AN: Last chapter was published with a missing part at the end of the chapter. It has been republished with the missing part (~3k words) added. Apologies for the mistake and the bad writing. Who knew that trying to write while slightly intoxicated and sleepy would be bad idea, amrite?
The rest of the morning had passed in somewhat awkward but otherwise peaceful daze with Jaune excusing himself right after breakfast to visit the library briefly, in order to loan a few books on Aura and Aura manipulation as well as on Grimm anatomy.
The following Grimm Studies class was spent on studying the books while Port was explaining how he had strangled Beowolf Alpha to death using his socks, and the History class had passed in similar fashion as Doctor (not professor) Oobleck had lectured the class about the Faunus Revolution and their 'promised land', Menagerie. Blake had seemed like she had wanted to interrupt the lesson quite few times during the lecture, but had managed to refrain from doing so with a visible effort.
During the later part of the lecture, Jaune had gotten a message to his Scroll, and its contents caused him to nearly crush the fragile device. After a brief moment of self-calming he felt that he could keep reading while he let the teacher's voice pass by him.
'Raven's Group… A group of bandits known to frequent around western and central Mistral region… Very limited details beside their insignia and few known raids… Known members...' Jaune read on as he looked at the pictureless message Ozpin had sent him 'So he's keeping his end of the promise at least…'
"Uhmmmn..." a soft whine and steady breathing beside him distracted Jaune from his reading, and he looked to his side to discover Ruby having fallen asleep while sitting beside him. She had propped a book in front of her to shield her from the teacher's gaze… Or so she had thought.
"Miss Rose!" Oobleck shouted while throwing an eraser at the book's cover, causing it to fall and reveal Ruby's sleeping face to the teacher. "What was the date when Menagerie was officially recognized as a separate nation?"
"..." Jaune poked at Ruby's side as the girl seemed to be unable to wake up on her own.
"I'm awake!" Ruby shouted as she jumped slightly from the touch.
"Miss Rose…" Oobleck started to lecture Ruby while Jaune's attention was already redirected back to the headmaster's message.
'I'll have to just believe in Ozpin… and do my best to help with team SABR for now…'
.
..
…
"Ruby, you're going to get upset stomach if you drink that much milk…" Yang said at the dinner as team SABR and team RYNN had gathered to eat after the school.
"I need to hurry up and grow" Ruby growled back at Yang while emptying her third carton of milk. "I can't afford to lag behind the competition."
"What competition?" Yang asked, puzzled over the girl's behaviour as Weiss coughed slightly and Blake blushed and buried her face on her hands.
"Out of curiousity, why aren't you eating with your own team, Yang?" Jaune asked as team RYNN bar Yang had seated themselves into the table behind the team SABR, and Yang had been the only one to venture across the gap. "I didn't mean that you aren't welcome here" he added as Yang turned to face him.
"Eh, some problems in paradise I suppose." Yang sighed "We're still working on our, er, 'team dynamics'"
"How so?" Weiss asked, interested on the other team's leadership.
"Well, we are still kind of getting used to each other I suppose. I did some light-hearted chatting and flirting with Ren like I always do with everyone and Nora, well, didn't approve" Yang recounted "Then I tried to chat up about championships and tournaments with Pyrrha since I figured that it'd be something she'd be interested in, being a champion fighter herself, but she just got really passive with, you know, 'yeah I'm hearing your words but not really listening' smile and expression on her face"
"Eh… I'm sure it's just some start-up awkwardness or something" Ruby thought aloud. "I mean, we too had some awkward encounters when Jaune and Blake…" she fell quiet as Blake slapped her hand on Ruby's lips and hissed.
"Uh… sorry" Ruby said while looking away and blushing after Blake had lifted her hand. "I promised I wouldn't talk about that" she explained to Yang who had started to give a suspicious eye to Blake.
"You're not corrupting my little sis, are you?" Yang asked Blake who shook her head and returned to her food.
"Nevertheless, I have planned some exercises for team SABR in the Emerald forest after we finish with our dinner" Weiss started from the side to both divert Yang away from Blake and to move the conversation forwards. She however gave a slightly disgusted glance at the massive pile of sausages, pulled pork and steak on Jaune's tray while the teenager was working to go through the pile of grilled food.
"Oh? Mind if I intrude?" Yang asked, interested.
"Yes, actually. The aim of our today's training is to work on understanding and adjusting to our team-members fighting techniques and Semblances, and people who are not part of the team might be detrimental to our plan since it would distract us from our team-centric combat analysis…" Weiss told the team and Yang while pulling her notebook out and showing her planned training schedule. "Plus, don't you have your own training to do with your team?" Weiss finished.
"Tch, as if. We haven't really gotten into that part yet" Yang scowled at Weiss.
"Is your team's leader not doing his role?" Weiss asked, puzzled over the fellow team's schedule.
"It's not just that, it's that Ren's not doing much beside dragging Nora around, or rather Nora is dragging Ren around, and Pyrrha is kind of just flapping around in the wake. Honestly? I'm just sort of sitting on my hands at the moment." Yang answered honestly "I'm not sure Ren's cut out to lead…"
Weiss was quiet as Ruby patted Yang encouragingly on the back.
"I believe you might want to advice Ren to visit professor Port" Weiss finally said "He helped me… hm… adjust my attitude as a leader slightly"
"That old letcher?" Yang asked, clearly puzzled.
"He's fairly good advisor under that act of his… although I agree to your remark" Weiss said, bunching her hands up and looking to the side. "Well, take my advice or not, that's up to you"
"Eh, I'll mention that to him. Thanks, ice princess" Yang finally said, causing Weiss to scowl at the busty blonde before Yang lifted herself up from her seat and returned to team RYNN's table.
