Jaune and Brawnz returned to the group and Brawnz went to his team. He put the two bags he carried down and turned to face Jaune. Jaune gulped as he faced all eight Shade students, all with various forms oflooks on their face. Mostly distrust and anger.
Jaune clears his throat and spoke. "So… uhhh, I guess I'll get the goliath out of the way. I know that not everyone is happy with this arrangement."
"That's an understatement," Gwen mumbled under her breath.
"But right now, like it or not, we are in this situation together. I know for a fact most of you will not agree with what I do. That is understandable given my… history. But once you all get through this you never have to talk to me again." When he said that last part, Brawnz could hear a lot of pain in there. Not that Jaune needed the approval of NDGO and his team, but he needed it to prove to himself.
Brawnz heard self-doubt, self-hatred, it was as if he's already giving up on winning their trust and respect and accepted that… he would be alone throughout all of shade. While Brawnz noticed it, it seemed not everyone had.
"Good," May said. "I don't even want to be associated with you." Jaune's face didn't change but Brawnz knew that hurt. He tried to change the subject.
"So Jaune, mind telling us what's in the bags?" Jaune nodded and pointed to the two food bags.
"Food and water. Enough to last us two days. Three if we ration it."
"Two days?!" Octavia shouted. "Two days?! She doesn't expect us for a day? Our initiation lasted three hours and his takes a two days? This is a waste of time."
"Enough," Brawnz said. This caused both teams and Jaune to look at her. "Like he said, we are in this whether we want to be or not. So stop whining." No one said anything and Brawnz motioned Jaune to continue.
"Anyway, this bag," he pointed to the third one. "Is supplies. Ammo, dust, grenades, a watch, sleeping bags for all of us."
"And now we have to spend the night out here…" Roy stated, there was no harshness in his tone, it was as if he was merely stating a fact.
"Perfect," Dew said rolling her eyes.
"Well, now that we have our gear," Nebula said. "What now?" Everyone looked at Jaune.
"Uhh…" was all that came out of Jaune's mouth. He looked at the ground and began thinking. What could he do to maximize his attempt to reach a location or someplace safe in the fastest way possible?
"I don't want to start wandering in one direction. Who knows what we will find. But how am I supposed to check all around us? Scrolls are out of service and it's nothing but flat desert out here."
He doesn't know," Nolan said. "Shocker." This caused Jaune to get out of his thinking state and turn to him. "You know what, I don't care what Miss Nyx says. I'm not going to die out here with someone who doesn't know how to fight being my leader." With that Nolan took one of the food bags and began walking away. However, Nebula spoke up.
"Hey!" she yelled. "Where are you going?" Nolan scoffed and turned to face her while still walking.
"Well, I'm just walking. I'm going to find a mine or something eventually, I just need to keep walking."
"And what about the food?" Nebula pointed to the bag and glared at Nolan. "That's all for yourself?"
"No, but I don't expect my team to follow this dimwit around." He pointed to Jaune which cause the blonde to shrink a little.
"Yeah but your team doesn't need all of that food!" Gwen said. "You have to share with us too!"
"Okay let's just think about this for a second," Roy said.
"Yeah we take the supplies and split food," May said.
"Like hell you do! May, you're the only one who needs ammo!" Dew said.
"Guys calm down!" Brawnz said. However it was to no avail as the arguing increased. That didn't stop him from trying to reason with everyone. As they did argue, they failed to notice the blonde knight. As he watched them argue he just sighed.
"I knew it," he thought. He goes to one of the food bags, takes out three cans of food, and two bottled waters. He then zips it back up and begins walking away from them. "Why did I even come here? I knew something like this would happen and I still came here. I truly am insane."
Jaune kept walking as he heard the arguing continue. That was until he heard Brawnz voice after about two minutes.
"Jaune!" he yelled. The blonde sighs and turns around to see the brown skinned boy running up to him. When Brawnz caught up to him, he panted a little and caught his breath. Jaune noticed that everyone was still arguing. "Where are… you going?" he asked.
"Where everyone wants me," Jaune said bitterly. "Away from them."
"Jaune," Brawnz started but Jaune cut him off.
"No, enough Brawnz! I'm done thinking that I can make it through this! It was a mistake for me to come here. Now if you don't mind, I'd like to survive, die, get eaten, or whatever happens in the next twenty four hours, in peace."
