Chapter 9

Emerald Forest

"Hey Jaune, come here for a sec." Jade beckoned to him as she held her war hammer, Mjolnir.

The thirteen year-old Arc maiden shouldered her twelve feet personal weapon as if it was nothing.

"Sure." Jaune replied enthusiastically as he readjusted his wooden armor.

"Didn't you tell me before that you wanted to fly like a Nevermore?" She asked as innocently as she could.

Jaune, being the clueless child that he was, nodded in agreement as he remembered him saying such thing. The eldest of the five siblings grinned with glee.

"Alright then, stand over here and put your buckler over…here." She said as he guided him in place and placed his shield hand behind his bottom.

"Make sure that you hold it steady alright Jaune?" She asked which earned the enthusiastic confirmation of her younger brother.

One of the many mistakes that the young Jaune did was to close his eyes in anticipation of his eventual flight. Because of this, he did not notice her sister lined up Mjolnir so that the flat of the war hammer would hit the center of the circular shield.

"Reeeaaadddyyy…go!"

Jaune opened his eyes as he soared through the Emerald Forest. The sun kissed his being as he flew or fell towards the vast sea of green. His shield was raised in front to him at an angle to act as a windbreaker but to still allow him enough visibility to know where he was headed. Crocea Mors still fastened on its scabbard portion. One by one, he watched as his fellow first years landed through the thick trees. He was particularly awed with Ruby's landing strategy as she fired several shots with her Crescent Rose to slow his approach before snagging a tree branch and completely disappearing from his sight.

Well then, I guess now's the time to start. He thought as he felt himself descent onto the forest below.

Closing his eyes once more, he concentrated and activated his aura. Almost instantly, a near transparent pair of Nevermore like wings sprouted from his back. One of the many gifts that the Arc family was blessed was their uncanny ability to control their aura. Although it was mostly in a form of a transparent armor that provided added protection to their body as well as boosting their offensive capabilities. Such form was thought to be the pinnacle of aura manipulation thus causing the family to be the object of quite the high regards. But unlike any other Arcs, Jaune was able to thoroughly master aura manipulation to the point where he could summon different objects at will. He was pretty sure that he was the first to do so thus he took it upon himself to name it 'aura construct'.

Despite such ability, the young knight chose not to disclose such information even to his family due to some hidden paranoia of his. In addition to this, he also chose to wear a façade of a weak and utterly useless combatant, partly because of his parents' and older sisters not wanting him to be a huntsman but mostly because he did not want to insight their wrath once they found out that he had been secretly training behind their backs with the help of both Marigold and the younger ones to cover him.

He then began to glide a bit further than where he would've landed without the use of his aura construct. But as he felt his momentum lessen, he straightened himself to stop in midair and slowly descended to the forest floor. However, he decided to land on a sturdy branch of a towering tree with the intention to find his bearings.

As soon as he landed though, a fast approaching voice reached his ears.

"Waaaatttttcccchhh ooouuuttt!"

But before he could even turn towards the source of the voice, he felt something impact behind him. Forcing him to collide with the massive trunk of the tree he was on.

"Ouch…" His claim of pain was muffled as his face was nudged into the tree trunk.

"Oh Oum, I'm sorry!"

Wait was that Pyrrha? So much for being a four year champion. He felt her pull him out of his blackout.

"Hello again." She said in a cheery note.

He smiled at her as he fell onto the thick tree branch.

"Sooo…looks like we're paired up." Jaune said sheepishly as he was pulled into her green eyes.

It elicited a giggle from the redhead. "Yes, I believe that it looks that way."

The knight and the Spartan jumped down and landed with a satisfying thump. Jaune breathed in the fresh air as it reminded him much of Camelot, the village where almost every Arc was born and raised. He smiled at the thought, the longing for his family once again made him feel the wretched clutches of homesickness. He then retracted the shield into its compact form and clipped it to his left side.