"Right, once Jaune finishes with his dinner, we'll head to the Emerald Forest." Weiss told her team "I've asked permission to enter the forest from Glynda Goodwitch, who is also our combat instructor, and she said that we're allowed to enter the forest for training purposes as long as we stay within five miles of Beacon grounds, and exit the forest before dark- or more specifically, before 1900 o'clock"
"What are we going to do in the forest? Fight eachother? Wouldn't the combat arenas work better for that?" Ruby asked as she ate strawberries from a small dessert pack she had bought.
"I was planning on experimenting with mr Arc's Semblance" Weiss started, causing Jaune to choke on his grilled steak as she continued "...and working on our team strategies by fighting minor Grimm since we haven't fought against the Grimm as a team even once. Professor Port assured me that the case of a Grimm Abomination has been resolved after Jaune killed it, so we shouldn't run into Grimm bigger than Beowolves or perhaps an Ursa if we stay near Beacon's grounds…"
'Okay, This might be bad' Jaune thought as Weiss continued her speech 'I still don't have full control of my Semblance, and if I have to use it in front of the girls… No, what if I turn into that… armored form in front of them? I haven't even apologized to Blake for mistaking her as a Grimm, or for scaring Weiss...'
Panic continued to mount inside him as the pile of food in front of him depleted rapidly, until he pushed the empty tray away hesitantly.
It felt too much like a final meal a prisoner would have before execution.
"You eat a lot, Jaune." Ruby noted as the team headed towards the lockers "I mean, a Lot. I don't think I could… no, I don't think that even the rest of team SABR could eat half of what you just ate… Is it somehow related to your Semblance?"
"Er, sort of." Jaune explained, calm on the surface even as his stomach tied knots around itself "I'm just constantly hungry, and I feel like I 'fuel' my transformations with food rather than Aura or something"
"Hmm..." Ruby hummed. "I mean, the Grimm are constantly hungry as well so perhaps there's something connecting the two there?"
"Perhaps."
The rest of the walk to the Armory was spent in silence.
.
..
...
"Right!" Weiss announced as the group stood in a small clearing in the Emerald Forest, fully armed after the brief visit to the Armory and descending into the forest with a elevator. "Jaune, can you turn into a Grimm, please?"
"Uh, it doesn't work like that" Jaune stalled for time "I actually have to eat a Grimm first"
A deep silence followed his words.
"What?" Jaune asked from a speechless Weiss.
"Y- you eat Grimm? But they are poisonous! And Grimm blood is corrosive!" She finally exclaimed "How are you not dead yet?"
"Eh, I don't know. I sort of discovered the whole Semblance by eating a Beowolf"
"'Eating a Beowolf' he says…" Weiss covered her face with her hands "´Do you casually eat anything that walks on four feet?"
"..."
"...You can say 'no' anytime now…"
"...'No'?"
"Even I can tell that was fake" Ruby piped up from the side.
"Right… You need to eat Grimm. How'd you transform yesterday then?" Blake asked, sceptical over Jaune's hesitation. "Also. I'm really curious as to how you learned to make those swords of yours…"
"Uh…" Jaune sweated under the combined weight of his teammates gaze, until he distracted them by grabbing the buckle of his belt and beginning to pull his pants down.
"W-what are you doing!" Weiss exclaimed as she turned away, Ruby covered her face with her hands but left a small gap between her fingers, and Blake adopted a neutral expression while looking at Jaune.
"Erm, taking off my clothes?"
"I can see that! Why are you taking them off?" Weiss scowled
"Well, when I turn into a Grimm, I sort of grow bigger and that rips my clothes so I figured I'd save my clothes this time" Jaune answered.
"G-Go do that somewhere else! Shoo!" Weiss pointed at a nearby bush while looking at anything that wasn't him. "Do it there and then come back!"
"Er, I'd still need to find a Grimm and…"
"J-just do what you need to do and come back."
Jaune left the clearing, silently offering thanks to whatever gods may be watching over him for giving him excuse to not use his ability right in front of his team.
'Right… Now I just need to go and transform to something that isn't that armored form...'
"Have you succeeded in identifying the composition of our 'Abomination'?" Ozpin asked as he put aside a holographic screen showing Jaune walking away from his team in Emerald Forest.
He was seated behind his office desk with Glynda Goodwitch standing beside him and looking at the screen showing the group of teenagers, and a most peculiar man with the grandest moustache known to Beacon sat in front of him.
"Yes, for the most part" Professor Peter Port answered from his seat on the other side of the headmaster's desk. "Our small secret has quite the curious composition indeed, if I may say so"
"Go ahead" Ozpin motioned to Port.
"It seems that mr. Arc's form borrows heavily from various other Grimm forms" Port began "The carapace on his back resembles Deathstalker's armored back greatly, with a long tail used to balance the creature replacing the stinger. The legs seem to be borrowed from a Beowolf, although enlarged heavily and with large, Boartusk-like hooves instead of paws- and with a thick claw at the back-end of the hoof to stabilize the creature's walk on two legs, instead of the four legs that creatures with hooves usually have" he recounted.
"What about the arms? I haven't heard of a single Grimm in Sanus's soil with four arms…" Ozpin asked as he looked over a stack of pictures Port had handed to him, detailing the various Grimm-parts with circles drawn over the specified resemblances.
"Quite curious indeed. It was a long search, but I found a similarity to an arachnid-type Grimm form dwelling at the western part of Anima. The arachnid Grimm also had nearly identical bone-structure as to what we observed on mr. Arc's chest." Port said as he twirled his moustache "It seems that mr. Arc has been quite the traveler indeed, coming here from across Anima, crossing the sea and moving in the Saunus before ending up in Vale. I haven't been able to find the Grimm creature that could be the source of his fairly unique head, though"
"I gave you the logs from Vale Police department and the video from our first encounter with mr. Arc… what have you found from those records?" Ozpin asked while nodding at Port's observations.
"Humm, those were curious indeed." the man nodded "I looked through almost all records on land-based Grimm to find one which would use darts, or launched miniature-Grimm as ranged weapon like that… until I found an old drawing of a marine-based Grimm creature which allegedly used calcified bone-spears to attack ships and fishermen, and was believed to nest between the coasts of Saunus and Anima."
