Chapter 3

Five year after Jaune left his home.

It's been quite rowdy five years for Jaune, training and traveling with Julius Arc presented a challenge that Jaune Honestly didn't expect to be that hard, he learned everything about surviving on the road and outside of the mayor cities, he have fought Grimm that can only be described as horror story monsters and unfortunately he have had to fight another kind of monsters, the human kind.

Outside the safety of kingdoms where was a no law land, he had his fair encounters with some unsavory people and one of the first lessons Julius taught him was that, sometimes, human are worse than Grimm, and after the things he'd seen Jaune have to agree.

And after five years Jaune could say proudly that he has the monster on a leash, training with the curse was the hardest thing he have ever done, learning to use the power of the monster without getting consumed by it was something otherworldly difficult, and even now he knew that a leash still could snap. That's the mayor reason he kept himself mostly on the outskirts of the cities.

After three years of training, Julius decided that Jaune had enough control on his new powers and enough training for him to return to his home and take the test to become an official huntsman, but Jaune wanted to stay outside the kingdoms helping small settlements and culling the population of Grimm.

Julius knew that Jaune wasn't telling him all the reasons for him wanting to stay on the wilds, and Jaune knew that Julius saw it, Jaune still was afraid of losing control, even after 3 years of training with it Jaune still feared the black knight, Julius wanted to argue but he understood, so after a short visit home and a very difficult talk with his family Jaune was on the road again.

Jaune was helping a settlement on the outskirts of vale, apparently they were having problems with a pack of Beowolf that were trying to enter the small town, so Jaune was roaming the forest searching for the monsters, when suddenly a loud explosion rocketed the forest.

"That definitely isn't normal" Jaune thought and started running to the source of the sound, and while he was getting closer, he could hear more noise that definitely sounded that there was a fight happening.

He reached a clearing and stopped when he saw 3 figures fighting what seemed was his target, the pack of Beowolf being killed by what seemed huntsman.

He could see that there were 2 women and a guy, the only male was shooting rounds with something that seemed like bladed submachine guns, he was dressed in white pants and green shirt; he had long hair with a clearly misplaced stripe of pink.

He looked at one of the huntresses, a small girl with bright orange hair a pink skirt and a blue jacket; she was swinging a very scary war hammer while laughing like a maniac, the first thought on Jaune's mind was don't give sugar to that girl.

He then looked at the last huntress, and his eyes widened, her red hair flowed like flames with every one of her movements, he saw that she was wearing some class of copper armor in different parts of her body, but what intrigued him more was her weapon, it shifted from a javelin to a rifle and then a sword! "How does she manage to change her weapon in the middle of the battle against Grimm?"

Jaune watched as the team of three destroyed the pack of Grimm, Jaune was impressed with the teamwork they were displaying honestly, he was accustomed to fight alone even when he was with his grandpa he only intervened when things got out of hand.

He decided that he was not needed and even if he wanted to help them, they seem to have everything on control, so he decided to go back and move on with his journey when a the ground started trembling, and on the other side of the clearing the biggest Elder Deathstalker he'd ever seen appeared.

The group of huntsman seemed shocked by it, and he couldn't blame them that thing was easily as big as two train wagons, the redhead started to shout orders to her teammates, they dispatched the rest of the poor pack of Beowolfs and turned against their new opponent.

Jaune saw their strategy and honestly it was a good one, but a Grimm that old wouldn't fall for those tactics, they tried to blind him first with a lot of fire power, that's when he saw the small girl that he was sure was a sugar addict, transform her war hammer to a freaking grenade launcher! "So that's where the explosion I hear before came from"

But the thick skull around its eyes nullified almost all their fire power, they catch up on that and scattered away evading the mighty pincers of the monster, then the redhead called another order, this time Jaune heard her, "Aim for the legs!", he was moving around the clearing, he wanted to help but he knew that he entered the fight with them moving so coordinately, he'll only be on their way so he decided to wait for the perfect moment.

