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Chapter Thirteen: Speed Demon

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"That's a big Ursa!" - Speech

'I'm so tired.' - Thoughts

[Game Announcement]

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I don't own RWBY or The Gamer.

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Jaune and the Vampire Lord went back and forth for much longer than Jaune was anticipating. Every time it looked like Jaune had the upper hand, the Lord would pull a very strong series of counters, turning the tide of the fight back into his black-gloved hands.

Jaune twisted into his shots, not loading up at all before whipping out cuts so fast their white outlines almost blurred in the arcs they made towards the Vampire Lord. The boss spun his polearm around it, blocking all shots before summoning another red Mana tornado flying towards Jaune. The knight hid behind his shield, timing his block in well enough to weather the storm of ranged attacks.

The Vampire Lord would change the tempo again, flying forward while hissing, its polearms seeming to fly towards Jaune from all sorts of angles. Hours of training from Ironwood and Pyrrha and practice in the Abyss had taught him well, Jaune slipping his body off-angle from all attacks. They traded blows for so long that Jaune knew one thing had to happen.

Either he would tire out and have to abandon the attempt or the Vampire Lord would lose stamina. Since the latter would never happen, he had to finish this. Now.

Summoning all of his energy, Jaune clenched his sword and shield, charging up two full power Spinning Mana Bolts. As the Vampire Lord prepared for the massive energy strike, Jaune's aura flashed, forming multiple strings in the air around him as he prepared to send both. The Vampire lord charged his own silver weapon with her red Mana, making it glow red hot as he got ready for the coming attack.

Jaune breathed in and out quickly, Gamer's Mind improving his focus as he would need a lot of it for what he was about to do.

Both of his Spinning Mana Bolts whirring loudly from in front of both of his hands, Jaune put as much of his Aura as he could muster into one ranged attack.

Jaune combined both Bolts as they whirred forward, colliding before they reached the Vampire Lord and were dispersed.

While the block was enough to just create a stagger, Jaune knew this would happen. Jaune was strategic enough to build a proper strategy after fighting the Lord for minutes on end to measure his opponent.

Through the light blue Mana mist and dust cloud surrounding the staggered Vampire Lord, Jaune charged through, his DEX high enough to almost whizz through the smoke in a blur. Jaune took no chances and stuck the tip of his sword right through the Vampire Lord's throat as it barely had time to react from being staggered.

As the Vampire Lord burst instantly into pixels, Jaune panted after beating his opponent in one swift decisive strike.

The Vampire Lord's weapon clattered loudly as it fell onto the floor, its owner now defeated.

He dispersed the dust cloud around with a single swipe of his sword, the wind whistling loudly from how quickly Jaune swung. Wanting to see his level up notifications properly, Jaune quickly turned his shield back into a sheath and put away his sword.

[You have gained +3500 EXP!]

[You have gained +1000 EXP for completing the Tier I Dungeon Chain!]

[You have gained +1 LV!]

[You have gained +3 DEX!]

[You have gained +1 STR!]

[You have gained the Speed Demon perk!]

Sure enough, the perk was just as it was described when he read it. Jaune nodded, instantly putting 5 points into STA to fuel his new speed. Before he left, he wanted to check something, walking over to the polearm the boss had just dropped. Picking it up, Jaune used Observe.

[Pristine Polearm - A Horror weapon made of perfect silver. May be charged with Mana attacks and abilities. Requires an INT and DEX of at least 40.]

Jaune nodded, putting it into his inventory where he noticed there was the Minotaur's axe from his other run. Jaune assumed that after leaving the dungeon before it must've been added to his inventory automatically. Just like the Vampire Lord, it required a STR of 50, reflecting its previous owner's fighting style. Jaune made a mental note to read up on these 'Horrors' he kept seeing so much of in the Gamer's Guide later.

Polearms and Axes weren't really his style, and neither was the green sword he still had. Maybe if he found a sword of some kind it could come in handy.

Jaune quickly left the dungeon thoroughly satisfied with his run.

~000~

As Jaune looked at Beacon's small kitchen from afar, he watched his partner for just a moment. Things had been kind of awkward since Nora caught them napping together about thirty minutes before, or well, hours if Jaune counted his recent run in the Abyss. He was glad to see Pyrrha had gotten less embarrassed, smiling as Ruby explained the recipe to her. "See the key is to not using too much flour. I-"

"Ruff ruff!" a Corgi pup bounced up from his corner in the kitchen.

