When the horrible, no good Ursa ride came to a stop, all Jaune could do was lean on a nearby tree trying to catch his breath. Nora on the other hand was disappointed. " Aww, it broke."

" Yes, it did."

The poor Ursa lifted its head and in his infinite mercy Jaune stabbed Aeternal Campio into its neck, ending it before Nora could take it out on another joyride. " Please don't do that again Nora. I don't think my stomach could handle it."

His partner didn't even listen to his plea, having reached the temple already and was looking at the various selection of relic pieces.

"Your new partner is amazing." Billy said gleefully.

"She's a monster more like it." Sighing Jaune dragged himself toward Nora. Yang and Blake, who had probably arrived earlier, gave Jaune an odd look as he greeted them.

" Did you guys just ride in on an Ursa ?" Blake asked.

" Yes."

Nora once again entered his vision, a rook piece laid on her head. " Look Jaune-Jaune, I'm queen of the castle."

She then shows him another Rook piece in her hand. " Let's give Ren this one so he'll be king of the castle and we'll match."

"Sur-"

A loud rumble cut Jaune off, turning to the source the sound revealed two individuals, the armour clad girl from the locker room and a boy in a green tailcoat, running away from a Deathstalker. Grabbing his singing partner, Jaune directed her vision toward the running pair. " Is that Ren? "

" Yep, yep!" Nora waved at the two. " Over here Ren!"

The boy, Ren, momentarily distracted by his friend's call didn't see the incoming Deathstalker's claw and was sent flying. His companion soon follows suit after seeing her companion got thrown.

" Ren!" Nora, as fast lightning, reached out to catch her friend. Jaune on the other hand wasn't coordinated as his partner and ended up as a cushion for the girl. Once again aura protected him from any harm, it didn't protect him from her combined weight though.

" My back." Jaune groaned.

" I'm sorry! " She told him as she got off him, her face as red as her hair. Now that he had a good look at her, Jaune swore he had seen her before from somewhere.

The moment they stood up they were sprawling back on the ground once more when Weiss, out of all people, appeared out of nowhere and landed on top of them.

"Why me?" Jaune muttered with a face full of dirt, he could feel Billy reached out with his own aura to ease that pain.

Weiss didn't concern herself with Jaune, rather she had her full attention on armour girl. Thankfully she got off him .

" I'm so sorry Pyrrha. I didn't mean to fall on you! " Weiss apologized profusely and asked Pyrrha something about a partner. Jaune couldn't listen any longer because Nora had decided that it was time for her new bestie to meet up with her bestie better than the restie.

He let her drag him by the arm toward a panting Ren. Ruby had arrived at some point, standing next to her sister she waved at him as he walked by.

The Mistralian boy looked up at them, pink eyes locked onto Jaune and his face morphed into a look of understanding.

" Jaune-Jaune, this is Renny. Renny this is my partner Jaune-Jaune!" Nora introduced.

"My name is Jaune Arc, actually." He corrected.

Ren gave him a nod. " and mine Lie Ren."

"And I'm Nora Valkyrie!" Nora chimed in. " Now that we're all besties, let's go get some pancakes. Ren you're making them !"

" That might have to wait. You have company." Billy warmed

A shrill cry rang from the sky and Jaune could feel Billy's dread enter his mind. Looking up Jaune found the reason. A giant Nevermore flew above them, sharp talons and even sharper feathers readied to attack. Down on the ground laid another trouble for the group, the Deathstalker that had previously chased Pyrrha and Ren returned and was quickly approaching them. Assessing the situation Jaune knew exactly what to do.

" We're running." Jaune said. If the odds are stacked against you, Billy once said, there's no shame in running.

"What?" Ruby asked in disbelief. "We can't run!"

" We'll die if we stay here." Jaune tried to reason with her but Ruby would have none of it. Letting out a battle cry she rushed toward the Grimm.

"Not on my watch."

"Ruby wait!"

Bullets from Crescent Rose bounced off the Deathstalker's thick armour plates like it was nothing. No matter how many rounds Ruby shot, nothing seemed to affect the ancient creature. If anything it had drawn the beast's attention on her.

Jaune heart stopped when the Deathstalker swung its massive claw against Ruby tossing her backward. Before he knew it Jaune joined Yang on the mad dash toward his friend.

Slowly getting up Ruby tried to assure them, before trying to run away from the Grimm. " Don't worry I'm fine!"

Of course the Nevermore above chose that exact moment to rain down its steel like feathers. Through his lance, Jaune formed a protective arc of aura above him as a makeshift shield. Feathers bounced off it as he ran. Yang skillfully dodged the dark projectile and Ruby followed suit. Except one of the last feathers fell right onto her red cloak, effectively pinning her in place.

" Ruby get out of there!" Yang yelled but no matter how much Ruby tucked the cloak wouldn't come loose.

