Greetings everyone,
And welcome back to OFFICIAL Chapter Eight. I do apologize for the chapter mistakes lately. I had made a mistake with uploading but it won't be happening again. In response to the other mistakenly named chapters, I'll most likely go back and fix the mistakes when I'm able to.
Anyway, this idea for Pyrrha's punishment is brought to you by "KingWombat" "Anonymous Guest" though I have taken some liberties of my own to make the story a little bit better.
Now, I will address the whole "Jaune goes on a "date" with Pyrrha" thing that apparently some people disliked. First of all, I like Arkos. I am an Arkos shipper. But I'm also a Lancaster shipper in the moments when Pyrrha is no longer around. And if any of you have a problem with that and deem that this story is now ruined because of it then by all means you're free to stop reading this story. But as for myself, I'll continue to write what I want to write because I like to write. And yes, I am being petty. Any problems with that? No? Then I'm moving on.
Don't forget check out my other stories like "The Knight The Wizard" for it's second-to-last chapter for Volume 6. And "The Arcful Dodger" for it's latest chapter.
Make sure to Favorite, Follow, and leave a Review.
Till next time.
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Chapter Eight (Official)
If there was one thing in this world that Jaune never imagined he'd witness, it was watching his own partner, Pyrrha Nikos, a girl who many believed was fated to always be victorious in whatever challenge she faced, literally screaming into the microphone of his gaming headset as a nine-year old killed her for the 7th time in a row in an online competitive multiplayer game.
And truth be told the sight of seeing a friend, who was often so kind and cheerful that you merely associated the word "happy" with them, be turned into a red-faced psychopath hell bent on murdering the digital avatar of a nine-year old kid was both equally humorous as it was terrifying.
But this was the punishment the famed goddess of victory had chosen. In her own words it was a punishment befitting a person who has only ever tasted victory. And what better way to punish said person than to constantly rip their victory away from them?
And so Jaune had created "The Gauntlet". A series of games that he'd heard were the most rage-inducing games known across all Remnant.
Game number one was the infamous online multiplayer game, "Battle of Remnant 5". Infamous in the sense that it had constant server issues, lagging, egotistical tryhards, and horrible microtransactions. And here was Pyrrha, practically fuming with rage directly towards a nine-year old kid, who apparently went with the tried-and-openly-hated pay-to-win method.
And man was it pissing Pyrrha off to deal with. She had been quite insistent on starting with the starter gear because she believed that using a profile that was already equipped with top tier gear would've been unsportsmanlike to those that grinded through rank after rank to get there. Needless to say, she quickly regretted that action up her fifth death at the hands of "BadBadger96". And now, here she was with a controller in her grasp and a vein about to burst from her rage.
"Son of b... Beach." said Pyrrha, her left eyelid twitching as she tried to keep her anger in check. This was the punishment she'd chosen to endure. Her goal was quite simple... All she had to do was win one game.
Sounds easy as pie, right?
Well, you'd be dead wrong. You see, Pyrrha is many things. She was a straight A student in all of her assigned classes. She was more beautiful than a heavenly sunset. She was deadly on the field of battle. And she was sweeter than honey. But a gamer, she was not.
And for a person like Pyrrha, not being the best at something, whatever that may be, wasn't something her competitive pride was willing to handle. And after a few more deaths at the hands of "BadBadger96" it looked as if Pyrrha was just about ready to throw the entire game system straight out the window.
Luckily, the 1v1 match was drawing to a close. With "BadBadger96" leading with a score of 29 kills while Pyrrha lagged behind with a score of 5 kills, not counting the time she killed her opponent while they were stuck in a glitch.
The match finally ended with Pyrrha's digital avatar getting stabbed in the back by "BadBadger96" before her avatar's body was swept away by a river current and down into the bottomless abyss. The flashing "Match Over" sign indicating that Pyrrha, for the first time her entire life as a professional competitor had lost... To a freaking nine-year old!
Silence was what greeted Jaune as he watched his strangely quiet partner eject the game disk from the console before gently placing said disk back into its proper container.
Truthfully, quiet Pyrrha was scaring him a hell of a lot more than raging Pyrrha.
"Soooo, what did you think of your first game?" Jaune dared to ask, his body flinching as his partner turned to face him with a smile that contradicted the rage that was boiling within her body.
