RWBY – The Adorkable Knight
Well, I can say that not that much has changed for the rewrite of this chapter for Adorkable Knight apart from a few added dialogue lines at the end of the initiation. People have wanted Jaune to still be partners with Nora. So, I will try to make some 'Team Bonding' sessions so that Ren, Jaune, Pyrrha and Nora can get to know each other better, rather than being merely people who share the same dorm room.
Harem for this story! This will NOT be changed!
Jaune x Saphron - Arcest
Jaune x Terra Cotta - Arcotta
Jaune x Pyrrha - Arkos
Jaune x Ruby - Lancaster
Jaune x Yang - Dragon Slayer
Jaune x Blake - Knightshade
Jaune x Weiss - White Knight
Jaune x Glynda - Excalibur
Chapter 3 - Initiation
"This was not in my basic training!" Was the yell that rang out through the sky for all the people that were either below or around Jaune Arc at the moment. After getting over his heart attack about being launched hundreds of feet in the air and over a large forest that would be swarming with Grimm, along with no prior knowledge or training for falling at such heights, he was not having a good time, 'Come on brain, think of something!' He mentally yelled, smacking his head trying to wrack his brain for something, anything at all to either help him in this situation, while also praying to Oum for a stroke of good fortune to hit him and bring him down to the ground safely.
Suddenly, a bright flash of red and gold entered his vision and a serious sense of sickness overcame him as his body was suddenly forced in the opposite direction along with the feeling of sheer weightlessness he felt as he fell. Jaune closed his eyes with small tears brimming, as he waited for sheer pain to overcome him and burn through his body.
SLAM
Jaune hesitantly opened his eyes to see the situation he was in, and he was rather surprised to see that it wasn't as bad as he thought it was. He glanced to his left and saw a red and bronze coloured javelin piercing through his black jumper around the shoulder area... awfully close to his shoulder itself, 'Whoever did that, thank you... but this is too close for comfort.' He thought to himself, before looking around again before his eyes became as wide as dinner plates.
He looked down, seeing that he was pinned to one of the trees in the Emerald Forest, where he could see the other trees clearly and if he craned his neck up, he could see the tops of the trees clearly, 'I must be halfway up the tree!' He thought to himself in panic, let it be clear that he not only suffered from motion sickness, but he also had a fear of heights, not so much that it made him faint or too nervous to even go into the air, it just made him very anxious when even thinking about it.
Jaune grabbed onto the red and bronze javelin, briefly wincing at how cold the red part of the weapon was but soon relaxed when he felt slight warmth coming from bronze part, maybe because it was more prone to the heat from the sun or maybe because the person who fired it held it on the bronze part. Wanting to get down from the tree and back on solid ground so he could make his way to the objective, he gave a sharp tug to the weapon.
TUG
TUG
Jaune's eyes were wide in fear, each time he tugged he did it a little harder, before it finally settled on his mind that he couldn't even remove the weapon from its resting place, 'That is jammed in there! This person must have super strength to jam it that far into the tree.' Jaune thought to himself, sighing to himself once he realised that he couldn't remove the weapon. Sure, he could budge it ever so slightly, but continuing to do so will just be a waste of energy. He took a deep breath, calming himself slighty before his brain worked to figure out a solution to the problem at hand, 'Let's see... I could try and rip off my hoodie so I could drop down... but then the weapon would still be up there, or I could hang about and wait for someone to come by to release me... but that would probably be a poor introduction to said person.' Jaune mulled over in his head, before settling on the second option, as he would rather wait for another person to come by and help him so he could still have a chance to return the weapon to its owner, despite how bad of an image that would set on him... or he could play it off as someone gave a misfire and he was the unfortunate and unintentional target.
Jaune looked down when he heard the bushes rumbling along with some inaudible grumbling, flinching to himself thinking it was a Grimm that had found him, he braced himself slightly, taking a deep breath and holding it to be as small and quiet as he could possibly be. However, that fear was soon replaced with relief as he saw Weiss stomp through the foliage, with a rather displeased look on her face.
"Weiss! A little help please?" Jaune called out to the Schnee down below, who jumped a little at the sudden call, before she looked up and her ice blue eyes were having a myriad of emotions through them, most of all was clear amusement, then it turned to annoyance. She huffed, then turned on her heel, leaving him to his own devices stuck to the tree, the red and bronze javelin still buried deep within the tree and piercing through his jumper, "Wait! I'm sorry for earlier! At least help me off the tree then leave?" Jaune yelled out again, however to his rotten luck to his already bad start to the day, she didn't come back, instead he heard the slight call of 'Your back!' coming from where Weiss just returned to.
"Help, if you are Weiss' partner please help!" Jaune called out once again, only to be met with silence once again. He sighed to himself, before looking at the ground below him that seemed so far away, just watching as his feet were dangling from his position, "Me and my luck." He muttered to himself, before resting his head on the uncomfortable bark of the tree. At least he was safe from Beowolves from this position, he only hoped that a Nevermore or Deathstalker weren't around, as that would be an easy meal to make of him.
Jaune didn't know how long it was before he was jolted awake when he felt something land on the branch that he found his head resting on. His panicked blue eyes snapped to where he felt the weight shift on the branch next to him. Luckily for him, it wasn't a Grimm, but instead it was a girl that had a fair skin tone, short orange hair that finished just above her shoulders and turquoise eyes, and she was carrying a massive metal hammer that looked frightening to even look at, he couldn't fathom getting hit by that thing.
Although, he quickly gazed away once he noticed that she was wearing a skirt and he was located in a position in where he could possibly catch a peak at what she was wearing underneath.
He didn't want that to happen and be called a creep, and from what he remembered, they made eye contact and that meant that they were now partners.
"Hmm your awake, and here I thought I found a dead body." She said in a exciteable tone, before she suddenly became sullen again, "Damn... I didn't find Ren, and I made eye contact with someone that wasn't him and he didn't make the signal." She muttered to herself, mentally kicking herself for not finding her childhood friend, "I guess this makes us partners." She said her attitude shifting once again in a second.
It made Jaune blink a few times, his mind wondering if something was... different about the girl. He didn't know how one could change through so many different emotions so quickly in a short amount of time and within the span of a few statements.
"Excuse me, could you perhaps help me with this situation, this weapon is jammed deeply into this tree, and has me caught along with it." Jaune said, outstretching his arm and tapping the orangette on the shoulder, getting her to look at him with curious eyes, before her eyes fell onto the javelin jammed into the tree, before her eyes gained a gleam in them that made Jaune a little weary of her.
"Well, why didn't you say so earlier? Don't worry, Nora is here to help!" She cheered out, along with referring to herself in the third person, before raising the massive hammer over her head like it weighed nothing at all.
"Wait!" Jaune called out, fearing for his life when he saw the now named Nora raise her hammer above her head, with the metal gleaming dangerously in the sunlight.
BOOM
The sudden tremor of the massive hit caused not only Jaune to be propelled forward and launch away from the now broken tree prison that held him along with the javelin that was now falling to the ground along with him.
CRASH
Groaning in pain as he held his stomach after landing awkwardly on the ground, he couldn't help but wince as he felt the aftermath of the fall, 'Luckily I have my Aura unlocked... that still doesn't help prevent the pain though.' Jaune groaned to himself, thanking the lucky stars that his Aura was unlocked, otherwise he might have been in a lot more pain and trouble with that fall. He got up to his knees and took a couple of deep breaths to settle his racing heart from the forced adrenaline that was running through his body.