Jaune smiled almost instantaneously seeing the dog. "Hi there!" Jaune said as the Corgi put itself upon its paws leaning onto Jaune's jean covered knee.

"Zwei leave him alone. C'mere boy!" Ruby ordered. Well trained, the pup bounced right back to her owner's side. "Sorry, he gets really excited when he meets strangers."

Not wanting to stand too close to his partner knowing the air was still kind of awkward, Jaune stood on Ruby's right as he petted the dog's head. "So his name's Zwei huh? He's really adorable."

"Naw, he's just a little dummy!" Ruby said petting him herself, using her other hand to begin to break an egg into a bowl. "So this is an old recipe of mine. It's just regular chocolate chip cookies."

Jaune nodded as he looked around at the ingredients Ruby described. "It's pretty simple. You have to mix two eggs, a quarter cup of oil and flour, a dash of milk and sugar aaall together. Then you gotta put the chocolate in 'em and set them to bake for a half-hour."

"You seem like you know this pretty well," said Jaune.

Ruby shrugged. "When you've done it as many times as I have it comes naturally. Anyway, let's get started."

"Wait you have way more than just what you said out, why we're making so much?" Jaune noted seeing there were two cartons of eggs and milk as well more than enough ingredients.

"Well..." Ruby giggled quietly. "When you eat as many cookies as I do you tend to need a lot of stuff to make them."

Jaune thought about this quietly as Ruby and Pyrrha started baking together with him.

Just why did Ruby eat so much, particularly sugar? Ruby's Semblance involved her moving so quickly that she turned into rose petals, or at least so quickly that her body morphed. Realistically, she'd need to eat what four or five people eat to move so quickly, especially since Ruby didn't look all that strong and she carried around a scythe twice her size made of pure metal and Dust charges.

For her fighting style to make sense to him, Jaune assumed that her Semblance burned through all the food she eats and helps her move as fast as she needs. That or she has the greatest sweet tooth in history.

[You have gained +1 INT from intense thought!]

Jaune watched Ruby begin to crack eggs to put them into the bowl in front of her. "So Pyrrha, how've you been?"

"Oh you know. Just fine." Pyrrha smiled weakly.

Ruby looked at her. "Really? You changed when Jaune walk-"

"Yup! Just fine." Pyrrha said again.

"Okay..." Ruby said reaching for the oil Jaune wasn't pouring into the bowl.

After a solid twenty seconds of neither Jaune nor Pyrrha saying nothing Ruby piped up again. "Why do I feel like there's something you two aren't telling me? Seems you two have been awfully quiet today.

Jaune nodded slowly. "Yeah, just been a bit weird. I uh, challenged Cardin to a fight."

"Did you?" Ruby looked at him strangely.

"I know right. Yeah Yang was surprised too." Jaune said.

"Yeah, fistfights are not your style," Ruby admitted. "Or fighting really."

"Oh no, not a fight on our own. In class."

"That makes a bit more sense..." Ruby said moving her head left and right a little. "But still not really. Since when do you stand up to Cardin?"

'Tough question. How, just how do I answer this?'

"Uh, since uh. Since I got tired of Cardin pushing everybody around."

Ruby sighed, continuing to prepare the mix as Pyrrha passed her some flour. "Well, I'm happy for you. But things aren't doing so well. Ever since I decided to help Blake things have only seemed to have gotten worse, Blake's even moodier now and Weiss' just decided to focus completely on school and the dance."

"Wait you guys are helping for the dance?"

"CFVY hasn't come back and Glynda said we could do it. Weiss and Yang were really all for it, I wasn't." Ruby admitted.

"Parties are not my thing either." Jaune chuckled. "I think I'm just too awkward most of the time."

Ruby pulled her blackish red hair back. "Agreed. Yang said she'd try and find me some nice heels and could take us all out shopping. Weiss wanted to go with us too but Blake's been, well, Blake. Especially more so than usual."

"Wait so what happened? Yang tried to explain it to me but it was mostly just her fighting."

