Ruby stood among the crowd gathered around a stage featuring Ozpin himself, the headmaster about to go into a speech of some kind. Ruby herself didn't care much for it at the moment, sure he had invited her to Beacon two years earlier, but she was in a crummy mood so sue her.
First Yang left her, then she bumped into the meanest ice-queen in existence, exploded as a result because of a sneeze, and even after all that, no one bothered to even check up on her to see if she was okay or not.
So yeah, she was brooding a little, and giving Yang the cold shoulder at the same time. Of course, now her sister cared, it's not like she didn't freaking explode half an hour ago!
Ozpin cleared his throat and began his speech, "I'll keep this brief. You have traveled here today in search of knowledge, to know your craft, and acquire new skills. And when you have finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people. But I look amongst you, and all I see is wasted energy. In need of purpose, direction. You assume knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will prove that knowledge can only carry you so far. It is up to you to take the first step." He finished, stepping off without so much as a glance to his audience.
"He seemed kinda… Off." Yang said, "Almost like he wasn't there."
The silver-eyed girl didn't respond with anything other than a grumble, walking away with the rest of the crowd as Glynda Goodwitch dismissed them and gave them instructions for initiations. Ruby made her way to her destination with Yang trailing behind her with a thousand apologies about leaving her behind, and it was only when Yang mentioned something about cookies that Ruby turned.
"What about cookies!?" Ruby snapped, cheeks puffed up like a hamster.
"I'll buy you a box of cookies if you accept my apology," Yang replied, arms stretched out to hug.
Ruby thought it over, for a long while. A long while for Ruby that is, which ended up being two seconds in the end, and hugged Yang. "Apology accepted! I will be making due on that promise soon though," Ruby said with gluttony in her eyes.
Soon they reached their destination, the large gymnasium area used to house all the students before initiation and chatted away to pass the time. And as soon as they arrived a familiar figure to Ruby approached them, the dreaded ice-queen.
"Here," she said, shoving a small book into Ruby's hands, "The Schnee Dust Company is not responsible for any injuries or damages sustained while operating a Schnee Dust Company product. Although not mandatory, the Schnee Family highly encourages their customers to read and familiarize themselves with this easy-to-follow guide to Dust application and practice in the field."
The book itself was titled "Dust for Dummies", and is now in the hands of a speechless Ruby Rose.
The ice-queen continued, "Read this and don't ever speak to me again!" She said before turning around with a hair-flip and going back to where she came, which Ruby currently thought was hell.
Ruby took one good look at her book, spun her bag around in a jerky motion, shoved said book around, and gave out a loud groan.
"Beacon's gonna suck!" She moaned, leaning on Yang with a morose expression.
Yang gave her younger sister a head pat, "You'll be fine, I bet she won't even get through initiation being such a stuck-up princess."
"But what if she does! Or worse! What if we're stuck being partners! What if my partner hates me!" Ruby wailed, pounding her petite fist on Yang's shoulder.
"You've just had a bad day, it'll get way better in the morning. That I promise." Yang reassured her sister.
It did not. Ruby woke up with a grumpy moan and an even grumpier expression, a severe lack of milk and cookies affecting the small reaper greatly.
However, the smell of what seemed to be a breakfast buffet set up close by was enough to move her out of her slumber. Getting ready quickly she strayed over to the smell of breakfast, finding a small line lined up in what she assumed was the cafeteria. Even from where she was standing the piles upon piles of food looked heavenly. She stopped for a second to think about waking up Yang, who was still snoring away in her sleeping bag on the ground.
Being the best younger sister in existence Ruby decided to do just that, zipping through corridors to find where Yang. The blonde was still where Ruby had left her, the only thing visible from the sleeping bag being Yang's hair, which was a wild mess.
So with a mighty kick, Ruby struck where Yang's butt was, "Wakey, wakey, sleepyhead!" She beamed with energy, bad mood long since forgotten.