Picking up the javelin from the ground with the intentions to return it back to its owner, he then realised that he would have to carry it and maybe even use it, as he didn't have a place to clip it up, nor did he know where he could place it into 'standby' mode. He noticed it had ironsights on it, so it was most likely a gun as well, but he didn't know how to switch between modes.
"Well, that was simple." Called out Nora finally coming down to the ground and landing perfectly as she did so, performing a small bow and a large smile on her face as she held her hammer with pride.
Now that he had a look at the girl, the first thing that he noticed was that she was rather short, probably as tall as Ruby was, and she was probably two years older than her! She wears a collared black vest that ends at her waist. Her signature emblem, a hammer with a lightning bolt, can be found on its back. Under the vest are two layers of clothing, colored red and light-blue respectively. She also wears a white sleeveless top that forms a tiny heart shape cut out over her chest which gives a small view of her cleavage, with a white detached sleeve on each arm. She wears matching fingerless gloves on each hand. She sports a short pink skirt that starts at the waist and ends mid-thigh. Her shoes are a mix of pink and white with pink laces.
She also wears armor that begins in the middle of the shoulder and neck and ends by the waist. It didn't look like much, but it protected her important organs rather well. Jaune also noticed that while being short, her assets were rather large.
'What do some girls eat to do that to thier figure?' Jaune mentally questioned himself, it seemed to wierd to him that despite being young, some girls had figures that put older women to shame, especially Yang, someone who had a magnificent rack that she liked to flaunt with at every opportunity. He shook his head lightly from his thoughts, before going to mention something to Nora, possibly saying that she didn't need to slam her hammer down on the tree and a simple pull would have been better, but that was stopped when they heard the next thing.
CREAK
CRUNCH
Jaune and Nora both turned around and saw the heavily damaged middle portion of the tree crack even further, with some bark missing from the previous hit, before it was finally unable to continue holding the weight of the top portion of the tree itself and fell to the earth, creating a might rumble and tremor that shook the earth for a couple of seconds. Dust came bellowing up from the ground around the collision area and pieces of bark were sent flying like shrapnel pieces, landing anywhere from right next to the tree, or pierced on other trees meteres away from the sight.
All that remained on the tree that Jaune was stuck on was a heavily damaged base of the tree, one that was jagged and had spiked pieces of bark that could do some serious damage if one were to fall on it.
He then turned around and faced the rather exuberant girl, a mixure of a deadpanned look on his face and a look of slight fear on his eyes.
Nora had the decency to have an embarrassed blush and smile on her face as she rubbed the back of her head sheepishly, "Oops?"
Jaune sighed to himself for what seens the umpteenth time today, before shaking his head and got up from his knees, while looking at Nora with a blank look on his face, 'Something tells me that this is going to be a hectic four years... and Nora is going to be a catalyst for some of it.' Jaune thought to himself, briefly thinking about his youngest sister; Lavender, who had the same upbeat and cheerful personality that this Nora character seemed to have... except with more craziness added in, "I'm Jaune. Pleased to meet you." He said, outstretching his hand for a handshake.
Nora's eyes gleamed as she made eye contact with his outstretched appendage, before she quickly reciprocated the gesture and rapidly shook his hand, something that caused him slight discomfort, 'Oum, this girl is strong.' He thought to himself as Nora let go of his hand, smiling rather awkwardly and moving his arm a little to alliviate the tingling sensation that he felt, "Come on, lets go to the ruins." Jaune said, before he was suddenly grabbed by Nora who had a gleam in her turquoise eyes that spelt trouble with a capital T.
"I have a great plan in mind to get thier quicker." Nora stated as she dragged Jaune around with frightening strength.
"What are you doing!?" Jaune yelped out, trying to resist the force that Nora was pulling him, but it was to no use, him struggling seemed to force her to use more strength on him. She was definately stronger than she looks and what her frame suggested.
"That will ruin the surprise~" She sung out, a grin seemingly splitting her face in half as she did so.
'Oum help me.' Jaune mentally prayed out, hoping that he would survive the day. He had a feeling that Nora was a looney in the head.
Pyrrha thought her plan was foolproof. It was simple, take a good vantage point over the forest for the initiation and be on the lookout for a certain blonde that she wanted to partner with - as she was launched before him - she had ample time to set everything up, and when she finally saw him, she took that time to strike, launching her javelin into the air and snagging onto the blonde's jumper... with a little help from her semblance of course. It was then she would make her way over to his position and be happily partnered up with him then continue on with the intiation.
However, it seems that all plans are destroyed at one point or another. She didn't expect to have to deal with Grimm after Grimm, only with her shield by her side, she made use of throwing her shield and control it with her semblance to cause damage to more than one Grimm at once, when she was about to get overwhelmed, she would fall back and make them chase her to a better position for her.
What she didn't expect was to get thrown off course when a stray hit from an Ursa smacked her across the forest, with her shield taking most of the blow and her Aura withstanding any injuries that might have happened, she was then dealt with an ample amount of space between her and the other Grimm chasing her. So cutting the loose ends, she ran deeper into the forest, hoping that she was still going in the right area.
When she heard fighting coming from past the bush lines, with what sounded like a King Taijitu, she dropped everything and ran into the area, wanting to help someone out with such a tricky Grimm. When she broke through the foliage, she that one half of the Grimm had been taken care of, leaving only the white half to the boy with an asian descent that had long black hair with a magenta streak in it.
However, her sudden appearance must have set off something in the teen as he turned around to see if it was another enemy that approached, and once he did turn around, his came into contact with Pyrrha's own emerald green ones, with his pale pink ones gaining a recognition as this was now his partner who he made eye contact with.
From what she could see at a glance was that he wore a dark green, diagonally-buttoned, long-sleeved tailcoat with that is red on the inside, with black and gold trimmings along with pink cuffs around the edges, she could also see a black, long-sleeved shirt shirt underneath the asian styled outfit with light-tan pants and black shoes. The trimmings on his tailcoat down down the right side of his torso and forms a black colour scheme also seems to be influenced by a lotus flower, something which Pyrrha has seen only a handful of times in books back home, his personalized emblem also happnes to be a lotus flower.
She also noted that he didn't have an overly masculine build, but had more of a lean body frame that could be mistaken for a girl of one were to look from behind him, the only give away that he was a boy at first glance was the way he postured himself and his short black hair and facial structure, which was sharper than most female faces.
A sudden strike from the white half of the Grimm got the attention of the green clad boy, causing him to turn around and be on the defensive. Pyrrha was about to join in, even if she only had a shield, she could still be of use.
As she was about to run in to join, the suddenly pink glow surrounded the green clad teens hands, before managing to stop the strike from the Grimm again, with his bare hands, using the enlarged fangs as a gripping item.
With the boy now holding the front fangs of the colossal snake, his hands still glowing a faint, pulsating pink colour, he then yanks downwards as hard as could, causing them to come free of the colossal snakes mouth, causing it to hiss in pain and flail slightly, with its forked tongue flicking about in the air. It attempts to bite at him again, launching itself at its target, however he merely spins to the side and stabs the fangs directly into the beasts eye, with teh fang sinking deep, leaving only a small amount of room to grip at and with black goo slowly sliding down the pristine white of the fang.
