Title: Arc's Crusade Continue
Rating: T for violence and swearing.
Disclaimer: RWBY belongs to Rooster Teeth. Diablo III belongs to Blizzard.
Warning: AU Crusader Jaune Arc. Violence, swearing.
Summary: Immediately after Malthael's painful death, there was a tear that lead to entirely different world. Diablo's soul fled into it, followed by a Crusader. Accidentally pushed by Imperius.
Chapter 8: No Armor, No Armor, and...No Armor!
Jaune did read a brief background information on Ruby Rose, a 15-years old silver eyes prodigy who wield a sniper-scythe hybrid weapon while wearing a red cape with hood. Just as Crusader did with all other students on Combat Setting late afternoon roaster. As with previous classes in morning, early afternoon, AND last year, Jaune knew he has a lot of work to make Ruby, Janna, and all other students competent in general setting. And in two week timeline for first semester or more, depending on Port.
Fortunately for Jaune, that's rather a good news as he found his effort to impart his combat 'wisdom' onto teenagers to be damn tiresome and not worth a headache. Jaune figured that was due to Remnant experiencing 'time of peace' and something about laws regarding forcing unwanted combat training on children (Ozpin's words and Jaune agreed, children have no place on battlefield). Thus, starting children's training at age 5-7 is not "needed" (as in Sanctuary) and can focus mostly on education and recreation. Upon reaching age 11-12, Remnant children can officially decided whether to continue civilian education or start official training as Huntsman or Huntress with their parent's or guardian's permission. Not that Jaune has problem with that as it sort of gave him some ideas of what Sanctuary would be like if Demons and Angels cease to exist. A world where humans can prosper without worrying about genocidal threat and the Nephalems can rest and just observe from shadow. At least, until a new threat show up in future and threatening extinction upon humans.
"Or to prevent humans from stupidly wiping themselves out of existence." Jaune mused. He wondered how Johanna and Crusaders progressing in their Crusades against all evils. No, not now. Ok, where was he? Oh right, bloody teenagers and their arse effort to be...warriors.
Granted, there were few teenagers who shined and proved their capability like that Scarlet-something girl and that monk-like swordman. Anyway, it's time to start the class. Still dressed in what Remnant people considered as 'business casual' because of his refusal to wear such useless articles of clothing and a waste of materials (in his humble opinion as he bluntly told Ozpin and Glynda), he made his way out of his temporary office to outside with his simple gray polo shirt, navy blue combat pant, and a pair of brown leather boots. Over his polo shirt is his still gray chest armor without shoulder pads while his both thighs have equally gray armor. On his back is his trusted holy shield with equally trusted flail hanging on his hip.
As with Janna and other SIX sisters (another difference to Johanna, Sofi, and other two sisters in Sanctuary), many students have taking calling a Nephalem an 'old school instructor' with his simple weapons and his usage of Folder. Only for said many students to struggle to pass his class and meeting his strict standard afterward. Class, what a strange feeling to refer it as such as in Sanctuary, the word 'class' is normally used by mages and scholars while warriors typically used the word 'training' as in instructing a student or rather, TRAINEE in combat. For a group, warriors used 'batch'. At least, to his knowledge as Jaune wasn't sure about Barbarians, Monks, and others outside Crusaders and militants.
As soon as Jaune walked out of the building, he immediately felt disappointment when he saw how his class dress. Bloody teenagers and their fashion, how wonderful with some of students sticking out like a black sheep attempting to hide among a herd of white sheep. Such as that strangely white hair girl (White Schnee, he believed) in white dress who seem to be engaging in heated conversation with Janna. His disappointment grew and grew as his eyes moved onto other students. If there is one clear thing Jaune could say about Remnant people, it would be their twisted bizarre concept of combat practicality when it comes to armor, or rather LACK of armor. Hell, their motto might well be "To Hell with armor, Aura and speed protect us!"
