Decided to get the ball rolling for this next chapter pretty much a day after the previous was posted. Partially because I felt like really getting things moving along without too much of a break between chapters and also partially because I don't know for sure how things will go in the near future; as I am currently awaiting an exam that has to be taken for a job I'm interested in, I have no idea what'll await me if I pass and am accepted. I do imagine though that getting accepted would result in several weeks of training and during such a possible scenario… well, I can't really imagine me having much time to write.

So that being said, here's the next chapter.

P.S. Don't forget about my novel "Fading Darkness, Rising Light!" Available on now!

Chapter 28

"Ms. Rosetta, that's not exactly how Vale's military force won that particular battle…"

"Mr. Angelos… you may need to review your notes for that part of your assignment…"

"And you three… yeah, just keep writing…"

The whole class could only remain completely silent in the wake of its current teacher, Naruto, who critiqued each student on what they were currently writing for a mock essay they were doing. Normally, all eyes would be on him for one reason or another: back when he had worn a little disguise to dress himself down, they'd all be eyeing him out of some sense of idle curiosity; following him dropping the simple yet effective 'disguise,' girls would stare him for his looks while guys would stare at him for his rather badass presence that he unnaturally gave off.

But today in class, all eyes were on him for an entirely different reason: that there were multiple Narutos in the classroom. In fact, there seemed to be one copy of him for almost every student.

At first when this had happened today, they'd all thought it to be the work of a semblance or maybe some kind of elaborate prank that they couldn't discern the meaning of. But they came to realize only moments after class had started that the truth was far, far simpler.

Naruto was moving around so fast that he was leaving solid speed-clones.

The blond magus in question seemed to be utterly ignorant of their gazes, however, and continued to essentially multitask at such epic speeds by looking over everyone's shoulders to see how they were fairing with the mock essay he'd given them today. Due to having focused so much of his energies towards figuring out how to best deal with the Holy Knights, Naruto had unintentionally become rather lax in his teaching position and as a result, his class has fallen behind by a few days compared to where they should've been at. As a result of this slip-up – which had been pointed out rather angrily by Glynda a while back – Naruto had resolved to take a more personal approach in remedying this by directly instructing each student in his fourth year class via said speed-clones. That way, he can catch everyone up to where they needed to be in time for their midterms, a date that was fast approaching and was therefore weighing heavily on the collective mind of the student body, everyone having now fully recovered from Surma's attack all that time ago.

Class eventually ended ten minutes later without incident and as the students filed out to head back to their dorms – it had been the last class of the day – Naruto allowed himself a sigh. "Okay… I think I've caught them up now…"

Running a hand through his hair, the blond ancient magus proceeded to gaze absentmindedly out the window near him.

It's now been just a little over a month since the failed ambush on the Holy Knight's warehouse. During that time, there hasn't been so much as a single sighting or hearing of them, which concerned Naruto and the others greatly. It was almost as if the Holy Knights had dropped off the very face of Remnant, though for how long such a thing will last is unknown.

In addition to this aggravating and rather nerve-wracking detail, a few other things have taken place during the month that has passed by. On one hand, ultimately deciding that it wouldn't be right to keep Roman, Neo, and Adam locked up in a dimension indefinitely, Ozpin and Naruto had come to an agreement in a private conversation between themselves to turn them over to James Ironwood to be locked up. Of course, when that had happened, Naruto and a few of his fellow Holy Knights had made sure to scope out the place where the three criminals would be contained and add their own unique 'security measures' to ensure that they remain locked up for good.

Needless to say, turning them over to James and Atlas by extension had been a decision not taken too well by teams RWBY and JNPR as well as a few of the ancient magi such as Yuko, but alas they all had accepted the reasoning behind it with only minor reluctance.

That aside, there had been some more positive things that had occurred during the month. For starters, following the end of the failed operation, Naruto had immediately tended to Jaune's wound and undid it via Da Capo Zero, so the leader of team JNPR was up and running again in no time at all. For another thing, following their return to Beacon and assessing the results of the operation, they all had been rather pleased to see two things: that Ryuichi had at least managed to kill one Holy Knight – Apophis, who had killed Katsu – and that Ruby, Ren, Pyrrha, and Nora had awakened as pseudo-magi. Blake and Weiss had also awakened as well, but not at the same time Ruby and Ren had due to the two having had a better grasp over their emotional state at the time and since great trauma or willpower is what's needed to trigger an awakening… well, they all had discovered just how that worked.