Port shuffled his stack of papers until he drew out an ancient-looking paper which had a drawing of a large, squid-like Grimm with massive bone-made carapace, mass of tentacles bristling with bone-spikes, and having rows of small eyes that were blazing red light from between the cracks in the carapace.
"The drawing is perhaps quite… hmm... overdramatized, but I believe the locals referred to this one as 'The Kraken, Terror of the Seas'. The latter part was also included in the name as well, by the way" Port explained to Ozpin and Glynda.
Ozpin raised his eyebrow "It is possible for mr. Arc to have met it since creature would have nested close to mr. Arc's path to Vale, assuming that if he traveled straight from Shion to Vale City and either swam across the small ocean or walked on the ice-sheets that can occasionally drift between Anima and Sanus... Also, 'Terror of the Seas'?"
Port shrugged "The fishermen get creative occasionally, even more so when their livelihood is threatened and I suppose 'a darn big squid' wasn't threatening enough. The Kraken was largely believed to be a Grimm Abomination as well, since no-one's seen the thing for decades… or have not survived the encounter."
"So you are suggesting that mr. Arc has somehow taken parts of multiple Grimm, including other Abominations, and mixed them together to form a Grimm Abomination of his own?" Glynda joined the conversation
"That seems to be the most likely possibility, based on the evidence… however like all things in life, everything is subjective" Port shrugged "We have little information as to how the Grimm Abominations are created and we have very little information on the creatures as a whole beside the recounts from few survivors that have encountered them, and the statements from the teams of Hunters that have managed to slay the few that have been caught… In fact, mr Arc may already be on his way to become the most in-depth recorded Abomination in the history!" he rubbed his hands together.
"What exciting times we live in! Why, if my colleagues suggested to me that I'd be teaching a Grimm to hunt other Grimm a mere month ago, I'd have suggested them to search mental care with all due haste!" the older man said with excited tone. "I have even gone and hypothesized a nickname with which mr. Arc would be recorded into the Grimm Abomination anatomy books for when it's time to publish it to the Hunters as a whole!"
"That may be slightly hasty as we aren't even sure that mr. Arc is a Grimm at his core… but do go ahead and share the book entry with us?" Ozpin said while lifting his glasses. "Although I'd prefer if you kept mr. Arc's secret away from the shared Grimm database at least while he is alive…"
Port shuffled his papers until he pulled a freshly printed page out, and showed it to Ozpin and Glynda.
The paper had a drawing of Jaune Arc's imposing, four-armed armored form with letters in italic above it stating "Grimm Tyrant"
"Isn't it grand?" Port asked with a jolly tone.
'Don't turn into that… don't turn into that armored thing... ' Jaune kept repeating the mantra on his head as he struggled to contain his transformation.
He closed his ears to the outside world as he felt his body shift as he knelt on top of a Beowolf corpse with a red blade stuck on the creature's throat. Jaune felt as his face started to heat up and the flesh bubbled, making way for elongating jaw so he could start devouring his prey, and he felt a chitinous growth start to push through the naked skin on his back as his spinal links grew…
'No, no armor… Beowolves don't have armor…' He opened his hazy, red eyes to stare at the dead body in front of him, taking in it's features as he pushed his body to shape itself like it. He felt the shadow push him forwards as it commanded him to reach down and begin devouring it, to allow the flesh and bone to grow freely...
'No… I'd turn into that thing again…' Jaune pushed back against the foreign will while bracing himself against the grassy ground with his pair of large, black arms. He felt a long claw extend into a blade from both his thumbs against his will, again, and he grabbed hold of them in to lock the blades in place.
He felt his Semblance obey him, and fuse the flesh of his arm around the blade to form a long scythe-like blade instead of a massive bone-sword…
Yet he felt a second pair of arms starting to grow from underneath his first one, and he turned his attention to them to stop them from growing further. 'No, no, no… Beowolves don't have four arms… no… This isn't working...'
Jaune felt uncomfortably hot as a sickening sensation washed over him and he blacked out momentarily, feeling his body give into the instinct to devour flesh and lunge at the Beowolf carcass he had prepared beforehand.
The carcass disappeared rapidly as his long, sharp teeth gnawed through the oily, cold flesh, and he felt bone-mask grow over his elongated, Beowolf-like head…
'Haah… Hahh… I did it… well… not really… but close enough… for a first try…. ' Jaune struggled to think through the ever-rising urge to continue hunting once his food source had ran dry 'I mean… It's my first time… to do this… this extensively… consciously… '
Even though he felt difficult to move under the heavy bone-plates that had grown over his back, his chest didn't have the bone-made exoskeleton, and his arms and legs were nearly those of Beowolves with the exception of the hands, and extra pair of small, weak arms under his pair of strong ones.
He heard a loud series of bangs from the distance, followed by sounds of breaking ice which shook him briefly from his daze.
T̢̕͟͜͝h̢͘͜e̴͡͞ ͠͏͟p̛͢͢͡͏ŗ͝e̴̸̢͟y̷̨ ̸̀́͟į̷͝͞s͏҉̷ ̛͜͢͢t̸͡͡h̸̛e̶̵͝ŗ̸è̛͢͞.̧́͟͏.̵̕.̡́͘͜҉
Jaune shook his head and slammed his snout against a nearby tree, sending a crack alongside the bone-mask and sending wood-splinters flying 'No… they are my team… my friends… Not my food'
He growled as he felt blood trickle between the cracks, and he dug the sharp scything blades to the ground to stop himself from moving until the maddening whispers had quieted down, yet remained just below the surface of his mind...
A shuffle eventually caught his notice, and he sniffed the air as his eyes were blurred and he could barely see as it hadn't gotten used to the different eyesight his new eyes had.
