10
Out With the Old
Jaune hummed as he drew in a notebook he had brought out, propping himself up against the base of a tree at the edge of a clearing. The sounds of clashing metal could be heard along with grunts and the occasional shouts. After a particularly painful sounding smack he winced and looked up to see Ruby on the ground with a smiling Neo standing triumphantly above her. Yang shouted and ran in earning an open umbrella to the face. The multi-colored girl swept on foot out from under the blond and hooked her curved handle around the back of her neck, depositing her neatly on top of the already tired Ruby.
"Yaaaaang, get oooooffffff!" The young reaper protested loudly as the two struggled to extricate themselves. With a sigh Neo marched over and plopped herself down next to the blond knight, her back against the same tree. It was clear she was down sparring for now and the clear chagrin of the sisters, they weren't going to be able to continue either. Although the mute woman had taken a handful of hits, the fight had gone clearly in favor, even two on one.
Jaune felt glad she at least wasn't their enemy as he went back to drawing and Ruby sat next to him on his other side. Yang wandered off to see if Ren was done with breakfast yet. Ruby leaned over to see what he was drawing and let out a surprised gasp.
"Are you designing a new weapon?!" Her voice rose in pitch to a squeal at the end.
"Erm, actually I'm just designing an upgrade. My breastplate is feeling a little tight so I thought I'd commission a new one and get an upgrade for Crocea Mors. I'm still not sure what exactly to upgrade. I'm thinking of adding a ranged option, like a gun form."
Ruby stared at him with a deadpan face and then shook her head, "With older weapons you would need to make a new weapon for an option like that. It would cost waaaay too much. It's better to upgrade using something that modifies the mechashift that's already there."
"But my mechashift is in my shield. What should I add, a bigger shield?" Ruby fell into a thinking pose as she considered what could be done with his weapon when he received a tap on his shoulder. He turned to see Neo holding her umbrella with two hands like a sword and swinging it like it was heavy.
"Oh that's it!" Ruby was the first to get it and started babbling as she took his notebook, drawing fast as she spouted of some things that went just about over his head. After a few minutes she showed him her drawing. In it was just one weapon but from the other sketching it looked like a large combined form of Crocea Mors.
"Neo's right. You have a sword and shield right? Well if you want more combat options you can expand that to a two handed sword. The shield is already pretty heavy so adding that to a large two-handed blade design and you can increase your attack power!"
Silver eyes sparkled as Jaune took the notebook and considered the idea. Neo had a smug look on her face as she sat back down and Jaune set the notebook aside, putting both hands in front of him as if gripping a large sword.
He turned to Ruby and nodded at her, "It sounds perfect for me."
They arrived at Tetsu the next day, it was a small village and a group of children stopped to stare at them. Jaune's eye caught a sign hanging from a shop and quickly walked over there, saying this was just what he was looking for.
A small ring as the opened the door and a gruff voice sounded from the back. A burly ox of a faunus was the one who appeared, wiping his hands on a cloth, "Bunch o' young huntsmen eh? What can I do ya for? Repairs?"
"A-Actually," Jaune stuttered as he stepped forward, "I wanted to get my weapon modified." He brought forward his weapon and deployed the shield, setting it on the counter. "I have some plans for some mods soooo I was wondering if you could do it. I've also brought some material to use as well."
The large man poured over the sketches and then inspected the sword and shield. He looked at Jaune and eyed his armor, "Be needing a new breastplate too?"
"Yeah. I've pretty much grown out of this one." The blo9nde looked down at the armor that had accompanied him thus far.
"Alright I can do it. Yer all huntsmen and huntresses right?" He continued after they all nodded with Neo choosing not to answer and instead inspect his various wares displayed. "Well y'see about a month ago a grimm started botherin' us. It don't come to the town but has taken up near the villagte and harrasses anyone who goes out there. We've had a couple deaths and some serious wounds from it. Y'all hunt this thing down I'll make this free for ya."
Jaune looked at everyone in turn, they all nodded. Ruby would have insisted on killing it anyways but if they could get these mods for it then that was even better. Jaune looked back to the blacksmith and agreed to his terms. A big smile spread across the man's face as he picked up Crocea Mors.
"Alright, kid. I'll get started on this, you guys go talk to the mayor. He can tell ya more about where that thing is hidin' out."
Spreading a local map out on the table Jaune weighed down the corners with a much and a plate. On the map were several circles and lines drawn in red.
"Okay. So the mayor said that the Grimm has attacked people in these circled areas. The lines indicate the paths that the village has investigated and they have yet to find out where it's hiding. From witnesses it's some kind of golem grim or something. It's entire body is made of rock."
Ren looked down for a minute before pointing to an area, "The Grimm is most likely residing here, based on these patterns of attacks."
"Right so we go in there and smash it. Simple enough." Yang smashed her fists together and Nora echoed her sentiments and hefted Magnhild.