Rotating his arm around driving his hand into the beast itself, another slight glow of pink can be seen through the wound, before the entire monster ripples and expands, before finally blowing apart in a mess, luckily the black goo missing the green clad boy as its headless body falls over the black half of the creature, before turning into blackened ash that floats into the air and carried by the breeze, leaving two large fangs still in the hands of the teen before dropping them to the ground.
Pyrrha watched with curiosity and some amazement over the teens control of his Aura, while it is possible to do to an extent, it is very challenging to start, "Hello." Pyrrha greets out, waving slightly with one hand and the shield kept in a tight grip in the other.
"Hello." The boy spoke out, his voice was soft, yet firm to listen to, along with hardly any emotions being used in the greeting. The boy then walks over to a small section of the forest near the slighty damaged trees and crouches down, before picking up his weapons, which are a pair of handguns with sickle-like blades attached vertically under the barrels. From what Pyrrha could tell, they seemed to be automatic. She also presumed that speed was his main focus in his fights, unleashing bullets on his enemies or using the sickle-like blades as melee, along with his Aura control to help him out.
"I'm guessing we are partners now." Pyrrha stated while slightly disappointed in not getting Jaune like she wanted to, she did manage to get someone else that seemed cool, calm and collected and didn't care about celebrities, "I'm Pyrrha Nikos." She introduced herself, extending her hand out for the boy to shake.
The boy raised an eyebrow, before letting his handguns fall into the sleeves of his clothing and staying there, 'Probably gravity dust doing that.' Pyrrha thought to herself after watching the teen lower his hands back down and yet the guns didn't fall out of his sleeves again. He then walks up closer to Pyrrha and extended his hand out and reciprocated the handshake firmly, while also performing a small bow which might have been a traditional greeting in his village or town, "Lie Ren, but you can call me Ren." He said as he got up from the small greeting.
"Well then, let us continue towards the target." Pyrrha said, before looking up in the sky and looking briefly at the suns direction, before nodding her head and continuing on East, with Ren following suit, his eyes scanning the surroundings in case of any stray Grimm.
With Professor Ozpin watching some of the video feeds he was recieving from some of the small drones in the forest, he was standing comfortably on the cliff near the Academy, overlooking the entirety of the Emerald Forest, coming up behind him was Professor Goodwitch, who also had a scroll in hand with her own video feed.
"The last pair has been formed, sir." Glynda started, tapping the screen showing the final pair who finished dealing with a King Taijitu, "Lie Rend and Pyrrha Nikos. An interesting pair, both being skilled in thier own rights, but with some personality clashes, though I do believe they will work together fine." Glynda stated, before a frown marred her face and her green eyes shining in small amounts of concern and trepidation as she tapped the screen once more, "Still, I believe it is a better pairing than what his friend got, with Nora Valkyrie and Jaune Arc. While Nora does have the capabilities to be strong if she controls her energy and her hyper tendencies, Jaune Arc is yet to prove himself so far." Glynda said, briefly glancing at Ozpin who was keeping quiet and still continued to watch different video feeds.
"Mmmm..." Ozpin hummed out, still not paying full attention to what Glynda was saying. His empty coffee mug in hand as he continued to stare into the screen of his scroll.
Glynda rolled her eyes at the way Ozpin was acting, while he may have been a little aloof with most things, however, he was much more worse without his hot chocolate, 'At least it isn't coffee that he drinks 24/7. It's bad enough when we run out in the staff common rooms.' Glynda thought to herself, a small twitch of an eyebrow when she remembered Doctor Oobleck's entire demeanor and the way he acted when he went without caffine for three hours. It was frightening and she was sure he scared many students that day.
"Interesting." Ozpin muttered out, getting Glynda's attention as she looked over Ozpin's shoulder and saw his screen was not focussed on a specific pair, rather something that his drone had found within the initiation. It was a cave that had drawings carved into the walls, "We might have to get some hunters in here to check that out. I don't have a good feeling about it." Ozpin muttered out, keeping the information in his head for later. Something about that cave didn't seem right. He was also glad that none of the students ventured near it.
Curiosity can be a blessing and a curse when it comes to humanity.
Glynda shook her head, thinking now would be the best time to point out her concerns about Jaune Arc, "I don't care what his transcripts say. That Jaune fellow is not ready for this level of combat, at best he would need extra combat classes or theory lessons, at worst, he would need to be kicked out. We can't have anyone being placed in danger due to someones ignorance." Glynda stated, before surpressing a groan that threatened to escape her lips once she realised that Ozpin ignored her once agan. She deactivated her tablet causing it to shrink in size before walking and standing a few feet near Ozpin, overlooking the forest as well, "I guess we'll find out soon enough, maybe he would surprise me." Glynda shook her head at that thought, she has basically seen everything in the book when it came to students, "At their current pace, they should reach the temple within just a few minutes-." Glynda stated to Ozpin as she turned to face him, "-Speaking of which, what did you use as relics this year... Professor Ozpin?" She said, but was greeted with only silence once more.
Ozpin doesn't answer, instead he was watching his tablet with a contemplating look and vague interest as it shows the footage of Ruby Rose sitting in the grass and picking stray leaves and throwing them in the air while her 'partner' Weiss Schnee walks in random directions, 'Seems those two need to figure something out soon.' He idly thought to himself, if things weren't going to work out in the end, then he would need to step in to help either one of them, a broken or distrust in a team could lead to its downfall.
Pyrrha and Ren make thier way out of the foliage, they blinked a couple of times when they notice that they are not alone, in fact, in front of them are two females they saw earlier today and during yesterdays little sleepover in the ballroom.
"Hey guys. Welcome to the objective... where we collect chess pieces." Yang said, gesturing behind towards the ruins where on pedestals were different chess pieces, with some of them missing from the stands having obviously been taken, like that one golden Knight piece that Yang had in her hands before placing it somewhere.
"I see." Ren said, nodding his head before walking over to the ruins and collecting a white Rook piece, before safely pocketing it in his sleeves, before a small clinking noise was heard where the piece gently hit the guns in his sleeves.
"So, how was your time?" Yang asked, looking towards Pyrrha and Ren.
"It was fine... I think Jaune still has my javelin from when I threw it at him earlier." Pyrrha said, a little dusting of pink on her cheeks as she became the center of attention from everyone. The reactions were mixed, with Ren raising an eyebrow at her with a small look of confusion, Yang was looking at her with a shit eating grin on her face, and the blackette with a bow on her head, which Pyrrha assumed to be Yang's partner was looking at her with a dull look.
"Oh~ Trying to keep something from us?" Yang teased lightly placing a hand on her hip and with a smirk on her face, with the blackette's face also turning a healthy shade of red from thinking of the sexual innuendo just spoken.
Pyrrha's face exploded in red nearly matching her hair as she dropped her shield and desperately shook her hands and head in denial while sputtering out her answer, "N-n-no! I-I just helped him because it looked like he was struggling with his landing strategy." Pyrrha explained desperately, hoping they would understand. It seemed her partner did by nodding his head at that answer, plus he just got his answer in why she was only using a shield and not something else when they were running through the forest.