Ruby smiled. "It was, fun. Even if it was a bit nerve-wracking trying to chase Torchwick through the city. Blake had been acting weird ever since you showed up at the docks, so Neptune and Sun came with us to try and find out more about all this crazy stuff that was going on." Ruby turned to Pyrrha. "Speaking of which, anything interesting going on in your team?" Ruby's tone and inflections implied she wanted to know what was happening between her and Jaune.

That and she was ticking her head in Jaune's direction while smiling blankly at Pyrrha.

"Oh um." Pyrrha said. "No."

"Ruby you weren't kidding." Jaune tried to change the topic instantly. "This really is a lot of cookie batter we're making."

"Pssh! Not really. Yang and I used to make way more." Ruby was successfully distracted from the glaring cloud of awkwardness between Pyrrha and Jaune that hung in the kitchen.

Jaune spoke slowly. "So, where'd you learn this recipe then?"

"Yang's known it for a while. She never told me where she learned it."

Jaune looked at Ruby. He had never met a person like her, while this was a bit obvious, no one had silver eyes like her. Actually, out of everyone he spoke to, her family seemed the most shrouded in mystery. This was odd since Blake and Ren rarely talked. Just who was Ruby's mother? Was she the reason why Ruby had such special eyes?

Jaune watched Ruby begin to mix the dough quickly. 'Yeah Jaune, great idea. Hey Ruby, who's your mom? Did she have eyes as weird as yours?'

Jaune shook his head, he obviously wouldn't phrase it that way but still. It was interesting to ponder on about nonetheless. He decided to Observe Ruby's cooking as she spoke to Pyrrha again.

[Baking LV 27 - Includes making, baking, and preparing a variety of pastries, breads, and other flour-based foods.]

[You have leveled up Observe to LV 4!]

[You have gained +50 EXP from leveling up Observe!]

'Wow, this thing knows how to sound robotic sometimes. Flour based foods, er, system error bzzt!'

"So how has Jaune's training been coming along?" wondered Ruby.

"We actually haven't trained that often as of late," Pyrrha admitted.

"Huh. Why?" Ruby tapped her whisk on the side of the bowl.

Jaune shrugged. "Just had way too much homework. Gotta stay ahead if I want to survive this semester."

"Right." Ruby began to pour the batter out onto the wooden board in front of her. "Here guys, just start making these into cookies before we put them on the pan."

Pyrrha cleared her throat. "Your hair looks lovely today."

"Thanks, Yang got me a new conditioner. Said she wants my hair looking extra special for the dance."

Jaune instantly tuned out when her and Pyrrha starting talking about hair and what to wear to the upcoming ball. While Jaune knew that Ruby wasn't into the girliest of things, she was still a girl.

"Really? I always thought heels were impossible to wear," Ruby said curiously.

"Oh, they're much easier than you'd think." Pyrrha waved a hand.

Ruby raised an eyebrow. "You've worn heels before?"

"Many times. After every tournament I won, I'd have to dress formally for interviews."

"In like, a dress?"

Jaune pulled his face back in "pain." 'Aaghhhhhh! Stop!'

"Sometimes. I can go with you when you go out shopping if you'd like." Pyrrha said. "I can help you pick out a dress too when we find heels that match your size."

Ruby smiled. "That'd be great! Ask Nora if she wants to come."

"She'd love to."

By minute two of being completely left out of their conversation, Jaune was in agony.

'Why are they still talking about this? It's just clothes!'

Thankfully for him, the cookies were ready to be put into the oven. All five trays of them.

[You have created a new skill! Baking LV 1!]

[You have gained +250 EXP from creating a new skill!]

~000~

As Jaune prepared for his fight with Cardin in the locker room, the usual nervousness that clouded his mind prior to a fight was erased due to Gamer's Mind. It helped him formulate a proper strategy to beat him.

'He's gonna have higher STR for sure and STA maybe. If I can just outstrike him then eventually he should start running out of aura. After the Speed Demon perk, I should be faster than him for sure, even if he's a few levels higher than me, we're similar in stats overall even if I'm lower in a few but higher in others. His higher STR shouldn't matter if I stay out of range or don't get hit.'

Jaune remembered the fight with the Vampire Lord and laughed.

'If I can go toe to toe with that thing then Cardin should be a breeze. He's just a slower even dumber version of the Minotaur.'

'Didn't I have to use Mana attacks?'

