This time it took me a bit less than eternity to write a single chapter. Progress, I guess?
Weiss had mixed feelings regarding how things were going.
From a certain perspective, they were going exceptionally well. She had been able to remember and apply the principles of persuasion, resulting a favorable outcome for her arising in the end. All it took was some subtle suggestions along the way for Weiss to eventually find herself in a team containing three other powerful fighters, one of whom was definitely the strongest of the prospective students.
As always though, there were also the downsides. Having Ruby Rose as her teammate was not, in fact, an outcome Weiss was hoping for. While there had to be a reason a fifteen-year-old had been allowed into Beacon, that didn't necessarily make up for Ruby's childishness and, as seen by her decision to ride a Nevermore to victory, tendency to make poor tactical decisions.
Speaking of Nevermores, there were also other, more immediate downsides to the current situation.
"We have two Grimm against the eight of us." Jaune stated, staring firmly at the Death Stalker as it drew close. "You four are already a team, so take care of the Nevermore. The rest go with me. We might have a shot at bringing the other one down."
While Weiss didn't enjoy being ordered by Jaune, she couldn't come up with any better plan. They had no choice but to face the monsters that were attacking them – while running away was an option, chances were that the Grimm would catch up to them eventually, and then they would have to fight this battle more tired and in an unknown terrain. It also made sense for Weiss' team to take care of the Nevermore, as both her Glyphs and Pyrrha's sniper rifle would probably be more useful against it than against the Death Stalker.
"Fine, deal with the threat you started." Weiss replied, acknowledging her brother's plan but not praising him overly for it. "Pyrrha, Ren, let's go."
"And me!" Ruby whined, as she followed her teammates into battle. Together, the three huntresses and a huntsman approached the black beast.
The Nevermore had been clearly wounded by Jaune and Nora's attack – if one could call that an attack, that is – but was still clearly alive and dangerous. With one of its wings damaged or perhaps broken, it was unable to soar into the sky and attack safely from a distance, but it still had the rather massive advantage of size and durability over the little humans below. It gazed at the four humans running towards it with hatred – and yes, the creature was somehow able to express hatred without any facial expression – and screeched loudly at them.
"Do we have any plan?" Ruby asked, not stopping for a second.
"Just cover me." Weiss replied confidently. "I will show this thing what I can do."
"What can you..." Ruby started, but before she got a chance to finish her question, Weiss had already left her behind. With the help of her glyphs she was able to reach higher speed than any of her teammates, which allowed her to take the lead and catch the Nevermore's undivided attention.
A cascade of feathers, aimed exclusively at the Schnee heiress, shot out of the Nevermore's wounded wings. Luckily, Weiss had this handled – she used a glyph to launch herself into the air, which allowed her not only to avoid the projectiles, but also to place herself in a better position to strike.
The Grimm kept is sight focused on Weiss and prepared to fight off the incoming attack, but a barrage of bullets from the students distracted it for a moment. That moment was enough for Weiss to create another glyph, propel herself off it and soar towards the gargantuan bird, Myrtenaster gripped tightly.
The strike connected and the silvery blade pierced Nevermore's feathery armor. After cutting an open wound across the monster's torso, Weiss used her semblance yet again, this time to get out of the way of the bird's peak as it attempted to strike the girl down in response.
Upon landing, Weiss found herself standing near her teammates, who still had their weapons aimed at the beast in front of them. She didn't pay the other huntsmen much attention though, as she looked at the Nevermore instead to see just how much damage she had managed to inflict.
Sadly, it didn't appear as though her attack did any real damage. Blood was dripping from a large cut across the beast's abdomen, but it didn't seem like anything that would kill a Grimm such as that.
"I don't think your weapon will do much here, Weiss." Ruby said, and although the way she phrased it irritated the heiress quite a bit, the words themselves were seemingly true. Myrtenaster was an excellent weapon, but it seemed as though it was simply too light to inflict any critical damage on the giant Grimm. The only way to make her attacks more powerful would be to utilize dust, but even that probably wouldn't end up being enough. Chills ran down Weiss' spine as she realized that she had no plan how to deal with the immediate danger in front of her. Having no plan was always a bad thing, especially when failure would result with death or getting expelled from Beacon on her first day.
"What do we do then?" Ren asked. Uncharacteristically, there was a note of fear in his voice, probably due to the Nevermore in from of him spreading its wings once again, clearly preparing for another attack.
"Scatter!" Ruby yelled, disappearing into rose petals. The others found it much harder to avoid the deadly feathers, but somehow they all came out unscathed from the barrage.
While trying to avoid subsequent projectiles, Weiss was desperately trying to find some way out of the situation. Well, maybe not desperately – there were some viable options in front of them, but none of them could be called 'good' by any stretch. Running away was as bad an option now as few moments before, since there was no telling how far they could run before falling from exhaustion or attracting some other giant Grimm. Another option involved splitting up, which would mean that only two of them would be in any real danger, but Weiss very reluctant to risk one of her new teammates getting killed due to not having anyone's support. It wouldn't make things easier for her down the line.