Ok, Jaune get it. Really, he could understand that Hunstmen and Huntresses rely on mobility, speed, and Aura as defense while using their weapon or two and Semblance to kill or maim Grimms. Hell, Jaune could understand wearing armor can wear user down, reducing movement speed and thus, increasing chance of being sitting pig ready to be gutted by bloodthirsty savage enemies. But mobility and Aura depend on several factors such as terrain type, number of enemies, enemy capabilities, strategy, knowledge, Aura capacity (how many hits before failing) and body (stamina, fitness, etc). But with how some of them utilized to gain speed is-
"No, not now." Jaune's mind said, "Need to focus on now instead of going off...road...track."
A ginger hair girl with over-eager expression, standing behind Light-damning white hair Schnee? Just what the Hell is Nora (easy to remember in Jaune's opinion) wearing? Pink-white-black outfit and good Light, a pink skirt? And not a single ARMOR on her. Good thing Nora has boots, except they're WHITE and PINK. Never has Jaune ever seen anyone wearing that much pink until he saw Nora Val-something. Though Jaune took note of Nora's arm muscles, indicating how much she trained in strength. From what Jaune remembered from a very BRIEF reading, Nora use warhammer so she damn need strength to smash and crush enemies. Though Nora has long way before being comparable to Johanna's and Barbarian Sonya's strength. Well, Jaune wasn't sure if it's fair to compare a human to Nephalem but not important.
Next to her is a taller girl with damn striking RED hair color. Fire Nickel or something like that, Jaune didn't spend enough time memorizing the names and pronunciation. At least, she's wearing armor. Sort of, she has no armor covering her shoulder and part of her legs. Jaune supposed that was for mobility's sake. Except she's wearing...high heel boots and what if an enemy target her exposed shoulder to cripple her ability to wield...what is her weapon? Some shortsword-rifle thing and round shield? High heels. Something that seem to be popular choice of footwear for females including Huntresses in Remnant while not many females in Sanctuary wear high heels, saved for few noblemen, noblewomen, and Valla. Also, why Fire didn't completely wrap her red cloth around her waist? Its pointless length hanging close to ground could be used against her.
"Remnant." Janue mentally snorted with hidden distaste. Anyway, moving on.
Next to Fire is underwhelming looking black hair boy in seemly expensive looking outfit. Lie Win something or similar pronunciation, an absurd name in Jaune's opinion. Why would parents name their child a lie? With last name Win? Ridiculous, only Lord of Lies believed lying win. Green long sleeves top with strange tail cloth, a clean looking white pant, and simple black...shoes. And oh, no armor. In overall, Jaune would say that boy look like a son of rich merchant attempting to be a warrior or a male Monk with hair on head and no beard like that Kazima something, but in underwhelming version. Jaune doesn't remember if ALL male monks shave their hair off or by personal choice. No important since he's in Remnant, not Sanctuary. Basically, Jaune isn't impressed with that boy's outfit and his posture. Moving onto girls on Janna's side.
Behind Janna is a tall girl with wolfish grin, reminding Jaune of battle-hungry Barbarian Sonya. Giving off strong, confident vibe with no time for foolishness. Except that blond hair girl Lang So-Long has unreasonably long hair, not even in ponytail or tied up in any way to prevent enemies from using the hair against her. In his time during witch hunt with Johanna, Jaune actually came across a dead man who got choked to death by his own unreasonably long hair while searching for the witch cult's hideout. Plus, how will that So-Long girl handle lice, infestation, blood, and such when traveling through forest, wood, swamp, snow, etc? There's a reason why many Crusaders both male and female shaved their head or keep their hair short. Oh, and to reduce time spent in bathing and again, prevent enemies from leveraging the hair.
"Also, no armor." Jaune thought, frowning as he briefly examined Lang's outfit. Leather jacket is somewhat acceptable, even with short sleeves. Leather boots acceptable. Jaune associated those two things with Demon Hunters. Everything else? Just...what the bloody Hell is Lang wearing? And why her orange useless leg fabric hanging higher than other? By judging her muscles, Jaune guessed Yang to be capable of taking damage like Sonya and overpowering her opponent or some. In scaled down version. As with Nora, So-Long girl has long way to go to be even comparable to Sonya. But for love of Akarat, this whole 'all mobility and no armor' nonsense is outrageous. Moving on.