'Grimm… Beowolves. One? No… more… Entire pack' he concentrated his senses, focusing on the hollow emotions radiated by the Grimm moving through the woods towards the source of gunfire 'They are heading for the team!' Jaune realized with a deep growl.
The Grimm wouldn't hurt his teammates. He'd make sure of it.
A snarl escaped his lipless maw as he began his unbalanced, limping charge towards the source of the gunfire….
"Blake!" Weiss shouted as she dodged a Beowolves swipe and froze the ground under it, which caused the attacking Grimm to be caught off-balance and allowing Blake to jump on top of the creature and stab her pistol-dagger into it's neck.
"Ruby! Make way!" Weiss shouted as she prepared red Dust on her Myrtenaster, readying herself to launch a fire lance between the attacking pack of Beowolves to split them up.
The red-clad girl moved to the side, allowing Weiss to have a direct line of attack between the creatures… before Ruby moved back to her line of fire while slashing her scythe at a Beowolf that had come forwards.
"Ruby! No!" Weiss shouted as she was forced to cancel her attack mid-strike and slash her weapon to the side, causing the fire-lance to set a single beowolf ablaze instead of splitting the entire pack "Don't attack out of turn, you dolt!"
"Sorry!" Ruby apologized as she pulled back, raking her scythe across Beowolves chest as she retreated before anchoring the weapon on the ground with the scythe-blade and opening fire on the creatures.
'Sheesh… that girl's really struggling to fight as part of a group rather than fighting alone…' Weiss thought as she readied yet another Glyph, this time in front of the Ruby's scythe's gun-barrel to imbue the shots with ice Dust and freezing the creatures that were hit, before shattering them and pelleting the survivors with the razor-sharp ice chunks of their fallen comrades.
'Blake however…' Weiss continued her thoughts as she saw the black-clad girl use the flashy barrage as a cover to slip under the Grimm's radar and reposition herself behind the creatures while still staying off the primary firing lane, biding her time until she'd be given a chance to strike forwards and ambush the surviving Grimm '... She's used to fighting as a member of a combat unit… no, as a assassination specialist in a small team. I'm not sure I like the implications of that, with her being a faunus and all…'
Weiss felt her expression tighten as she took a breath and prepared a time-dilating Glyph under Blake as Ruby's scythe ran out of ammo, and the black-haired girl sprung out of her hiding-spot to launch a flurry of precise, time-dilation enhanced attacks against the pack of shell-shocked Grimm 'No. I can't afford to start doubting my own team, therein lies what Professor Port warned me about...' Weiss scowled at herself internally as Blake finished off the last Grimm in the clearing, and the loud snarling and whining from behind the underbrush quieted down.
"Right. Gather up" Weiss said as nothing else moved in the clearing and no more Grimm came through the underbrush, the remaining Grimm having likely fled before having chance of entering the clearing after the back of their attack was broken.
"Ruby, You need to really get more used to fighting as a part of team- specifically to constantly stay aware of what your fellow team-mates are doing and are about to do" Weiss analyzed, causing Ruby's expression to droop.
'Hmmm, am I supposed to compliment her about something now?' she thought as she looked at Ruby's downturned expression and heard the smaller girl apologize.
"...However, you did well in terms of personal combat abilities" Weiss commented.
"Yay! Thanks" Ruby said as the girl's expression brightened and she hopped up and down before giving Weiss a small hug.
"H-hey! Get off!" Weiss scowled as she squirmed out of the girl's hug.
"Blake, you did really well… I can't really find stuff to criticize in your performance," she said simply to the quiet girl who nodded and turned away to look at the Grimm-blood stained clearing and the slowly evaporating corpses.
'I guess that's the best interaction I can hope with her, noting her reaction during the morning's incident and all…' Weiss thought as she scowled at the dead carcasses 'I mean, I did walk in on her and Jaune sharing a private moment and accidentally discovered one of her major, private secrets... but still, there's time and place for everything, and that shouldn't have taken place in our shower at all...'
"Speaking of team members, where is Jaune?" Weiss asked of no-one in particular "Surely it doesn't take this long for him to use his… Ability"
'Hmm… I can do fairly accurate tactical analysis mid-battle and support with Glyphs but I'm likely the most vulnerable person in the entire team...' Weiss started to think about the partial team's performance as she received shrugs as an answer to her question 'Ruby has very high damage potential at both short and long range and is extremely fast to reposition herself… but she can't keep it up for long. Blake can provide good damage output against fewer targets and she's elusive enough to avoid being noticed, and she can disengage easily with her Semblance… but I think she'd be fairly weak against large swarms or wide-area based attacks since she's too slow to avoid them easily like Ruby, and can't shield herself like I can… So what we are missing is someone who can take the enemy's attention and tie them down, and to stop the enemies from reaching the more fragile team members when we are distracted... I wonder if Jaune could do that?'
"Umm… I just started to think of this but… If Jaune can turn into a Grimm, what if he had turned himself into a Beowolf and tried to help us with the other Grimm just now?" Ruby said from the side as the smaller girl seemed to realize something, much to the her horror "What if we just accidentally killed Jaune?"
'Huh, I hadn't thought about that… but surely mr. Arc knows better than to attempt to assist us when we have no way of recognizing him…' Weiss thought, slipping back to her formal speech even in her own mind as she felt an uncomfortable sensation settle in on the bottom of her stomach. "I'm sure mr. Arc is alright. He would have been unable to kill that Abomination alone if he was either weak, or foolish" she said instead, attempting to calm down Ruby who seemed to be starting to vibrate on the spot.
A deep growl from the edge of the clearing pulled the team's attention away from wonderings, and each of the students raised their weapons towards the rumbling underbrush until a large Beowolf Alpha broke through the branches and bushes… only to be caught by its leg as something large and sharp stabbed itself onto the Grimm and dragged the loudly whining creature back to the undergrowth and out of sight.
"...What?" Blake mouthed before the Alpha's loud whine was replaced with a brief tearing sound and quiet once again returned to the clearing.