A groan was the only response she got, followed by shifts from the shapeless blob that Yang currently was. "Ghzhghg," Blob-Yang spat out, slowly waking up from her slumber.
Yang lifted her head from her sleeping bag, stray hair covering her face as she woke up. "Bluegh?" She asked.
"Yeah! Breakfast time!" Ruby answered, pulling Yang up to a standing position and waking her up fully.
"I'm going, I'm going," Yang murmured, getting ready at a lethargic pace. She got ready eventually, following Ruby down the same path she had taken previously to the cafeteria. Luckily for both of them, the line seemed to haven't changed length since Ruby had last seen it.
And so they got in line, the people working the breakfast buffet seemed to be upper-classmen. Ruby and Yang didn't notice it, but a familiar pair of ocean-blue eyes locked onto them from the breakfast buffet, serving them eggs and sausage with a small smile at Yang's half-awake form.
The two sisters got their food and went to sit down for breakfast, finding a small table next to a wall to eat. They finished quickly, hurrying to the locker room just as the upper-classmen began to put the buffet. Yang had fully woken up now, appreciating the magnificent halls of Beacon as they made their way to where they had left their gear.
Once Ruby and Yang had arrived they made their way to their lockers, opening them to retrieve Crescent Rose and Ember Celica. Just as they were doing so they heard a voice call out to them.
"Yang, Ruby!"
Both of the sisters closed their lockers and turned to the voice, seeing a tall, blonde and familiar sight approaching them.
Jaune gave a wave as he got closer, a smile on his face at the sight of the two sisters. "Hey, guys, been a long time hasn't it? Haven't seen both of you in a while. How have you been?"
Both sisters shared a very similar train of thought, that being that Jaune had filled out very well in the last five years. A broad back, thick arms that could be seen even through his hoodie, and a tight set of pants showed Yang how well he'd been training all this time. Azure eyes twinkled with excitement before shifting to something more self-conscious as the two sisters stared in shock.
"Ugh? Guys? You there?" He asked.
Yang snapped out of her thoughts first, her stare turning into a glare, "You said you'd visit!" She said before punching Jaune in the arm. "You didn't even call! And since when have you been built like a brick house?" She exclaimed.
"I've been, uh, training?" He asked cautiously, "Also is Ruby okay?"
Ruby in question was standing to the side of Jaune, poking his bicep in curiosity, then poking her arm before also glaring at Jaune. "We were supposed to be scrawny buddies together Jaune, you've betrayed me and every other skinny kid in Vale!"
"Scrawny buddies?" Jaune questioned, looking down at Ruby, something that must have reminded her of their ever increased height difference.
"Yeah! Scrawny buddies, remember when you lost to Yang at that arm wrestling and you made me promise to stay scrawny together!" Ruby exclaimed. Jaune seemingly remembered all of the sudden with a blush, "I forgot?" He said.
"You forgot!" Ruby yelled, clinging off Jaune's body in a theatrical display of sadness. The knight patted her on the head as an apology, turning to Yang for help. Yang only crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow, "You asked for this Vomit-Boy."
"Vomit-Boy? That nickname is so old, don't tell me you're going to call me that." Jaune said, a slight whine in his voice.
"Think of it as payback," Yang replied, "Now what are you even doing here? You carry your weapon on you at all times so it's not like you need to grab anything,"
"I came here for my armor," Jaune said.
Ruby perked up, "Armor? On top of your shield and ginormous aura, you're already a tank!"
"Well I wouldn't say I'm a tank, but being protected is nice don't you think," he shot back as he pried Ruby from his arm.
"My locker is right up ahead, let me go grab it and we can meet outside," Jaune said, handing off a squirming Ruby to Yang before trotting to his locker.
Yang watched him go, giving a low wolf-whistle to appreciate how his butt looked in his pants. She collected her things before leaving for the initiation area, an indignant Ruby still under one of her arms.