Next to Lang is…Ah, it's Blake Bella-something. Jaune remembered her, a scared huma-ahem-FAUNUS girl with car ears and purely terrified look on her face. Escaping from Diablo wrecking terror and torturing faunus who chose to stay behind to buy Blake and others some precious time to get away. Now Jaune is looking at Blake, her outfit remained black-white theme with white jacket, black shirt, black pant, and black boots. Ok, nothing to complain about except NO ARMOR and what in name of Light is she wearing on her head? Jaune supposed it is to protect her cat ears from environment, though he believed wearing hood work better since it also protect hair AND cat ears from rain and such.
Jaune frowned upon spotting how tired Blake look and familiar haunted eyes. Seems she still have nightmare about Diablo. That won't do as it and tiredness can hurt her combat ability. Did she not receive help in mind? He'll have to ask Ozpin about that later. As far as he concerned, Diablo's Terror is not to be trifled with and capable of driving people insane, suicidal, or both.
And finally, the silver eyes girl herself. Ruby Rose. Simple name in Crusader's opinion. To be honest, Jaune felt he underestimated his disappointment as he couldn't sense any hint of power in Ruby, specifically her eyes. With how Ozpin spoke of the Silver Eyes Warriors and since Remnant is 'supposedly' in time of peace when ignoring Diablo and other demons, Jaune figured maybe in face of danger, Ruby's Silver Eyes power will come out and do something life-saving. Though after while of traveling back to Vale City, Jaune did wondered if Ozpin was just 'pulling his legs' (as one would say in Remnant) in attempt to get him teach Combat Setting. Surely, Ozpin has at least someone willing to take over Glynda's class by now. No matter, Jaune will have to wait and see. Maybe he'll be surprised with this batch of first years. Ha, doubtful. Ok, back to Ruby Rose.
Ruby's color theme put him off with red and black. Two colors together reminded Jaune of demons. Not a good impression to make on a Crusader whose goal involved killing demons and cults dedicated to demons. Ignoring the color theme and liable looking red cape, Ruby's 'combat' outfit is...lacking. Suitable for civilians to wear back in Sanctuary. Jaune doesn't have any positive thing to say, except Ruby has good sense to wear combat boots. That's it. Oh, and no armor.
Ignoring how quiet the students gotten upon seeing him, Jaune continued to scan everybody else. Pointless looking blue hair girl, impractical looking boy with questionable outfit, ridiculous girl with ridiculous fan shape pig tails, and for love of-Is that boy wearing a tie? Tie...Another useless fabric and waste of materials, in Jaune's opinion. All it take is one good yank to suffocate a fool in battle, no weapon needed. Jaune was about to start his introduction when he spotted three males in...ARMOR! About time and only to immediately squashed Jaune's 'pleased' look.
Standing next to a green hair male with bizarre hairstyle and not even five seconds, Jaune's disappointment grew. Their armor is a joke, an insult. How fortunate that Johanna isn't in Remnant, otherwise she'll break their armor and punish them for such pathetic armor. Even Valla would be insulted. And looking at their face. By the Light, their face is of boys, not of warriors. Not of fighters. Their structure, their pose is sloppy, poor, undisciplined, unnecessary. And Jaune hate sloppiness. They reminded Jaune of corrupted town guards who were well hated by the villagers who later cheered at their death. Mainly because their armor wasn't properly equipped and poorly trained body.
"Time to drill them." Jaune thought gravely as he walked back and forth, parallel to group of first-year students, who were slowly being uncomfortable under his disappointed gaze. Even Janna slightly squirmed. Probably figured Jaune heard her and that Schnee girl. Speaking of Schnee girl, a white hair girl cleared her throat and spoke in typical noble manner, "Are you the substitute for the Combat?"