They rounded the monster and attacked the legs, again underestimating the extremely thick bone armor on the legs of the monster, apparently the only one that could dent the armor of the Deathstalker was the girl with the war hammer, so she tried to capitalize that, but that was a mistake on her part leaving her open to a powerful swipe of the Deathstalker's tail, "NORA!" He heard the male shout making a grave mistake; he took his eyes away from the enemy.

His punishment a pincer directly to the chest, in less than 5 seconds the mighty team of three was down to one, a second later Jaune was moving.

He saw the Redhead froze, honestly it was expected, watching your team fall apart in matter of seconds could do that to anyone, the Deathstalker raised its golden stinger to finish his last opponent, pumping more aura on his legs Jaune practically materialized aside from the frozen girl and moved her away from her imminent death.

Big and bright green eyes looked at him surprised "Don't worry I got it from here" Jaune said to her "Man I hope that sounded as cool as I imagined it on my head"

He turned around to face the Grimm he knew he couldn't pull any punches on it so he smiled and let his aura flow on his body, drawing Umbra from his back he leaped at the enemy again moving at blinding speeds.

Jaune appeared in front of the Death stalker and put a powerful punch right in the middle of its head, the Deathstalker actually recoiled from the punch, moving again Jaune tried the same tactic the team used aiming for the legs, using wind dust to make the edge of his sword sharper he slashed with all his might, severing one leg of the monster.

"Tch, that attack should have removed at least 3 of that thing legs! It seems that i'm underestimating him as well, time for a new tactic, hit and run it is!" and with that thought in mind Jaune started to appear and disappear around the Deathstalker slashing with his dust infused Claymore, don't giving time for the beast to respond.

Pyrrha Nikos wasn't someone who was easily impressed, being Mistral champion 4 times in a row, 2 consecutive wins on the Vital Tournament, leader of the second most prominent team of the third years on Beacon with only two teammates no less!, she could admit that a little to no things surprised her anymore.

But here she was sitting against a three after fighting the biggest Deathstalker she'd ever seen, or even heard of, "I don't think that even in the wildest story of professor Port he mentioned a Deathstalker that big"!, frozen after seeing her teammates being throwing around like ragdolls, only to be saved by a strange man, she couldn't see his face entirely, the only thing she put attention to was, his bright blue eyes that resembled beautiful sapphires.

Ok, maybe she was caught off guard after the corny line he said, but you can't blame her he appeared out of nowhere with Ruby's resembling speed and saved her from her imminent dead, now he was dealing alone with a monster that took down her team like nothing, moving around at speeds that she was sure gave Ruby a run for her money he was slashing and stabbing the monster and it seemed that it was working.

She shook her head and looked away from the battle searching for her teammates and best friends, thankfully both where sitting against a rock, both with their eyes like plates watching the fight of the man, they looked fine, a little roughed up but fine, only then she allowed herself to turn around to continue watching the fight.

She saw the beast starting to stumble, even his fearful stinger dangled useless on the end of its tail a few moments later, the monster fell and the man appeared in front of the beast panting with his sword ready, only when smoke started to appear from the Deathstalker body he allowed himself to get his guard down with a big sigh, after that he turned at her.

Her breath caught on her throat, golden locks and a friendly smile looked at her, with eyes so blue that she wasn't sure if they were real; he started to walk towards her, when she caught movement behind him, she got up as fast as her legs managed to and screamed "WATCH OUT!" she saw his eyes widen, he turned around just to let a gurgle out of his throat after the pincers of the Deathstalker trapped him, she started running to help, when a sudden chill on her spine made her stop in her tracks.

Jaune was a humble man in his opinion, he still didn't know if that's what a humble man would say but he let that go, he knew and accept when he was wrong, when he made mistakes he accepted them because that's the only way to learn.

Right now he knew he'll learn from this mistake apparently even dissolving the most ancient Grimm could move! Now trapped between the pincers of the Deathstalker Jaune made note to never forget about that little detail, only if his body wasn't being torn in half by a scorpion on steroids he would gladly put that on his notes.

Jaune pumped most of his aura trying to open the pincers to no avail, with a big sigh he knew what he needed to do.