In between her dodges and casting glyphs, Weiss glanced towards the Death stalker and the four people who engaged in a fight with it. It seemed as though Jaune and his group had been relegated to defending themselves from the monster's attacks, seemingly unable to launch any counterattack strong enough to damage the beast. Although none of them had been wounded yet, they were gradually retreating into the forest, moving into a dangerous territory and losing their strength at the same time. It seemed right to help them out, though of course, that wasn't something Weiss could do as she was trying to deal with her own... nuisance.
"Our current strategy is ineffective!" Pyrrha yelled in between the shots she kept making from her rifle. "We need something more powerful to kill that Grimm."
An accurate observation, but a pointless remark. Weiss, for all her knowledge regarding Grimm and the strategies best used against them, could not come up with anything that would guarantee them victory. For all she knew, there were no clever tricks to combating Nevermores, other than using ranged weaponry and always going for the head. Following these principles would probably earn them a victory eventually, but only if they didn't run out of strength during the fight, which seemed like a plausible scenario in their current situation.
Maybe they made a mistake fighting that thing in the first place? The team of four huntsmen initiates was often considered a rough equivalent of one experienced huntsman in terms of combat utility. Weiss couldn't recall any reports of a singular huntsman killing a Nevermore this size on their own – well, there was the legendary Grimm Reaper, but all the accounts regarding her were highly unreliable to say the least. Sure, Weiss' team was definitely above average in terms of strength, but maybe it still wasn't enough? Maybe retreat would be a better solution after all.
"I got it!" Ruby yelled all of a sudden. "Weiss, do you have any dust with you?"
It appeared as though Ruby finally encountered an idea Weiss had thought of a while ago. Just as expected of somebody two years younger than every other huntsman initiate.
"Fire, lightning, water, energy, ice, gravity." Weiss listed all types of dust present in the Myrtenaster's canister. "But I don't think any of these will seriously damage..."
"Attach all the dust you have to Pyrrha's spear." Ruby suggested, no, ordered Weiss, apparently believing herself to possess some incredible plan. "Tie it together or something like that. Me and Ren will distract the bird."
Then, before Weiss had a chance to ask what was the point of that command, Ruby turned away and charged at the Nevermore with semblance-amplified speed. The Schnee heiress found herself in disbelief at her teammate's lack of thought; Did she seriously expect that, upon barking some strange orders and not even bothering to explain them, everyone around her would just obey and follow whatever plan she had?
And then, exactly one second after Ruby departed, Pyrrha ran over to Weiss and transformed her weapon into its spear form. "Quickly. I am not sure how long will our teammates endure without us."
"What?!" Weiss exclaimed, now in even greater disbelief. "Are you really going with..."
"Please Weiss, we have to trust Ruby on that one." Pyrrha insisted. "Otherwise, we will be just fighting until our strength fails, or our companions out there die to the Death Stalker, or both!"
While Weiss had little faith in Ruby's tactical abilities, she had to concede Pyrrha's point. In the battle they were fighting, time was their enemy as much their enemy as the Nevermore. Doing something did seem better than running around and firing ineffective attacks, even if Weiss couldn't see what the purpose exactly was.
So instead of arguing, the Schnee heiress gritted her teeth and pulled out five dust canisters out of her weapon's chamber. She only left the one containing ice dust, so that she could freeze all the other container's to Pyrrha's spear, just as Ruby asked her to.
"Alright, done!" Weiss said loudly so that Ruby – who was currently busy performing complex dodges – could still hear her. "What comes next?"
"Ren!" Ruby yelled mid-flight as she rained fire on the Nevermore from above. "Open the beak, now!"
It took Weiss a while to process this command. Did Ruby seriously wanted Ren to forcibly open the Nevermore's beak? Why? How? Wasn't that an absurdly dangerous attack? If Weiss' partner died performing some absurd order, Ruby would follow him into the afterlife.
What was perhaps more surprising than Ruby's command was the fact that Ren understood it immediately and proceeded to carry it out a split second later. Maybe he saw some hidden merit to Ruby's unveiling plan, or perhaps associating with Nora made him largely accustomed to weirdness. Either way, the huntsman wasted no time as he ran over towards the Nevermore, jumped high into the air in an impressive display of acrobatics and, using his guns to propel himself forwards, flew towards the monster's head.
Predictably, the Nevermore opened its mouth hoping to devour a human who conveniently decided to offer himself as a snack. Luckily, Ren proved himself fast enough not to get eaten and indeed managed to pry the avian creature's beak wide open, using his arms and legs to prevent it from closing again.
Sadly, it meant that Ren found himself in a situation where his major advantages – being exceptionally fast and able to use aura in creative ways – became less important than simple, physical strength. While Weiss couldn't see whether his limbs trembled, but she imagined they did given how much force they had to withstand. For that reason, Weiss activated her semblance and casted two small glyphs that applied additional force against the monster's closing beak.