"What now?" He asked Pyrrha who was returning her spear behind her.

"We go north so…" She replied as she looked at where the sun hung followed by several pointing of fingers.

"That way." She deduced, her index finger stretched to Jaune's left.

With a shrug, he decided to take point as they worked their way through the dense forest. He made it a point to constantly check behind him to make sure that the red haired soon-to-be huntress was still behind him. The pair worked in silence, in an awkward silence, to be specific. And already, the knight was beginning to suffer due to this.

So much about letting things flow. Maybe I should've made arrangements with Weiss…then again perhaps once she learns that I'm not from a rich family then…

His thoughts were quelled by a tap on his shoulders. He looked behind him to see the fair skinned Pyrrha but at the same time, failed to notice a tree branch bending to hit his face as his hand slipped from its grip. Jaune felt something hit the side of his head followed by a snap, he looked back only to see a part of a broken branch. His brows furrowed as he shrugged.

"Umm…are you alright Jaune?" Pyrrha's worried voice once again begged for his attention.

"Yeah I'm cool, got worse hits from my sisters than that." He smiled reassuringly as he pointed to the broken branch which now lay on the ground.

Jaune's ears quirked as several shots resounded throughout the forest.

"Did you hear that?" He asked his partner whose green eyes met his blue eyes with a certain degree of admiration.

"Gunfire, it seems that some of our comrades have encountered the enemy." The two exchanged nods as they felt that none of such enemy was near them.

Once again, the painful blanket of silence enveloped the two. Eventually, they chanced upon a small cave on the side of a cliff. Normally, Jaune would prefer to stay clear of such places as much as possible but after seeing his partner snap out a tree branch and proceeded to make a makeshift torch, he knew that it was inevitable. Unsheathing Crocea Mors and extending his shield, he once again became the vanguard while Pyrrha provided him with light.

"You know, this is totally unnecessary." Jaune muttered to his partner.

He was never a fan of dark and confined spaces as it limits his mobility and movements. He had enough scars to prove it when he fought several King Taijitus during his hellish training. He shivered at the memory as well as the draft of air that seemed to come out well within the cave.

"You mean you have night vision like a Faunus?" Her voice expressed full curiosity and confusion.

"What? No, I mean, it is totally unnecessary for us to enter this-" He stopped as he felt the faintest vibration on the ground where he stood.

Taking from previous experience, he gestured to Pyrrha to remain silent as he strained every single one of his five senses that he had. But much to his horror and disappointment, what he thought out to be a simple trick of the mind was no doubt real. The vibration became stronger as it resounded through the cave walls and the distant yet fast approaching sound of several…things clicking onto the ground filled his ears.

"We have to move. Now!" He told Pyrrha as he pivoted to escape whatever was about to attack them.

They barely made it out of the cave when a giant, scorpion like Grimm, a Deathstalker bursts through the small opening, effectively enlarging it. He looked at it as he ran and noticed its stinger swaying towards Pyrrha's direction who for some reason, was behind him instead of in front of him, the torch no longer in her hands and was replaced by her spear.

"Damn it." He cursed to himself as he skidded to a stop and pulled Pyrrha out of harm's way.

He gave the Spartan a mighty push as she passed him before raising his own shield in preparation for the shock of impact. He was correct with his assessment, if he had decided to continue to run then he would've had at least had a nasty gash on his back despite his potent aura and armor, or at least that was what the young knight had in mind. He felt the stinger impact his shield and instantly, he found himself off ground for the second time for the day. He began to rethink his luck as he felt several trees break against his back.

"Jaune!" He heard the fast fading voice of Pyrrha which made him hope that she would be fine in the absence of her partner.

Then again, she's not called a champion if she-"Ouch!" Jaune yelped as he felt his back slam onto a tree.

"That's-gonna-leave-a-mark." He winced painfully as he barreled through tree after tree.