"No. We shouldn't fight it there." It was Jaune who said this, "Looked. This Grimm is supposed to be really big so fighting it in the forest would be a bad idea. We wouldn't have enough room to move around and dodge."
After a few moments he pointed to a spot nearby on the map, "This clearing lookings big enough. If we can lure it here we can attack it safely."
"I can be the bait." Everyone turned to Ruby, who had spoken up, "I'm the fastest. I can go find it and lure it into the clearing. It'll be fine."
"It's too dangerous. I'll be the bait, Rubes." Yang spoke up, placing a hand on Ruby's shoulder.
"I said I'd be fine Yang, A Grimm like that won't catch me. And even if it could I have my aura. It won't hurt me." The young girl gave her sister a sharp look as Yang drew her hand back quickly like she had been bitten. Neo watched with interest from the corner while Ren and Nora exchanged a glance with each other.
"Yeah. Alright Sis." Yang's hand clutched to her elbow as they went about planning the rest of the operation.
Jaune suddenly stood ramrod straight, "Wait I don't have a weapon!"
"Begin Operation Smashums!"
"We aren't calling it that Nora."
"I dunno Ren, Smashums sounds pretty accurate."
With a sigh Ren trudged on the catch up with his team leader. He had always been grateful to only have one exuberant teammate back in Beacon but now with Nora and Yang in close proximity constantly there was sometimes a stereo of crazy and it tried even his patience. Luckily Yang attention was taken by Jaune or Ruby most times so Nora instigated shenanigans were limited to just here, thankfully.
Jaune crouched behind a fallen tree, his eyes on the clearing up ahead only turning to glance back at them when Ren settled down next to him, "Where's Neo?"
"She disappeared a few minutes back, not like she was gonna participate anyways." Yang settled down next to the blonde man while worriedly biting her bottom lip.
Jaune took his attention off of the clearing and looked to his blonde teammate, "Yang, Ruby will be fine. I know what happened at the Fall has you worried about her but you know she's strong."
With a forced sigh, Yang looked down for a moment, "Yeah. Yeah I KNOW that but… I've just got this feeling ya know? A bad one like if I let my eyes off of her… I dunno. She hates it. I know that much."
"Yang." His attention immediately whipped around as he heard sounds of crashing. A sound of sword striking rock rung out and a red blur flew into the clearing just in front of a hulking form that tossed trees aside like they were made of toothpicks.
"Get it's attention off Ruby!" Jaune started running along the circumference of the clearing while Yang started throwing shots from Ember Celica at it. Ren and Nora took the high ground of the tree branches with the red-head launching several of her grenades at the golem. One of the boulder-arms covered it's face as it turned towards the new threat and tried to smash it. Nora and Ren hopped from tree to tree while taking shots at the Grimm.
Ruby skidded to a halt next to Yang and Jaune ran up to the sisters, "Ruby you good?" With a nod in the affirmative the blonde huntsman took a good look at the enemy. It only had one Gimm-like part and that was it's face. The rest was just as the mayor had said, rock. Precisely it seemed to be made up of boulders that acted individually from each other. Yang and Ruby split up to attack it.
The red hooded girl rushed in towards it's legs, slashing at what she could but doing no damage. Yang bounded out of the trees, going for it's face. It brought a boulder up to block and it swung that arm away, sending Yang flying back into the treeline. Jaune's mind worked a mile a minute, churning away various attack patterns. Coming to a conclusion he shout out to his teammates, "Try and eliminate it's arms!"
Yang came charging once again out of the trees and met the boulder-fist head one sending it flying away where Nora landed and smashed Magnhild on top of it, activating her grenade canister and pulverizing the stone into bits. Like Jaune had hoped that arm was gone.
A red glyph appeared where the arm had been, a grimm appendage materialized from in and the golem stuck it into the trunk of a nearby uprooted tree. Picking the new wooden limb up it started swinging it in wide arcs at it's assailants.
"Big mistake!" Yang fired a volley from her weapon at the now flammable arm making the golem take a step back. It brought the flaming tree before it, seemingly to inspect it. Before it started swinging a flaming tree at the group.
"Dammit Yang!" Jaune complained as he dodged swip after swipe of burning trunk. Tripping after a close call the blond looked up at the oncoming trunk of death when a whirling blade sliced at the face of the gimm causing it to fall backwards, shielding it's face. The team regrouped together as the grimm struggled to right itself.
"Our blades can't hurt it." Ren said as they came together with Ruby nodding along.
"It's not the body that it's protecting." Jaune said, deep in thought.
"We can't get to it's face like this." Yang added.
An idea sparked to life in Jaune's head, "I got it! We hit it harder!"
His excited expression was met with lidded eyes, "No shit Jaune. But how? We've been beating at it with all we got." Yang crossed her arms.