Furthermore, when Takehiko had explained it was he who had awakened Pyrrha and Nora, they all had discussed that perhaps he'd do the same for the remaining members of teams RWBY and JNPR if said members would be willing to agree to such a thing, given how painful the process had been for Pyrrha and Nora. Yang, having really been the only one to not awaken, had agreed with virtually no hesitation and as of the very next day, she took her place proudly amongst her awakened friends.

And so all of teams RWBY and JNPR had received an exponential power up since when they've first started to train with the ancient magi.

Except for one person…

"Jaune…" Naruto thought with a bit of a grimace as he left the room to head directly for the arena. Ever since the operation's end, it's been discussed and agreed upon to now further train teams RWBY and JNPR every day after class ended for good in order to get them used to their increased abilities and potentially changed semblances. However, this new 'training menu' was one that was unfit for team JNPR's leader, the only one to have not been there when his friends had taken in the mana from that strange machine, a thing that they still tried to futilely look into.

Ever since training resumed for him and his friends, the boy had thrown himself into things with an intensity that far outstripped the others. No doubt it was because he had felt useless during the operation given that his injury had incapacitated him for the rest of that night while the others had fought off the Holy Knights, this being something Naruto and Miki had confirmed following a brief conversation with the teen. But as admirably as Jaune tried, he simply couldn't match up to the training regimes that his friends were now going through. Before, he'd been lagging behind virtually every other student at Beacon by a fair degree, but now compared to his friends who've all become much stronger in a matter of just one event, he was little more than a newborn trying to match up with fully grown super predators. In both physical ability and sheer skill, the boy simply couldn't match up and because the new training regime was built specifically for the new and improved members of teams RWBY and JNPR, he couldn't keep up.

With that particular thought in mind though, Naruto couldn't help but shake his head a bit with a smirk on his face. For even as outclassed as he was, Jaune thoroughly refused to have things toned down just for him. "If I can't deal with this much, then how can I hope to fight alongside them?" the teen had said one day this past week, after a particularly brutal training session that had nearly left him at death's door.

Naruto had to hand it to Jaune. If nothing else, the blond teen was determined. Which is to be expected, he supposed, considering Jaune is-.

"Master, wait!"

His thought process cut off, Naruto paused in his walking to turn and see Hanako, who now jogged at a brisk pace towards him. His humanoid magical weapon smiled at him as she approached him. "Geez, whatever happened to waiting for me?" she teased.

"Not my fault you can't seem to remember when class ends for the day," the blond magus retorted in a mild tone of voice. He allowed himself a chuckle at Hanako's pout.

"But sleeping in feels so good…" she muttered.

Rolling his eyes, Naruto continued walking towards the arena, Hanako falling into his pace right beside him now. "Something on your mind, master?" she asked in a calmer voice now, sensing her master's mood.

"…Jaune's pushing himself too hard. He's been trying to get through the training despite being currently way out of his league," Naruto quietly confessed, voicing his current line of thought.

"I guess that's expected though. I mean, after all, he wasn't able to help out against the Holy Knights," Hanako replied with little hesitation. She cut her master off before he could speak, seeing that he was about to say something. "Not that such a thing is his fault. That he didn't get killed in one blow says a lot about him. But even then… just because we say he did the best he could and to not worry over it doesn't mean he's going to take our advice."

That made Naruto sigh and rethink what he'd been about to say. Hanako had addressed his unspoken question, after all. "True enough. But if he keeps this up, he's going to kill himself in the process. And we all know that death is one thing my Da Capo Zero can't undo…"

A heavy atmosphere fell over the two as soon as those words left Naruto's mouth. Hanako, as good as she was at lightening things up, could barely think of anything to say to change her master's mind on that particular line of thought.

"Maybe so… but as long as we're there for him, things should turn out fine," was all she was eventually able to say before falling quiet.

And so the two of them continued their walk in complete and awkward silence towards the arena.

In said arena, training had already begun. Rather than train both teams separately, it had been decided upon to train teams RWBY and JNPR together as to get them all familiarized with their increased abilities in as soon a time as is possible without any of them falling too behind the others.