Jaune himself made his way to his locker, noticing two individuals having a very one-sided conversation. A short, ivory-headed girl was talking to a taller crimson wearing amazon with zeal, they were also standing in front of his locker.
"Excuse me, but you're standing in front of my locker," Jaune stated, wrenching both of their attention to him.
"We're having a conversation here," the white-haired girl hissed, "Do you even know who I am! I'm Weiss Schnee!"
"And I'm Jaune Arc," he said, extending his hand in a handshake.
This made Weiss shut up, which made the amazon incredibly curious. She was even more curious when Weiss shook his hand tentatively before clearing her throat.
"Well then…" Weiss said, "I'm sorry for my outburst, but it's a pleasure to meet Ozpin's ward. I'm sure you need no introduction to Pyrrha Nikos, champion of the Mistral Regional Tournament for four years in a row,"
"The great Pyrrha Nikos, it'll be a pleasure to work along with someone of your talent and dedication," Jaune said, extending his hand to Pyrrha as he had to Weiss.
Pyrrha's face flashed with someone akin to disappointment, almost undetectable to the human eye, before shaking Jaune's hand "The sentiment is shared," she stated.
"Now that you're here I should probably let you in on what Pyrrha and I had been discussing," Weiss said, "I think that it'd be auspicious of us three to be on the same team, it'd be befitting of our status to be partnered with those that share our skill."
Jaune glanced at Pyrrha, who seemed to be desperately holding back the urge to run away. He gave a small laugh, which Weiss seemed to think was directed at her.
"Is something wrong?" She asked.
"No, no, nothing of the sort, it's just that I wouldn't hold my breath to plan ahead to such extents," Jaune said with a grin, "Initiation has a way to create, unexpected, teams. Now if you'd let me access my locker that way we can go out to the initiation cliff at a reasonable time."
This flustered Weiss, letting Jaune pass to enter his combination and open the locker with a pressurized hiss. Both Pyrrha and Weiss peaked over Jaune's shoulder to see what was inside, seeing as his weapon was currently at his hip. What they saw was rather surprising for a hunter in training, as it seemed to be a full set of knight armor.
Jaune took off his hoodie, showing the two bystanders a t-shirt that might as well have been painted on. Corded muscles seemed to shift with every minute movement from the knight, his back a tempting tapestry of musculature to a blushing Weiss and an ever appreciative Pyrrha.
Pyrrha couldn't help but laugh as Weiss turned away and hid her line of sight with her hands, apparently, Weiss didn't trust herself with an unobstructed view of Jaune's back. Shifting her gaze back to Jaune he put on his armor rather quickly, first, a large chest plate snapped into place, covering the front of his torso in a sleek manner. Then came pauldrons alongside vambraces to protect his arm, chainmail covering any areas that required mobility much like the chest plate had. Finally, Jaune slotted on some greaves to finish the whole process.
By the end of it, Jaune stood in all his brilliance, white steel armor that matched his sheath covered most of his body except his head and a few low-risk areas like his feet. Thick plating seemed to breathe alongside him, the armor looking almost natural on Jaune's body. Pyrrha could no longer imagine him without it, feeling as if it'd be more unnatural for Jaune to not have armor.
"Well then, shall we go on?" Jaune asked, a smile too perfect for Pyrrha and Weiss to not notice how fake it was. However it wasn't like either of them was any better, so they led the way with their new companion trailing behind them.
The initiation area was a cliff, looming over the thick swath of forest under it. Most students had already stepped upon a series of plates that the teachers had instructed them to stand on, including Yang and Ruby, who gave Jaune a wave.
"Hey, Vomit-Boy! I saved you a spot," Hollered Yang, directing Jaune to stand left of her, "Well I'll be darned, when you said armor I didn't know it'd be a full set of knight armor," she said, followed by a low whistle of appreciation.
"You like what you see?" Jaune challenged, only to shut up at Yang's raised brow and smirk.