'Yeah but Cardin should be a piece of cake still-'

Glynda interrupted his thoughts. "Ten seconds."

Jaune bounced on his toes, rolling his head as he held his weapons and prepared to go out on stage.

He walked out to see Cardin already waiting for him, leaning on his mace. "Ready to lose again?"

Jaune said nothing, drawing his sword slowly before dropping into his stance.

Glynda's voice called out when Jaune and Cardin raised their weapons. "Ready? Fight!"

Jaune used the strategy he played out in his mind, staying mostly hidden behind his shield and out of Cardin's range. Just how Cal picked him apart, he'd need to read Cardin's attacks before latching onto and interrupting a combination.

He took his opportunity about ten seconds after Cardin started missing all of his attacks or having them blocked, sliding under Cardin's mace after his swing missed, Jaune sliced right through Cardin's exposed aura around his torso.

Not wasting a second, Jaune stood up out of his slide and swung by twisting off his heels, striking his chest again as Cardin turned around. It surprised Cardin that Jaune had the speed to both attack during a missed attack while accurately hitting parts of his body his armor didn't cover.

Jaune targeted specific areas of Cardin's body during the whole fight. Aiming specifically around his knees and around his waist.

Cardin blocked the first two hits while Jaune anticipated a counter and dove right into a double hack at his knees. Jaune squatted and twisted into his body blows, simultaneously dodging Cardin's attack while landing his own.

His aura now sitting at three-quarters of what it once did, Cardin started getting frustrated.

Jaune was agile enough to bounce around Cardin and never get hit, controlling most of the stage with footwork while using his superior speed to land hits and not get hit in return. Jaune slipped an upward attack, thrust while following up his blocked attack with a knee strike.

Properly attacking Cardin's ribs, Jaune didn't give an inch of ground, driving his opponent backward while he turned his body and got out of the way in time before Cardin's slower strike missed. The Speed Demon indeed, Jaune flew about the stage slashing upward and downwards, left and right, not giving Cardin a second's rest before moving out of the way.

Even if he didn't land it didn't matter, Jaune always slipped away in time before Cardin attacked, exhausting Cardin's aura as he lured him into combinations Jaune knew he could evade effectively. He always slipped and turned to a new angle when Cardin ran in blindly swinging his mace about.

However, Jaune still lacked Cardin's stamina and found himself cornered one time. He almost got hit with a knee attack to the chest, Cardin's mace just grazing his shoulder when he landed clean. Jaune was still strong enough to pull away without a stagger, despite the decent hit Cardin got in.

Throughout the exchanges, it was obvious that Jaune landed more often and more cleanly. Cardin's strikes still packed a lot of weight to them, so Jaune pulled away before taking a quick breather and disengaging for a second, twisting off his heels to create space and use his footwork. Jabbing into his thrusts, Jaune twisted his head and body about, using the superior range his sword gave him to bother Cardin more than anything despite the speed of his attacks.

Again and again, Cardin would fail to land anything really significant before Jaune was forced to withstand a full power blow on his shield ending the quick trade of blows when he dodged and pulled away. Cardin couldn't use his strength to his advantage as Jaune was smart enough to only enter an exchange when he felt it was time, dodging and staying well out of range for a time before diving back in again.

Jaune jabbed, swung a bit, and dodged while pulling away. It became like clockwork, and Cardin soon found himself outmaneuvered as his opponent stayed light on his feet. Grunting loudly, Cardin swung as hard as he could, finally landing a decisive blow on Jaune's shield. However, he lacked the speed to take advantage of this, as Jaune didn't stagger under the weight of the hit and quickly parried away the slow downward smashing mace attack and jabbed, his thrust landing loudly on Cardin's chest before turning away and out of range from Cardin's mace.

When Jaune got away, he dodged again before landing a quick swing on Cardin's collarbone protected by his armor, soon when far enough away, Jaune rolled into a few somersaults as Cardin blasted the stage with red Dust bombs. As Jaune stood up out of his rolls, he instantly threw his shield at Cardin.

Because it was well-timed and Cardin didn't expect it at all, it landed clean on Cardin's chin. As he reeled back, staggered, Jaune closed the distance between them, dodging the sloppy unbalanced swing Cardin threw wildly and slashing clean across the shoulder between his armor.