Currently, both teams were going up against Ryuichi and Daisuke with simple training weapons instead of their usual high-tech ones. Both ancient magi forwent the use of weapons and stuck solely to unarmed combat, an area that Daisuke was noticeably lacking in when compared to his current partner. Even then, he proved to be far from a slouch in said field as he deftly parried what would've been a rather painful jab from Yang.

"Yeowch…" Daisuke mock cried as he proceeded to duck under a brief onslaught of punches from the blonde brawler before booting her away. "That could've knocked my head off, you know? Yangie…" He chuckled at his admittedly lame nickname for the young girl in question.

Yang grimaced a bit in response, having quickly grown tired of said nickname and her hair and eyes glowed ominously, like a sun about to go supernova.

With a great deal of energy now flowing through her body, she charged Daisuke with far greater speed than what should've been possible otherwise. For her semblance had been altered by her pseudo-magus awakening in such a way that the amount of energy she gains from being injured skyrocketed. It was to the point where even the simplest of blows landed on her could potentially amp her strength by a factor of three, if not more.

Alas, against a much more experienced and skilled opponent, such a power boost meant nothing as Daisuke ran forward, meeting Yang halfway and taking her completely by surprise in the form of a flip that sent her flying towards Ryuichi. Ryuichi, in turn, would proceed to spin and kick Yang straight into Pyrrha, who had been trying to land a strike on him with the wooden training sword she'd been given.

As the spar dragged on, with Ruby, Weiss, Blake, Nora, and Ren now trying to work together to wound the two ancient magi, Jaune watched from afar as he did some personal training with none other than Miki. Unlike his friends, who had to use wooden weapons, he was allowed to use his sword for this training, in the form of katas with training weights on.

Slowing in his movements slightly, the blond leader could only look on with crushing sadness. His friends had all come so far in just the span of one month. They had already been incredibly skilled to start out with, but following their awakenings and subsequent training to get them used to their increased abilities, they've risen to a whole new level that no other student at Beacon could ever hope to achieve, if only in power rather than skill. This was a testament to their innate talent as well as the training methods devised by Naruto, Miki, and Ryuichi.

And that still wasn't even getting into the sort of effects that were wrought upon their semblances. Ruby's semblance of speed had increased even further and through careful study by the ancient magi, they've come to discover that when in close proximity to others, they will slow down by the same amount and at the same rate that Ruby continues to accelerate at. Weiss' glyphs remained relatively unchanged, but the effects they had were now several times greater than before, with her usual blue glyphs pushing objects away at four times its previous speed, for example. Blake's clones have become more solid and therefore capable of taking more than one hit before vanishing. There was Yang's, whose energy efficiency had increased to stupid levels. Then there was Pyrrha's control over polarity which had increased to a point where just thinking was enough to get the job done compared to before where she had to first come into contact with metal and move her hands to make it work. He wasn't too sure about Ren's and Nora's semblances given how rarely they used them, but Jaune was sure they've undergone similar enhancements as well!

And here he was, the only one still stuck at a level only barely above where he'd started out at. As if it was bad enough that he's been of no real help during the attack on the academy and against the actual Holy Knights during the most recent operation.

"Jaune, your focus is dropping," Miki chided softly, getting the boy's attention as she went through a set of katas alongside him, keeping her own skills sharp.

"O-Oh… my bad," Jaune muttered, finally turning away from the sight of the spar. And for the better too; the longer he stared at his friends sparring with Ryuichi and Daisuke, the more he thought on the differences in his friends compared to before and the more he became bummed out.

But that being said, he knew intellectually that he couldn't just mope around like this forever. If he wanted to at least try and be of some help in the future, then he was going to have to train just hard, if not even harder, than his friends.

To that end, he began to go through his katas far more fiercely than he was before, swinging his blade with increasingly greater speed with each move. His expression scrunched up as he focused on moving his body and before long, he could already feel his muscles tire and scream at him to slow the hell down. As it is, he's been training since the very end of class, having forced his body to try and complete the same warm up exercises that had been specifically created for his enhanced friends. Given that he's been trying to do this for the past month, he's come to be almost constantly worn out and sore.

This was something that hadn't gone unnoticed by Miki.

"Jaune, please…" she spoke. "Slow down a bit…"

"I can't," he replied firmly. "Not when my friends are trying that hard."