"Heads uuuuup!" Was the distinct feminine cry from above. Everyone turned thier attention upwards and each had varying expressions on thier faces as they saw what it was.
It was Ruby... falling from the sky somehow. Yang was about to head underneath where she was going to land before two blurs flew through the sky, with a short scream coming from one of them. One blur being bronze and red which fell to the ground harmlessly, showing the item to be Pyrrha's weapon, which she grabbed from the ground and placed on her person.
CRUNCH
"Ouch... don't let Nora talk me into that again." Jaune moaned out in pain as he held his head in pain, with a faint white glow surrounding his person and healing the small bruises and cuts on his person, he then soon lost his balance and fell back to the earth from the branch he landed on with another small thud, "Ow." He groaned out again, before sitting back up with small trouble from the pain.
"Ohhh... what was that." Ruby uttered out, comical and rather cutesy Beowolves and stars circling around her head as her eyes and head spun in comical circles.
"Did your sister just fall out of the sky?" Was the obvious question asked by the ravenette with a bow atop of her head, her amber eyes still rather dull at the scene that just played before her.
Yang turned around and stared at her partner, "Haha... very funny Blake. You already know the answer, as you saw it happen." Yang said to the girl now known as Blake, who merely shrugged her shoulders at the answer.
"Sorry, Ruby." Jaune uttered out, not wanting to risk looking up as he knew that Ruby was hanging onto the tree branch above him somewhere, and last time he checked, she was wearing a skirt... or combat skirt as that was drilled into his head by his twins choice of combat clothing.
"It's alright." Ruby uttered out, shaking her head trying to recover quicker, but all that made her do was lose her grip on the tree branch and cause her to come crashing towards the ground. However, instead of feeling the cold hard ground come into contact with her body, she felt a pair of arms catch her instead. Blinking cutely, she looked down to see Jaune setting her down on the ground, "Thanks." She muttered her thanks, a slight blush on her face as she recognised she was caught bridal style.
"Thanks for that Lover Boy, however, you didn't need to do that." Yang said, her mind tearing apart, she was glad he caught her sister, even if the fall wasn't that great and Ruby had the training to land, but she wasn't happy about the way Jaune caught her. In the stories she used to read to Ruby, ones involving knights or princes, they always carried someone bridal style, and Yang may or not have told Ruby that was what lovers do... which resulted in a pillow smacking into her head and a blush marring Ruby's cheeks.
It was even worse for her when it was the time for thier father to give them the talk when they came of age. It wasn't so bad for Yang, but poor Ruby wouldn't leave her room for a week, even with the help of using cookies as leverage to get her out of the room.
"Sorry, it was brother instincts that have been drilled into me from growing up from siblings." Jaune said, before looking over for the weapon that he had previously, before he noticed that it was in Pyrrha's hands, "That was your weapon?" He asked Pyrrha, who nodded her head sheepishly, "I see. Thanks for that, I must admit, you have a pretty good arm to get it jammed in the tree, with me being stuck with it." Jaune praised lightly, causing the red head to blush a light shade of pink, ignoring the snickering from Yang.
"Jaune... where is your partner?" Ruby asked cutely, having dusted herself off any dust or dirt from the tree that may have stuck to her clothes.
Jaune merely sighed and pointed in the rough direction he came flying from and from where massive thuds and crashes could be heard in the distance, "Here she comes now." He simply stated, mentally praying that she would do nothing else that could get him killed or make him lose his sanity.
Before Ruby could ask what he meant, the thuds were coming closer and everyone except Jaune took out thier weapons, the thuds and crashing sounds sounded like a big and nasty Grimm was approaching. Suddenly, an Ursa comes out into the small clearing, claws swiping, just as a pink blast of energy hits it in the back and it crashes to the ground, depositing the person riding on its back.
"YEEEE-HAAAAW!" Nora cheered as she rolled of the Ursa's back before getting up and groaning in sadness, "Awwww... It's broken." She whined as she dashed onto the its neck and was observing the carcass that was slowly disipating, "Ewwww." She uttered out kicking the body lightly before it disipated into the air.
"Nora! Please don't ever do that again, you nearly gave me a heart attack when we got on it." Jaune said shivering lightly as the not so fond memory played over in his head... he had never seen such a happy expression to see a Grimm before in his life.
Jaune suddenly felt a hand come into contact with his shoulder and he saw Ren, looking at him with an apologetic expression on his face, "Sorry, we were meant to be partners, but somehow she found you first." He said, his voice was even, but everyone could hear the slight pitiying emotion underlying it, "You better be used to keeping up and looking out for a massive bundle of energy now. I will help where I can." Ren said, before offering one more thing for Jaune to work on or practice more of, "If you can make pancakes, controlling Nora will be much more easier." He whispered, desperately hoping that Nora wouldn't hear that word, otherwise she wouldn't let go until they were made.
Jaune waved him off, a slightly nervous chuckle escaping his mouth, "Don't worry about it... I'm used to this sort of personality from my younger sister." Jaune said, before gulping once he realised he would have a lot more shenanigans to deal with... hopefully someone would help with them, "I know how to cook... a little." He said, a nervous chuckle escaping his mouth once more, 'Unfortunate circumstances with growing up in a houses full of women and a family that prepped you for arranged marriages.' He thought dully to himself, sighing lightly before shaking his head clear of those thoughts.
He didn't need to worry about the past now, he was in the present and working his way to complete his dream, those were side skills learnt for the later stages in life.
Nora suddenly zipped past them all in a flash of pink before she was staring at the white Rook piece, "Ooooh... pretty." She said, before suddenly grabbing it and singing in a merry tune ignoring everyone else. "~I'm queen of the castle! ~I'm queen of the castle!"
"Nora!" Both Ren and Jaune yell at the same time, wanting to get her back over to the group so they could travel together. It was safety in numbers.
Nora stops her little dancing routine, the Rook piece rested on her head before doing a sharp and mock salute and dropping the relic in her hand, "Coming, Ren and Jaune!" She calls out, before skipping off towards them with a grin plastered on her face.
"Did that girl just ride in on an Ursa?" Blake once more stated out the obvious, while also hoping she wasn't the only that saw that image.
"I... guess so." Yang said, rather confused as to how Nora managed to do that... she just hoped that Ruby wouldn't get any ideas from her.
A noise was heard above them, but only Blake and Ruby hear it. Both of thier eyes widened, moreso Ruby than Blake's who now had a deadpanned expression on her face from the activites that the rather... eccentric group of people had mad so far... and it was only the second day.
"Umm... Yang?" Ruby said with a little fear in her voice as she tugged at her sister's sleeve getting Yang's attention to her before pointing upwards in the sky, where Yang followed to the direction she was pointing.
"What the hell!" Yang yelled out, gaining some more attention on her as everyone then looked up, with varying reactions, with Nora's being more noticeable.
"Aww, she is lucky." Nora muttered out with a small pout on her face, before that was soon replaced with a large smile and innocent look on her face as she turned towards Jaune and Ren.
"No." Ren stated simply, causing Nora to look towards Jaune with a pouty expression on her face.
"Definately not!" He yelled out, not wanting another experience in riding on a Grimm, and certainly not one where his fear of heights could come in. He also wanted to keep his sanity and not look like someone who belonged in a mental institution for allowing his partner to do such things.