Ozpin and Goodwitch went through their instruction, everyone absorbing the instructions to ensure they would pass, except for Jaune who had already memorized what needed to happen. Most people's eyes widened once Ozpin described how they would acquire their partners, Weiss' face torn at the fact that she'd have to search for Pyrrha or Jaune.
And with that Ozpin began to launch students into the Emerald Forest, a small smile on his lips as he saw them hurtle through the air. Jaune gives a small eye roll, before locking eyes with Ms. Goodwitch and giving a reassuring smile that he'd be okay to calm the worried strain in her eyes.
Jaune was launched to the left, much to Yang's chagrin who had been thrown to her right. Though Jaune saw out of the corner of his eye that Ruby had been thrown in a similar direction, so there'd be a higher chance of them meeting, which he was sure would put Yang in a good mood.
His train of thought was interrupted as the arc of his trajectory reached its peak and Jaune began to lose altitude. Jaune straightened himself, unsheathing his sword and extending his shield to its full berth. As he dropped and entered the forest Jaune slammed into the tips of a few trees, shield cleaving through them at the speed and weight behind it. He also held his sword extended to his side, not enough to catch against any stray trees, but simply to graze the bark and slow his descent somewhat.
The knight's touchdown was far from quiet, hitting the ground at an angle and sliding much like a baseball player would, stopping his momentum fully by stamping his foot into the ground and creating deep grooves in the dirt until he stopped.
"Well then, let's head to the ruins," Jaune murmured to no one in particular and began his trek north to where he knew his objective lay. After a few minutes, Jaune heard a familiar growl. He ignored it, only the smallest glances to his left and right betrayed the fact that he had any idea there were Grimm nearby.
As he jogged, the growling stopped, the forest quiet except for the small rustling and swaying of flora. The corners of Jaune's mouth quirked upward in a small twitch, but other than that he remained unbothered as he continued to jog.
Then, with a sudden snarl that echoed through the forest, a beowolf pounced on its unassuming target. Its large black mass flew with snarling fury at Jaune, attacking his back to end the young huntsman before his career could even begin. Mouth wide open it bit down with power, feeling its victim shatter before its attack. Only it wasn't Jaune that was shattering, rather the bony skull of the beowolf as Jaune had twisted his body and met its gaping maw with Crocea Mors' shield.
This sent the beowolf reeling mid-leap, falling to the ground unceremoniously and scrambling to get up. The second it did so Jaune was upon it with a slash of Crocea Mors, his attacks being calculated and cold, only two being used to cut down the beast. Jaune's first slash cutting arm from body, tumbling the beowolf even further. His second coming from the heavens itself, cleaving its head in one clean motion.
With that done Jaune suddenly spun himself, sword extended to warn the encroaching beowolves he knew of their presence. The beowolf's pack had flanked him on both sides, snarling in pitch black rage.
Jaune set his stance once more, this time posed to lunge forward, not that the beowolves could tell. With the plan to rush one of the flanks Jaune clenched his legs, feeling the flow and tide of aura fill his lower half in preparation. However, before he could finish off the rest of the pack, a shot rang out.
A beowolf on his left dropped, throwing the pack's attention toward the source of the attack. This provided Jaune a window large enough to attack, launching himself to his right with a shield-bash, crushing a beowolf's lower jaw with a sickly crunch.
The beowolf fell quickly, but it took enough time for its partner to attempt a wild slash at Jaune. Said slash was met with Crocea Mors' shield, the shrill sound of claws going up against metal ringing out as Jaune slashed out in retaliation. His attack struck true, clearing the beowolf's shoulder from its body. Out of the corner of his mind Jaune could hear that someone else had jumped into the fray, acknowledging it but staying on task.
As Jaune slayed his second beowolf its body fell upon his shield, something he used as a battering ram to slam into the last beowolf with a shove. He twisted his body to allow himself to see who had joined him, a crimson red ponytail fluttering from between a duo of beowolves told him that it was Pyrrha.