"Perfect!" Ruby exclaimed, landing between Weiss and Pyrrha. "Now make that throw!"
And then Weiss finally understood what the plan was.
Pyrrha gripped her spear tightly and focused her eyes on the target, before throwing her weapon with all her strength towards the Nevermore's head. For a moment Weiss was afraid that the additional weight applied to the spear would mess up its trajectory and make Pyrrha miss – either by not hitting her target at all or hitting Ren instead – but the champion had apparently adjusted for the changes so that the spear ended up flying in an arch through the air, missing Ren by several inches and hitting the mark that was the monster's mouth.
The wound inflicted was not lethal, but it clearly hurt immensely. The Grimm let out an agonizing shriek and momentarily opened its beak even wider, allowing Ren to break his hold and disengage, jumping back down and onto the ground. As he ran over to his teammates, the Nevermore kept trashing around in pain, feathers shooting out of its body seemingly at random. It was still a threat, but an unfocused, chaotic one. It's intent to kill had been compromised by the pain and perhaps the damage done to whatever brain Grimm possessed.
An old and powerful Grimm brought down by a single, unconventional attack. It would certainly be enough to impress the teachers, even if the beast had already been wounded by someone outside of Weiss' team. If nothing else, it would mean a good grade at the end of the exam... even if grades were as meaningless as the Headmaster said they were.
"Alright, it looks like your plan paid off." Weiss said to Ruby, feeling obliged to give the girl some credit where credit was due. Ruby's plan was reckless and extremely risky, but Weiss wasn't going to criticize it after it ultimately succeeded. "I just hope you didn't use all my dust up for nothing?"
"Nope." Ruby smiled as she raised her weapon once more. "Cover your ears please, it might get a little loud."
That command was followed by everyone present without any discussion. Slowly, Ruby knelt down on the grass, pressed her eye to her rifle's scope and carefully took aim...
Even with her ears covered, Weiss felt bothered by how loud the explosion was. Five canisters of dust, each a different type, detonated at once in a flash of fire and lightning, turning the Nevermore's head into a hundred bloody pieces which were then scattered across the clearing by the powerful shockwave. None of the huntsmen below have been toppled over by the force of the blast, but they could still feel it directly. While part of Weiss was still annoyed at having lost several units of high-quality dust, another part of her thought that seeing such a spectacular explosion was more than worth it.
She chastised that part of herself for having a stupid thought such as that. Yes, they defeated a powerful Grimm, which was a cause for contentment, but there was nothing particularly impressive about having achieved that through an explosion. Explosions were something do be avoided, not a spectacle to watch.
"I suppose that means we have won." Pyrrha stated, rather unnecessarily. She then summoned her spear back to her hand – Miló, an excellent piece of craftsmanship it was, didn't appear significantly damaged even by an explosion of this magnitude. "You have my applause, Ruby. Your abilities allowed us to come out of the battle unscathed."
"Eh, it was team effort." Ruby said, blushing slightly. "Hurray team... whatever we end up being called!"
"That name shall be remembered for centuries." Ren replied with a smile.
"May we celebrate later?" Weiss said, turning away from the dissipating, headless corpse of a Nevermore and towards the forest where the other four students disappeared a few minutes earlier. Her brother was somewhere in these woods, likely still fighting an enormous Death Stalker. "Something tells me that our friends out there could really use some help right now."
Jaune could really use some help at the moment.
He wasn't alone, of course. Nora, Blake and Yang were all by his side, using all their arsenal to fight the giant Death Stalker, their bullets and grenades flying through the air and hitting the beast repeatedly. Yang and Blake had proven themselves just as strong as Jaune suspected and Nora was utilizing her vast firepower to its full extent.
But it just wasn't doing anything.
It was one of these situations in which their skill or strength didn't really matter that much. Whenever huntsmen had to deal with gargantuan Grimm such as that, they would usually prepare some sort of plan in advance. Prepare a trap, acquire some unconventional weapon or just bring some serious firepower with them. Even truly powerful warriors, the likes of which would be able to utterly stomp Jaune's little team in combat, would generally not try to fight a colossal Death Stalker without any sort of preparation. In this regard, the initiation didn't reflect reality very well. Jaune decided that, if he were to survive the fight, he would point this issue out to the Headmaster in some harsh words.
'If' being the key word here. There was a very real chance he and his companions would end up dying right then and there, on a forest clearing, away from the help they desperately needed.
"None of this is working!" Blake exclaimed as she dodged the stinger, summing the problem in a single sentence.
"You think?" Yang replied, jumping out of the Death Stalker's as it tried to cut the girl in half with one of its pincers. "How are we losing to some overgrown insect?"
"Overgrown arachnid, if anything." Jaune said, ducking under a swing of the other pincer. "Besides, insects are technically the most successful phylum of animals on the planet, so using that as an insult is rather..."