"Okay, now you've done it" and with that he let the curse move through his body, his once blue eyes turned green, a green so intense that even the Deathstalker stopped putting pressure on its pincer, stopped only by the sheer presence of the curse.

Little by little the pincer of the monster started opening, even if Jaune hated it the curse came with a few perks that helped in complicated situations, one of them was that all his physical traits got an enormous boost, with a yell he cracked open the pincer of the Deathstalker, he them proceed to plunge Umbra right in the middle of the head of it, just to be sure, that seemed to do the trick because the creature dissolved almost immediately after that.

Now for the tricky part Jaune kneeled, not of pain but he needed to concentrate, activating the curse was easy, turning it off was another story, he took a few calming breaths and stood there for half a minute in concentration before the curse went back to its box.

A hand brought him out of his concentration he jerked his head up with his sword at ready, but a pair of green eyes stopped him.

"Are you ok?" The redhead asked in a concerned voice "oh god I forgot about them for a minute!"

"Yeah don't worry how about you and your teammates?" he asked dusting himself

"Are you sure the Deathstalker got you really hard at the end" Her eyes looked at him with something along the lines of disbelief and concern. Jaune couldn't help but chuckle at the Huntress, a bleeding heart it seems; he put a hand on her shoulder.

"Don't worry i'm totally fine i'm more durable than I look" he said reassuringly "We should check on your teammates they took a nasty hit" The girl widened her eyes and nodded quickly running at her teammates that were sitting with their backs on a rock.

"Nora, Ren! Are you ok? I'm sorry! I should have thought of another plan, I should have notice that the exoskeleton-"she was interrupted by the fallen guy from what Jaune heard the one called Ren

"Don't worry Pyrrha we understand, we couldn't have expected the Deathstalker, the reports only mentioned the big pack of Beowolfs" he turned his head at Jaune bowing a little "And thank you for saving us, we got ourselves in a sticky situation, you have my eternal gratitude Mr.?"

"Oh that's right! I haven't told you my name! Sorry i'm Jaune Arc, and please don't thank me if anything I should have helped earlier" he said scratching the back of his neck

"It's my pleasure Jaune Arc, my name is Lie Ren, please just call me Ren and don't apologize, you knew that we worked as a unit, that if you interfered before you did, you could probably have make more harm that help" Ren said with a little smile "So he knew I was watching the whole time huh, he must be an amazing tracker" Jaune thought

"Hey! Stop with all this men bonding time! I'm Nora Valkyrie it's a pleasure to meet you Jaune-Jaune" she said taking Jaune hand in a violent handshake, only to be stopped by Pyrrha before she snapped Jaune's arm from its socket.

"Nora is a very excitable person as you can see, is a pleasure to meet you Jaune Arc my name is Pyrrha Nikos, and i'm the leader of team NPR" she said politely shaking his hand in a more moderated way.

"Please just call me Jaune, and back on topic how are you guys, you took a really nasty hit over there"

"We're fine mostly but I think a may have fractured my leg after the hit I took, my aura reserves aren't the biggest out there" Ren said sighing loudly "I hope to recover fast, I don't think I will survive another two or three days of Nurse Nora"

"Huh maybe I can help you with that" Jaune said crouching beside Ren and putting his hand above his leg, in a second his hand started to shine a bright white light, the three teammates looked in awe while Jaune made his magic, a few moments later the light stopped and Jaune got up "That should be enough Ren try to move now"

Ren looked at him puzzled but complied, preparing himself for the pain of moving, he was gladly surprised when he didn't felt any pain or discomfort on his leg, getting up completely and taking a few steps to check if everything was alright he was really surprised when his leg worked as it wouldn't have been broken a minute ago

"What was that?" Pyrrha asked looking at Ren making a few kicks at the air

"That's my semblance, aura amplification, normally I can restore aura of people but when I concentrate it on a wound or any injury I can accelerate the healing factor of aura" At first Jaune was sad that his semblance wasn't something like laser beams from his eyes or fire breath, but with time he learned to love his semblance, having the ability to heal people or replenish their strength, make him feel like a real hero.