"It was a grand to be able to partake in such a fun activity, Jaune." Pyrrha replied, trying to keep her anger in check even though Jaune had been watching her the entire time and knew that she was far beyond fine.
"Well, since you liked that game so much then the next game will be..." said Jaune as he reached into the shopping bag for another one of the many games he'd purchased yesterday on his "date" with Pyrrha.
Honestly, he had no idea as to why he referred to the time he spent with Pyrrha the day before as a "date". Maybe he did just to see what kind of reaction he'd get from Yang. Or maybe he did it because on a deeper level he wanted it to be true. Either way, it wasn't going to stop him from thoroughly enjoying Pyrrha's misery. Say what you will but he made sure that his friends knew that they may be able to face the Grimm without fear but no one messes with Jaune Arc and gets away with it. After all, it wasn't saving Cardin from the Ursa that kept him off his back, now was it?
"This one! "Grimm Nights"." said Jaune as he pulled the game from its container before placing into the console. "I heard it's this REALLY challenging role-playing game where you fight monsters and bosses. It's supposed to be based on this other game made by the same developers before they remade it into this game. I can't remember what's called though. But I figured that this game should be a breeze for someone like you. I mean you fight actual monsters nearly every day."
"Well, it sounds grand." said Pyrrha, sending silent prayers of thanks to the Gods that she didn't have to fight against anymore players.
Little did she realize that this game was notorious for its random spikes of difficulty. Monsters disguised as chests. Players that randomly appear just to grief you. And worst of all was that when you died, you don't get your stuff back upon revival. Meaning you had to go to where you died to get your stuff back and you're shit out of luck if you die in a bad spot.
Pyrrha had better do more than pray if she wants to beat this challenging game.
The Game started off simple enough with Pyrrha needing to create and customize her digital avatar, which she'd appropriately named "Pyr", before she then thrust into the game's story. Jaune watched from the side, taking meager sips of his "People Like Grapes" soda as he watched his partner wander through a seemingly abandoned library. It was when she rounded a corner of the library that her emerald eyes sparkled at the sight of two chests. Jaune's heart went out for the naive champion as he, too, had fallen pray to such a trick in his earlier play-through of the game. Upon her avatar activating the first chest, the smile on her face widened as a variable treasure trove of high level gear appeared before her very eyes. Once she'd acquired said items, though neglecting to put on any of the armor she'd gotten from the chest, she moved onto the second chest. But she activated the chest, the chest seemed to sprout arms and legs before suddenly grasping Pyrrha's avatar before utterly devouring her character whole. The words "You Died" floated on the screen as the background became a dark and empty void.
Jaune had to cover his mouth with both hands just to keep himself from laughing at the look of devastation on his partner's face as she tried vehemently to wrap her head around how and why her avatar had been killed. No doubt a prominent question she was asking herself was the very same question Jaune had asked himself the first time he'd died at the hands of the infamously despised chest monster; Why in the hell would anyone play this game willingly!?
Well, in the end, it's not like Pyrrha had much of a choice in the matter.
Whether she wanted to continue playing of her volition or call it quits before she ended up doing something that she might regret was of little concern for Jaune Arc.
This was the punishment she deemed fitting for herself and she quite adamant in doing so. She would complete this gauntlet of rage-inducing games and finally gain back her partner's trust and forgiveness. All it would take is for her not to say a single curse word...
Yeah, that sounded MUCH easier on paper in all honesty.
Turns out that this game was like fighting against several "BadBadger96"s at once with all of them using the bullshit-method of just buying high-teir loot instead of actually playing the game like a true gamer. And here was Pyrrha, fighting such enemies in the eye of the storm. And by the look of furious fire that burned within her pupils and the vein in her temple threatening to burst at any moment, Jaune had a feeling that Pyrrha's willpower was slowly dying with every death of her character.