Schnee recoiled back when Jaune's head snapped to face her with blue eyes staring at her. Immediately, almost everybody jumped when Jaune barked at drill instructor volume, "ABOUT TIME, ONE OF YOU LOT HAVE A BRAIN TO ASK! FOR TEN MINUTES! TEN MINUTES I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR AT LEAST ONE OF YOU TO NOTICE MY PRESENCE!"
Jaune slowly walked away five steps away from the students before facing them and upholstering his shield to drop it only for it to easily dig into the ground. Jaune continued, "TO ANSWER YOUR QUESTION, NO! I AM NOT THE SUBSTITUTE FOR COMBAT! I AM JAUNE ARC, THE INSTRUCTOR FOR THE COMBAT SETTING COURSE. YOU LOT WILL REFER ME AS EITHER SIR OR INSTRUCTOR! NOT PROFESSOR, PROFESSOR ARC, MR. ARC, OR SUCH!" Jaune made sure to emphasize 'Setting' part as to differentiate Combat Setting course from Combat course.
"WITHOUT WASTING PRECIOUS TIME OF LIGHT, I WILL ASK YOU LOT TO STAY SILENT AND HOLD YOUR QUESTION UNTIL AFTER MY EXPLANATION OF COMBAT SETTING AND ITS PURPOSE!" Jaune could see few students weakly raised their hand only to drop down. In lowered but still loud volume, Jaune proceed, "Now, listen up! I don't want have to repeat this. This is Combat Setting Course, where you will not be learning how to fight your peer under controlled rules. Instead, you lots will learn what it's like to fight in the real world. Outside safe...arena."
Jaune's lips turned into nasty sneer as he added, "Without your Aura." As with last year, this batch erupted in protest that quickly ended when a loud thunder boomed in sky, causing confusion since the sky look clear?
"QUIET!" Jaune barked, grabbing students' attention onto him, "Fortunately for you lot, you won't be fighting Grimms or facing lethal force in this class. But I can promise you, it will be painful and you will learn. Now with that being said, we will start off with basic. In practical setting."
"Yeah? What's that, instructor?" one of male students 'bravely' asked.
Jaune merely stated, "Your environmental awareness, obviously. Now follow me! We're wasting time!"
Two hours later…Team RABY dorm...
All four members of Team RABY could be seen resting in team dorm with Ruby's back lying on Janna's bed next to Janna who is sitting with her back against the wall. Across from Ruby-Janna side, Yang sitting on a chair with cushion and pillow that was toss by Blake albeit lack of aim. Speaking of Blake, she is currently lying flat on her own bed, ignoring everything.
"Smart girl...claiming the bottom bunk." Yang groaned as she arched her back while working to fix her messy hair, no thanks to so many dummies and couple training androids hiding among dummies, armed with plastic toys. PLASTIC TOYS! In form of weapons: hammers, baseball bats, swords, etc! It was rather miracle that not a single strand of her hair went missing after getting hit so many times for failing to watch her surrounding among 'civilians' with androids pretending to be some sort of assassins. Armed with plastic toys. Did Janna's cousin get inspiration from video game or something? And where did he get all those cheap looking dummies and toys? From toy stores and gyms donation?
One would think plastic toys wouldn't hurt a bit with Aura on-WRONG! That slave-driving Jau-ahem-INSTRUCTOR has Yang and fellow students to go through 'environmental awareness' exercise without AURA on, both passive and active. Reminding her body how tiresome to exert force without Aura's passive work against soreness. And how irritating to get bopped by freaking plastic toys! In face! In chest! In back! Those freaking androids have shown no mercy. Yang even witnessed one android mercilessly slammed its plastic hammer into Russel's groin part without a hint of holding back. Predictably, Russel dropped down like a sack of potatoes and his team ended up getting bopped in attempt to drag him. Never mind, Russel's head bumped into many of dummies' legs.