He didn't get much time to ponder this, as the last beowolf had scrambled free from underneath the corpse of its dissipating brother. It slashed in a diagonal motion, aiming to take him out with a strike to the neck, something that struck the metal of Jaune's armor and glanced off without so much as a scratch.
And before the foul beast could recuperate from its failed attack its life was ended, a single thrust from Crocea Mors piercing its jaw into its skull.
Jaune yanked his sword back, freeing it from its new sheath and allowing the beast to tumble onto the ground dead. He turned to watch Pyrrha at work, the amazon making short work of the remaining beowolves.
Pyrrha fought in a way almost reminiscent of a dance, flowing from attack to attack in a blur of bronze and ruby. She slashed a beowolf's leg, toppling it to one knee before twirling to block an incoming attack from behind, letting it glance off her shield before mech shifting her sword into a spear to deliver a thrust into the beowolf's chest. Then, with speed and grace, she smoothly brought her weapon to her side with another spin, giving her enough momentum to decapitate the rising Grimm behind her.
She flicked her weapon to the side, ridding any disgusting Grimm debris from its steel before turning to look at Jaune.
"Hey partner," They both parroted out, a smile on both of their faces as they reveled in their small victory.
Pyrrha and Jaune then set out toward their destination, this time uninterrupted by any small fry Grimm. Eventually, they arrived at a small clearing next to the mountain, an entrance to a cave being present on its side.
"Do you think the Relics are in there? It'd be a good spot to hide them," Pyrrha asked.
Jaune paused for a second before responding, "Don't think so, Ozpin probably placed them in the ruins around here. The only thing we have to do is find them."
"Did… Did the staff at Beacon tell you this?" Pyrrha inquired, hesitant but scanning for Jaune's reaction.
"Nah, but you can only be around Ozpin and the others so long before learning their habits. And Ozpin has a tendency to do this kind of thing, placing the objective in some place of history, I know Oobleck and him have spent hours talking about ruins across Vale so it'd make sense" Jaune stated, "Plus from what I've heard from the upper-classmen, their initiation was something similar,"
Pyrrha was hesitant to accept this answer, still wary of potential nepotism, but couldn't think of any reason to not believe Jaune. "All right then, we don't go into the tunnel then?"
"You might have been onto something, look at how the vines around the entrance move towards us, that means there's a breeze going through the tunnel," Jaune said as he pointed at the cave, "That probably means there's an exit on the other side, so it's probably a shortcut to go through it,"
"It could save us valuable time," Pyrrha said, "We can use our scrolls to light the way the way,"
So the two of them departed, entering the tunnel with their scroll's flashlights brightening their path. Soon enough they came upon something mysterious, a strange amber barb floating in the darkness.
Jaune and Pyrrha pointed their flashlights at it, both quizzical at its existence, "Is that the relic?" Pyrrha asked.
"It shouldn't be?" Jaune said as they approached it slowly, "I mean it'd make sense for there to be multiple relics for all the people that passed, not one big relic,"
They crept closer, the partners noticing the slight sway the amber "relic" had, Jaune reaching out to touch it. The second he did so the cave was filled with a hiss, the darkness behind the amber barb twisting and turning before multiple piercing eyes showed through the dark, the blue light from their scrolls finally illuminating a giant Deathstalker.
"RUN!" Pyrrha yelled, turning heel and running. Jaune followed closely behind Pyrrha, the sound of crashing and tumbling rock echoing behind them as the Deathstalker rampaged towards them. The pair of partners rocketed out through the cave entrance as they ran, Pyrrha leading the way with speed nearly unparalleled with Jaune desperately trying to keep up behind.
Pyrrha just kept running, glancing back every now and then to ensure her partner was following behind. Eventually, the sound of their rampaging pursuer faded, the crashing of trees being heard at a distance.