"Mother...Trucker." she said, through gritted teeth as she mashed several buttons on her controller as she willed her avatar to fight against the towering behemoth boss that stood between her and the victory she'd long sought after. Jaune watched with eager anticipation as Pyrrha willed her avatar to dodge another swing from the boss monster. The monster released a monstrous roar from his gaping maw as a torrent of fire showered Pyrrha's avatar. Though the damage was lessened by the armor her character was wearing the status effect still lingered on, taking small chunks of her health until she used a potion that dispelled the status effect and allowed her health to regenerate. But it was as the boss went for another attack that Pyrrha made her move as she charged the beast directly, wielding her holy spear with extreme precision as she swung the blade into the beast's side, taking away an entire chunk of it's health. But in retaliation, the boss was able to make direct contact with Pyrrha's avatar. The sight of it's digital form rag-dolling through the air before landing was quite the sight to behold.
But it was in those final moments as Pyrrha's eyes sparkled once more at the vision of victory that was now within her grasp that a strange occurrence happened right in front of them. The boss's gigantic form seemed to glitch out for just a moment. But a moment was all it took for Pyrrha's character to be random pushed via an unknown force directly off of the edge of the tower. All hope that had been building within Pyrrha was now dashed away as she watched in horror at the avatar she'd tried so hard to build up plummeted down the bottomless abyss before making contact with the ground. Those very same words flashed on the screen as the background became a black and empty void.
Silence filled the dorm room like a pool being filled with water as Jaune quietly ejected the game from the console before placing it back into it's container. All the while, Pyrrha continued to stare blankly into the screen. All of her hardwork, her pain, and her suffering had meant nothing in the face of every gamer's nightmare...
The infamous game-breaking glitch.
"T-That's not fair..." said Pyrrha as Jaune already began selecting a different game to force Pyrrha through. "That's not fair... I was winning a-and then the game it... It just broke!?"
"Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention that this game is kind of notorious for it's game-breaking glitches." said Jaune as he hid his devilish smile from Pyrrha's view. "But, luckily this next game isn't as dark and bleak as "Grimm Nights". I present to you... "Blockhead"."
"Blockhead?" asked Pyrrha as Jaune activated the console and waited for the game to boot up. It was then that the screen flashed with bright colors as two cartoon character appeared side-by-side while a barber shop quartet sung in the background. The sight alone brought back fond memories of Pyrrha's childhood where she'd wake up every Saturday morning to watch cartoons before she spent the rest of the day training. Just was a game that was so adorably cute supposed to be rage-inducing?
First began the story of how the titular character, Blockhead, made a bet with a sentient Grimm and lost, resulting in Blockhead losing his soul to the Grimm. In order to gain it back Blockhead was told that he must acquire the souls of everyone who had dared to cheat him. And while on the surface that game had the appearance of an old timey cartoon, in truth the game was a literal gauntlet of increasingly challenging boss fights. Hell, there was even a function that would allow whomever was playing to see just how many times they'd died. Which essentially was like posting a sign to someone's back with the caption "This is how badly I suck at winning".
After the opening credits came the tutorial which was, thankfully, basic and easy to understand. A simply jump, dash, shoot, and parry and you were ready to play the game. But, much like the chest monsters of "Grimm Nights", it was to hide the monster that was buried beneath the surface.
A fact that Pyrrha would soon learn on her first boss, the bouncing ball of blubbery blue. Jaune watched as Pyrrha willed Blockhead to attack only for the boss to jump above her before falling on her character, killing her instantly. The sight of Pyrrha's wide eyes and open mouth was almost too much to handle. But he stilled his tongue as he placed a hand over his mouth, hiding his smile from view as Pyrrha faces the boss a second time.
With the result being the same.
And so began a repeating sequence of death after death after death after death. So on and so forth was the painful pattern Pyrrha had found herself trapped in. Her teeth bit into her lip as she struggled to keep her anger in check while facing what amounted to a giant bouncing ball.
And here was Jaune just waiting to see how his partner would react when she soon realized that there were multiple stages to this one boss fight.
Oh, the look of defeat on her face would be just priceless.
Maybe he should get his scroll ready so he could take a picture of the very moment when Pyrrha broke?
Eh, either way he was still thoroughly enjoying his time watching Pyrrha as she tried desperately to contain her anger towards the bouncing blue ball boss.
"Gah! Son of... Mother... Shooter!" shouted Pyrrha, her left eyelid twitching as she watched helplessly as Blockhead was once again killed before her very eyes.
Finally, she couldn't take the abuse anymore as she abruptly rose to her feet and stormed out the door. The sounds of grunts and growls echoed through the barrier as a devilish idea popped into Jaune's head.