"Oh, did I forget to mention that if android hit one of dummy civilians, whole team have to start over AND still have to avoid getting hit by freaking toys!" Yang thought with annoyance. Ok, this chair is getting too uncomfortable and unfortunately for her, she would have to fight against her soreness to climb UP to get on HER bunk.
And, Yang wasn't sure if Instructor has some sense of humor or just being serious with him referring her as 'Lang So-Long' (Really?), Blake as 'Blake Belltuna' (Blake has tensed), Nora as 'Nora Bulkweed', Ren as 'LYE Win' (Ren's left eye twitched), Weiss as 'Rice Sneeze' (Weiss displayed annoyance), asshole Cardin as 'Car-Ding Wrench-Ster' (Cardin has offended look), and some random guy (whose name not known to Yang, not important) as 'Meat Shield' whose appearance does NOT resembled meat shield at all.
"...zzzZZZzz..."
Yang froze as she look around, wondering who-Ok, it's not Ruby. She and Janna staring back at her from their side of room.
"ZZZzzz…."
With soreness being forgotten, all three girls got up and quietly moved toward Blake's bunk with Ruby making shushing gesture at Janna. They all leaned their ear toward Blake's back to verif-
"ZzzzZZZ...hmm..."
D'aw, isn't that precious? Just like a sleeping kitten, though Yang wasn't sure why she kept comparing Blake to cats. Must be her bow still attached to her hair, giving her an appearance of having cat ears. Wouldn't that be something if Blake is a cat faunus? Yang shook her head, wondering where this silly idea coming from. But still, Yang found it impressive that Blake's bow remained in same spot, not once moved from all those bopping and whacking from androids. Yang glanced side way to see Ruby mouthing 'Bow?'
Blond brawler shook her head and mouthed 'Nah, leave it'. Beside, Blake's hair might get messed up in process of removing her bow and Yang has no doubt Blake would get pissed. Having verified it's Blake snoring and seem to be in deep sleep, all three girls stepped away with Janna elbowing Ruby and Yang, whispering.
"Psst, Ruby. Yang."
"Yeah?"
"Wanna get started on History homework?"
"..." Ruby and Yang stared at each other before sighing.
Meanwhile...Team LNPS Dorm...
"ZzzzzZZzZ..." Weiss gently snored, lying on her back in un-lady-like position on her bed, located far left with Pyrrha's and Nora's being in middle and Ren's on far right.
"…." Lie Ren has deadpanned look while Pyrrha and Nora shared amused look with ginger head covering her mouth with both hands. Ren sighed as he continued to massage his shoulder while Nora working on her mid-spine and Pyrrha on her feet. Attempting to navigate 1.6 kilometer land filled with trees covered by cardboard for 'downtown' look and bunch of dummies all dressed in civilian clothes and couple androids sneaking around without Aura was interesting, but equally as painful as in one vs one match. Or playing Smash-All-Moles with Nora and her hammer.
Ren wondered why Combat Setting wouldn't allow Aura (both passive and active) to be used since Instructor Arc didn't answer why, but figured it's to prepare students in event of Aura falling. What Ren understood is that Combat Setting also served as a reminder to Huntsmen and Huntresses to watch how they fight in city. Or at least, what NOT to do when fighting among civilian population. It was...interesting session, but did those androids have to hit hard with plastic toys? Sad thing is tomorrow session will involved more 'environmental awareness' training and more 'encouragement' from Instructor Arc.
At thought of Instructor Arc bought a frown on Ren's face. Compared to the Professors, Instructor Arc felt off and strange when Ren unintentionally elbowed him in chest when he and his team finally got through horde of dummies bearing emotionless face. Ren couldn't come up with any explanation why the instructor felt strange. His thought was interrupted by Nora's groan, "Can't we wait until tomorrow to do some homework?"
A/N: Finally got it done. Sorry, was going to do it 2-3 weeks ago, but was busy with real life. Again, I'm using Hunters as gender-neutral term to mean both Huntsmen and Huntresses.