His words made Miki sigh. Finishing up one final set of katas, Miki dismissed Svafrlami and placed a hand on Jaune's shoulder, doing so with just enough strength as to not hurt him, but to stop him dead in his tracks. "You're going to hurt yourself even more at this rate. As it is, Naruto's already had to use Da Capo Zero ten times yesterday on you just so you could keep training!" She spoke in a hushed voice, but it was no less fierce than one would expect from a particularly scolding mother. "…I know that you felt like you were useless in the operation last month, but that's not true and your friends know that too. We all know it; you managed to take down a good number of the White Fang members all on your own!"

Jaune could only look at her with blank eyes. He wanted to immediately reply to her, to say that they were all wrong, that he had been useless, but stopped when the words finally sunk in. He had taken down a few of the White Fang, he had to admit. But even then… "Maybe. But against the Holy Knights, I am no help. Hell, I got stabbed and taken out of the game before the fight could even really start!" Stopping his katas, his arms immediately fell to his sides, the fatigue hitting him for good now that he's lost the momentum he'd been building up through training thus far. He gestured to teams RWBY and JNPR weakly with his head. "Ever since the beginning of the school year, they've always been the ones to get things done. Always. Sure, I may have thought up that strategy to beat the Deathstalker during initiation, but it was my teammates that pulled off the win. And just… just look at me! In every single combat class so far, I've been getting beaten handily, even with your training! While my friends got stronger so they could be the heroes I know they'll be, I'm still lagging behind them and everyone else in the academy!"

His voice continually rose throughout his tirade, though thankfully not to a point where it'd get the attention of the others on the other side of the arena. Jaune honestly didn't know how he'd react to his friends' reactions to his rant.

Throughout his brief speech, Miki remained silent, simply looking Jaune straight in the eyes. Then, after what felt like hours, she finally spoke. "Jaune, you shouldn't compare yourself to your friends in any capacity." Those were the very first words out of her mouth and she said them in such a blunt tone that the blond leader looked as if she'd slapped him upside the head. "Yes, they're very talented… but so are you, Jaune. I and the others know all about how you forged those transcripts to get into this academy-." Miki watched Jaune almost comically panic and continued. "So it's really to be expected that it'd take some time for your skills to get up to snuff."

"But- I- how-?!" Jaune stuttered out, not making a lick of sense.

Miki smiled a little sheepishly. "You didn't really think that we – the 'ancient magi' – along with Ozpin and Glynda would be fooled by some small pile of papers, right?" She allowed herself a very light giggle at Jaune's expense as he looked away, clearly embarrassed and ashamed. But her sheepish smile became a much softer and more motherly one as she focused on the issue again. "You want to be a hero, Jaune. Not just because of fame or glory, but because you just want to do what's right… and that's great. I know that it's that resolve to become a hero that made you forge the transcripts…. And I know it's also that same desire that's making you go so overboard with this. But heroes aren't born nor does one become one in an instant, Jaune. You have to keep working at it. But, you have to do so at a pace that won't kill you."

Jaune was left feeling cowed by Miki's insightful words. Indeed, he did want to be a hero. It's what he's always wanted to be, ever since he was a kid. But with the legacy of his family to live up to along with being surrounded by so many talented people his age, he's been left feeling so very overwhelmed. Pressured. And that was something he decided to make known right now. "But even then-."

"No buts," Miki said with a shake of her head, her brown hair swishing lightly over her rather broad shoulders. "You will get stronger, Jaune. I know it and so do the others. In all honesty, I think you may become stronger than even your friends in due time, but you need to learn to restrain yourself a bit. Alright? You can do the training they're doing eventually, so for now just try to focus on doing training much more suited to your level."

Jaune could only stare at the brunette in silence, her words being slowly digested by his exhausted mind. But once that was taken care of, he laughed tiredly. "Well, you are the one training me…" he said weakly.

"Exactly right. So go get some rest, okay? I think you've had enough for the day," Miki said.

There was still a part of him that remained unaffected by Miki's words, a part of him that still wished for him to work his body into the ground even now. But that part was all but silent and docile in the face of Miki's soft spoken command and Jaune could only wordlessly acknowledge her words before slowly taking his leave.