Up above, Weiss is revealed to be hanging on a talon the size of her entire body that belongs to a gigantic Nevermore.
"How could you leave me?!" Weiss called down to Ruby, a frightened look on her face as she gripped the talon a little harder than before.
"I said 'jump'!" Ruby shouted back up to Weiss, getting Yang to look at her wide-eyed, before giving a bone crunching hug to Ruby.
"Are you crazy! What would dad think if he found out about this!?" Yang lightly scolded as she dotted on Ruby like she was a young child.
"He won't find out! We are not going to say anything about it." Ruby stated, a hard look in her eye while trying to surpress a cold shiver that went down her spine at the thought of what would happen if thier father were to find out about this. She would be grounded and taken out of Beacon and wouldn't be allowed to be a hunter due to his overprotective nature.
"Oh? Why is that?" Yang questioned her little sister, a curious expression on her face that betrayed the sweetness in her voice. It was too sweet to be real.
Ruby suddenly got up in Yang's personal space, poking her chest roughly with an adorably cute angry look, "Then I will tell him about the times you left me in Vale, along with the fact you drink and destroy clubs." She stated, with a small feeling of pride fluttering in her chest as she saw the slightly scared and begging look on her sisters face.
"Two plates of cookies if you don't mention anything about that, then I will not speak about this incident." Yang begged, clutching her sisters hands in her own.
"Done." Ruby said, a grin on her face as she managed to get out of another situation that could be bad for her. She just loved using all the things Yang did against her, it meant she was less likely to get in trouble without Yang getting off freely as well.
"Girls." Blake spoke, a near unnoticeable grin on her lips as she listened to the younger girl make use of Yang's deeds against her, "She's gonna fall." Blake pointed out simply watching how Weiss was struggling to hold on to the talon.
"Bah, she will be fine. She is 'perfect' after all." Ruby dismissed her with a small wave of the hand, still a little miffed with the earlier argument.
"She's falling." Ren pointed out, his eyes watching as Weiss was begining her descent towards the ground.
The group all minus Jaune watched as Weiss started falling at a incredible height, they were trying to think of a solution to get her down safely, but none of them had a way to do so. Well, Blake did, but she was sort of hoping that Weiss will either get injured from this so she would be back at Atlas so she doesn't have to deal with a Schnee all the time.
Sure, it sounded bad but she was still annoyed that a Schnee was in Vale and not in Atlas.
Pyrrha couldn't do anything as her shield and semblance combo would cause more harm then good due to her weapons being made of bronze and metal, which would still cause injury given the pace at Weiss was falling. Ren couldn't do anything as he had doubts that he would be able to catch her from a fall at that height and have them both get away uninjured in the process, Nora had a hammer and grenade launcher so that wasn't much help.
Jaune used this opportunity now that Nora was quiet and keeping still, with her eyes locked onto Weiss with mild concern shining in them. He scampered up the tree, ignoring his burning muscles from the last heavy impact as they still stung a little, but he pushed through the pain and continued to scamper up the tree to a stable branch that was elevated high enough so he could time it.
Weiss falling and flailing lightly through the air, struggling to get to her weapon that was by her side so she could use her semblance to slow herself down and maybe use them as stepping stones in doing so.
Jaune launched himself off the tree branch he found himself on and caught Weiss, making sure that he was careful with his arms as he shifted her around so she was in a princess style carry, with one of her sides resting against his naval region.
"I got you." Jaune said with a small smile on his face as he looked down at Weiss, who was safe in his arms, however, with the added speed of Weiss falling into his arms made his velocity stronger and thus making him fall faster to the ground.
Weiss was speechless, despite the fact with what she had done to him so far, losing her temper, leaving him stuck in a tree, he still went out of his way to help her in this situation. A light dusting of pink formed on her cheeks, before she looked down and saw the rapidly approaching ground... and Jaune realizes how close they are to the ground.
He looked panicked for a second before straightening himself up and holding onto Weiss a little tighter and closer to his body, not so much that his rather terrible armor made her uncomfortable, but enought that he will take most of the impact through his body, bracing himself for the impact and even with Aura preventing outside damage, it will still rattle his bones and muscles heavily.
The impact that Jaune made was enough to lightly crater the ground around him, with him grimacing in pain as the force rocketed through his body and it felt like his bones were smashed by a hammer and his muscles straining to keep him upright throughout the ordeal. Through the pain, he managed to set Weiss down on the ground, with her looking a little happier than what she was when they interacted last.
Once Weiss is set down on the ground, she pats down her outfit, before turning to Jaune with a tiny smile on her face and her icy blue eyes looking at him with happiness, "Thank you... though I didn't need your help!" She said, before her haughty tone came back into full effect with her crossing her arms over her chest and huffing while walking away.
"My body... my bones... and muscles." Jaune moaned out as he crouched down, rubbing along the backside of his legs trying to rub the pain out of his legs.
While his family did tell him that he did have a lot of aura compared to most. It still wasn't ideal that he had crashed through a few of the weaker trees, and not even five minutes later, he fell from a rather respectable height and his combined weight from his body and armor, along with Weiss all came crashing down with a sudden stop once contact was made with the ground.
The massive Nevermore circled around once more, having seen a glimpse of its forced passengers fly down to the ground while spotting more humans down below.
"Guys, the Nevermore is circling back. Should we fight or try to return back to the cliffside?" Pyrrha asked, looking at Jaune in concern as he still looked like he was in a lot of pain. She could still see his faint white Aura surrounding his body as he continued to rub the back of his legs.
The group looked up once more, and indeed Pyrrha was right, the Nevermore was circling around them like a vulture, its red eyes peering down to them.
"Look, there's no sense in dilly-dallying. Our objective is right in front of us." Weiss pointed out and the others nodded thier heads, seeing the remaining relics nearby.
Ruby nodded her head to her partner, "She's right. Our mission is to grab an artifact and make it back to the Cliffs." She said, before nodding to Weiss, "There's no point in fighting that thing" Ruby stated to the group.
"Run and live - that's an idea I can get behind, we don't need to risk anything yet." Jaune spoke out his input to the group, "If needed, we need to get away from a large open area. It needs lots of room for its wingspan." He added on, before shakily standing up and making his way over towards the group.
Although, from the looks of it, it seemed like only a select few had heard his second statement, as he saw that Ruby, Nora and even Yang were looking around at the chess pieces that everyone had and making sure that everyone had a piece.
Ruby goes over and grabs a gold knight, identical to the one Yang picked out and Nora takes out her white Rook piece, which is similar to Ren's piece he grabbed, "Every pair got one?" Ruby asked, recieving nods in reply, "Good, now what how should we handle this?" Ruby asked, running a blank on what to do next and how to alleviate the problem.
"I say that we get somewhere safer and more closed off then here. More than likely out of the clearing, since it's so large, it would have difficulty getting to us deeper in the forest, unless there is another clearing deeper, but its a risk I am willing to take." Jaune stated making his thoughts of this situatioin known to the group, mainly to fill in for the three that didn't hear him before.
"I say we run, that way it can't get to us if we run through the forest and out of this clearing, and from what I remember, it is rather narrow and will be improbable for the Nevermore attack us with accuracy." Blake spoke out, not wanting to deal with the overgrown bird right now.
