DISCLAIMER: I own nothing related to RWBY

It is late in the night, and Jaune is sitting on the rooftop illuminated by the moonlight, pondering to himself while staring at a lightning Dust crystal and a plant Dust crystal laid out in front of him.

'The Black Tortoise is Yin. Therefore, my next step of progression must be Yang. This leaves me with either the Azure Dragon or the White Tiger...'

Jaune sighs to himself and leans back in his seat, lazily gazing up at the stars and shattered moon.

'Engraving a second Divine Beast sigil is not impossible at this stage, but it is risky. Due to the recent breach in the city, I'm being left with little to no choice on the matter... If that breach was any sort of indication of what's to come, then I must be ready.'

A tingling sensation in the back of his mind momentarily distracts him, like an unreachable itch. After a few moments, it just as quickly disappears.

'There it is again. What was that?'

He shakes his head, discarding that thought for the moment, and focuses on the task at hand.

'The Azure Dragon emphasizes on unmatched supreme speed, while the White Tiger emphasizes piercing strength.'

Jaune closes his eyes, balancing both options in his head.

'In my current position, there is less value in speed. Even in my current state, I doubt there are few who can keep up with my speed, and if there are, my experience will compensate. What use is speed if I can not breach someone's defenses? In a poetic sense, Black Tortoise and White Tiger compliment each other rather perfectly.'

Having made up his mind, Jaune pockets the plant Dust crystal and focuses on the lightning one. Picking it up in his hands, he envelopes it with his divine sense and closes his eyes in concentration.

'The Star Piercing White Tiger encompasses the element of metal, the season of Fall, and prowls in the West.'

Like he had done before with the Black Tortoise, Jaune purifies and extracts the energy within the lightning dust Crystal. He begins to breath slightly heavily, and small beads of sweat begin to form on his forehead. With his will and finger, he condenses the energy into a concentrated strand and begins to form the sigil in front of him.

'The birth of lightning emerged from the primordial element of metal when the universe was born. The White Tigers claws meets no resistance as it pierces the cosmic void, decimating the stars in its path. Its seven mansions are the Legs, Bond, Stomach, Head, Net, Turtle Beak, and Three Stars. The beast is a God of War. Protector and defender. No mercy shall be shown to its enemies.'

Jaune's body shudders in pain as his creation slowly takes shape. Gritting his teeth, he swallows the blood threatening to escape from his mouth and completes the final stroke. The White Tiger comes to life and roars defiantly into the sky. With a push of his palm, the sigil engraves itself onto the left section of the Paifang's gateway surface. The sigil circles around in its spot a few times, before laying down to slumber. Back in reality, Jaune slowly reopens his eyes.

'Indeed, that second one took some trouble. It is definitely impossible to cultivate the third at the Houtian stage.'

Pocketing the dull gray crystal, Jaune pushes himself off the ground, stumbling onto his feet. As he starts to make his way to the rooftop exit, he notices movement down below him at the Beacon courtyard. Narrowing his eyes to focus his view, he sees a familiar raven standing behind the courtyard statues, before it suddenly expands in size and morphs, revealing a young looking woman with long black hair and red colored armor. Her face remains hidden, covered by a Grimm mask.

'So that raven was indeed a person. She seems to be waiting.'

Thoroughly intrigued by this development, and taking the opportunity to recover, Jaune remains still and watches silently. After a few minutes, a lone silhouette of a person approaches the courtyard from the distance. The raven woman steps out from behind the monument and comes face to face with the person approaching, revealed by the moonlight to be Yang. The woman reaches up and removes her mask, revealing her face to Yang, and unknowingly, to Jaune.

Jaune rubs his chin. 'I may as well be looking at twins! Hmm... is this woman Yang's sister? Or perhaps mother?'

The two on the ground have a brief conversation, one that Yang is clearly unsatisfied with, but the raven woman was done. She jumps back behind the courtyard statues, out of Yang's view, then slashes the air with her sword, creating a dark red portal. She quickly goes through before Yang could turn the corner.