Once she was sure they had escaped Pyrrha stopped to take a breath, looking around to reestablish her surroundings. They'd arrived at a small clearing next to a crevasse with what seemed to be a ruined fortress jutting out of the other side. Her partner seemed as winded as her, both of them flushed and sweating after that scare.
Pyrrha couldn't help but giggle at what had just occurred, it just seemed so ridiculous. Her partner seemed to share her sentiment, Jaune chuckling breathlessly alongside Pyrrha.
"I don't think Beacon knows about that Deathstalker," he panted, a grin stretched wide on his face, "Well, they do now,"
The two winded partners laughed, their breath short. Both of them straightened out after a while, Jaune focusing his attention upon the ruins ahead of them.
"Well, aren't we lucky," he stated, "Looks like we're here." Pyrrha nodded in agreement, at the same time a voice called out from the woods.
"Vomit-Boy!" Yang hollered, emerging from the woodworks with her own partner trailing behind.
Vomit-Boy sighed loudly but tried to hide the smile creeping onto his lips as Yang approached. "Hello to you too Yang," Jaune said, "Let me introduce you to my partner, Pyrrha Nikos."
"The Mistrali champion?" Yang asked, before taking a good look at Pyrrha to see if Jaune was telling the truth, "Holy shit you're not lying! Well, it's nice to meet you Pyrrha, name's Yang Xiao-Long," She said, clutching Pyrrha's hand in a wild handshake.
"It's nice to meet you as well, it'll be a pleasure working alongside you," Pyrrha said.
Yang beamed a wild smile, "You introduced your partner so let me introduce mine, this is Blake Belladonna!" She stated with a few pats on Blake's back for emphasis. Blake hadn't been expecting this and stumbled a bit, giving a small glare to Yang before clearing her throat.
"Hello, as Yang said, I'm Blake Belladonna," Blake said.
Jaune's eyebrow quirked at her last name, something only Blake seemed to notice. The second his eyes flicked to her bow she knew that he knew, something that filled her with fear as Jaune's face remained in its relaxed smile. Blake held her mouth shut, she wasn't going to do anything brash now. If the worst came to pass she'd merely leave Vale, there wasn't much that kept her tied here if her past identity was discovered at Beacon.
There wasn't much time before Blake's thoughts were interrupted, screaming being heard from above. Everyone looked up, seeing a small black and red shape approaching them rapidly from the sky.
"Is that Ruby?" Yang asked, eyes shielding her eyes from the sun to look up.
Jaune answered, "Think so. You want to catch her or do you want me to do it?"
Yang thought for a few seconds, the scream coming closer every second, "I got her." She stated.
With a thrust of her gauntlets, Yang blasted herself upwards, her trajectory aimed towards the falling figure of Ruby. Ruby didn't quite notice this, eyes closed shut as she screamed her lungs out.
Yang caught her sister as gently as she could, arms cradling Ruby as she fell and landed on the ground. They touched down with a thud, Yang turned to look at the rest of the group with a still screaming Ruby in her arms.
"Ruby, you can stop screaming now," Yang said, causing Ruby to open an eye and look around.
"Oh, I guess I should stop screaming,"
The second Ruby said that the savage roar of an Ursa rang out through the ruins, all eyes turning to its source, arms at the ready. A lumbering shape crashed out of the forest, the form of a huge demonic bear rearing its head to roar once again.
A pink explosion soon followed, the Ursa falling to the ground in pain. Two other figures clambering from atop the hide of the Ursa.
"Aww, it's broken." Whimpered out a girl wearing pink and holstering a large metal hammer.
"Nora, please, never do that again," said the other, a lean and green wearing individual with raven black hair painted with a streak of pink.
"Renny you're no fun," pouted Nora, collapsing her hammer to a more compact form and putting it away with a click as she placed it on her belt.