"Can we focus on the fight please?" Yang growled, understandably irritated with Jaune's ramblings. "Do you have any clever ideas how to deal with that thing?"
No, he had none. Jaune had been trying to form some sort of plan for the last several minutes, but no matter how he looked at it, there didn't seem to be any clever solution to the problem at hand. He wished there was some creative combination of their weapons and semblances, some spectacular team attack they could use to slay the Death Stalker at once, but that simply was not the case. The monster didn't appear to have any major weaknesses – it walked stable on its eight legs, had three viable modes of attack and was fully armored, leaving no weak spots for them to target. Well, no significant weak spots anyway, there were always some places that the armor couldn't cover such as...
Huh. That actually had a chance to work.
"We need to target the eyes!" Jaune said loudly, so that everyone nearby could hear him clearly. "It has a few of those, but we can gouge them out one by one."
"It's a Grimm, it will be able to sense us anyways." Blake protested. "Or is going for the eyes just an instinct for you?"
"Just trust me here." Jaune replied, ignoring Blake's odd remark. As Yang helpfully pointed out just a moment ago, there was something important for them to focus on. "The two of us can start cutting at the eyes. Yang, Nora, keep attacking it so that it gets distracted."
Nora, who judging from the smile from her face enjoyed the dangerous situation quite a bit, grinned even more widely and braced her weapon for another attack. Yang also put on a smile and, out of a sudden, exploded into flames – though since the fire didn't seem to hurt her, it was likely just a conscious use of her semblance. Her eyes changed their color to read, making the huntress look even more dangerous than before and ensuring Jaune that she would carry out the attack properly. Blake didn't seem quite so eager to follow the plan, but she nodded after a moment of thought, probably having decided that arguing wasn't worth the trouble.
Excellent. Or good enough, in any case.
When the Death Stalker rushed forwards once more, the four huntresses and a huntsman attacked instead of retreating as they had thus far. Blake and Jaune, both recognizing what their best move was, jumped on top of the monster's torso. It's immediate reaction was to try and hit Jaune with the stinger, but luckily, Yang came to the rescue immediately. She flew towards the Death Stalker's tail, slammed into it and then, in a display of strength and improvisational skills alike, grabbed onto it with both arms and wrestled it away from her companions, leaving them free to perform their part of the task.
Gouging the Death Stalker's eyes turned out to be relatively easy. Blake managed to somehow retain perfect balance while running atop the scorpion's torso and took away half of its crimson eyes with few measured swings of her blade. Jaune had a somewhat harder time, struggling to remain balanced, but he only needed about four seconds to swing Crocea Mors as many times, rendering a monster blind save for its Grimm senses.
Having all of its eyes brutally destroyed enraged the monster quite a bit. It moved both of its pincers at the same time, one of it aimed to cut down Jaune, the other one destined for Blake. Nora slammed one of them with her hammer before it reached Jaune – apparently, she considered her partner more important than a random other student – but Blake had no such support. Still, she had shown herself exceptionally fast and the pincer was not moving particularly fast, so she should have been able to dodge...
But she didn't. The dark-haired girl simply stood there, seemingly waiting for the pincer to close around her. Which was basically suicidal, since even with her aura full, Blake couldn't hope to withstand that much force pressing on her for more than a second or two.
In a split second, Jaune made the choice, the only one that seemed correct in that extremity. He rushed towards Blake, hoping to push her out of the way with his sheer momentum by slamming into her...
...except he didn't slam into her. He didn't slam into anything other than air. Luckily, it meant that his own momentum carried him out of the way a split second before the pincer closed – which would had surely cut him in half with his severely depleted aura reserves – and the further, causing the young man to jump, or rather fall out of the Death Stalker's exoskeleton and onto the grass.
Confused, Jaune lied on the grass for several seconds, trying to comprehend what had just happened. He was only brought back to reality by somebody nudging him in the torso, though as far as nudges went, it was more on the 'harsh' side.
"We are still in a battle!" Blake said, grabbing Jaune's shoulder and helping him get back on his feet. "Don't lose your focus."
"But..." Jaune was still quite confused, but he conceded Blake's point by standing up. At the moment, Yang and Nora were fighting the Death Stalker on their own, but since it was now blind and crazed, it didn't seem like that much of a danger for the two huntresses. "What just happened?"
"I used my semblance to dodge. It creates a clone for me to take the hit. I didn't need your help." The girl explained, only to add, somewhat reluctantly: "Though I do appreciate the gesture."
"Um, no problem." Jaune replied, as he wasn't able to think of any better response at the moment, luckily, he didn't have to get into any extended conversation, as in the exact same moment, Yang and Nora landed right next to him.
"That was awesome!" Nora exclaimed, her cheerful attitude unchanged. "The whole action, that is, though wrestling the tail takes the cake."