'Is that a Semblance? Teleportation from the looks of it. How convenient.' Jaune's eyes glint with interest before they narrow as he senses someone coming from behind him. He turns around to face an identical dark red portal and the raven woman walking through. Jaune slightly tenses.

'Hopefully she's not looking for a fight because that would be incredibly... annoying.'

Jaune does his best to conceal the fact his body is trembling from fatigue, hoping this woman wouldn't notice.

"Good evening," Jaune greets. "And you are?"

"Hmph," She grunts before sheathing her weapon. "I finally got an opportunity to catch you alone. I'll get right to it as I do not like wasting time, and you and I have much to talk about."

Sighing, Jaune sits down on the ground with his legs crossed.

"If you want to talk, shouldn't you introduce yourself first?"

She hefts her Grimm mask and smirks, "Even outside of Anima, there aren't many who do not recognize Raven Branwen."

"You turn into the same bird as your namesake." Jaune mutters to himself, then sighs. "Okay, Raven Branwen. Why are you seeking me out?"

Raven finally seems to realize where she is at, then looks around her surroundings with slight surprise. She sees the courtyard view, with Yang sitting down next to the statues, crouching down and hugging her knees. Ignoring the twinge in her heart and quickly masking the brief softening of her eyes, Raven looks directly at Jaune and imposingly says, "You were spying. How much did you see?"

'Hmm... so she only vaguely sensed that I was alone, but had no idea of my actual location? Explains her reaction.'

Jaune calmly smiles and gauges her reactions, "I saw enough, little bird. I am curious though, what exactly is your relationship to Yang? Sister? Aunt?... Mother?"

Raven's eyes slightly twitch at the last one.

'Mother it is. Interesting.'

"I'm the one asking the questions. Not you." Raven grits out.

"I'll only cooperate so long as its on equal grounds," Jaune carelessly shrugs. "It's only fair I get to pick at your brain if you want to pick at mine."

Raven feels slightly disturbed by how calm the boy in front of her is. 'I've been emitting killing intent towards him since we've started talking. He hasn't even flinched.'

"Why are you constantly following RWBY around?" Raven asks.

Jaune rolls his eyes. "What kind of question is that? You've been following Yang around, so you know just as well as I do how prone those brats are at getting into trouble."

"That ended on the day of the breach." Raven says in a cold voice. "She gets one and only one. Anything that happens to her from now on will fall entirely on her shoulders. The weak die, and the strong survive. Those are the rules."

Jaune chuckles, "Indeed, that is a law of the universe. The strong will inevitably prey on the weak." His tone abruptly turns serious. "But I do not believe for a second that you'd let Yang die."

Raven resists the urge to flinch.

"You may have fooled others with your act, but you do not fool mine."

Her stomach shuddering, she reassures herself. 'He's bluffing.'

"Have you heard of the saying that the eyes are the windows to the soul?" Jaune relentlessly continues, "You know, now that I think about it, I've never heard a single thing about Yang's birth mother. Why is that? Was she abandoned like trash?"

"Stop!" Raven yells, unable to hold her composure. Her hand are tightly clenched into fists by her sides.

Jaune slightly nods his head, "I went too far. I apologize."

'Truly an interesting one you are, Raven Branwen.'

Taking a few deep breaths, Raven switches to the main topic she'd come here for.

"Jaune Arc, what do you know about Ozpin?"

'Ozpin? Why the sudden fixation on Ozpin?' Jaune raises an eyebrow. 'Is she asking about his reincarnating nature?'

Jaune shrugs, "I know that he was some child prodigy who quickly rose up the ranks as a Huntsman. Eventually, he ended up at the headmaster of Beacon. The youngest headmaster in history. Did I miss something?"

"I see." Raven's eyes narrow. "Well, I'll have you know that I know all about your meetings with Ozpin."

She smirks, "Your reaction to my transformation into a bird was taken pretty well. You haven't asked me a single question about that."

"What's the big deal about that?" Jaune looks at her like she's an idiot. "This is a school training teenagers with superpowers. What's so strange about someone turning into a bird?"

'Clever answer.' "But aren't you at least a tiny bit curious as to why I'm able to do so?"