"Jaune you can't let them get to you."
"I'm not going to argue when they are right!"
"Then prove them wrong!" Brawnz shoved Jaune slightly in the chest. "Do what you were doing at Beacon! Train, be smart, do whatever it takes but dammit Jaune! You belong here just like the rest of us!" As the two argued Jaune could see a dust cloud charging towards the other. With about twenty Grimm in front of it. Jaune went wide eyed.
"Brawnz," he said trying to get his attention.
"Don't interrupt me Arc!" Barwnz said. He continued to yell as the dust cloud came closer.
"Brawnz…" Jaune said. This time Brawnz just ignored him and kept arguing. "Brawnz! Grimm!" Jaune pointed to the dust cloud forming with black grimm causing it.
"Oh no," Brawnz said. The two look at each and then sprint towards the others, readying their weapons. Brawnz had his gauntlets hanging at his sides so he took one of them and strapped it to his left and then took the other and strapped it to his right arm. Meanwhile Jaune pulled out his sword and put the sheath into shield mode.
Luckily they were closer to the two teams arguing, but they didn't have a lot of time before the grimm were on them. When they reached them, some of them, like Nolan and Octavia had their weapons drawn.
"Guys enough!" Brawnz said. This got a few of them to look at him but there was still arguing. That's when Jaune stepped in.
"Hey!" Jaune yelled, voice full of authority. This caused all the arguing to stop and look at him, but only for a moment until May spoke up.
"Well look who had the balls to speak up," she said. "What is it blondie boy? Finally found a plan to get us to Shade?"
"Yes I have," Jaune said. He pointed to the dust trail. "And it involves making it out of that grimm horde alive."
Gwen looked to where Jaune was pointing and said "What grimm hor…" Gwen was stunned by what she saw, as were the others. It was a big dust trail lead but what looked to be about twenty some grimm.
"May," Jaune said. "Can you see what type of grimm we have?"
"What do you think I was born yesterday?" May asked. She was already looking down her scope. She mumbled out words as she counted and took note of every grimm. "We have about twenty grimm, possibly more, all beowolves."
"Anything different about the beowolves here than in Vale?" Jaune asked.
"Other than living in the desert, no," Roy said as he took out his saw blades.
"Okay then, spread out. We need at least one person protecting the food and supplies so we don't lose anything."
"How will we lose anything?" Nebula asked.
"We don't want the canned food being crushed and spilling everywhere, we don't want to drop bullets in the sand, and the dust could explode if we aren't careful."
NDGO and BRNZ look at each other. "He isn't wrong…" Gwen said.
"So who's volunteering?" Jaune asked. Nebula raised her hand.
"I can fend them off with my crossbow," she said. "Make sure they don't get too close." Jaune picked up the supply bag and tossed it to her. She caught it and strapped it to her back.
"Okay, anyone else?" Roy raised his hand. Jaune hands him a food bag. When no one else raised their hand he took the last food bag and then strapped it to his back. "All right, spread out! We fight in close quarters with those numbers we're done for!" Despite a few grumbles, everyone did what they were told.
Another minute passes by and they can hear the footsteps approaching of the attacking horde. They finally see the grimm over the sand hill and May, Roy, and Nebula get ready to throw and fire their weapons.
May was the one who took the first shot. She aligned her scope onto a beowolf's head. She then leads her scope a little bit forward and fires. The bullet travels and with her leading, the fall off of the bullet had no effect as it hit the grimm right in the head, through the bone mask.
The beowolf fell causing one or two to fall with it, but they recovered and continued sprinting towards the group of huntsman and huntress. May kept firing, taking down or injuring more of the beowolves. Once they got a little closer, Nebula began firing her crossbow. At the same time Roy began throwing his saws.
"Get ready!" Jaune yelled. The horde was almost upon them, luckily the three of them cut down some of the grimm numbers, if only just a little bit. Finally, with a roar, the horde had reached the group.
Jaune made sure to distance himself from the horde as to not crush and lose any food. Meanwhile Brawnz began attacking a beowolf with his gauntlets. The beowolf swung at Brawnz head but Brawnz duck and uppercutted it in the gut, his claws entering its flesh, causing it to howl in pain. He then rotates his knife part of his weapon and stabs it with both of his hands in the throat.