'Could it be?' Weiss thought before she opened her mouth "Jaune" she shouted aloud. "We are here"
Quiet followed her statement until a identical growling came from the underbrush, and a large form, even larger than the Alpha pushed itself through the branches and the brushes.
Weiss's breath caught slightly as she saw a malformed Beowolf enter the clearing.
The beast's back was armored much akin to how a Deathstalker's back would be, extending all the way from it's bone-armor covered head to the base of its wolf-like tail. It's muscled arms were propped against the ground as it walked on all fours, although with a fumble rather than with the fluid motion regular Beowolves had.
The creature seemed to be almost blind as it sniffed the air and moved slowly and deliberately, seemingly having difficulties navigating under it's heavy, mismatching armor.
The malformed Beowolf didn't appear harmless though, as it's jaws were stained in Grimm-blood and it had few large scratch-marks and cracks over the armor that covered its head, not to mention quite few rapidly regenerating, deep cuts in it's unarmored flank.
The creature's arms resembled Beowolf's large arms, with the exception that they were clawless, and the creature's hands were instead fused around a pair of large scythe-like bone-blades, and below the pair of stronger arms the creature had a secondary set of small, almost human-like arms with sharp claws which twitched occasionally, almost if attempting to move or gesture something but didn't quite have the manipulation to do so. Looking further, Weiss spotted a belt full of pouches being held by one of the smaller hands, which caused her to pause as she recognized the piece of equipment...
"...Jaune?" Weiss asked once more as she readied her rapier and prepared to cast a Glyph that would freeze the Grimm still.
The creature stopped by itself before Weiss could stop it however, and continued to sniff the air instead.
'If it was Jaune… surely he'd communicate somehow? But what if he can't see us? Did something go wrong? ...But I think it did kill that Alpha Beowolf… and it's jaws are stained in Grimm-blood and the Grimm don't eat eachother… and that belt...' Weiss thought as she stared at the creature with her weapon high. 'Oum dammit Jaune, why couldn't you just have a Semblance that allows you to pull rabbits out of your hat or something…'
Making a snap-second decision, Weiss put her rapier aside and turned to Ruby.
"If the thing attempts to harm me, shoot it's snout- it appears to be blind or have very poor eyesight. Blake, get behind it and get ready to hamstring it"
Before her teammates could object, Weiss stepped forwards and approached the Grimm slowly, readying herself to jump back if it made hostile moves.
The creature seemed to just keep sniffing the air, until it turned it's head towards Weiss and the girl froze as the creature lifted its scything claws…
And sunk the blades deep into the wet soil, completely immobilizing the creature.
'What…' Weiss thought as she started to slowly shift towards the creature that kept sniffing the air, until she could almost touch the creature's snout.
She kept Myrtenaster pointed at the malformed beast's chest as she reached her hand and placed it on the creature's head, half expecting that it'd try to bite her on the touch.
"Mr. Arc?" she said once more as the creature didn't move to attack her after she touched it, but instead pushed against her hand with a soft whine. "Can you nod once if you hear me?"
The creature lifted its ears but didn't make other moves, so Weiss raised her voice slightly and repeated her question, which drew a nod and a snarl from the creature.
Weiss let a out a breath that she hadn't realized that she'd held and she pulled her hand away 'In retrospect, I think I should have asked that before moving closer to touch a potentially very, very hostile creature…' she thought idly as she she lifted her hand to pat the Grimm on it's head. "Uh… Are you unable to speak?" she asked, feeling somewhat numb over the unusual interaction.
The Grimm gave a snarl, growl, another snarl then followed it with a nod.
"I… see." Weiss gave Ruby and Blake a small nod as she looked around the clearing, unsure as to what to do.
'I didn't plan for Jaune's transformation to be -this- extensive… I imagined it'd be just a coat of fur or something…' she thought as she continued to numbly scratch the large, malformed Grimm-creature behind the ears, ignoring how the creature's tail began to waggle.
"Is… is that Jaune?" Ruby asked with a fairly high-pitched voice as she crept forwards, having folded her scythe's blade into the weapon and having it out on the rifle configuration as she approached the unusual pair.
"I… think so..." Weiss made to start, but a stern nod from the creature interrupted her "Yes" she translated instead.
"That's… more disturbing than I thought, based off the description and yesterday's demonstration..." Blake commented from the side as the girl continued to maintain her distance with her pistol-blade aimed at the back of Grimm-Jaune's knee.
Ruby gave a miserable whine as she reached to touch the Grimm creature's mask, followed by pulling her hand back as it caught on some of the blood on it's jaws.
"C-can you turn back?" Ruby asked as she looked at the row of long, sharp teeth as the smaller girl appeared to be in great distress over Jaune's form. "Please?"
Weiss stopped her scratching after Grimm-fied Jaune froze still as Ruby continued to stare at him.
"I… I believe that I it might be necessary for us to be able to communicate with words, rather than nods and snarls." Weiss spoke after clearing her throat, searching for the right way to express herself "Please turn back to your human... human shape, at your earliest convenience, mr Arc"
Weiss saw how the creature's hairs stood up, before she felt the creature's flesh began to heat up, and she had to pull her hand back to avoid getting scalded by the hot flesh.
Steam rose from the flesh that seemed to almost flow and bubble like some sort of thick liquid, and the bone-plates on the creature's back cracked and crumbled off, and the pair of small, malformed hands shriveled until the weak appendages fell off completely. She kept backing up as the flesh bubbled further and the creature grew smaller, and it's hands ripped themselves off from the bone-blades stuck on the ground with a sickening sound of tearing flesh.
Weiss looked away as the grotesque transformation continued until she heard the bubbling come to an end and she turned back towards the Grimm-Jaune… and discovered the bizarre blonde teenager kneeling up weakly from the ground as bits of white Grimm-bone sizzled on the ground, giving off exactly similar smoke to as the corpses of Beowolves on the clearing gave.