"Maybe a little," Jaune admits with a dismissive wave of a hand. "But not enough that I'd lose sleep over it."

He sighs, "What is the point you're getting at? I thought you didn't like wasting time?"

Raven grunts in annoyance, "Do you know what Ozpin is hiding?"

"Too vague. Be more specific."

"What is your fairy tale?" Raven mockingly says. "Ring any bells?"

'She must be alluding to the tale of the four Maidens?'

Jaune calmly asks, "Which fairy tale are you talking about?"

"The seasons," Raven crosses her arms with a glare.

Bringing up a hand up to his chin, Jaune feigns intense thought. "Hmm... I do recall Ozpin telling me about the tale of the four Maidens. I thought it was rather interesting and charming."

Raven coldly responds, "I'll do you a favor just this once and give you a fair warning. Ozpin is not trustworthy. Trusting him is something a fool would do, and you're not a fool, are you?"

'My idiot little brother...'

Jaune looks up at the sky and calmly smiles.

"Trust? Hmm... Trust is such a fickle thing, but unfortunately, we all need to partake in it eventually. You're going to be disappointed to learn that I trust Ozpin to a certain extent."

'At the very least, he is not my enemy at the moment. The Heavenly Oaths are further insurance, but she doesn't need to know that.'

Raven sighs into her hand, "So he's roped in another one. It's a shame that one as talanted as you has been brainwashed by Ozpin's silver tongue."

She looks back at Jaune in surprise, due to the laughter escaping from his mouth.

"You seriously think that I am one of Ozpin's various machinations?" Jaune laughs as if he'd heard a funny joke. "Woman, I said that I trust Ozpin to an extent. By no means does that mean that I am a follower of his."

'Did I misjudge the situation?'

Raven decides to take a slight gamble.

"Then answer this for me. If someone you trust knowingly sends warriors and guardians to their deaths, to an adversary impossible to beat, what would you do?"

'She must be talking about Salem.'

"Impossible to beat? For all your talk of the weak die and strong survive, you sure have a weak heart." Jaune shakes his head and sighs.

"The answer is simple. Get strong enough to utterly trample and annihilate the enemy. Conceding the fight before you've even begun will end up being a self fulfilling prophecy of weakness."

'He has not idea. He doesn't know Salem like I know her. What an arrogant and ignorant answer.' Raven's eyes dim with disappointment.

As if he has heard her thought, Jaune responds, "I can assure you that I know exactly what I am talking about."

'How did he-' Her eyes widen.

"You're surprisingly easy to read," Jaune chuckles. Having slightly recovered, Jaune pushes himself onto his feet and walks towards the rooftop exit.

"Now, if you'll excuse me, I'd like to get some sleep."

"We're not done yet!" Raven steps in front of him and reaches out to grab his shoulder, only to end up grasping empty space. As her eyes rapidly scan the area before her, Jaune's voice mutters into her ear.

"To repay that favor you gave, here's some advice of my own. There is no such thing as an unkillable foe. Salem is no exception."

Raven's eyes widen at the mention of Salem. Then her head lurches forward from a sharp flick on the back of her head.

"And that is for pecking me in the face. Good night little bird." Jaune's voice fades into laughter.

Raven looks around in confusion at what just happened, then bites her lower lip in frustration.

'Jaune Arc is definitely not a normal student. He has many secrets, possibly even more than Ozpin. In fact... he doesn't even act his age.' Her eyes narrow with suspicion and thought.

Drawing her sword, she swings down, creating a portal. Before she steps, through, she takes one final look down at the courtyard.

'Yang.'

She sighs, then disappears into the night.

Jaune's knees buckle and he collapses against the wall next to his team's door. As he catches his breath, he reflects on the meeting with Raven.

'Though she has some clear animosity towards Ozpin, I wouldn't consider her an enemy.'

Taking a few more breathes, he pushes himself up to his feet and silently enters his team room.

'Time to rest. Tomorrow's the preliminaries after all.'

*** The following morning ***

Glynda's voice announces through the sound system in Amity Colosseum, speaking directly to the audience and viewers around the world.