After checking to see if Pyrrha would re-enter the room, Jaune quickly made a harmless little change to the game before saving said change An placing the controller back onto the ground. All the while hiding the smile on his face as Pyrrha re-entered the room, took a seat on the floor, and picked up the controller.
And Jaune watched as Pyrrha, now with a newfound confidence utterly decimate the bouncing ball boss. Her forehead began to sweat as she expertly controlled Blockhead's movements.
It was by now that Pyrrha's eyes began to brighten as the sight of victory returned. The boss was nearly beaten and hope returned to the young champion. Finally she could be free from all of this hell. And with it she'd regain her crush's trust.
Finally, it was all within her grasp as she dealt the final blow on the boss. A feeling of euphoria exploded from within Pyrrha as she ceremoniously held her arms above her head with a smile on her face.
She'd finally done it.
After hours spent being tormented she was finally free. She'd beaten the boss and her punishment was completed. There was absolutely nothing that could possibly ruin this moment for her.
Absolutely nothing.
Well, except for one thing.
"Hey, Pyr?" asked Jaune, causing Pyrrha to turn and face him with a drunken smile.
"Yes, Jaune, what is it?" she asked as her smile brightened the room and her eyes sparkled with joy.
"You do realize that this is on easy mode, right?" He asked, smiling evil as he watched his partner's eyes widen to astronomical levels.
Her face began to pale, her palms started to sweat, and all hope within slowly began to die. It was obvious that she'd though there was no mode of difficulty. She'd believed that it was on a set difficulty for all who played it. But to hear her own partner reveal to her that the boss that had caused her so much pain and misery was set on the easiest difficulty all with a smile befitting a demon was just too much for his psyche to bare.
Without so much as another word, Pyrrha slowly placed the controller onto the floor as gently as she could before rising onto her feet. Jaune watched as his partner made her way towards the door, that swung open to reveal Yang, now free from her bald cap.
The smile on Yang's face was wiped away as Pyrrha disregarded her presence as she moved past the short tempered blonde before walking down the hallway, away from the think that had caused her mind and her heart to break.
Yang turned back to see Jaune with a smirk plastered on his face. "The heck's wrong with her?" she asked, gesturing towards the strangely silent Pyrrha with her thumb as Jaune rose to his feet before walking towards her with his scroll in hand.
"C'mon, we don't wanna miss the show." said Jaune before gesturing to her team's door. "Bring them along too. They're not gonna wanna miss this."
And soon, after following the seemingly catatonic Pyrrha Nikos, the team then arrived at the training room and standing before them in the ring with her barehands was said girl as several mindless domes bagan to surround her.
None spoke as they watched their friend do nothing as several more drones began to swarm her until the entire training room was nearly filled with them.
It was then that Jaune smirked evilly as he cupped his mouth with both hands.
"Hey, Pyr!" he shouted, taking silent pleasure as she turned her blank stare upon him. "Do you want me to set it to easy!?"
And like a switch being flipped, the cage that had kept the raging beast within Pyrrha underwraps was broken as Pyrrha release a bellowing roar from her mouth. The drones began to swarm her with their weapons ready only for Pyrrha to use her polarity to decimate the mindless robots.
The drones went wild as Pyrrha grabbed two of them with her bare hands before smashing them together with a thunderous boom.
"FUCK!" she roared, slamming her fist into a drone that was attempting to escape her wrath.
And so the gang watched with popcorn and soda, thanks to Jaune, who had long since known that if there was anything that Pyrrha hated more than losing, it was an easy win, as their friend torn the robotic drones to literal pieces with nothing but her bare hands.
In a matter of minutes the entire training room was filled with the destroyed bodies of Beacon's very expensive training drones. And standing atop of the carnage was the goddess of victory. She raised her arms to the sky as she roared in victory of the bodies of her enemies.
It was on that day that Jaune and everyone learned a very valuable lesson about the girl they called Pyrrha Nikos as the echoes of her victorious roar traveled across all of Beacon Academy.
Pyrrha freaking sucks at video games.
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And so ends the week of punishment for the friends of Jaune Arc. I want to thank everyone that submitted their ideas. I'm so glad that you all enjoyed the story but don't forget to check back next time for the conclusion of "Operation: Jaune's Dastardly Revenge".
Till next time!