"...Jaune?" Ruby asked weakly once more as she put her weapon aside "Um…"
"Mr. Arc. I believe you had your clothes stored somewhere?" Weiss scowled as she turned away once more, redirecting her attention to more familiar things to give herself a moment to think and come to terms with what she'd seen. "Please cover yourself" she added after a moment.
"Eeeep" Weiss turned her head to see Ruby squeal and zoom past her to cower on the edge of the clearing with her face brightly red, and Weiss looked to the side to see Blake looking towards the naked teenager with a neutral expression.
"I'll… I'll put them on, one moment" she heard Jaune say breathlessly before she heard rustling come from behind her, and she heard a confirmation a few moments later "I'm good now... "
Weiss turned and gave the now-clothed man a inquisitive look while bunching her hands up.
'He looks exactly the same as he did before he left us in order to shapeshift… ' she observed as she glanced at her Scroll which displayed the Aura levels of her team 'His Aura is still full… Doesn't he lose Aura during the transformations? Also, didn't he have cracks and scratches on his… snout… before he turned back?'
"Uh… Ruby?" Weiss heard Jaune say, and she turned her attention at the smaller girl who had launched herself forwards and glued herself into Jaune's arm "You're sort of crushing my hand…"
"You're okay… You're you…" Ruby whispered as the red-faced girl distanced herself from the teenager.
"As touching as your reunion is, we have matters to discuss" Weiss scowled, causing the smaller girl to jump slightly as she was brought to reality "Mr. Arc… Jaune. Thank you for demonstrating your ability, as disturbing as it was… however, did it really take that long for you to do it?"
"Uh… well, I had to find a Grimm and stuff…" Jaune muttered while scratching the back of his head with sheepish expression on his face "Er, the transformation is kinda slow and I can't just do a complete shapeshift out of nothing so…"
"Hmm… " Weiss wondered, giving a glance to the side "Blake, come here." she called to the girl that was lurking at the edge of the clearing where Jaune had entered from, with the girl appearing to be somewhat shocked because of something.
"Can you still fight, Jaune?" Weiss asked, getting a uncertain headshake as response as Jaune looked exhausted." I see... In that case, let's move out of here for now, before we attract more Grimm… Also, Blake, what was so interesting about that bush?"
"..." Blake was quiet as she pointed at the broken underbrush where Jaune had entered the clearing from and Weiss moved over to take a look, pulling apart the thick, broken bushes and branches to see behind them.
The scene of bloodshed behind the wall of underbrush caused Weiss's breath to catch slightly as she discovered the mutilated and completely shredded carcass of Alpha Beowolf, and a almost half pack's worth of smaller Grimm which were torn apart and strewn all over the blood-covered trees…
"So, you can completely turn into a Grimm… I didn't quite believe that it would be so extensive." Weiss analyzed with a slightly shaky voice as the group was walking towards the Beacon's grounds on a paved stone road, after using the elevators to lift themselves off the Emerald Forest.
The majority of the travel had been silent, allowing the teenagers to have some time to collect their thoughts.
"Can you shift into anything else?" Weiss continued her question
"Excuse me?" Jaune asked, slightly puzzled over the question.
"Is that... hmm… thing, your only form you can shapeshift into, or can you form anything else as well?" Weiss clarified, pausing slightly to search for proper word to describe Jaune's form.
'Uh… No… But I don't think I should tell about the other one' Jaune thought as she looked at the girl's thoughtful expression on her pale face 'I mean… that half-cooked Beowolf-form was sort of the result of me trying my hardest not to change into that armored form… and it didn't quite work out'
"No, not really" Jaune told her, doing his best to have an honest expression on his face.
"You're hiding something" Weiss said, narrowing her eyes "That isn't your only form, is it?"
'Crap, she found out'
"Uh…" Jaune stalled for time, looking at Ruby for help.
It didn't do much as Ruby's innocent, wide-eyed look back just sent a wave of dread down his spine as her silver eyes connected with his, dispelling the remnants of the Shadow's influence from his mind but doing little to help him find an excuse for Weiss's question.
"No… but I don't quite have control over the other one" Jaune confessed honestly.
"'Don't quite have control'? Does that mean you can't control yourself in Grimm form?" Blake asked warily as she kept walking a step behind the group, keeping her eyes on Jaune's back.
"N-no! It's just that um… I'm not quite myself and I do rash things and uh…" Jaune struggled to explain "It's pretty scary and…"
"We get it" Weiss scowled as she crossed her arms and looked to the side "Nevertheless, our excursion to Emerald Forest today has been a partial success… We were able to familiarize ourselves with each other's, bar Jaune's, combat style and we saw a glimpse on Jaune's hmm… unique… ability" she recounted. "Although I'm still curious to how it works."
Weiss turned back to Jaune and pointed a finger at him "You were able to form that red blade and do partial shapeshifting yesterday, without eating a Grimm like you claimed you needed to do. How did you do that?"
"Eh, I just sort of… concentrated on it and did it." Jaune answered honestly "I mean, I've figured out that my Semblance requires for me to have consumed a lot of food for the shapeshifting to work, and Grimm just sort of fit the bill… I can't just up and suddenly snap my fingers to turn myself fully into that combat form"
"That doesn't answer the question" Ruby helpfully pointed out from the side, causing a droplet of sweat to drop down Jaune's neck.
'Thanks Ruby' he thought before continuing "...But um, smaller transformations don't really require that much so I can just do small stuff without gorging myself too much on Grimm or something else…"
"…" Weiss went silent to process the information as the group exited the paved stone-road leading into the Beacon's grounds proper and headed into the armory as the sky above them darkened.
"That sounds quite far-fetched… Then again, the whole ability sounds so far fetched yet we've seen it in action so…" Blake commented as the team's footsteps echoed on the empty hallway.