"Welcome to the start of the Vytal Festival Tournament. Today is the day of the preliminaries, or also known as the qualifiers. For those who are not familiar with the rules and format, I will do my best to inform you all. At the start, two teams will be chosen at random. From both of those teams, a representative is to be selected to fight in a one vs one against the opposing team's representative."

"The victor will earn a point for his or her team, and will have the right to stay in the arena. From that point on, the remaining teams in the waiting rooms will be able to issue a challenge to the one on stage through the team leader's Scroll. Challenging the victor is on a first come first serve basis. On the flip side, if there are no challengers within a certain time frame, the winner has the right to issue a challenge to a team."

"On the other hand, those who lose in the one vs one match will no longer be able to participate in the preliminaries, thus losing the opportunity to score points for their respective teams. This process will continue until all participants have fought, and at the end, the top 16 teams with the most number of points will qualify for the main Tournament. In the case of more than 16 teams qualifying due to matching scores, those respective teams will go through the preliminary format until the tie is broken."

The various teams in the waiting room bustle with excitement, unable to remain still for the upcoming opportunity to showcase their skills to the world. Professor Port's booming voice sounds through the speakers.

"And without further ado, the first two teams to officially start the preliminaries will be..."

The screen transitions to two boxes cycling through dozens of team names per second. With the sound of a bell, the transitioning slows and stops.

"Team RWBY and Team LFEA! Now who will be the first to represent their respective teams?"

Jaune watches the members of RWBY huddled together, silently conversing amongst each other. After a few moments, they all nod in agreement, and surprisingly, Ruby separates from the team to head out towards the stadium stage.

'Interesting choice from those girls. I expected Yang or Weiss to go first, but Ruby?' Jaune rubs his chin. As Ruby passes by, he gives her a wink.

"Go kick their butts." He whispers and brings a hand out.

Ruby grins in response and brings her hand out to meet Jaune's in a low five.

Up on the screen, Ruby walks up the stage, Crescent Rose in compact gun form.

"Begin!" Oobleck announces.

Ruby brings her weapon up and fires several Dust rounds at her opponent. In response, her opponent zigzags towards Ruby, dodging her shots. As her opponent approaches, Ruby activates her Semblance, bursting into a blur of rose petals, and disorientating the contender from LFEA.

Having lost sight of Ruby due to her sudden burst of speed, the member from LFEA fails to react from getting hit on the back of the head by Ruby's weapon, getting knocked out of the arena.

'Is she purposefully not revealing her weapon? Ruby is planner, but she wouldn't come up with this.'

Jaune and his team walk over to where the Weiss, Blake, and Yang are sitting, then he asks them, "Who came up with this scheme?"

Blake and Yang point at Weiss, who huffs with pride.

"You can't tell me it's not genius." Weiss crosses her arms with a smirk on her face.

Yang laughs, "People are naturally going to underestimate her because she's 2 years younger. It's practically free points. Weiss really used her head on this one."

"Hey!" Weiss admonishes. On screen, Ruby has successfully taken down another opponent.

Blake nods in thought. "As expected of a Schnee. Experts in exploiting and nefarious plots." She playfully smiles towards Weiss, whose eyebrow twitches.

"This is indeed quite sneaky," Pyrrha chuckles to herself. "It's also a smart plan to grab early points."

"Hmm... maybe one of us should challenge her..." Jaune suggests.

"You wouldn't!" Weiss turns her head at Jaune with slight panic, then glares upon seeing that he only said that in jest.

At this point, Ruby has scored 3 points for her team.

"Team CRAS has issued the next challenge! What will we see next? Can anyone stop Beacon's young Rose?"

A lanky participant with a gaunt face strolls up the stage with both hands in his pockets. After he takes his position, Oobleck announces the start of the match.

"Begin!"

The lanky boy remains in his position and brings a hand out from his pockets and holds it out in front of him. He flashes a smile at Ruby.

"Before we fight, can we shake hands? For the sake of a good match."