But before he left the arena, he spared one final glance towards his teammates and team RWBY, still engaged with Ryuichi and Daisuke in an escalating spar. "One day, guys… one day, I'll be able to fight alongside you…" Jaune thought tiredly.

And without another thought on the matter, the blond leader left for his dorm, now slowly feeling eager to get some sleep.

Elsewhere, Vidar sat alone in his new room, looking over the results of his latest experiment. However, as excited as he was to do so, what with his theory and subsequent experiment having yield better results at a glance, his mind wandered elsewhere.

It has been a rather tough month for him and his Holy Knights. First there had simply been the fact that the ancient magi had launched an attack on their now former base. Then there was Surtur's incessant pseudo-gloating, the man's words having rattled Vidar more than he'd ever care to admit. But that wasn't the worst of it either.

Apophis was dead.

His second strongest Holy Knight had been killed during the operation and from what he's been able to gather from Gjallerhorn, which could record things to some extent much like a spy camera, the second seat had fallen before the might of none other than Thor.

That had made Vidar seethe a bit inwardly at the time. For Apophis had been but one of the three Holy Knights that had been given their Relics and abilities to best combat Fenrir when the time came. Heracles' Nemean Cestus was meant to give him a considerable edge against Fenrir's magical attacks in general whereas Apophis was meant to seal off Fenrir's movement via the utilization of the Devouring Blade's conceptual abilities. The third and final 'god-slayer' as Vidar likened them to be was Morgan, whose Book of Spells is meant to try and overwhelm Fenrir through unrelenting conceptual magic and in general undo any of his attacks that Heracles and Apophis would not have been able to deal with.

But with Apophis now dead, Vidar was still mentally reeling after all this time, trying to cope with the news that perhaps his three strongest weren't quite ready for Fenrir just yet if going up against Thor was such a dangerous scenario. Though, to be fair, Apophis' abilities were a big mismatch considering Thor's particular skillset and magical abilities.

"But it'd be natural for Fenrir to outdo even Thor's great speed…" Vidar thought, frustration rearing its ugly head. Adding to his frustration were the additional facts of Emerald's sudden death and the awakening of a number of the Beacon students that had accompanied the ancient magi on the operation.

Vidar didn't quite know how those students became pseudo-magi just like the captured Roman, Neo, and Adam, but he tried not to let such a detail bother him too much; as strong as they now must have become, they'd still be no match for his Holy Knights. Of course, that still didn't change the fact that they'd still be fighting alongside the magi as well, so they'd prove to be some sort of annoyance to him and his group overall.

Sighing, Vidar all but tossed aside the papers he'd been holding and quickly exited the room he'd been staying in, walking out into the hallway, which was still a little rundown, but otherwise was looking far better than when he and the others had first arrived her.

After having retreated from the warehouse, Vidar and the Holy Knights had spent a few days trying to recover from the attack while also looking for a new place to use as an establishment for them. This had originally proven to be harder than what had been expected since there were only so many places they could personally scout out and since Adam Taurus had been captured, they'd lost direct contact with the White Fang, of which Adam had been a high ranking member of.

It was only thanks to the fact that Heracles and Kalma, both of whom were Faunus, that they'd ultimately been able to actually contact and calmly request the White Fang for some help in that regard. And after a few extra days, the Holy Knights finally managed to find a new place to call 'home;' an abandoned military base well away from the larger cities that Vale had to offer. It was still a ways away from the more open country areas of the kingdom, but it was far enough from where their old base had once been to serve as a decent replacement. More so after they all moved the equipment they'd placed within Robotics Space into their new base and began to clean it up to make it suitable for decent living.

That all being said, it was still a relatively small base, more along the lines of some kind of bunker, given the old provisions and other stuff they've found while cleaning it out and repairing it. Nonetheless, Vidar wasn't going to complain about it.

"Captain."

Snapped from his thoughts, Vidar was somewhat surprised to see he'd walked out to the area behind the military base, where Indra calmly stood in more casual clothes, looking out towards the dead looking forest there. "Indra, what is it?" the captain replied.

"…How's Kalma? Have you heard from her recently?" Indra inquired about the young girl who was like a younger sister to him in a way.

"Mm, she's fine," Vidar answered as he approached the forest area himself, though without sparing it much of a glance. "Like the others, she'll be returning here in due time.