After much punishment, he eventually found himself soaring in a clearing. He would've been happy if it weren't for the part where his whole body went numb on him and that he could barely move his limbs and the familiar feeling that his second flight would end painfully.

Well, considering that my main aura is almost used up and that I'm as numb as…wait…is that Ruby scre-

And indeed it was. Jaune heard the familiar high pitched voice as he slammed onto whom he assumed to be Ruby. He briefly saw Nora and Ren near a corpse of an Ursa, the prior was on top of the beast's head as if examining it while the later bent to his knees, obviously exhausted by some activity. His eyes darted to Blake's and Yang's opened mouths as they stared up to him and most likely, Ruby. It was as if everything was in slow motion up to that point then as if someone pressed the fast forward button in a remote, his vision was reduced to a blur. He felt his being collide with the more comfortable cushions of leaves as a resounding thump made the obvious tree he was on shake.

"That was Ruby." He told himself.

He made a mental note to thank her for sparing him his seventeenth-ish trunk.

Maybe some ice-cream should do the trick.

As he attempted to free himself all the while hearing the chaos that was happening in the clearing, he began to tap into his aura reserves and sure enough, he felt his minor injuries heal.

"Almost…ther-giaghh." Jaune yelped as his upper torso dangled from the tree's web like branches.

"Oh, hi Ruby."

Jaune looked at the red hooded girl as she rubbed the back of her head.

"Hi Jaune. Crazy day huh?" She responded all the while trying to shakily stand up.

"Oh, you have no idea."

"Jaune!" Both the blonde and the other partial redhead turned to look at the Spartan as she ran emerge from the tree line.

"Oh, good. Pyrrha made it out." As soon as he said it, a Deathstalker once again burst through the forest, knocking several trees down.

"And she's being chased by a Deathstalker." Ruby added as the two friends stared at each other blankly.

"Ruby you dolt!" As if on cue, Weiss's voice reached the two confiding teens.

Jaune looked at the circling Nevermore above the clearing only to see the girl in question hanging for dear life on the Grimm's back. He was both amazed and mortified to see her in such a predicament

"But I told her to jump." Ruby mumbled followed by a sigh.

Jaune face palmed as he watched the scene in front of him unfold.

"Trust me, Jaune, you're going to need it." Joanne, the Arc matriarch insisted as she gave him a small lucky charm in the form of a silver cross.

Jaune gripped the small item in his pocket as he remembered his mother's words. Even though the said charm was originally intended for his final examination at the village school when he was around twelve, it still gave him hope that he would survive the madness.

This was not what I signed up for.

Bonus

Ozpin stood on top of the cliff beside his trusted companion. He savored his regular drink all the while watching the progress of his new students.

"Our last pair has been formed sir." Glynda announced as she flicked through her data panel.

"Nora Valkyrie and Lie Ren." The headmaster looked at the sudden change of face that his right hand woman had.

From her stoic and stern features, he watched with slight amusement as it turned to that of pity and exhaustion.

"Poor boy, I can't possibly imagine how those two get along." She added.

Ozpin chuckled which prompted the questioning gaze of Glynda.

"They have been together since their childhood, Glynda. I'm sure that they are used with each other's company by now." He told her and flicked through his own data panel.

"Still, they're probably better off than our knight and Spartan."

Instantly, the translucent screen showed the pair as they were being chased by a Deathstalker. It didn't take long though for one of the two to be launched into the air as a certain knight pulled the Spartan out of harm's way. It was brave and noteworthy effort to save is partner. He smiled at the action.

Indeed, he has some great potential. He thought.

He visibly winced at what had transpired. Both Glynda's and Ozpin's data pads were covered by a now, airborne Jaune Arc as he blasted through several century old trees.

"That's going to leave a mark." Ozpin hissed with partial pity to his candidate.

Glynda sighed. "I'll inform our medics." She said as she walked out of his earshot to do so as she had told him.

Well, at least it won't be just like last time. Ozpin thought as he silently relished the hot cocoa in his mug.