Ruby, in all her naivety, walks up to him with a smile. As she brings her hand out for the handshake, the lanky boy brings his other hand out of his pockets and throws a powdery substance into Ruby's face. From the color, it is clear that the boy threw fire Dust into Ruby's face.

Though Ruby had reacted quickly to the movement, some of the Dust had inevitably landed in her eyes, blinding her and causing sharp pain. The member from CRAS promptly kicks Crescent Rose out of Ruby's grip. Then, without a hint of holding back, he begins to punch Ruby in the face and torso.

Ruby lets out cries due to the pain in her eyes and from the blows she is receiving. Combined with the fact she lost the comfort of her weapon while blinded sends her into a state of panic.

The audience watches with disgust at the method the boy had employed.

"Though within the rules, what a disgraceful display by an aspiring protector of Remnant. To all those watching, this is the opposite of how Huntsmen and Huntresses should conduct themselves. Absolutely disgraceful indeed."

Growing tired of playing around, the boy grabs Ruby by her hair and drags her to the edge of the stage, then throws her off, ending the fight. The stadium becomes overwhelmed with the sound of disapproval from the audience.

Jaune narrows his eyes dangerously at the scene that had unfolded before him. Yang slams her seat with her fist, pupils blood red and hair flaming.

"That bastard, I'll kill him!" She yells.

Blake says nothing, but her feline pupils turn to slits and her hair begins to stand on their ends. Weiss grips Myrtenaster hard enough her knuckles turn white.

"That idiot…" She whispers with concern all over her face.

"Disgusting," Pyrrha angrily glares at the screen.

Nora's knuckles crackle with some hints of lightning, while Ren's eyes are abnormally cold.

Off to the side, the other members of CRAS are pointing and laughing at the screen, making gestures and comments, ridiculing Ruby. Jaune's arm shoots out and grabs Yang's shoulders, forcing her to stay in her seat.

"Do not be rash."

"Don't stop me Jaune!" Yang furiously hisses. "You saw what he did to Ruby, and his teammates over there are laughing!"

"I am well aware of that. However, if you want to disqualify your team due to misconduct, then by all means, go attack them." Jaune curtly responds before sending a glance towards Blake and Weiss. "I am talking to you two as well."

The two in question say nothing in response and remain seated, but the tension in their bodies indicate they are ready to explode at any moment.

"You see how gullible that dumb kid was?" A fat boy from CRAS laughs. The other two members guffaw obnoxiously.

Jaune's pupils dilate and he adopts a calm expression. The temperature in the room noticeably drops, causing the teams around them to halt their chatter. The only one who does not seem to notice is Yang.

"Yang, your sister will need your support when she gets back. This is not the place to look for a fight."

Yang glares at Jaune's impassive face. "How can you call yourself Ruby's friend?! Look at the mirror, you hardly seem like you care-"

"Team JNPR has issued a challenge to CRAS!"

Yang pauses in surprise. Her eyes blink back to lilac and her hair settles down. Pyrrha places a hand on Yang's other shoulder and consoles her.

"Yang, Jaune is just as upset as the rest of us. You just didn't notice due to your anger."

Yang looks around to see the other participants staring at Jaune warily.

"I've only felt that kind of pressure from my sister when she got into an argument with my father…" Weiss comments in a low voice.

Blake remains silent but is slightly shivering. Due to being a cat Faunus and her former involvement with the White Fang, she is naturally more sensitive to killing intent.

From the other side of the room, Ruby slowly limps back to her team, accompanied by CFVY. Yang pulls away from Jaune and Pyrrha's hands and sprints to her sister. She envelops her in a hug, then begins to ask frantic questions while checking over her body for serious injuries.

"Ruby! I... Are you okay? What about your eyes? Any lasting injuries?"

Ruby sniffs her nose and rubs her eyes. "The fire Dust got into my nose and eyes. Both of them are still stinging. The nurse said there shouldn't be any permanent damage, but it could have been dangerous." She quietly replies.

As Jaune walks by, her pats her head and hold out his sheathed weapon out for her to grab.

"Hold onto this. I'll be back soon."

Ruby subconsciously grabs hold of her friend's weapon and brings it closer to her, watching Jaune's back as he slowly makes his way to the arena.