For the past two weeks, aside from himself, Indra, Morgan, and Lugh, the others had been sent out to take care of a few things. Heracles had been sent to stay with the White Fang and reestablish better ties with them so that they'd be willing once more to lend them manpower and equipment. Given that a number of their members had been beaten down during the ancient magi's assault a month ago and had been taken into custody not long thereafter, Vidar had made it a point for Heracles to take as long as need be to make sure the White Fang would at least consider helping out in spite of the considerable loss in their forces.

As for Cinder and Mercury, they had been assigned the special little mission of scouting out Atlas and its military institutions in order to determine if it'd be possible to break out Roman, Neo, and Adam. While it did irk Vidar to know that one or more of them may have talked to the ancient magi about the location of the warehouse all that time ago, he understood that they were most likely under threat of pain and imprisonment. Besides, given that the attention of himself and the Holy Knights must be focused on the magi, it'd be of some help to have those three take on those now empowered Beacon students. It would certainly make things a little easier in the long run after all. But given just how vast a place Atlas is in addition to how hush-hush things are about the location of those said three, it'd probably be another week or so before Cinder and Mercury will return to report anything useful.

And then there was Kalma.

While she was certainly the one most lacking in physical ability out of all the Holy Knights, even being surpassed by the likes of Roman in brute strength now, she still was a formidable person due to her considerable amount of mana in addition to having Surma as her Relic. And even as shy and easily scared as she is, she was loyal to his cause and had a rather good sense for geography among other things. As such, she had been originally tasked with mapping this new base and the area around it and was now elsewhere, further mapping every single small city or town or even village within five hundred miles of this place. Certainly, doing this was a lengthy process, but with her sharp senses due to being a Faunus having been further enhanced by becoming a Holy Knight in the first place combined with Surma serving as her defender and all around one-beast army, she'd be able to cover such a vast area in far less time than one would expect otherwise.

"But even so…" Indra muttered uneasily. "I can't say I like her being away from all of us like this. If Surma kicks the bucket, then she'd be defenseless."

"Perhaps so, but it's important to have as perfect a layout of everything around us as much as possible. One of the reasons why I believe our surprise battles with the ancient magi had been so tough was because the layout was somewhat disadvantageous to us," Vidar began. And he was correct to think so; due to the battles being confined to the warehouse only, it was hard for his Holy Knights to truly go all out. Furthermore, due to the battle taking place within downtown Vale, the ancient magi had the advantage of being able to essentially snipe them from high rising buildings far away. And while it would've been easy for almost all of the Holy Knights to blow the entire warehouse away with one blow, it still didn't change the fact that the cramped spaces of said building were things that got in the way of some of them. That and the fact that Vidar had to prioritize the safe transportation of his research material and equipment, which would've been a most monumental task if he'd had to worry about the whole warehouse being suddenly flattened or having Sif or Fenrir's magical weapon bombarding him from a distance.

That was why he was now having Kalma scout such a wide area. Should something similar ever repeat itself, the Holy Knights would have all the space needed to move around without worry and use the terrain to their advantage, setting up possible ambushing positions.

All of this went completely unsaid to Indra, but the young man was able to discern that much from what Vidar just said. With a bit of a sigh, Indra could only nod. "I understand."

Vidar let out a pleased hum at Indra's response. "I know that you care for her like family, but she will be fine. Surma may not have much in the form of actual magical attacks to fight from a range, but its physical capabilities may very well be on par with Heracles' own when it goes all out. Its speed in particular is something to not be taken lightly." He paused for a moment as he mentally went over a few things. "And not only that, but assuming she was able to complete her task thus far according to my deadline, she should've reached Burgundy – a rather large and somewhat modern village, according to my intel. She should find no trouble there."

To himself, Vidar nodded microscopically. If anything, should a situation arise in Burgundy, Kalma should actually have an advantage. The area around the village was nothing but ragged forest, with trees several meters thick extending to dozens of feet upward, allowing very little sun into the area. Combined with the naturally overcast weather that always plagued the area in addition to said place usually being a home of sorts to Grimm, then Kalma should have no problem using anything there to her advantage. What with Surma's black fur and capabilities, it could easily traverse such a dense forest with ease and slip in and out of any shadow to attack anyone dumb enough to lay a hand on its master.