"Not everything. Guys if we destroy it's limbs we can get a shot at destroying it's face." He turned to Nora, "Think you can hit Yang with your upgrade?"
Both Yang and Nora's eyes lit up as they caught onto what he was thinking.
"Jaune you're crazy." She slammed her fists together, "Fortunately for you. I like crazy."
With a maniacal grin Nora started charging up with Magnhild, the weapon pouring electricity into her.
"Ren, Ruby. We will distract it while they prepare." With a nod they split off in different directions, Ren firing at the now upright Grimm to get it's attention. When it started closing on him, Ruby would run in and slash towards it's face, forcing it to turn on her and away from him.
"Ready!" Called Nora and Yang braced herself, her arms crossed over her head. Jumping up the red-head dropped the hammer on top of the blond with a tremendous crash.
Yang was driven to her knees, cracks formed in the ground and dust flew everywhere. A burning heat washed over Jaune, the dust blowing away as Yang fully activated her semblance, hair bursting into flames.
"Oh, you're so fucked." Slamming her fists together Yang yelled out, "Ruby! Sunflower!"
A whirl of petals and Ruby appeared behind Yang, "Got it Sis!" Grabbing her sister by the waist the blurred into yellow and red as Ruby took Yang along into her semblance at maximum speed, aiming for the face of the golem. Ren appeared and blocked the boulder-arm and the tree arm wasn't fast enough to block it.
With a crack that echoed throughout the forest the central body splintered as Yang's fist connected center mass. Shards rained upon the ground as the grimm fell apart and the blond let out a whoop of joy. A burst of black smoke and the face of the grimm flew out of it's body and started flying away.
"It's a Gheist!" Ruby cried out in surprise while the Grimm made it to the treeline. She quickly fell into her draw strance, drawing upon her semblance to rush after the escaping grimm. Before she could actually follow through the Grimm stopped dead in it's path, a spike perforating through it's head.
It fell, disintegrating, as a familiar multi-colored girl smiled and waved at the group, shouldering her umbrella. Jaune waved back in thanks while Yang once again glowered at the girl.
"I don't get her at all." Ruby giggled at her sister's grumbling even if she could understand the sentiment.
With a thunk the ox faunus hefted a breastplate onto the counter, "Now this is gonna be heavier than you're used to but that's the price of quality. I made it to match you're upgraded sword."
"I-I don't know what to say." Jaune was struck speechless, it was beautiful. The white accented with a gold colored metal.
"No need to say nothin'. Just try it on! I'll go get the rest."
Jaune unbuckled his old breastplate and set it on the counter. He ran his hands over it one last time, taking a moment to memorize the nicks and scars. He could remember almost every single one that he got. One long one was from Pyyrha and he ran a finger along it.
"It is a sign of progress, Jaune." The blond nodded along to Ren, repeating the word as if to make it true. He turned to his friend and when he did so the girl's eyes all lit up. Ruby's hand flew to her mouth trying, and failing, to suppress her laughter.
"What is that!" She pointed at Jaune's hoodie, snorting in laughter. Confused the blond looked down at it and then back up.
"It's the Pumpkin Pete hoodie. I've always worn this."
"Never seen you without your armor on, lover boy. That or your onesie." Yang's smirk said she'd get way too much mileage out of this and Jaune's spirit dropped to his feet. He looked at the one of the other girls in the room, Nora having been on his team and seeing the hoodie since day one, Neo was staring wide-eyed at his hood and slowly met his hopeful eyes.
She smiled at him and brought her hands up to head and made bunny ear signs while tilting her head.
"As mecha-shift weaponry goes, this was a pretty easy job. Not many have appreciation for straightforward weapons nowadays. That Mistralian Shine-Steel you brought me accents the white perfectly. Where'd you get it from?" A thunk resounded and the conversation was forgotten as Jaunes new shield was deployed.
The rainbow crest was still there in the center but now it was bordered by a gold colored gilding on the edges and set in a familiar pattern.
"From a friend." Jaune said quietly as he reached for Crocea Mors. It was stunning to see in person, the image he had in his head didn't do it justice. A finger traced the gold pattern and he collapsed it back into storage mode before grabbing the rest of the gear to put on.
When Jaune stepped out of the shop he felt almost like a new person, and a little better than he had before. Pyyrha would always be with him now and it was something he took great comfort in. Yang let out a low whistle.
"You clean up good, lover boy."
"Still needs a grenade launcher if you ask me." Nora piped in.
"No thanks Nora. For now I think I'll stick to the basics." Jaune drew the blade and inspected it. Gilding traveled up the length of the blade and the crossguard was etched with a detailed inlay and more material had been added to it. Resheathing the weapon the blond looked to his team plus one.
"Let's move on to Shion. We've still got a long ways to go."
A/N: Alright here your guys go, I hope it makes up for last week. We get more Neo and an actual fight now.