The lanky teen from CRAS stares at Jaune from across the stage with an arrogant smirk with crossed arms.

"I know you. You're the leader of JNPR with Pyrrha Nikos. I also know that you're close friends with that idiot I just beat." He laughs maliciously and mockingly says, "You here to take revenge for your friend? Hah! You should've seen her face when panic was all over it. It was hilarious!"

Jaune stares at his opponent with a blank face, having no reaction to the taunts.

"3...2...1... Begin!"

Jaune brings a leg up and stomps the ground, shattering the portion of the ground beneath him. He reaches out and casually catches a piece of debris that had been kicked up by the impact. Hefting the piece of rubble, roughly the size of the building brick, Jaune begins to calmly walk towards his opponent.

"What the f*ck? You making fun of me?!" the lanky teen snarls. Gritting his teeth at the lack of response from Jaune, he brings out a pair of combat knives and charges.

"You think a rock will protect you? Die!" He stabs the knives down towards Jaune's eyes.

As the knives meet their target, the lanky teen smirks, then quickly turns confused as he feels no resistance, as he had only stabbed through air. He feels a sharp kick to the back of legs, forcing him onto his knees.

'Guh! I can't feel my legs!' The lanky teen looks up as Jaune's shadow casts over him.

As if looking at a bug, Jaune brings his brick up and smacks him across the head, knocking the CRAS member onto the ground.

Though protected by his Aura, the lanky teen get concussed and remains on the ground, unable to move. Expression unchanging, Jaune crouches down next to his head and brings his brick back up and strikes him once more on the head.

"Gah!" the lanky teen cries out.

The audience watches in silence, unable to properly react to such a bizarre match. A combat trained student is being beaten down by a brick like some kind of insect. They look up at the status screen, seeing that the CRAS member's Aura was hardly dropping.

Like clockwork, Jaune continuously smacks the boy's face into the ground, carefully gauging his strength so as to avoid knocking the boy unconscious too early.

*Clunk*

"Guh! Please sto-" *Clunk*

"Plea-" *Clunk*

The lanky boy, though no marks of injury are present, he still felt every blow reverberating through his head, causing increasing amounts of pain over time.

"Mercy!" *Clunk*

"I give u-" *Clunk*

Jaune finally stops, expression unchanged since the start of the match. Seeing the opportunity to forfeit, the lanky boy hastily tries to say the words.

"I forfei-" *CLUNK*

The brick in Jaune's hand blurs into motion and cracks down on the boys head, instantly depleting his Aura down from 90% to 3%.

The stadium erupts.

"What the F*CK? With one shot?!"

Disregarding his down opponent, Jaune hefts the brick in his hand with mild satisfaction.

'This sure brings back memories. One of my few friends had jokingly used Brick Dao to humiliate his opponents. I must say that it is indeed supremely satisfying.' His eyes narrow as he scans the audience in the stadium. 'Are you watching, CCT intruder? I'm sure you are...'

Back in the waiting room, Coco and Nora howl with laughter.

"That was brutal! And at the end, he just... one shot the guy... with a rock!" Coco manages to squeeze out between breaths.

"It was complete and utter humiliation," Ren nods.

Pyrrha whispers to Velvet, "Was that..."

Velvet nods in response. "Though the application was... unique. That was definitely Reflection of the Divine Moon. But there was no windup at all, he had stepped into it instantaneously." She looks down at her camera and sighs. Due to the absurdity of that match, she had forgotten to record it.

Ruby, despite her terrible loss, can not help but lightly giggle at Jaune's performance.

"I don't know about you guys," Yang starts. "but this will remind me not to piss him off."

Fox and Yatsuhashi silently nod in agreement to that sentiment. Having experienced Jaune's dominance firsthand, they almost feel sorry for the CRAS member on screen. Almost.

Weiss, her anger forgotten, pinches her brow, desperately trying not to lose her composure. Even Blake can not help but silently smirk to herself.

Unlike Jaune's group of friends, the other participants in the waiting room begin to feel cold sweat forming on their backs. This guy's terrifying!