"If you say so, captain. Still, just can't help but wish she was done with everything," Indra replied after a time, though not sounding as tense as before.

"In due time, she will return. Just rest easy knowing that much," Vidar said before beginning to walk off.

He still had much to do after all, if he wished to not have a repeat of last month's event.

Later that day and back at Beacon Academy, Ozpin sat in his office looking over one final stack of papers that Glynda had brought in just a while. "Hmm… more Grimm extermination requests from smaller towns and villages…" he thought aloud.

In the modern era, usually such requests were delivered via phone call or email, but due to some towns and villages well away from larger parts of civilization, they lacked such means of contact, hence the more old fashioned route. At least the mailing system still worked as fast as it used to back in the day.

Normally it'd be up to Ozpin and the other faculty members to devise and assign missions to the students, but every now and then, there came personal requests like this to do such a job for them, outlining exactly what the senders are looking for in terms of help wanted.

Sipping a bit of his coffee, the headmaster sifted through the letters one at a time, carefully reading over them and mentally assigning them numbers that determine their priority levels. For the most part, none of them seemed truly serious, simply requests that called for some Grimm extermination to put the residents at ease.

But as he neared the bottom of the pile, Ozpin finally reached one that looked a little more urgent than the rest. Coming from the village known as Burgundy, it seemed that the Grimm that usually stuck to the areas outside of the village were starting to get agitated for some reason or another and were beginning to inch closer to the village sporadically. The residents worried that if left to their own devices, the Grimm would approach them for good sooner or later and while a number of them could fight fairly well, none of them were hunter material. And against the sort of Grimm that lied in wait within the areas outside their own, such lack of skill and strength would prove fatal.

Finishing the letter, Ozpin let his mind drift over what he knew of the village, having read up on it and other such villages long ago in that area. As he did so, he slowly began to recall the dense forestry there and as he did so, he couldn't help but narrow his eyes. Such an environment would be perfect for the Grimm to use against the people of Burgundy. Little more than beasts the Grimm may be mentally, but they have shown plenty of times in the past a strong instinct for using their surroundings to ambush humans and Faunus.

Also, given the village's location, a good deal away from any type of actual city, the residents of Burgundy had no way of rushing elsewhere for reinforcements, much less any form of safety.

Taking into consideration all these facts, Ozpin then made his choice of which request had to be accepted first.

Which in turn brought up another question to be addressed. "Just which team to send?" was what Ozpin then thought.

Given the number of Grimm that lurked within the forest surrounding Burgundy, it'd be the most logical decision to send perhaps a third year team, maybe even a fourth year to ensure that the Grimm situation remains under control.

However, there were two teams in particular that were much more powerful than any older team here in Beacon: teams RWBY and JNPR. As virtually every member of both teams were now pseudo-magi, their abilities were now much greater than before and more than enough to topple any Grimm one on one. As teams, they could potentially slay any number of Grimm that would dare to try and kill them. And when taking into account the training his longtime friends have been giving all eight teens, Ozpin was certain that in terms of pure skill alone, teams RWBY and JNPR most likely have already surpassed the rest of the first year students and possibly a majority of the second year ones as well.

"…Hrmm." Taking a quick minute to pull out his scroll, the headmaster shot off a brief message to Glynda that requested her to inform team JNPR of a new mission for them first thing tomorrow morning.

Doing that, Ozpin felt satisfied for the day and slowly began to pack things away for the night. It was about time he got some sleep too.

As he did so, he idly wondered how well the mission will go for team JNPR and could only hope that they'd be up to the task expected of them now.

Unbeknownst to anyone, not even himself, Jaune shivered lightly in his sleep.

For reasons that the sleeping blond couldn't fathom within his subconscious, he could help but dread the days to come.

And so begins the new arc. It'll be a somewhat short one, in a manner of speaking; happens within a short time frame overall, but a lot of stuff occurs. That's really the best way I can describe what'll happen, but nothing more beyond that.

All else I can say is that I have a number of surprises in store for you all.

Oh, and the beginning part was a homage to Korosensei from Assassination Classroom. Sure is an interesting manga!

But until then… I just need to rest and try and get myself a job. Unless my novel really hits it off, I sure hope I can land myself a job soon enough…

Until next time, everyone. Take care.