"Mass." Weiss suddenly said, causing Blake to fall quiet. "The shapeshifting has to be all about usable mass, if it's solely dependant on food and not Aura. You can't make flesh and bone from Aura, as it's only a catalyst in the natural Aura-based healing process where rest and nutrition making the healing possible in the first place, and Aura just works as a catalyst. However, normal shapeshifting consumes massive amounts of Aura to create a proxy form while changing the practitioner's mass but not using it... You're not shapeshifting, you're regenerating!" Weiss announced, looking inordinately pleased with herself as if she'd unlocked some great mystery.
"You don't shift from shape to shape, you grow from one shape to another" she explained as her previous explanation went right over Jaune's head, and based off the expressions that Ruby and Blake had, passed by them as well.
"What's the difference?" Jaune asked "They sound similar"
"Everything!" Weiss scowled "You're not using Aura to change your body from one shape to another, you use your Semblance with your Aura to break your body-matter down and use it to form itself anew!"
"That sounds… gross" Ruby scrunched her face.
"I still don't get it?" Jaune asked, puzzled.
"Gahh, how simple can you be?" Weiss despaired, before starting again, but with slow, deliberate tone "Jaune, when you shapeshift, have you ever had injuries or wounds on you before you shapeshift?"
Jaune nodded.
"Have you had wounds or injuries after you've shapeshifted?"
He shook his head.
"See? You're not moving from shape to shape, since you'd retain your injuries! You're growing from shape to shape!" Weiss explained, smug expression on her face. "A wolf-shapeshifter could only shape to one type of wolf-shape, and if you'd cut their hand off, the wolf-form would also lose a paw and the opposite would also apply."
"You know a lot about Aura and shapeshifters" Blake pointed out.
"I have studied Aura extensively since my Semblance revolves around manipulating Dust with it." Weiss answered easily, bunching her hands as the group reached the Beacon's armory and stepped inside to disarm themselves.
"That only partially answers the question…" Jaune pointed out.
"..."
"Weiss, are you secretly a shapeshifter and that's why you'd know?" Ruby piped up from the side, "Can you turn into a bird? That'd be so cool..."
"W-what! No!" Weiss told the smaller girl. "F-fine, I was reading about people with known shape-shifting Semblances during the Grimm studies class today since I got curious about the subject after yesterday's events..."
"Oh? The model student was not paying attention to the lessons? How shocking" Blake commented with a slightly amused tone.
"Why yes, do take the moral high-ground despite how you spent the exactly same lesson reading that smut book of yours… At least my choice of reading was high-level applied science." Weiss retorted.
"A-At least I'm not going around petting Grimm and scratching them behind the ears…" Blake hissed with a slight tint of red on her cheeks and blazing amber eyes after Weiss's comment. "Hold on, how'd you know what… 'type' of book I was reading? ...It wasn't smut!"
"I saw an excerpt from the book! Furthermore, my reaction to the Grimm creature was merely one born out of shock and..."
"It felt good, by the way" Jaune commented from the side, interjecting himself into the fight before it could escalate. "The scratching, I mean" he clarified after all three girls gave Jaune a neutral look.
"Y-you're welcome?" Weiss said, her cheeks turning slightly red as the girl remembered just who the Grimm in the clearing had been.
Silence followed the team as the teenagers made their way into the showers after depositing their weapons, with Jaune breaking off the group to go into the men's showers, each team-member having thoughts of their own about the passed day.
"So how'd the training go?" Yang asked the following day as she had once again chosen to sit on team SABR's table rather than on RYNN's table for breakfast "Did you get to show your Crescent Rose to Jaune again?" she grinned.
"Yangggg…" Ruby whined "It wasn't about that.. we were just working on our teamwork"
"Miss Rose…" "Ruby!" "...is correct" Weiss confirmed "However the details are confidential" she preemptively scowled at the smaller girl.
"Uh… yeah" Ruby rubbed the back of her head, stealing a glance at Jaune who was gorging himself on his sixth serving of sausages and eggs, with a small stack of already empty plates piled neatly beside his tray.
"'Confidential' she says" Yang grumbled, bunching her hands but not pressing further.
"Oh yeah, I told Ren about your advice and he promised he'd go visit Port when he'd have time" she told Weiss a moment later as she she changed the subject. "Dunno if anything is going to come out of it, but it can't be a bad thing either way"
"Regardless I wish that your team will find success in their studies and improve on it's performance…" Weiss spoke at Yang who scoffed slightly.
"You can just tell that you're hoping that we get our shit together, Weiss-cream" she told Weiss who frowned "You don't need to be so formal with us"
"I told you earlier that you could be more familiar with us" Ruby piped from the side "And I meant it too!" she added with bright smile.
"Soo… what's up with lover-boy?" Yang asked Ruby as Weiss scoffed and looked away "Is he usually that hungry?" she added as she looked at Jaune putting yet another empty plate aside.
"Yeah, he is. It's related to his Semblance…" Ruby said, before stopping herself with visible effort "...Um… I didn't tell you that" she finally said.
"What's up with 'that'?" Yang asked, leaning forwards "Is he still saying that his Semblance is some weird Grimm-thing?"
"..." Ruby was quiet as she looked away.
"I believe you should consult to mr. Arc should you wish to know more about his abilities" Weiss commented from the side while wiping the corners of her mouth and pushing her tray away. "Semblances are quite private affairs, of which I've reminded miss Rose once already."
"Is she bullying you, sis?" Yang asked with quiet tone.
"N-no! Weiss is just eh, teaching me and stuff…"
"I'm done, thanks!" Jaune announced as he put his last plate away and gave small burp.
"Finally." Blake commented as she stirred her tea idly while reading her book. "One would think that you'd never stop eating… Just where does all of that go?"
"Eh, my stomach I guess" Jaune replied helpfully.
Blake rolled her eyes "I somehow figured you'd answer that way..."
'I'm really glad that the the girls didn't react too badly yesterday.' Jaune thought as she looked at the scene around him as Yang was grilling a furiously blushing Ruby about something, Weiss was occasionally interjecting herself into the sister's conversation and Blake was reading her book.