Another beowolf hopped over it's now dead friend to try and surprise Brawnz, however he kicks the disintegrating beowolf into the leaping one, causing it to fall to the ground. Brawnz then turns to the now fallen beowolf and stabs it in the face and then rips his gauntlet out brutally.
Roy tossed one blade into an oncoming group , causing two to fall to the ground dead. The blade returns to him and he puts his hand on one of the saws and causes it to spin. He then does the same to the other saw. A beowolf charges at him and tries to strike him. However Roy dodges the attack and slides under it. He then goes to the next beowolf and jumps in the air and slams his spinning saws onto the head of it. The squishing noise of the saws entering the flesh can be heard as the beowolf gurgled on its own blood.
Roy then turns to the original beowolf which was about to claw at him. However Roy turned just in time and made his spinning saw blades block the attack. He then sawed the beowolfs arm off. The grimm lets out a roar of pain and Roy spins his blades again as they were slowing down again and then made the saws enter in the stomach. Roy picked up the beowolf as his saws continued to kill the grimm.
Nebula was doing a decent job at keeping the grimm at bay with her cross bow. However she had to switch to her sword form as three beowolfs got closer. Luckily one of her teammates was watching out for her.
Octavia slashed her dagger causing fire to coming out and hitting the leader of the three grimm charge. Nebula looked at her red haired teammate and gave a nod and then turned her sword back into the crossbow and shot the leader in the neck, causing it to die.
Nebula changes her crossbow back to sword form and gets ready for the two beowolves. However to her surprise one of them rushes past her, but skids a little and charges at her again. She then realizes what was going to happen. She quickly unstraps the bag, and tosses it high in the air.
She grips her sword with both hands and then begins spinning quickly. One beowolf was brave, or foolish enough to try to attack Nebula as she spun. Its snout gets sliced causing it to reel back. Nebula stops spinning and catches the bag and straps it to her back again.
Both beowolves were about to attack but two daggers are thrown at them causing them to stop in their tracks. Nebula smiles and attacks. She first stabs the first one in the throat, then drags her sword through the body, turns and upper slashes the other beowolf, cutting both of them in half.
"Thanks Gwen, thanks Oct!" Nebula said to her team. They smile and get back to their own fights.
Dew was fending off three beowolves at once. She stabbed at one with the reach of her spear and then slashed at another that got too close. She gets a cocky smile and uses her dust crystal to make a sand tornado. A beowolf gets sucked up in it and begins flying in the air. She then jumps up and stabs down into the torso of the creature.
While in the air, she turns her body a little and uses gravity and her strength to slam the beowolf down onto another one. As the first beowolf disintegrates, the other one tries to push it off but Dew stabs it in the head. She then swiftly removes her spear, spins it a little and then turns and slashes the last beowolf in the throat.
Nolan began beating a beowolf that was getting too close for comfort. He began smashing the skull with his rod. He then charges his rod with electricity and keeps it pressed on the beowolf. Another beowolf began to go after him so Nolan kicked the electricity filled beowolf into the other one causing both of them to get electrocuted.
Nolan then hops on the two bodies and begins to beat both of them brutally, the sound of bone breaking and can be heard as he hammered away at the beowolves.
Jaune didn't have to deal with a lot of grimm yet. However he heard a growl behind him. He raises his shield just in time for a beowolf to land on it. He then slams his shield down into the ground, causing the beowolf to fall off. He then reverse grips his sword and then stabs it directly in the chest.
Once the beowolf was dead, Jaune took a look around. They still had a lot of beowolves to deal with. He then looks at dew and Gwen and gets an idea. "Gwen!" he yelled.
The black haired girl wasn't fighting any beowolves so she looked at the blonde boy, but with a mild look of annoyance on her face. "What?"
"Can you see if you can get in Dew's tornados? Get in them and then start raining our knives down on the grimm."
Gwen looked at Dew who was still making a couple of tornados and can see where he was coming from. "Hell from above…" she mumbled. She then turned back to Jaune. "What about the others?"
"I'll protect them! The minute you leap into one of her tornados let me know." The black haired girl nods and begins running to her partner. Meanwhile another beowolf was coming for Jaune. It leaps and tries to claw down on him but Jaune blocks it with his shield. He then bashes the shield into the beowolf. It recoils back from the pain but leaps at him again. Jaune ducks down in time, and as the beowolf's midsection is in place he rises up and stabs his sword through it.
