ren tried to keep up a stoic façade, but it was easy to see he was only barely keeping himself together.

Ruby had buried herself in her cloak, the shaking of her shoulders and the occasional sniffle the only indication that she hadn't passed out at the news. Blake sat beside her, rubbing the little reaper's back while taking deep breaths, her eyes closed as she tried to keep hold of her own emotions. Weiss was in a similar stat to Pyrrha, staring vacantly at nothing, however tears fell from her eyes, slowly at first, but gaining speed and force, her hands clenched on her rumpled uniform.

Unlike any other time, Goodwitch did not verbally flay Yang alive. She was well aware that it was a reaction to what she'd just heard. "It was the council's decision to stop, Ms. Xiao Long. I assure you, both Headmaster Ozpin and General Ironwood fought them on this, but they would not be swayed. I'm sorry, I truly am. I wanted to continue till he was found. Unfortunately, we have been overruled." She took a deep breath, closing her eyes briefly. "As of now, Jaune Arc is considered Killed In Action, and all further attempts to recover him are to cease. Those are our orders."

Yang clenched her fists, trying to keep from lashing out. "So that's it? Oh well, too bad?"

Goodwitch gazed at her calmly. "Nothing of the sort. Beacon will arrange a ceremony in a week or so, to give his family time to attend. We honor our own, Ms. Xiao Long. Mr. Arc saved lives at the cost of his own, and he will be honored for that." She looked around at the broken group, sighing. "Teams JNPR and RWBY will have the next week off. Please, I know it will be difficult, but try to come to terms with this."

"Easy for you to say." Yang muttered angrily, though her eyes were no longer red.

"It isn't, actually, but I unfortunately have experience in these matters." Goodwitch said softly. "This is not the first person I've lost, Ms. Xiao Long. It is, sadly, not even the first student." She turned to leave. "I will cope with the loss as best I can, by doing everything I can to make sure it doesn't happen again." She nodded to the chagrined blonde before leaving, the sound of her heels fading steadily.

Yang slumped before turning to her friends, her lilac eyes anguished now. She sat down by Ruby and laid a hand on the lump that was her sister, drawing a choked sob. She closed her eyes and let her head thump back against the wall as Zwei jumped up onto her lap, curling up and offering what comfort he could. She gently ran her fingers through his fur with a forlorn sigh.

She didn't know how they'd be able to come back from this. Sure, they might be able to recover enough to continue their training, but there was no doubt that they'd never be quite the same. She especially worried about Ruby.

The petite redhead didn't think she could tell, but she'd know her sister had a crush on Jaune for a while now, even when Ruby herself likely didn't realize it. Losing her friend and crush, especially at least partly because he'd saved her life… It had the potential to really screw with her.

The others weren't much better. Weiss was wallowing in guilt. She'd actually lost weight because she hadn't been eating, and she'd almost fallen asleep into her bowl of fruit at breakfast once, she was so exhausted.

Blake, not being as close to Jaune as the others, was probably the least affected. That didn't mean she wasn't hurting. Yang wondered if this hadn't dragged up some of the bad old memories that had driven her into her obsessive mania before.

Ren and Nora at least had each other to find comfort in, no matter how in denial they were about their relationship. It would probably help them cope and eventually heal. That didn't mean the road wouldn't be rough for them.

And Pyrrha... Yang couldn't imagine how she must be feeling. Everybody and their dog knew Pyrrha was absolutely head over heals for the dorky blonde. There had been a betting pool about when she'd finally snap and drag him away to have her wicked way with him. The idea of Pyrrha Nikos going through life at Beacon without Jaune Arc at her side was downright laughable to many, no matter how jealous it made many boys and girls. Now though... Well, CRDL weren't the only ones who'd gotten screamed at by the redhead.

There had been that absolute moron who thought about 'comforting' her by suggesting they go on a date. He'd only just left the infirmary, and he still sounded funny.

Yang sighed again. What about herself? How did she feel about Jaune dying?

Like shit was the obvious answer. He'd amused her with his dorkishness, and his friendship with Ruby had made her so happy. Ruby had always been an introvert, so finding out she'd made a steadfast friend like Jaune who wasn't some sort of creep had eased her mind.

She closed her eyes again as a tear escaped them, making its way down her cheek.

Dammit, Vomit Boy...


Rejoice, tis an update!

Yeah, sorry bout the long wait. I have so many stories now...

Well, in any case, here's the long awaited update to Survival. As you can see, Jaune is having a bit of trouble with doing that. Things are going to get worse for him before they get better. Otherwise it wouldn't be as entertaining.

The kitsune Grimm are inspired by the ones in a story by Vital Calamity. I asked him for permission to use them ages ago, it's only just now that I managed to put them in. Hope the fight against them was good.

I've had several people ask me how much longer Jaune'll be in the Deathlands. I won't give a firm timeframe, but I will say that he is physically close to the edge of them...

Now then, hopefully the next update won't take so long, but I won't make any promises. However, there is something you can do about it.

I now have a Pat A Ron. it' /athanmortis . If you donate to it, you get a say in what I write each month, with one vote per dollar donated. So if you want to see this story updated next month as well, donate a buck or two and request it, and I'll be happy to get to work on it if it wins the poll.

I think that's all I have to say at the moment. I hope you all enjoyed. Please review. Till next time.