"Heh, thanks." Yang replied and then turned towards Jaune. "That actually worked pretty damn well. That thing can still sense us, but only once we get really close. We can probably run away now, or kill it from a distance if we have a patience for it."
"No." Jaune said, gripping his sword tightly. "I can finish this."
"Playing a badass?" Yang seemed skeptical of Jaune's abilities. And to be fair, he was hardly strong enough to take down a Death Stalker this size on his own, even if the beast had been severely impaired. But he had a trick which just so happened to be perfect for the situation such as this.
"Hey, I know what I'm doing. Can you trust me on that one?" Jaune replied, hoping that curiosity would drive Yang and the other two girls into letting him take care of the Grimm. Luckily, it seemed to have worked, as all none of the girls bothered to say anything to dissuade him. Instead they just looked at him with different levels of doubt, their weapons ready to be used any second.
Assured that his companions were willing to show him some trust, but also to join the fight should anything go wrong, Jaune approached the crazed Death Stalker. The beast was still swinging its pincers and tail wildly, sensing prey but not managing to locate it accurately. It's sensory abilities were very limited now, but not quite useless.
Jaune aspired to change that.
In an instant, he stopped thinking about... anything. Just like that, there was nothing to be concerned about. Everything was still in its place of course – there was the forest, the trio of girls behind him and the huge Grimm in front of him. But none of these things had any meaning, they simply were. The forest was an ecosystem made up of lifeforms from all domains of life, a complex web without any specific purpose to its existence. Nothing remarkable from an objective standpoint. The people behind him were just unremarkable, just as simple to understand. Human females, all perfectly capable of childbearing as well as performing combat on an advanced levels. Each one possessed an advanced neural network, which governed their behaviors in way that would make them absolutely predictable if analyzed sufficiently. And there was a Death Stalker nearby, a being which existence could not be explained by mankind's current understanding of reality, but which was still just a mundane part of reality, unworthy of fear and consideration alike.
Jaune approached the creature, perfectly calm and unconcerned about anything around him. A loud sound could be heard from a distance, but he ignored it as well – sounds were nothing but chaotic vibration of the air around him, and whatever caused those vibrations didn't interest him in the slightest. Nothing did, really. He had to kill the Death Stalker, since it was a bother to him, but it was not something worth truly caring about. Just a nuisance to be dealt with.
The Death Stalker didn't react as the aspiring huntsman approached it with a drawn sword. It couldn't sense any emotion, negative or otherwise, coming from Jaune, because there simply wasn't any. There was just a bunch of dispassionate thoughts and a desire to kill. Slowly, Jaune approached the monster, walking up close to its mouth. Had the Grimm kept resisting, striking there would be a poor tactical decision, but now he had nothing to fear from the black beast.
With as much strength as he could muster, but still without any emotion or passion, he dug the sword into the creature's body. It wiggled and started to wave its pincers even more wildly, but it was to confused to offer any effective resistance. It couldn't see Jaune, it couldn't sense him – as far as it was concerned, there were no living beings in its immediate proximity. Just unexplainable, unbearable pain.
Jaune pushed his sword further into the monster's body and then twisted it, trying to cause as much damage as possible. It had the intended effect, for after several seconds of trashing around the Death Stalker collapsed and, after several more seconds of wiggling, turned motionless.
Jaune still held on to his shield, just in case the Grimm wasn't absolutely dead. When it started to dissipate into black smoke, however, Jaune relaxed and turned his shield back into a sheath. After he retrieved the sword, he took a deep breath and allowed his emotions to slowly return.
Snapping out of that unnaturally serene state was, in a way, harder than entering it. Once you saw through the illusion, it was hard not to see the underlying reality. Once you saw the forest for a complex ecosystem, it was hard to admire its beauty again. Once you saw the Grimm as mindless creatures, it was a little hard to see them as terrifying spawns of darkness. And once you saw your female companions as simple biological creatures it was hard to...
Well, that part was actually quite easy. Those girls were still supremely hot and no amount of mental effort would change that.
"What was that?" Yang asked, walking over to Jaune. Her voice was filled with confusion, but there also seemed to be a note of admiration there. Jaune felt an urge to explain his special technique in detail, but he already made himself look like a smartass earlier that day and he didn't want to exhaust Yang's patience. "Does that tie in to your prophetic powers somehow?'
"A little trick I have prepared." He replied casually. "I expunged all the emotions from my mind, negative ones included, which made it impossible for a Grimm like that to sense me."
"Ren can do something similar." Nora said. "But he needs his semblance for that. Can you really stop feeling stuff just like that?"
"I have trained that technique for quite a while." Since the day his biological family died, to be exact. Jaune never expected that particular trick to ever be particularly useful, but it was something he always felt compelled to learn it. It helped him manage his grief during his young days, to hide his anger when dealing with somebody whom he was disgusted with and to combat the fear during his first encounters with Creatures of Grimm. Being able to tune out your emotions came in handy in many different situations, not just he one he always feared would happen again.