Jaune finished the fight by hitting Cardin over the back of his head with the butt of his sword, knocking him clean onto the floor. Cardin could still fight, however, turning upwards to see the tip of Jaune's sword right in front of his face. Cardin grimaced, preparing to clock Jaune with his mace before Jaune cut downwards across his entire upper body, shredding his aura completely.

Crocea Mors dropped Cardin's aura from the orange right into the red, ending the fight loudly as the buzzer sounded. Cardin's raw strength and stamina was no match for Jaune's new speed and footwork.

The lights lifted to the entire auditorium which applauded lightly as Jaune put his sword away and offered a hand to help Cardin up from the ground. "Hey. It was a good fight."

[You have gained +2000 EXP for completing The Definitive Spar quest!]

[You have gained a new skill: Mana Shield!]

[You have gained +2 STA!]

[You have gained +2 STR!]

Slapping his hand away, Cardin scowled as he quickly picked up his mace and stormed off stage.

Sky snorted as his leader walked by. "Nice going man."

"Yeah, you really showed him," Dove said while crossing his arms.

Cardin shoved his teammate aside when he stood in his way, continuing to walk off angrily.

Jaune turned to see his friends smiling and waving at him in his stands. He had won.

~000~

He was losing, badly. After hours of leveling and improvement, Jaune was still miles behind the latest in Atlas' fighting tech.

Cal beat Jaune left and right as Qrow looked away while wincing. It was simply too fast, and any notions Jaune had about robots being slower and more predictable than people were long since erased. Cardin proved that.

Cal stepped back, making Jaune miss his swing terribly before raising its sword arm, transforming it as it swung and punched Jaune so hard in the face that he flew aside hitting the side of the training room.

Groaning as he stood up, Jaune watched as Qrow entered the room. "Come along kid, got something to show you."

Obliging, Jaune sheathed his sword and followed Qrow out of the room, glaring at Cal the whole time. The robot did not respond, but Jaune did not appreciate being tossed around like a ragdoll by it no matter how hard he tried to defend himself.

"That thing is seriously getting on my nerves. It's probably worth more than I'll ever earn."

Qrow chuckled quietly as he drew his flask. "Trust me it's worth much much more than that. It's so valuable that the second Dust robberies and Atlas war tech started getting stolen, Ironwood hid it away up in his own ship where no one could ever get to it."

"That's the thing. Why go to all this trouble for me?" Jaune asked as he followed Qrow through the white halls of the Uraphron. "I'm just a student and not even a Huntsman yet."

"Thought Oz explained all this already."

"Barely."

"You must get sick of hearing this but you'll find out in time."

Jaune rolled his eyes. "Got that right. So where are we going?"

"Ozpin wants you to get the proper Huntsman training you never received."

"That includes being some robots punching bag?"

Qrow laughed a bit again. "Nope. You're going to have to make your own weapon."

"W-Wait. Really?"

"Yeah," Qrow said as they kept walking. "Every Huntsman or Huntress ever had to, and so do you now. If you're going to keep doing this thing with us, whatever it is, you're going to have to learn how to forge. Properly."

"But I have no idea how."

"You'll learn like everyone else. I'll teach you, but everything about the weapon will be yours. I actually agree with Ozpin on this, even if you didn't have to-" Qrow cleared his throat. "Help us out, he should've made you make your own weapon anyway."

"But how will I train?" Jaune asked.

"You'll still use, whatever you it is you call it until you're done," Qrow said.

An android turned around and typed the passcode into the door lock to let Qrow and Jaune into the armory. "Looks like your average place to store rifles doesn't it?"

"Yeah, I guess so."

Qrow walked up to the Armor's wall touching his hand to one of the tiles. It responded to his touch, glowing orange after recognizing him and scanning his hand. It glowed green and the wall moved aside revealing the room behind it.

Jaune was surprised at how nice the Uraphron's Forge looked. "Ironwood had this place hold secret Atlas data and weapons originally. It's where CALAT was built."

"It's-" Jaune trailed.

"Save your breath." Qrow shrugged. "Atlas may have a lot of money, but you should know that doesn't make for a good fighter."

"Weiss is one of the best in our class."

He scoffed. "Has she ever won a fight?"

"Actually-" Jaune stopped himself. "There was-But. No, not really."