Yang, Blake, Pyrrha, Jaune, and Ruby all stared at what had just happened, Ruby giving a small wave as Nora made a beeline towards the group. Except instead of meeting them, Nora went by them to the ruins and picked up a golden rook piece from its pedestal.
"Ooh, pretty!" She said.
Yang cocked her head back, "Did we just not see those?" She asked. The only response she got from the group was a shrug.
"Those must be the relics," said Pyrrha, trailing behind Nora to pick up and examine one of the many chess pieces upon pedestals.
Yang and Ruby followed suit, Blake, Jaune, and Ren staying back as their partners returned with their relics.
And like clockwork, they were interrupted once again, much like Ruby a figure fell from the sky.
"Huh, she did jump," stated Ruby.
"I've got this one," said Jaune, unclasping his chest plate and setting aside his gauntlets before maneuvering himself under the falling Weiss. Jaune extended his arms and caught Weiss much as Yang did to Ruby.
"Oof" Weiss said, opening her eyes to see her savior, "Oh, hello Jaune,"
"Hello again Weiss," Jaune said, setting down Weiss before donning the armor he had discarded.
Then, once again, there was a crash. This time the group didn't even look alarmed, merely glancing up to see what was causing the commotion. In the end, it was just a giant deathstalker barreling towards them, so nothing major.
It took a second for everyone to process what was coming towards them, but once everyone did, they were up in arms. Before they could properly react, however, a loud screeching could be heard from above.
"Shit!" Yang cursed, looking up to see a giant Nevermore circling the sky.
"Yang! You and Ruby take care of the Nevermore, we've got the Deathstalker!" Jaune yelled over the chittering of the Deathstalker and the screeching of the Nevermore.
Ruby and Yang gave a nod, their partners doing the same as they went to distract the flying monstrosity. Jaune and his group didn't get any respite, the Deathstalker charging towards them with grasping claws.
"Pyrrha, you and Renny flank it!" Jaune said to his partner, setting his shield and banging Crocea Mors together to distract the beast.
Nora must have also heard, because her voice rang out, "HEY! Only I get to call Renny that! You can call him Ren all right!"
"Nora now is not the time," Ren said, running to the Deathstalkers left while Pyrrha positioned herself to its right.
Nora joined Jaune where he stood, directly in front of the rampaging beast's path. "So what's my job?" She asked.
"How good are you at hitting things really hard?" Jaune asked back.
"Very!" Nora responded.
The Deathstalker was almost close enough to strike, it's tail rearing up to attack, the coiling of dark tissue visible through the gaps in the chitin. So Jaune gave Nora her job as fast as he could, "It's going to attack me with its tail, once it does that I need you to smash its face in!" Jaune spilled out, eyes set forward.
And with that, the Deathstalker struck, barbed tail flying to strike at the source of noise. Its attack was aimed directly at Jaune, whose shiny metal armor and constant clamor of metal striking metal distracted the Deathstalker enough to attack him over Nora. Barb met shield as its attack struck true, slamming Jaune backward, however it was enough.
Nora then sidestepped into the Deathstalkers guard, evading its claws in a flurry of pink before slamming her hammer onto its chitinous skull. This caused the beast to reel back, stinger retreating from Jaune's shield as it backtracked. It then lost one of its right legs as Pyrrha pierced its joint with her spear and with a mighty slash, cut through the joint to further overwhelm it.
The Deathstalker spun to attack Pyrrha, claw slamming into Nora with enough force to send her flying back into Jaune. Thankfully the knight softened the blow to ensure Nora didn't hurt herself more by slamming into his armor at full speed. With the focus on Pyrrha Ren unloaded his machine guns into his target, bullets slamming into its tail with enough force to damage even the heavy armor.
This forced the Deathstalker to continue its spin, claw reaching to bat away Pyrrha before facing Ren. Pyrrha dodged this with ease, mecha-shifting her weapon into its rifle form to slam a few high-powered rounds into its already damaged tail.