And the negative feeling returned with full force. Jaune's lost childhood, his former weakness, his never-ending rivalry with Weiss... he had to force these thoughts back to avoid attracting another gargantuan Grimm with his sheer negativity.
"Well, since we dealt with that thing, can we head back towards the temple?" Blake asked, snapping Jaune out of his musings. "The other guys might still be fighting."
"Right." Jaune shook off all the distracting thoughts, especially these centered around Weiss and the enmity the two of them shared. Right now, Weiss needed help, and he had to deliver. "Let's not waste any time and..."
Before Jaune got to finish his sentence, the object of his concern made an entrance. Weiss jumped into the clearing with Myrtenaster in hand, manifesting a glyph to negate her momentum, and started to frantically look around.
"Where is the Grimm? Why are you just standing there and not..." In that moment, Weiss presumably realized that, since there was no fight or chase going on, the conclusion ought to be obvious. "You killed it already?"
"It has disintegrated a few seconds ago, yes." Jaune replied, doing his best to sound all casual. Seeing Weiss come to an unnecessary rescue brought him slight satisfaction.
A moment later, Ruby arrived on the scene, Ren and Pyrrha running not far behind her. All of them had largely the same reaction to seeing other huntsmen alive and well – they were visibly surprised, but most of all happy upon finding out that their fellow students have survived the fight. Ruby in particular took no longer than a second to run over to Yang and hug her tightly, at the same time when Ren received similar treatment from Nora.
Weiss, in contrast, didn't seem very happy. Perhaps she wasn't upset per se, but surely disappointed. If she was happy to see her brother alive again, she didn't let that show.
"Well, it is good to see that you handled this threat on your own." She said, not very convincingly.
"Aren't you disappointed that you didn't get to play a hero as much as you hoped for?" Jaune asked, allowing himself a slight smile.
"Don't be ridiculous." Weiss retorted. "I care not for looking like a hero. Besides, the fact that I tried to save you and your friends here is evidence enough of my heroic character."
"But not of your efficiency." Jaune pointed out, still smiling. "The teachers might be impressed by your courage, but chances are they will be even more impressed by my ability to actually help the fellow students in need."
"Wait what!? We killed one Grimm, you killed the other one. You didn't even attempt to help us out!"
"You seem to forget that me and Nora had already damaged the Nevermore before you directly engaged it. We saw that your group was in danger so we decided to intervene, as huntsmen ought to do."
"Actually, I just wanted to lose some speed by hitting it." Nora pointed out, stepping away from Ren for a second. "We didn't know there was anyone in danger."
"Details." Jaune shrugged. "Not large enough to be caught on tape, certainly."
"You really are a bastard, aren't you?" Weiss replied, her eyes narrowing slightly.
"The precise opposite, in fact." That response caused Weiss to narrow her eyes even further and seemingly left her without a good retort at hand. After an extended moment of looking at her brother with disdain, she turned towards her teammates.
"Alright team, there is no danger here." She announced, clearly trying to sound as though she was a leader already. "Let's head back for the cliffs at once."
"Good luck on your journey there. Me and Nora still have Relics to retrieve."
"Do we really have to go right now?" Ruby asked. "You said we will be able to celebrate later, and later is now, so..."
"At once." Weiss insisted. "Our grade might be tied to the time we take to complete our task. We should not fiddle about." With these words, the while-haired girl turned around and marched in the direction that probably would lead her to the cliffs eventually.
"...fine, have it your way." Ruby sighed and followed Weiss, waving Yang goodbye. Pyrrha and Ren followed behind, leaving the other four huntsman alone in the forest clearing, though not before Ren got another tight hug from Nora and Pyrrha said her goodbyes to each person separately.
The smile wouldn't leave Jaune's face. All in all, the situation was developing quite nicely for him. He got to survive his first battle as a huntsmen, kill an old Grimm personally and probably managed to look a lot better than Weiss during all of this. His sister failed to outshine him, though she no doubt did her best to achieve that goal.
But then again, she had already scored a major win by recruiting Pyrrha Nikos into her team...
That reminded him of something. Something that managed to wipe the smile off his face, as it presented itself as an issue he had to deal with somehow. Jaune sighed and turned towards Yang and Blake.
"We put on a good fight together." He said, stating the obvious. "If you want to form a team with us, I think that would be great."
"I don't have a problem with that." Yang replied, shrugging nonchalantly. Jaune expected this sort of reaction from her, since the blonde did seem to be at least somewhat fond of him and didn't seem like the one to care very much about who she would be teamed up with. It wasn't Yang who really concerned him there.
For several seconds, Blake simply stood in place, as though thinking intensely. Jaune still wasn't sure why the girl was so opposed to him, or rather his family name, but he could bet there were some good reasons for it.
"Fair enough." Blake finally said. "Let's form a team together."