In the opposite corner of the room are Cinder, Mercury, Emerald, and Neo, reacting to the fight that had just occurred. Neo has her arms wrapped around her stomach, silently laughing uncontrollably while swinging her legs.

"What did we just watch?" Emerald struggles with her words. "What do we even learn from that?"

"That Jaune Arc is extremely skilled and powerful, which is nothing new." Mercury sighs.

Cinder glares at the screen with fire in her eyes. 'Is he mocking me?'

"Put Jaune Arc higher up on the list." She instructs Emerald and Mercury.

"No one has issued a challenge yet towards Jaune Arc of JNPR! As per the rules, he holds the right to challenge any team he wishes to fight!"

Jaune's impassive eyes narrow at the camera.

"CRAS."

"Obviously no one would challenge him after seeing that," An Atlas student mutters

"Yeah, it's not worth the risk of getting beat down by a piece of rubble. That's concussion, loss, and humiliation in one package. No thanks!" Another scoffs.

The surrounding participants nod to themselves in complete agreement. Why antagonize him when it looks like Jaune Arc only has a problem with Team CRAS? Better to let them take the beatdown without interfering and hope he doesn't turn his sights on them.

The remaining members of CRAS argue amongst themselves on who should go next.

"I'm not going! Going after that Beacon girl wasn't even my idea!"

"Bullshit! You're the one who came up with it!"

"What'd you say? I'll kick your ass you motherf-"

"As the next participant has not been chosen by CRAS, the system will now select one of the three at random."

With a buzz, a name reveals itself on the screen.

"Shit!" One of them curses.

Up on the arena, a fat boy waddles up onto the stage across from Jaune, who is standing neutrally with the brick in his hand. Upon taking his position, Oobleck announces the start of the match.

"Begin!"

Jaune blurs into motion, disappearing from the fat boy's vision. Panicking, he wraps his arms around his head, and actively pumps more Aura into his defense. Jaune reappears in front of the stationary boy from CRAS and looks at him like he's looking at a complete moron. With a glance, Jaune locates a gap in the fat boy's pathetic defenses and his arm snakes through, striking him directly on the head.

*CLUNK*

Natural Aura defense actively amplified or not, it makes no difference to Jaune. With a hollow sound echoing out, the boy falls to the ground, knocked out cold and Aura in the red.

"Another one shot!" Many within the audience feel their eyes beginning to roll back into their heads, feeling as if they're slowly going insane. What's the point of Aura if a piece of rubble can erase it in one shot?!

Unknown to everyone but Jaune, the reason why his blows are so effective is because he is incorporating the tiniest sliver's sliver of White Tiger essence into the brick, destroying his opponents defenses like wet tissue.

Like before, the remaining two members of CRAS fail to determine who went next, so the system chooses one at random.

An ordinary looking boy steps up, sweating from his forehead. As soon as Oobleck begins the match, the boy runs in the opposite direction.

Jaune internally sighs. 'Pathetic trash.' He takes a step forward and disappears in a blur of speed, catching up with the CRAS member without a sound. The boy, turns his head back to where Jaune was standing, to find him missing. His eyes widen with panic, and he frantically draws his weapon, a metal club. He turns his head back to his front, seeing Jaune standing, waiting.

With a desperate scream, the boy raises his club into the air and swings down.

Without sparing a single glance at the weapon swinging towards him, Jaune flicks his arm out, smashing his brick onto the weapon. The impact blows the club out from its wielder's hands and lands on the arena floor some distance away, crushed and bent at a 90 degree angle.

"The brick is inevitable." Jaune simply states, then swings down. The boys collapses to the ground with froth emerging from his mouth.

Oobleck lightly sighs into the mic. "The final member of CRAS. Step forward as you're the last remaining member."

The fourth and final member of CRAS steps onto the arena and immediately raises his arm.

"I forfeit!"

"You are not able to forfeit as the match has yet to even officially begin." Oobleck coughs into the mic.

"And on that note, 3... 2... 1... Begin!"

The final member raises his arm again.