Qrow led Jaune to the various parts of the forge. "Your metals are over there. Your standard forge for tempering steel is here." he pointed to the surprisingly small contraption. "And if you get to forging armor you'll get the plates for it later."

"Okay. Wow, I uh. Where do I start?"

"Well, first you got to choose your ingots," Qrow explained. "You'll learn as you go along. For now, you've got to figure out to meld this."

Jaune turned as Qrow began walking away. "W-Wait."

"Good luck," Qrow said.

Jaune looked around the forge. There were tongs, molds, heaters. If his great-great-grandfather learned, he could too right?

Qrow sighed holding the door panel. "Look kid I-" Jaune turned to him. "I'm really sorry about all this. I get that you want to help and everything but, there was really no other way."

Jaune looked at him. "There wasn't."

"Honestly no. We-." Qrow made eye contact with Jaune. "We wanted what was best for you all. For Beacon, for Vale for-" Qrow sighed. "For my nieces."

"Y-Your nieces?"

Qrow looked downward. "We thought about this for a long time. You're a good fighter, you've just never been trained correctly. I never would've imagined the responsibility you've got at your age. My advice? Train. Until you crack. And then train harder. You've got friends out there, people to fight for? Good. Fight."

Jaune watched as Qrow pointed around the forge. "First you got to place the ingot in a mold basket, then melt it in that burner over there. Then it'll be heated enough, you got to remove it with tongs and gloves. Then, comes the hard part, shaping it. Forging will teach you patience and dedication, it's one of the most important parts of becoming a Huntsman."

Jaune inhaled quickly. "Thanks. And thanks for the advice, I'm glad you try to help."

"There are things out there much worse than Ozpin. Trust me, I've seen them. I know Ozpin means best, but I'll put a word in about having you train less. You have to start learning how to forge a weapon anyway."

Before he left Jaune spoke out. "Hey Qrow. Even though this kind of sucks, it sucks a bit less knowing you try."

Qrow nodded quietly as he left.

[Quest Alert!

Tempering Steel: Iron Strength

To become a Huntsman, you must learn to forge your own weapons!

Time Limit: None

Reward: +5,000 EXP

Failure: N/A

Accept/Deny]

Jaune hit accept before going to work. If it was even possible, he had to begin the hard part of his training.

~000~

Lovely, Miles and Kerry included a 12-minute flashback in the middle of an End of the World arc. Thanks, I'll be sure to give a 10/10 when Jaune inevitably dies. Guys, I appreciate the thought, but thinking Yang or Blake is gonna die at this point is wishful thinking. They ditched fans of old Rooster Teeth and the Achievement Hunter bros from back in the day the second they turned Adam into an OOC Blake obsessed edge lord. For anyone on RWBY to die, RT will actually start caring enough to add tension back into the story. While I agree that Adam was always edgy, at least it made some sense before.

What do I predict? JN(P)R or Penny is gonna die again. It won't be much before the end of the show rolls around and Jaune and his whole team are long dead. What's funny is they include Sun & Neptune cameos and Glynda plus Shopkeep ones but tease Jaune's death like there's no tomorrow. When it happens likely during a season finale probably this one, I honestly won't care, the Jaune we're working with is not the one Monty intended. And I know this for a fact because I read Shane's letter, which if anyone hasn't I recommend you do.

It's not the RWBY Monty intended so yeah. As they showed with Adam, they first ruin a character and then kill them. Rip Jaune. After seeing the latest episodes it's almost assured he'll die.

I highly suggest you re-read the tenth chapter as I re-wrote the scene with Ozpin completely, which is why the dialogue might be a bit strange. I read the reviews and just wanted it to make a bit more sense. Ozpin does not tell Jaune everything or anything like that, the decision is much more dependent on Jaune's desire to become a hero and protect his friends. So before anyone says anything, I changed ut

I'll admit, as much as how I hate how Volume 8 teases Jaune's death out the wazoo, they are keeping his character consistent and showing us that he does want to save Oscar. As much as it pains me to say, that's okay, just a bit.

I am gonna roll my eyes when they pull out that classic slow-mo cam when Jaune dies like they "did" with Penny. Do people not realize that the most dramatic deaths in movie and TV history have been so good because they were *gasp* shocking? I'll take half of my classic RWBY from Monty than 1000 Volume 8s. Peace guys, stay safe before this vaccine comes out.