"Are you sure?" Jaune asked. Doing so was probably not his best option, since he counted on Yang and Blake joining his team, but it felt like the right thing to do in this situation. "Nobody says you have to agree. I'll understand if you just don't want to deal with me for the next four years."
"No, I..." Blake sighed, as though she couldn't find the right words to express herself. "We fought shoulder to shoulder. That basically makes us a team already. Let's just get another Relic to make it all official."
Jaune nodded in response. No more words needed to be said between them, or at least neither of them had any idea what to say next. The four huntsmen stood there in silence, wordlessly acknowledging the moment they effectively became teammates.
"Hurray team!" Nora exclaimed. "I wonder what name they will give us. Or who will be made a leader. Do you think I would make a good leader Jaune? I should probably get myself something so that people will know I'm the leader. Like a crown, no, a pirate hat! Will you wear a pirate hat if you end up as a leader Jaune? I kind of hope Blake will be the leader, she would look awesome in a pirate hat!"
Those four years were sure about to be interesting...
The auditorium was once again full of people, but now the atmosphere was completely different than a day before. Whereas back then the students were impatient, secretly nervous and bracing for an incoming battle, now they felt largely triumphant and self-satisfied. Every young person who made it through the initiation – and there were maybe half as many of them as there had been the original participants – felt as though they accomplished something significant, proven their worth to the world and made their first steps on a new road that now stood before them
Weiss mostly shared that mood, though from somewhat different reasons than the most. She never truly doubted that she could pass the initial exams to Beacon, so she felt hardly any triumph or pride at having succeeded. She felt proud of herself because she had succeeded in passing the exam, got herself an unusually strong team to say the least and fought a truly powerful Grimm at the end, which would surely serve to make her look good in the eyes of the teachers.
Of course, the situation wasn't exactly perfect. For one, Jaune was still at Beacon and in a fairly good position himself. He arrived at the cliffs a while after Weiss had, having apparently formed a team with Yang and that strange girl called Blake. Given Blake's apparent reluctance to form a team with Jaune – probably something about the Schnee family, since she didn't seem too fond of Weiss either – this was somewhat surprising and not in a good way. Since the four of them had managed to kill the Death Stalker together, it logically stood that Jaune, Blake, Nora and Yang were quite strong when fighting together. Probably not as strong as Weiss' team, as having the Invincible Girl in the squad was a real game breaker, but likely somewhat close to it. And, as her brother was all too happy to point out, the events of the initiation did paint him in a very favorable light.
Well, there was nothing to be done about that now that the initiation was over. Both of them had made their moves and all they had to do now was to wait for the verdict.
"Russel Thrush. Cardin Winchester. Dove Bronzewing. Sky Lark." Headmaster Ozpin listed the names of four young men in front of him. The eighth of ten teams of people who managed to pass the initiation. "The four of you retrieved the black bishop pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team CRDL, led by... Cardin Winchester!"
A round of obligatory applause echoed throughout the hall. Whether it was deserved or not was up for discussion – from what Weiss had heard, that particular team had luckily managed to get through the initiation without encountering many Grimm, certainly none as powerful as the ones she and Jaune had to face. Maybe the difficulties she and her brother experienced was the reason why their teams were the last in the line to be officially approved and given a leader.
Or maybe it was just an appropriate coincidence. Who could truly know?
Weiss observed as the four other students walked up to the stage. All of them displayed confidence with their stances, though in somewhat different ways. Whereas Jaune did his best to show only a slimmer of pride – indicating that the challenge hadn't been particularly tough for him – Yang and Nora both wore smug, self-satisfied grins on their faces.
Blake... she was somewhat harder to decipher. Weiss usually had no trouble reading people's emotions based on their facial expressions, but that was pretty hard with Blake's current one – it wasn't quite blank, but didn't overtly express any emotions either. She was probably happy to have reached her goal, but she didn't seem all that proud for some reason. Was that connected to Jaune somehow? Did her dislike of the Schnees overwhelm the satisfaction of becoming a huntress? There was no answering those questions, not with Weiss' current level of information.
"Jaune Schnee." Headmaster started listing names once again as four faces filled the giant screen above his head. "Blake Belladonna. Nora Valkyrie. Yang Xiao-Long. The four of you have retrieved the white knight pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as team JNBY."
Another obligatory round of applause. Weiss joined in on the clapping out of politeness, but her mind was occupied with something other than admiration for the fellow students.
"Lead by... Jaune Schnee!" Headmaster announced with pause for dramatic effect, just as with the other teams. Sort of pointless, since by now everyone knew that the team names always started with the leader's initial.
Jaune being made a leader of his team was unfortunate, but completely expected. Whether he lived up to the Schnee standard of cunning was debatable, but he was still significantly smarter than most Beacon students it seemed. He would certainly make for a better leader than Yang, who lacked the required scrutiny or Nora who lacked basic sanity. Weiss meekly hoped that Blake would end up leading Jaune's team, since out of all his teammates she seemed most clever and resourceful.