He holds the beowolf in the air as it twitches and eventually dies. He then kicks the disintegrating body off of his sword. "Fraud!" he heard Gwen yell. He turns to her to see her giving a nod. He nods back.
"Everyone get behind me!" he yelled.
"Why should we Jaune?" Brawnz said as he beat a beowolf with his claws. Jaune pointed to Gwen who was spinning in one of Dew's tornados which brought her up with it. Everyone realized what she was doing once she reached for all of her knives.
"Run!" Nebula screamed. Everyone stunned the foe they were attacking and then sprinted toward Jaune. They ran behind him and he put his shield up, protecting his upper body and the others as they crouched behind him. He then used his sword to block his leg.
Once Gwen was high in the air, she continued to spin and then started throwing her knives everywhere. She hit the beowolves in their legs, their bodies, some of their heads, which caused a lot of them to be pinned down a little bit. One was charging right for the group but it was pinned with two knives of Gwen's and whimpers in pain.
Gwen stopped spinning and Jaune lowered his shield, looked down at the beowolf and raised his sword high in the air, and then sliced down on its head. The beowolf disintegrated and Jaune pointed his sword to the remaining beowolves. "Let's go! They won't stay pinned forever." With that all of them charged again.
Roy did a couple of arm spins and then released his saw onto a row of beowolves. When all of their heads came off he returned his saw to his bracer. He does a little fist pump and says "Strike!"
May and Nebula kept shooting at any limping or down beowolves. Nolan was electrocuting them, Brawnz was gutting them, and Dew and Jaune were stabbing them. Meanwhile Gwen ran around grabbing all of her knives and slice the throats of the ones still in beowolves.
Eventually the horde was slain and everyone was calming down. Jaune was panting slightly but he looked at everyone. "Great fighting everyone!" he said. "Is everyone okay?"
"Yeah I'm fine," Brawnz answered.
"I'll live," Octavia mumbled. Roy and Nebula nod, Gwen and Dew don't answer, and Nolan and May let their voice be heard.
"Oh yeah we're fine!" Nolan said sarcastically. "Except for the fact that we could've been killed by your plan!"
"Yeah!" May said. "What the hell kind of plan was that?! That could've done more harm than good!"
"Guys," Brawnz said but they ignored him and kept tearing into Jaune.
"If you think that was a good plan, I don't see how you were a leader in Beacon."
"Oh wait," Nolan said. "They made you a leader probably because you said you would make a great one on your forged papers!"
"Speaking of the papers, what else did you fake on there?" Dew said getting into it. "Are you even a natural blonde?"
"What does that…?" Jaune asked but was cut off by more questions.
"Is that even your sword?" Octavia asked.
"Why are you even here?" May asked.
"You should've just stayed in Vale!"
"Guys that's enough!" Nebula said. This surprised everyone. "In case you forgot, we're standing in the middle of the desert. Arguing is going to get us nowhere. In fact I'm pretty sure we were the ones that attracted the grimm towards us. So let's all just calm down, get water and rest, and then head out in about ten minutes all right." Everyone could agree to that. Jaune sets his bag on the ground and opens it and a couple of them grab water bottles and begin drinking it, and then sharing it with their partners or teammates.
Jaune taps on Roy's and Nebula's shoulders to get their attention. He motions them to follow him and they do so. They go just a couple of feet away from the others.
"Are you guys good?" he asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine," Nebula said.
"Mm hmm," Roy hummed.
"Good," Jaune said. "Mind if I check our supplies for a second?"
"Go ahead," Roy said as he tossed his bag down. Jaune made sure to count everything and make sure they had everything.
"All right, everything's here, and nothing's destroyed." He zips the bags up again and straps them to himself. He then smiles at both of them. "Great job you two." Both Nebula and Roy felt joy as they heard that. It wasn't false praise to make him seem more likable, it was a genuine compliment. "And also you know... thanks for sticking up for me Nebula."
"Nor problem, but try to be a little more forceful, okay?" Jaune Nods and walks away.
Roy and Nebula look at each other as Jaune walked by them to the rest of the group. They then smiled at each other. They both had the same thought. He may be a fraud, but he isn't a bad guy.
To be continued.