"Right, the breakfast will end soon, and we need to head out... " Weiss started, glancing at her Scroll "...and prepare ourselves for our first Combat class"
"Um… Do I have to attend?" Jaune asked, holding his hand up as if asking for a permission to speak "I don't have a weapon…"
Weiss gave Jaune a sideways glare, before huffing slightly "Of course you need to attend! Just because you are unarmed right now since you aren't allowed to use… hm… your abilities to fight other students, it doesn't mean you can just skip class!"
"Isn't that up to professor Goodwitch though?" Ruby asked from the side "I mean, I haven't even started to work on his swords… so surely she'd allow for Jaune and I to skip class so we could go and start to work on his weapons on the workshops?"
"Why would Jaune have to go then? Aren't you the one who makes the weapons?" Weiss shot back
"Ehhhh…." Ruby stammered, slight blush creeping into her cheeks "...For work morale factor" she finally said, looking at the side and pointedly looking past Yang's grin.
"You're so adorable when you're blushing like that" the busty blonde cooed at her sister "You could just say that you want to be…"
Yang's words were lost as Ruby reached over the table and put both of her hands over the grinning girl's mouth "Yannnggggg stopp" she whined, doing her best to silence her bigger sister as Weiss scoffed at the display from the side, and Jaune asked Ruby why she'd stop Yang from speaking.
Meanwhile Blake downed the rest of her tea and turned a new page on her book.
.
..
…
"You may begin" Glynda Goodwitch announced as she looked at the two fighters on the combat ring.
A gong rang, signalling the start of a match.
'Why did it have to come to this?' Jaune thought as he gripped a pair of borrowed, somewhat unbalanced slabs of metal someone could call 'swords' that he had been forced to borrow from the armory, and stared at Pyrrha Nikos who gripped her shield and raised her spear to point at his throat.
"Please go easy on me?" Jaune asked, not quite catching the silent muttering the girl responded with.
"...Should have come to train with me…" the red-headed girl muttered as her eyes gleamed through the shadow that partially covered her face "...perhaps he'll train with me if I break his legs, like Nora suggested…"
'Was I supposed to hear that?' Jaune sweatdropped as he was forced to dodge a spear thrown towards his face…
AN: Looks like Nora and Pyrrha found some common ground.
Next chapter- 27-28. 10- Flesh and Steel
Omake:
"So what you're saying is that mr. Arc is essentially a Grimm spider, wolf, scorpion and a squid?" Glynda asked Port after the pair of professors descended from Ozpin's office. "Do you think he can turn into each one individually?"
"From the gathered material, I can't see why not." Port answered lightly "Then again, the material we have gathered so far is quite limited, so there isn't a certainty…."
"A Grimm squid… with tentacles... " Glynda recounted with her face going white "In a team composed of him and three young female students…"
"Is there a problem?" Port asked, confused over the fellow professor's distress.
"N-no… I just thought of something horrifying" Glynda answered, holding a hand to her chest to calm her rising panic.
'I'm just overthinking things because of stress' she thought as she lifted her glasses 'I'm sure miss Belladonna, Rose and Schnee know better than to give into… No, I mustn't think like that…'
She was so deep in her thoughts that she almost walked over Ruby as the smaller girl rounded around a corner.
"Ah, my apologies miss Rose" "...Sorry, professor…" the pair exchanged apologies, with Glynda realizing that Port had disappeared as the man had likely returned to his office.
"Uhh…" she looked down at the small girl who tried her hardest to look composed while mouthing something.
"Something is distressing you. Out with it" Glynda said sternly, doing her best to direct the smaller girl's attention away from her unprofessional bump.
"It's… Um…"
"Speak."
"Sorry… It's not school related so um…"
"My patience is not limitless" Glynda looked down sternly, which seemed to break some internal dam in the red-clad girl.
"It's just that I don't know what to do… I think I like Jaune!" Ruby whimpered quietly "But Blake was already naked with him in the shower… And I don't want to lose to her…"
'Oh gods, It's happening' Glynda thought as she froze still, staring at the small girl that had frozen equally still under her unintentional glare 'I must salvage this…'
She placed both of her hands on Ruby's shoulders and leaned in.
"Miss Rose… You must resist the temptation" she said sternly to the red-clad girl that had started to stammer "Don't give into your perver… ehm. private thoughts about mr. Arc, he's far more dangerous than he looks"
Ruby blinked innocently "I mean, he did look pretty scary and somewhat gross earlier when he um… uh... " she fell quiet
"I know of mister Arc's secret, you can tell me"
"You do? Well, when he was transformed earlier, he looked really scary and it looked like he wanted to attack us…" Ruby recounted with slightly red face "...but then Weiss went in and started to pet him and scratch him, and then his thing started to waggle like he really liked it and…"
Glynda felt a lance of ice pierce her heart.
"M-Miss Schnee did… did what?" she stammered "No, don't tell me" she interrupted the smaller girl before she could tell whatever unspeakable acts her fellow student had to undergo.
'I have failed… I have failed them both…' Glynda despaired internally until she turned her eyes at the young girl who was looking at her with with a wide-eyed innocent expression on her face 'I can still save miss Rose…'
"Miss Rose… have you… um… undergone any similar acts as you fellow teammates?"
"Uh… well, there was this time when Jaune pulled me to an empty classroom and then... we... um... talked... and then I kind of cried a little because it was too much for me but he held my hand the whole way through and…"
"Enough, thank you" Glynda said, turning completely around and marching off as she couldn't bear to listen anymore.
'No… No… No…. Ozpin, I told you letting him in Beacon would be a mistake…' she thought with a heavy heart as she walked with stiff footsteps towards her office, leaving the confused student behind.
Perhaps a shot, or more accurately a bottle, of scotch would help her clean her failure to protect her students out of her mind...