Jaune sprinted even faster when he saw the Deathstalker catching up to Ruby. It loomed over her, golden stinger raised and ready to strike Ruby down. They wouldn't make it at this point, both he and Yang were too far away to grab Ruby. Yang tried to distract it by shooting some fire dust bullets from her gauntlet but the creature wasn't bothered by it. In a desperate attempt Jaune threw his weapon.

Ruby flinched when the stinger swiped an inch away from her face.

The Grimm that had almost killed her was now struggling to stand as its legs stunk deep into the muddy ground, in front of it was Aeternal Campio glowing blue.

Water dust, Ruby's mind supplied her but she didn't have much time to ponder on it when Jaune quickly grabbed his weapon and with an Aura slash freed her cape.

" We have to move that won't hold it forever." He pushed her torwar her sister.

Regrouping with everyone, Jaune eyed the Nevermore warily as it made its way back. "Alright, here's the plan. Whoever doesn't have a relic grab one and we all book it."

Weiss huffed. "And why should we listen to you?"

"Our mission is to grab an artifact and make it back to the cliff." Ruby stated. " There's no point in fighting them."

Not finding any flaws in that logic Weiss moved to grab a white knight while Nora tossed Ren her sore rook. With that the eight of them took off.

Never in Jaune's life had he encountered a more stubborn Grimm than the two chasing them. The Nevermore tailed them as they ran away from the temple and the Deathstalker must have followed it here after it got out of Jaune's spell.

They ran into ruin, seeking cover under the stone remains of what was once a castle. The Nevermore soar above them, getting closer and blocking their path while the Deathstalker wasn't far behind. Jaune turned to his partner. " Nora, think you can distract it ?"

" Can I ?!"

Nora jumped over the Nevermore's feathers aimed at them, Jaune followed after covering her from the incoming Deathstalker. While Nora temporarily scared the Nevermore away with the grenades, Jaune summoned as many spikes as he could to stop the Deathstalker. The spike emblemed into the creature unprotected underbelly, but that was only good enough to slow Grimm down considerably. This allowed both Blake and Ren, who stayed behind with them, to get in some good shots at the beast blinding two of Grimm's many eyes.

Weiss, who apparently also stayed behind, casted her family signature glyph around the five of them before directing the group toward the close by bridge. Faster than they normally could they ran.

The group's attempt at seeking asylum at the heart of ruin failed, when half way through the bridge, the blasted Nevermore came back ramming head first into the bridge. Jaune slammed right into the hard stone so very close to the edge of the now broken bridge. Looking up, Jaune could see Ren, Blake and Pyrrha holding back the approaching Deathstalker.

" Come on Jaune! Let's go help Ren." Nora stepped on her giant hammer and with a few shots was gliding over the gapping hope between the two bridge pieces.

"Right behind you." A burst of wind and Jaune launched himself over the bridge. " Blake! Switch!"

The black hair girl ceased her attack, looking back she spotted the flying pair. She noted that wouldn't be enough space left on the bridge for five of them at once. Blake shot Gambol Shroud at one of the nearby columns, swinging away before Jaune landed on the spot she once was. Now the real fight began.

Billy had to bite his non-existing lips to shut himself up. He knew it wouldn't do for Jaune to get distracted right now, and that he can't just tell the boy what to do. It wasn't his life to live , it was Jaune and Jaune had to deal with this problem by himself. At least here in the school Jaune is monitored, if anything happened the staff would intervene.

Still it was nerve wrenching watching Jaune block the Deathstalker's claws with an aura shield while dodging from its stinger.

The bridge piece that Jaune and his companion were standing on was beginning to be more unstable as time went on and with the Grimm blocking their path they would need to figure out something soon.

"So how do you guys feel about flying?" Not letting any of them reply, Jaune summoned wind to launch them off the bridge before launching himself over the Grimm.

Landing on the ground on the other side of the Grimm, Jaune wasted no time to create a huge pillar from the earth that pushed the Deathstalker forward into the crumbling bridge. For the finishing touch Jaune yelled for his partner.

" Nora, nail this!"

The pillar broke free from the earth, rising into the air it angle itself at the scrambling Grimm.

" Got it!"

A few shots from her hammer and a joyful laughter later Nora soared through the air, slamming down at the pillar as she fell. The chunk of earth smashed into the Deathstalker, the force was so great the bridge crumbled there and then sending the beast to its death.

"Holy Moly," Billy breathed at the sequence. " Jaune you did it! You guys won!"

"We won?" Jaune repeated before turning to Nora. "We did it! We won!"

"Yeah! We beat the Deathstalker!"

Celebratory high fives were shared between the two, Jaune too pumped up from adrenaline ( and by proxy aura and magic) managed to withstand Nora's full force high five.

On the other side of the forest Ozpin raised a brow at the odd earth manipulation from Jaune Arc.