But alas, everything went as expected. Jaune bowed politely upon hearing the verdict, Yang punched him not-so-lightly on the shoulder, Nora raised her fist in the air as a sign of triumph and Blake only grimaced slightly, clearly indicating that the outcome didn't fill her with much joy – that emotion Weiss could read without much difficulty.
Blake's disdain was truly interesting, and not just from the curiosity standpoint. One of Jaune's teammates being unhappy with his leadership was something Weiss had to take advantage of at one point. It opened up quite a few interesting possibilities...
A light tap on the shoulder from Ren made Weiss snap out of her musings and realize that their turn to enter the stage had come. The heiress approached the Headmaster alongside her teammates, her head raised and her walk graceful as ever. Her face appeared on the screen alongside three others, signaling that it was time for the final team to be established.
Weiss wasn't particularly nervous about that. While her performance during the initiation admittedly left some things to be desired, she was still the best choice for a team leader, if only by the virtue of all her teammates being... less than suitable for a job. Weiss had nothing but respect for them, of course, but everyone with half an eye could see that none of these people would make a good leader.
Ren and Pyrrha both seemed fairly smart, sure, but they suffered from the same problem – they lacked the initiative that every leader ought to exhibit. No matter how far she stretched her imagination, Weiss couldn't imagine either of them barking orders in a middle of a fight. As for Ruby... well, Weiss actually felt a lot of things other than respect towards the girl. Ruby had proven herself reckless, impulsive and hotheaded, not to mention was literally the least experienced of all the Beacon students at the moment, if her age was any indication. Sure, she did come up with something resembling a plan during their fight with Nevermore, but its success was more a matter of luck than anything else. Besides, Nevermore's arrival to the temple was Ruby's fault in the first place – something teachers would surely not forget while judging their student's performances.
"Weiss Schnee." Headmaster Ozpin started listing once more. "Ruby Rose. Lie Ren. Pyrrha Nikos. The four of you have retrieved the white queen pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as team RRWP."
Weiss blinked in surprise. For one, what on Dust was a "rupee"? Wasn't that some ancient monetary unit? And what color did that represent? More importantly though, didn't that mean that Weiss was not going to be a team leader? Since the team's name began with an "R", the Headmaster must had decided that Ren is the best choice for the leadership position after all.
Unless the Headmaster had made a worse decision still, but that was highly improbable. No one would ever think that the team was best off...
"Led by... Ruby Rose!" Ozpin said, probably louder than all the other times. Ruby got frozen by shock as the crowd began to cheer. The applause was significantly louder than any of the other times, as people were willing to put extra effort to celebrate the formation of the tenth and final team.
Weiss could bet that Jaune was clapping exceptionally hard at the moment.
Pyrrha was saying something to Ruby and so did Ren, but Weiss didn't particularly care about her surroundings at the moment. Her mind was trying to analyze all the consequences of what had just happened, desperately trying to comprehend the situation. It made some trace amount of sense, since Ruby did show an ability to form a plan in the middle of a battle, but still... how did Weiss lose to that dunce for the position of a leader?
Did that mean Weiss had lost her game against Jaune? No, it was a failure, but not a crippling one. Acting as a leader would allow her to get more credit for the team's achievements, but it she was still better off provided her team was the strongest one around... although that wasn't a given anymore, not with Ruby as its leader.
What steps should be taken? What steps could be taken? Weiss didn't knew, she wasn't prepared for a situation such as this. There had to be something she could do to convince others that letting Ruby lead them was a bad idea. There was surely some plan that would allow her to salvage the situation. All she needed to do was to figure it out. Yes, forming a plan was her first priority.
"So, the great team RRWP is formed!" Ruby said, once the initial shock wore off. "Oh, we are gonna have so many fun adventures together!"
It was an absolute priority.
"It looks like things are shaping up to be an... interesting year." Ozpin said, a slight smile adorning his face.
To those who care a little bit, but not enough to make a quick internet search; Janbiya is a type of dagger hailing from Middle East. It can be associated with steel it is made out of, so it technically counts as a color reference. Rupees are coins used in India and some adjacent countries, so you could argue that the name references color such as silver, though I admit it's quite stretched. Naming teams is hard, alright?
Anyways, I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Sorry for disappointing you if you were counting on some sort of surprise, but Ruby and Jaune are still team leaders in this alternate scenario. Whatever reasons Ozpin had for picking them over the other students hold weight here as well, possibly more in Jaune's case. I briefly considered making Weiss a leader so that I could call the team WRPL – which would sound way cooler – but even though she is a little smarter here than in canon, she retains all the major problems of her canon self, including a nasty sense of entitlement and the social skills of a great white shark. I am going to handle these issues differently than the show did, so I promise there won't be a repeat of her Volume 1 development inserted into this story. Not going to say anything else, because spoilers suck.
Well, only if the work continues to the point when these spoilers come into play. And only if someone is willing to read it. Neither of which is a guarantee with my writing.