"I agree with Blake, plus, Jaune looks like he needs to rest for a bit." Ren pointed out to the group, knowing that a fall like that would put a lot of stress and pain into a body, "The only thing is, who would help him. There is no doubt that he would be slower than the rest of us with his body like that." Ren said once more to the group.
"I'll do it, I am one of the more physically stronger ones here." Yang said, before walking over to Jaune and placed her arm under his shoulder and allowing him to alleviate most of his weight of his legs.
"I will help to, I can't leave Jauney like this. I am his partner after all." Nora chirped, before zipping over to Jaune's side and lifting up his other shoulder and allowing herself to carry some of the weight of him, thus allowing Jaune to place less pressure on his legs to help recover quicker.
Ren then paced himself over to Jaune, before placing a hand on his chest armour, and closing his eyes in concentration, before a slight pink glow surrounded both himself and Jaune, who suddenly felt lighter and less emotional then before.
"What did you do?" Ruby asked, a little interested once she saw the colour of Jaune turning into gray and darker gray.
"I used my semblance to mask his negative emotions, in a way, he is invisible to Grimm and should make this trek easier." Ren answered the question that was given to him by the exciteable girl with a massive scythe.
Ruby's eyes briefly turned starry at the usefulness of the semblance, before she shook her head and her silver eyes came back to normal.
"We need a formation, that way we can look out for each other." Ruby said, placing a hand on her chin and looking at everyone, her mind racing with different thoughts on how to work this, "Pyrrha, I want you at the front, Ren and Blake would be at the sides, I will be at the back as protection and Weiss, stay in the middle of everything, you have dust that you could use with attacks." Ruby stated, after pulling out her weapon and putting it into its scythe mode.
Everyone nodded thier head at that, while they had a massive Nevermore circling around them, there still could be Grimm left in the forest, it was better being safe than sorry.
"Good job Rubes. This is what I mean by breaking out of your shell." Yang said quietly, a small smile on her face as she watched the group do as she said, with Weiss nodding her head at the thought of being in the middle as support from all sides. She then shifted Jaune lightly in her grip to make herself more comfortable with walking.
"Alright, lets make this happen and get out of here." Pyrrha said, placing her weapon into rifle mode and her eyes were scanning directly in front of her, not having to worry about her blindspots as there were others watching it.
As the rag-tag group made it out of the forest and into another abandoned series of structures, the Nevermore follows them from the air, keeping a keen eye on the group as they should become an easy and rather filling meal for it. They spread out and exit the formation they put themselves in when it passes above, concealing themselves behind some of the stone blocks with their allies as it perches on a high column and caws.
"Well, that's great!" Yang whispered out in annoyance, glaring at the Nevermore with hatred. They have been in the forest for who knows how long trying to lose it, but it just doesn't seem to work. At least Jaune was rested enough that he could move around on his own without that much pain running through his system.
Ruby sighs to herself, before turning her attention to the group, a grim expression on her face to show her annoyance, "Guys, I think we have to kill it if we want to complete this initiation." She said to the group, making them all turn to her with different expressions on thier faces.
"Why is that? Can't we just avoid it like we have been." Blake said, looking at Ruby with her amber eyes peering directly in her own silver eyes.
"Blake, we have been trying to avoid it, it hasn't worked as you can see." Ruby whispered rather loudly, while gesturing towards the Nevermore who was still peering around for its targets.
Blake looked down at that, before shaking her head.
"I agree." Ren said, before the group looked at him, he then decided to continue on to avoid any unecessary wrath in his direction, "It will be eight against one, our chances are much more higher, and since we are in the open that has different formations, we have more areas to move about and hide in plain sight." Ren finished, before looking at the other group.
"Alright. I have some anger to let off anyway." Yang said, her eyes shifting to crimson for a moment before turning back to the regular lilac colour.
"Ruby, I want you to distract it with your sniper. You have the largest range out of all of us. Nora, if it gets close, blast it. Anyone else who has range can utilise it. Keep it occupied and keep changing its target." Jaune said, his greyed out colour now back to normal.
"Roger, Jauney." Nora said to Jaune, she was happy that she could blow this overgrown bird up.
Just regular Nora things.
"Alright." Ruby said, before hoping up on one of the stone blocks and shifting her scythe into its sniper mode, with her cocking the gun back to ready it up.
"Split up and work together." Jaune said, before going towards Ren, since Jaune was pretty sure he was the only one didn't have a long ranged weapon, he decided to bring out his shield and extend it, he could give others cover without them needing to move while they continued firing off rounds of ammo, 'Take note of needing a long ranged weapon.' He thought to himself with a sweat drop as he realised that everyone but himself had a ranged weapon for combat.
"Right." Ruby said, firing of a sniper round that had the Nevermore on the chest, with the bullet bouncing of its body, "Go!" Ruby shouted once the first bullet made contact, before firing off once again.
Once the Nevermore finally registered what had happened, it screeched out loudly, before pulling its wings out and showing that it had a large wingspan before taking off into the air with its eyes spotting most of the targets that it was looking for. Seeing as how the target was up and about, Ruby jumped off the stone block and went towards the others, where they were all going for the bridge up ahead.
The eight race over the ancient stone bridge - making sure to keep an eye out for their enemy - with the Nevermore closing in on them, it uses its giant wings to shatter the path right in the middle, forcing them into the central collection of stones and rocks, between the large ruins that could provide a great vantage point and attack angle.
"Alright, light it up." Jaune called out to others with him moving about in the backlines, watching the Nevermores every move.
Blake sees the Nevermore above her and launches her whip so the gun's blade sinks into the edge of the bridge, circling around and leaping onto the aerial Grimm's back. She dashes all over its body, slashing the entire time, before jumping off and landing on the ruined platform at the top of the columns next to Ruby, then going over to Yang and Weiss.
"It's tougher than it looks!" Blake stated to the others.
Yang cocks and readies her gauntlets, "Then let's hit it with everything we got!" She said, a grin forming on her face as she watched the Nevermore come closer.
The Nevermore approaching, Ruby, Blake, Weiss, and Yang set their weapons to fire a barrage of blasts at the bird, which it either dodges or takes harmlessly until it crashes through the columns and platform. The girls leap from one section of falling stone to the next until they reach the higher bridge on top, just below the cliffs.
"None of this is working!" Weiss yelled out in frustration, annoyed with the fact that nothing seems to be working no matter what they do.
"Allow us to try." Nora said, preparing her shots with the next few rounds of grenades, once she saw the Nevermore turn towards them again, she unleashed a barrage of explosives that exploded directly in front of the Nevermore, obsuring its vision. Seeing this cover, Pyrrha launches her shield like a discus and activates her semblance, turning her arm into a metalic colour and using arm movements to control the shield that is also covered in the metalic glow. The shield comes into contact with the Grimm causing it to screech out from behind the fading cloud of pink before the shield comes flying back towards Pyrrha who catches it with ease, before switching to her rifle and firing off precise rounds near the Nevermores eyes.
Ruby watches as Blake whips over to another section of the area and starts unleashing another hail of bullets from her freshly reloaded gun and Yang firing round after flaming round at the Grimm, "I have a plan! Cover me!" She calls out, before blasting away as Weiss raises her blade and follows after Ruby, using her glyphs to speed up her movement.