"That's an amazing semblance Jaune! You can help a lot with that kind of power!" Pyrrha said, in her eyes a semblance dedicated to help other people talked really good of a person, after all, a semblance is a reflection of one's soul.

"Thanks I do what I can" Jaune scratched the back of his neck "So what is your next step? Going back to the town?"

"That's right Jaune-Jaune!" Nora appeared beside him, she really needed to be far from any sugar source, this girl has too much energy already "We have to report to the old mayor that his problems with those nasty wolfs are over"

"Well if you don't mind, please let me accompany you I have to get my stuff from the inn" with a nod the group started walking to the town.

"WAIT! So you have been out of the mayor cities for five years?! Hunting and taking quest from the small settlements and living from the nature?! All of that while not eating pancakes every day?!" Nora was zooming around Jaune, he apparently was their age and he was roaming the wilds helping small settlements and people! He was living the dream!

"I mean yeah, being a hero was always my dream and a hero always help the most needed, so helping the settlements outside the kingdoms was my first option" "Not mentioning the curse flowing through me" Jaune thought

"You're a kind man Jaune Arc, and very noble, as a former citizen of a town that was outside a kingdom I thank you" Ren said while bowing his head a little, Jaune heard the way he referred to a city that was outside the cities, so he decided to not ask and just returned the nod. They walked in silence a little more until Jaune decided to ask something that was bothering him.

"So I have a question if you don't mind me asking, I get that Ren and Nora are partners, Where is yours Pyrrha?" Jaune saw her wince a little and felt that he overstepped "Oh sorry! If that's something sad or you don't want to talk about it I get it!"

"No, it's nothing like that, it's just that my partner couldn't handle being with me" she said in a somber voice, that made Jaune raise an eyebrow

"Wait really? You seem like a very good and kind person" Pyrrha's cheeks reddened a little

"He couldn't handle being partnered with the invincible girl, he felt so inadequate" Nora said with sarcasm

"Invincible Girl?" Jaune asked

"Yeah I won some tournaments and got some brand deals" she said sheepishly

"Huh you must be pretty good, if you don't mind maybe we could spar if we encounter each other again" Jaune smiled at her, she returned his smile instantly

"Of course, I would be glad to have a match against you!" they reached the town a few minutes later "It have been a pleasure to meet you Jaune I hope we meet each other again!" Pyrrha said while giving him a handshake

"Yes Jaune-Jaune if you visit Vale, go visit us at Beacon, we'd let you crash on our spare bed!" Jaune couldn't understand the small woman way of thinking, but she definitely liked meeting new people, at least he could tell that because the bone crushing hug she had him in

"Nora release Jaune he needs to breathe" The stoic Ren said with a sigh "I hope you the best on your travels, and may the gods protect you out there" Jaune smiled and gave the man a firm handshake

"Of course it was a pleasure to meet you guys and who knows if you keep taking missions outside the kingdom there's a bigger chance to meet again" and with that they went on different directions.

"Beacon oh man that was my dream school… if only this stupid curse …" Jaune sighed, no matter how much he told himself that he was taking the right path, a voice in his head always reminded him of his original path to achieve his dream "i'm still becoming a hero i'm just taking a parallel path…" his thoughts were interrupted by someone crashing on his back

"Jaune-Jaune!" his face met the floor the only thing that got out of him was a groan and a muffled.

"Why?" another pair of footsteps approached him on his pain

"Nora! What have I told you about tackling people from behind?" Ren, Bless his soul was pinching the bridge of his nose while trying to rip Nora from his back with his other arm.

"I'm sorry Jaune! " Pyrrha helped him to stand up "But someone asked us to talk to you"

That got a reaction from Jaune, What was she talking about? Who wanted to talk to him and was so important to make Nora tackle him, still a little dazed Jaune just muttered "Huh?" while a scroll was put in front of his face.

"Hello Mr. Arc, I'm Professor Ozpin Headmaster of Beacon Academy"