Jaune had other ideas, sheathing his sword into his shield he turned to Nora, "You need to hit the back of its tail!" He yelled.
"What do you mean?" Nora asked. She got her answer soon enough as Jaune grabbed her from the back of her shirt and threw her like a discus at the Deathstalker. Nora reared back with her hammer mid-air, swinging it in a horizontal arc to slam it directly onto the back of its tail.
With a sickening crunch, the Deathstalker's tail was bashed away, Nora's hammer cleaving through it thanks to the damage done by Ren and Pyrrha. It hissed in pain before collapsing forward, the lack of weight unbalancing the beast. This was all Nora needed to see before slamming her hammer down again, and again, and again, until Nora was no longer standing on a Grimm.
She cackled, rearing back to laugh madly at the sky covered in black dust and dirt, "I'm queen of the castle!" She screamed, continuing to laugh at her display of carnage.
Ren and Pyrrha made their way over to Jaune, all three of them just staring as Nora did a little dance before resuming her insane laughter again.
"So, uh, Ren was it?" Jaune asked, "Is she always like that?"
In a deadpan voice, Ren responded, "Yes."
Both Pyrrha and Jaune made a similar mental note to stay on Nora's good side. Eventually, once it seemed that Nora had calmed down sufficiently, Ren approached his partner. Jaune and Pyrrha, however, did not, and maintained their distance until Ren came back with a gleeful and skipping Nora.
As they did so, the sound of crashing could be heard behind them. The other group had finished with a similar bang, seeing as Yang and Blake were riding a disintegrating Nevermore into the ground.
Both groups stood in silence, just standing around in slight shock at what had just happened. Finally, it was Yang that broke the silence.
"So… We should head back right?"
She was met with a unanimous agreement all around.
The auditorium was filled with the roar of applause, Ozpin having just named Cardin Winchester as team leader of CRDL. The next team was called up, consisting of Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna, and Yang Xiao-Long. Aptly being named RWBY with Ruby Rose at the head, much to Weiss' shock.
Team JNPR was called after, made up of Jaune Arc, Nora Valkyrie, Pyrrha Nikos, and Lie Ren. The applause was the same as the last two teams, except those few people that knew of Jaune's relationship with Ozpin murmured between themselves, wondering at how fair that choice had been.
Ozpin dismissed them all soon after, the hoard of students heading towards their designated dorms. Team RWBY and JNPR had lucked out, seeing that their scrolls were telling them they were right across each other.
And so they went to their destination, everyone except Jaune hauling their luggage behind them.
"Jaune, where are your things?" Nora asked, head tilted towards her leader in a quizzical look.
"Oh, they're in my room," he said, and one look on the rest of everyone's faces told him he should probably elaborate. "I'm sure most of you already know I've been living at Beacon for a while now. I have my own room and everything, so I'll be moving things from there into our new room soon enough."
The rest of the group nodded, Yang perking up at the mention of Jaune's room, "So what you're telling me is that we're going to have a nice new hang-out spot for all of us to relax in," Yang challenged, "There's no way we're not going to use your room Jaune,"
"Pft- Sure, if you want to hang out next to where the teachers are. My room is in the staff's dorm area, not much we can actually get away with there. Not that'd I'd let you wreck my room anyway."
"The teachers don't seem that bad." Pyrrha said as they walked, "I'm sure if we were to keep the noise level at a reasonable volume and not disturb them we could have a fun time in your room. I assume it's probably higher quality than the other student rooms?"
Jaune scratched the back of his head, "Well yeah, I guess so. I have my own kitchen and living room, the real danger comes from the teacher wanting to get in on the fun though," laughed Jaune, "But if you guys really want to see my room I'm not against it."
This satisfied the rest of the group, just in time as well, since they had just arrived at their team dorms. With a swipe of a scroll, each team entered their designated room, rushing to assimilate themselves and set a claim to one of the beds.