Jaune looked above and saw the Nevermore, looking more angry, before it folded its wings and shot out many spiked feathers towards the group. He notices that Pyrrha is too focused on firing her rounds and rushes in with his shield now out and plants himself down in front of her, blocking the feathers with the shield as they fall to the ground harmlessly.
"Thank you." Pyrrha called out, noticing how Jaune was now standing up again.
"Anytime." He said, with a curt nod of his head, before noticing how everyone seemed to have a secondary weapon on them, looking down at the ground and seeing how sharp the feathers looked, he picked one up and was surprised when it was heavier than it looked. It felt marginally lighter than his sword, but it still was sharp enough to cause some serious damage.
With a sharp feather in one hand and shield in the other, Jaune continued tracking where the Nevermore was heading, he then noticed that it was coming back around closer to Nora's side, "Nora! When it comes close, jump up and nail it as hard you can on the wings!" Jaune called out, hoping that Nora will react to the command he gave out.
"Aye, aye!" Nora called out, before seeing the Nevermore close in, trusting in the decision that her partner made, Nora leapt up as high as she could from one of the stone pillars by here, before lifting her hammer overhead, "Heads up!" She calls out as she falls at an astronimcal pace as she forces her hammer down on the right wing of the Nevermore, causing a massive crunch noise to be heard along with an earpiercing screech that knocked Blake unbalanced as she was covering her ears, causing her to slip from the platform she was on.
Out of the smoke that was made from the impact from the grenade powered strike from the hammer, Jaune saw a brief outline of the Nevermore, before switching the feather to his dominant hand, he quickly pulled back and threw the feather with the sharp end facing in the direction of the Nevermore with all of his might.
He was rewarded when the feather he threw managed to jab into the opposite wing that Nora striked, with the beast trying to use it to knock Nora away, 'Are the feathers really that sharp?' Jaune thought to himself, noticing how the feather seemed to be stuck awkwardly in the wing of the beast, throwing it off slightly and focussed the attention on the feather and with a quick swipe of his beak, managed to pluck the feather out and spit it out towards the ground.
Ren saw Blake stumble off the platform she was on and he quickly holstered his weapons before manuevering around the area and watching the falling form of Blake carefully, fixing up his area and holding out his arms for her to land on.
"Got you." Ren said as he caught the ravenette on her way down having noticed it before anyone else, he quickly placed Blake down on the ground and rushed back into the combat. Once he turned his attention back to the Nevermore, he noticed that it was injured severly, with Nora's hammer doing enough damage to blow out a portion of its right wing, disorienting the Grimm. He then watched as Pyrrha with great strength, threw her javelin and managed to hit the massive red eye of the beast, causing it to screech out in a great deal of pain, and from reflex launched more feather projectiles, with most of them missing thier target or heading directly towards Jaune who was running towards them.
"Jaune, shield up now!" Ren called out, noticing how Jaune didn't even have his shield up and the sharp feathers were coming right for him.
Jaune looked to his side before coming to a halt and crouching down, holding the shield along his back and keeping his body low to the ground and underneath the shield. Some feathers coming into contact with the shield, and others speeding by overhead. He would have been skewered if he didn't duck, "Thank you!" Jaune called out his thanks to Ren, before blinking once, "Ren! Pick up some of the feathers and throw them towards the Nevermore, it seems to be another source of damage we can do it!" Jaune yelled out to Ren, who looked at him like he was crazy before deciding to follow what was said.
"Alright, I'll try it." He called out, before picking up a few stray feathers that were stuck in the ground by his legs with ease before running closer for a better shot.
Seeing as how the Grimm was no longer raining feathers downwards, Jaune got up from his turtle position and quickly made his way over to Blake's position, who looked to be recovering from the ear piercing screech, "Blake!" He called out to the ravenette. Blake turned her attention from the stone pillar she was about to jump up on and turned it to Jaune.
"What?" She questioned, unsure what he wanted at this moment when they were in the middle of battle.
Jaune quickly unsheathed his sword from the secondary sheath he got and handed it to her, "I noticed that you have a ribbon that can help you move about or attack. I have noticed that the Nevermore is about to run out of steam. So I want you to wrap Crocea Mors around the ribbon and launch it to Yang's area. If this should work, it can disrupt it or bring it down lower than what it is, and, if the ribbon is long and strong enough, we can tie it up, then we can finish it off." Jaune explained.
Blake stood there for a moment and contemplating what she just heard, it was wierd and will add more weight and drag to her weapon, but it might work. She carefully took the blade and started wrapping it around the ribbon of her weapon around the hilt of the blade, making sure to tie it in a knot so it doesn't go flying when it is launched.
Jaune nodded his head, before he heard another screech and looked over to see that the Nevermore now had a feather lodged in its left gleaming red eye along with one being stuck on the lower chest portion of its body, curtesy of Ren's accurate and precise throws.
Yang meanwhile was now airborne and firing off rounds from her gauntlets, littering the air with empty shells, with her still burning through her ammo on the beast, landing a blow at its face and causing it to head right towards her, but she leaps for its open maw and forces the beak wide as she attacks from the inside, "I! Hope! You're! Hung-! ...-gry!" She looks behind her and jumps back from its mouth onto a ruin, causing the creature to crash into the ground from all the damage it recieved internally and externally.
Seeing her chance, Blake hops up to the ruin opposite from Yang, "Yang!" Blake called out, before firing the pistol portion of Gambol Shroud over to Yang, with the blade that was wrapped around in the ribbon to slash under the Nevermore's neck and beak area, and the two tighten it between the columns so Ruby can jump on the center with Crescent Rose in scythe form as she positions herself in the centre of Weiss' black sigil, right next to the caster.
"Ready?" Ruby asked Weiss, who was keeping her concentration on keeping her glyphs up.
"Of course." Weiss said, a bead of sweat running down her face as she did so.
"Well? What are you waiting fo-" Ruby was cut off when Weiss decided to finally launch her with precision towards the Nevermore.
Weiss smirked to herself, while it may have been immature doing that, it was so worth it.
Just a little payback, she thought to herself after having been left on the very Nevermore that she had to jump from in the first place.
Ruby managed to correct herself and extend out Crescent Rose out, with the curved blade facing towards the Nevermore. As she rapidly approached the best, she noticed that it had already been cut slightly around its neck from when Crocea Mors was fired towards Yang. Ruby changed her angle to allow the scythe to aim towards the weakened part of its neck.
SCHING
The blade of Crescent Rose sliced through the Nevermore like a hot knife through butter, with head falling down to the ground and the rest of its body coming crashing to the ground as the rest of the group came approaching, all cheering for what they achieved. They weren't even hunters or huntresses yet and they already managed to slay a Nevermore, and only one the second day on campus.
"Well... That was a thing!" Yang said, smiling proudly at Ruby, whose cape was fluttering in the small breeze that came through, small tears forming on the corner of her eyes as she does so, before shaking her head and started to applaude as well.
"Now all we need to do is get to the top of the cliffs." Ruby cheered out, before blinking a couple of times and shakily looking at the cliff face... where she also saw a massive flight of stairs that needed to be climbed, "On second thought, maybe we should rest for a while. We have stairs to climb up." She said, much to the displeasure of everyone else as they all groaned and complained. They were already tired enough from the early start and chaotic initiation, but now they need to climb more stairs to finish the initiation. Not happy one bit.