"I forfei-"

*CLUNK*

As soon as Oobleck had called the start of the match, Jaune instantly appears in front of the CRAS member and clocks him across the head with the brick, knocking him unconscious.

"Ooookay and that's the end of the match! Jaune Arc has so far earned 4 points for his team and still looks to be in top condition! Will anyone step up to challenge him? Or will he, once again, receive the right to challenge a team?"

"H-he's gotta be done at this point. Right?" Someone asks uncertainly in the waiting room.

Up on the screen, Jaune brings out his Scroll and begins to browse through the various teams participating in the qualifiers.

"Oh gods... he's not done." A girl from Haven whispers in horror.

"Hmm..." Jaune flicks his finger on his Scroll's screen, lazily looking through the various teams.

'Quite a few people that match the intruder's profile...'

With a fake yawn, Jaune dismissively waves a hand at the camera. "I'm a little tired from so many consecutive fights. I'd like to step down." He lazily states.

"What?!" The audience exclaims. "Your mother that you're exhausted!"

Collective sighs of relief sound out in the waiting room as they watch Jaune strolling off the arena stage.

"Because Jaune Arc has not officially lost in a match, and is willingly stepping down, another member from his team must be selected to take his place. You will have 5 minutes to decide. In the meantime, your hosts, myself and Port will go over those fights, and try our best to analyze them for the viewers and audience."

Back in the waiting room, the participants part to make way for Jaune as he walks back to his group of friends. As he seats himself, he looks around at their incredulous expressions.

"What?"

"That was... quite the performance." Pyrrha chuckles. "You've built quite the reputation for yourself with those four matches."

Ruby holds out Crocea Mors for Jaune to take back.

"Thanks Jaune." She quietly laughs

"I must say, that was borderline cruel, what you did." Weiss states, then gives him a small smile. "But since it was rather justified, given what they did, I'd say it evens out."

"He completely crushed their spirit," says Ren. "I doubt that any of the members from CRAS will pursue the path to becoming an official Huntsmen after today."

Jaune gives Ren a curious look. "You're unnaturally perceptive at times. Yes, you're right. By definition, Huntsmen and Huntresses have a duty to protect and serve as paragons of righteousness. Trash like that do not deserve to be pitied."

"Damn," Yang remarks. "Pretty harsh words."

"But true," Jaune crosses his arms, then turns his head towards Ruby. "And you, Ruby. Despite such foul play, the fact of the matter is that you lost. One major reason is due to your naivety, what you did was borderline stupidity. I hope you'll learn from this experience. Secondly, you become helpless without a weapon."

"I... know..." Ruby looks down.

Jaune smiles gently and lightly flicks her forehead.

"To think the best of others is a rare trait, and I think it's a part of you that is truly charming. However, please practice caution in the future. That's all I'm saying."

"Question," Weiss raises a finger into the air. "You decided to forgo using a weapon against them to further rub in the fact that they are, as you called them, trash? Couldn't you have used hand to hand combat instead? Why a rock?"

"Hmm..." Jaune rubs his chin with a hand in thought. "How to best explain this? Would you kill a bug with a sword?"

Eyebrows raise at his rhetorical question.

"No, you'd do it with a shoe. But the question remains, how do you deal with scum? It is dirty and disgusting."

Those listening begin to feel a slight headache at the line of logic Jaune is spouting.

"Indeed, the best way to end such a thing is by smashing it with a rock or brick. Honestly, it's really quite simple. Right?" Jaune looks around to the group around him.

"Right?" He repeats.

Coco holds a hand against her mouth, struggling not to laugh. "Isn't... it... just easier to say... you didn't want... to... touch them?" She gasps out.

Velvet looks away with a red face, embarrassed for Jaune.

Weiss rubs her temples, looking thoroughly annoyed. "Okay... just stop. We get it."

"Anyways," Jaune coughs into his hand. "We need to quickly decide who goes next."

"OH!" Nora jumps onto her feet. "Me! I call dibs! You broke their faces, so I'll break their legs!" She maniacally grins and bolts away with Magnhild.

Ren sighs, "Well... I suppose that works."