As the group made their way over towards the rather large staircase that would lead them up back to the cliffside along with the knowledge that they will have completed the initiation and were about to start their careers as huntsman and huntresses in training, it did give them a morale and energy boost to allow them to walk up over at least four dozen stairs.
However, as Blake was standing back a bit, waiting for Jaune - who was still looking a little worse for wear after everything - and before long, she fell in line with him, walking at the same pace and basically in tandem with him, "You know, that wasn't a bad plan." She spoke out, her amber eyes looking at the side of his face.
Flushing lightly at the praise, Jaune scratched the back of his head, smiling rather awkwardly, "It was nothing. I felt like I hardly did anything, it was all of you guys that took it down." He said, promptly dismissing the praise and basically handing it back over towards the others.
Shaking her head at the rejection of the praise, she looked down and quickly untied her ribbon from Crocea Mors and held it out for Jaune to take once more, "Don't be ridiculous. Maybe combat isn't a strong suit for you, but I admit, you do have a knack for tactics and leadership." She complimented once Jaune took Crocea Mors back and placed it back on his person, "Who knows, maybe you will become a Team Leader." She added on as she shrugged her shoulders at the thought.
A small blush made its way onto Jaune's cheeks as he rubbed the back of his head once again, "Thanks." He simply said, before sighing lightly and glanced towards the sky, "Maybe I will be the tactician of the team, researching everything I can and letting others know if I find anything that we could take advantage of." He murmured out.
The slightest twitch of her lips meant that Blake had found the way that Jaune acted was amusing. Gently nudging him with her elbow, she gestured with her head, "Come on, it's best if we don't stay here too long." She said, before making her way the staircase.
"Yeah..." He muttered out, taking one last backwards glance at the area behind him. Seeing the amount of damage and mess that had been left behind when they finally killed the Nevermore, he just hoped that didn't potentially hinder any others that were still doing their tasks.
Shaking his head from those thoughts, he glanced up and saw that the others were nearly halfway up the staircase leading back up to the cliffside. Taking a deep breath, Jaune pushed through the aches and pains that he was feeling run their course through his body as he started to journey up the stairs himself.
"Russel Thrush, Cardin Winchester, Dove Bronzewing and Sky Lark." Ozpin calls out the names of the four boys called up on stage, all with various levels of smug expressions on thier face as they did so, on the screen behind them, the screen of the auditorium shows each of their profiles as the audience applaudes them, "The four of you retrieved the black bishop pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team CRDL, led by... Cardin Winchester!" Ozpin finishes his announcement, with Cardin puffing his chest out in pride for being named leader.
The audience gives one more round of ovation, while the next four students walk up to the stage to take their places in front of the headmaster as their faces fill the screen.
"Jaune Arc, Lie Ren, Pyrrha Nikos and Nora Valkyrie. The four of you retrieved the white rook pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team JNPR." Ozpin starts the announcement, briefly eyeing each of the members, "Led by... Jaune Arc!" Ozpin finishes, sending a look towards Jaune, who looks absolutely flawed.
Amid the clapping, Nora laughs and gives Ren a hug before quickly making her way over towards Jaune and giving him a rather firm slap on the back and Pyrrha doing her own thing and gently grabbed his shoulder and gave it a small, congratulatory squeeze, showing her support for the news that was just given.
Jaune on the other hand looked a little surprised, yet also a little concerned for the fact that he know had to make sure that not only his partner stayed out of trouble, but also for the fact that he was now responsible for his new teammates, "Huh? L-Led by...?" Jaune finally squawked out, defiantely not expecting to be called leader, he was sure that maybe Pyrrha, hell even Ren should have been named leader.
"Congratulations, young man." Ozpin nodded his head to Jaune Arc, before readying himself to continue on with the final team naming for the ceremony.
"Finally; Blake Belladonna, Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee and Yang Xiao Long." Ozpin called up the four girls to the stage as they make thier way up to the stage standing before Ozpon. "The four of you retrieved the white knight pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team RWBY. Led by... Ruby Rose!" Ozpin announced, having the small red reaper as team leader.
Weiss looks to her right towards Ruby, a mixed bag of emotions ran through her eyes while her face showed showed her surprise, where Ruby is obviously in shock as Yang goes over to hug her sister and Blake merely shrugs her shoulders at that, not finding anything wrong with that.
"I'm so proud of you!" Yang cheered, still hugging Ruby between her chest, ignoring the red face that Ruby was getting from the action.
"However, because you are team leader means that you can slack off." Ozpin begun, his voice now rather stern as he was talking about the new team leaders as a whole, "As all team leaders have an extra class every other day, and that is the leadership class, where every team leader from the first to second years come together and learn more and exchange thier experience while they have been out on missions, with the practicality of teamwork and learning different strategies to apply in certain conditions." Ozpin finished putting another blow to the leaders of each time named, who all held thier heads down at that, "This course will help you understand what it means to be a leader of a team, along with what that puts on your shoulders. Not only about your wellbeing, but also the wellbeing of the other three on your team." Ozpin stated before turning around and walking off the stage, allowing Professor Goodwitch to take over.
"You will be assigned dorm rooms, with the given number assigned to you on your scroll that you recieved earlier. This school scroll is meant for school only, and your personal one can be used for other means beside schoolwork. If your scroll is faulty, gets destroyed or gets misplaced, please report to Headmaster Ozpin's office to apply for a new one." Glynda said, her stern voice carrying through the microphone, "Dinner will be served at 7:30pm tonight if you wish to have that instead of cooking your own, head down to the cafeteria, where you will be served different sorts of food everyday. That is all for now." Glynda said, before turning the microphone off and heading off the stage.
END CHAPTER
So, as you can see, there have been a few changes from the original, but not that many, but I still do hope that you enjoyed it all the same.
The only reason why Jaune had to be helped along during the initiation before the other sequence, was because he fell from a great height when Nora helped get the javelin unjammed from the tree with her hammer, then he was flung in the air from being flung off the Ursa they were riding, crashing not only into Ruby, but also a tree, then falling down said tree onto his stomach, then climbing back up the tree and catching Weiss, making him fall down to the ground faster and hitting it harder to cause a small crater.
Aura may be able to prevent bruises, cuts and gashes, but it doesn't stop internal pain, which was why he complained that it felt like his bones were struck with a hammer and his muscles were burning due to the constant stress they underwent during the ordeal.
Changes from Canon so far
Jaune is partnered with Nora instead of Pyrrha, and Ren is partnered with Pyrrha instead of Nora. This won't change the relationships between the four that much.
No Death Stalker fight. Due to Jaune being found by Nora earlier and not by Pyrrha, they completely missed the cave due to them riding the Ursa.
Different outcome with how Jaune handled everything, along with the bonds and dialogue changing with the characters, along with Jaune interacting with Blake for the first time.
He also learnt that a Nevermore's feathers could not only be a dangerous attack that it could use against them, but it could also be used against it in the same way.
Additional dialogue at the end between Blake and Jaune, with her congratulating him for coming up with a quick idea to help bring down the Nevermore.
New course for Team Leaders. A leadership course that helps the first year team leaders by placing them with the second year team leaders to exhange some words and responsibilities being a Team Leader holds.
Team RWBY and JNPR all faced the Nevermore and killed it. This helped strengthen the bond and team work ability between the teams.