Hello and welcome back to Jaune's Guilty Pleasure! Wow, just, wow. I did not realise how much you guys liked this story. We managed to break 100 Follows and are nearing 100 Favourites! So, thank you guys heaps. Really, thanks. You guys are awesome.
Also, I have a friend working on a cover image, so look forward to that I guess.
So, responding to reviews once more. Also, keep in mind some reviews may not be responded to via this chapter as I have either missed it, or responded with a Private Message.
Benthino: Thanks for the praise. Don't worry Jaune will surpass anything I can throw at him. Maybe… Probably…
chronotimeguard: Have to admit; that first part made me laugh. It is very true.
dracohalo117: Thanks for the praise! Here's another chapter.
NARUTOfan876: Nice to see people are excited for another chapter.
ZeroHuman: Awesome, glad I could make you laugh. That is what the comedy aspect is for.
Crazy TrollR49: This made me laugh. Don't worry random just makes things interesting. Case and point; Nora.
duskrider: Thank you.
A Friend (Guest): Well, people enjoy different things and are entitled to their own opinion, so you enjoy what you like good sir!
Guest: Thanks. Just a question, what do you mean by triangle/rose arc? I know Rose Arc is a name for the JaunexRuby pairing, so what is the 'triangle' part for?
RyoTheSaiyan: Well, that hasn't been confirmed… You don't know if that concept is true… Shhhhhhhh…
Also, happy you want more!
Phew, now that that is done, on to the story!
Disclaimer: I don't own RWBY or any mentioned franchises. These all belong to their respective owners.
Chapter 3- First Encounter
Glynda frowned, "Our final pairs have grabbed the relics, Lie Ren and Nora Valkyrie, Jaune Arc and Pyrrha Nikos, Ruby Rose and Weiss Schnee, And Blake Belladonna and Yang Xiao Long." The witch spoke purposefully. Looking over at her scroll she gazed at the teams. "That poor Ren boy. I can't possibly imagine those two getting along. Still, he's probably better off than Miss Nikos. That Jaune fellow does not appear to be adequate for our school, just look at his battle stance. It was all off! Then there is that Ruby Rose. Who rides on a Nevermore? The girl is too young and has no sense of what Grimm can really do. Miss Schnee is also quite unlucky with her partner. Those two are not ready for this level of combat." She stated with finality.
Ozpin just gazed at her as he lazily took a sip from his mug. "I wouldn't underestimate the two just yet." He spoke cryptically and turned to look at his scroll.
Yang groaned in mild annoyance, "These things are persistent," she huffed. "Watch out!" she called as a Nevermore began to descend on the group. Learning his lesson from last time, Jaune managed to roll out of the way along with the others. Screeching its disapproval the Nevermore swooped once more.
"I thought we killed it!" shouted Ruby in disbelief.
Blake shook her head. "This is a different one," she stated matter-of-factly, "its twice the size of the one you three took out. Any ideas?"
"We need to get back to the cliff," replied Pyrrha. Jaune nodded,
"If we can make it back to the cliff we might be able to get away." The four pairs didn't have time to make another plan as they were attacked once again.
Weiss parried a swipe from a Deathstalker. It was noticeably smaller than the aged one and had less powerful armour. Taking this into account she pierced through it with a fire enhanced lunge. "These smaller Deathstalkers are much weaker than the Veteran." She called out. Ren clicked his teeth in annoyance as he analysed the juvenile Deathstalkers.
"If it weren't for the Nevermore's constant swooping; we would be able to take them out with relative ease. Especially as Jaune's earlier plan took out a large number of them." Despite the amount of scorpion Grimm flattened by the falling tree stunt, there were still plenty of them around. However Ren's statement rang true, if the Nevermore wasn't there, the eight of them would be able to take out all the younger Grimm before teaming together to take out the veteran one.
"Watch your back!" exclaimed Jaune as he blocked a swipe from a Deathstalker. These ones only reached his head; tail included. The heiress silently thanked the blond and got ready to attack the next one. Ruby gave her a surprisingly authoritative look.
"Weiss, can you carve a path through the Deathstalkers in the direction of the cliff using your Dust Rapier?" Inside, the Reaper was giddy. She finally got to see Jaune's weapon. Although it was a little plain, nothing could really beat the classics. A sword and shield can be very deadly if used correctly.
Weiss rolled her eyes, "Of course I can." Taking a stance she thrust Myrtenaster forwards, setting it to its ice dust mode.
The group watched in silent awe as ice sprouted from the ground in the direction she thrust in, impaling the juvenile Deathstalkers unfortunate enough to be above them.
Nora clapped happily as the ice shattered and left behind a sparkling effect, "It's so pretty!" she gasped.
Ren smiled at his childhood friend. "Let's go Nora." The boy in green abruptly stopped talking as Nora gave him a chilling glare, "Supreme Sloth Overlord, The Great and Powerful Ruler of all Sloth Kind and Devourer of Pancakes!" he quickly blurted out. "Hahaha… Who's Nora?" Ren chuckled nervously. Jaune grinned,
"Ren, you are so whi-" Next second he found himself hurtling through the air, passed the impaled Deathstalker corpses, and faceplanted into a tree.
Weiss rolled her eyes, "Don't just stand there, let's go!" Ruby nodded,
"She's right. C'mon, to the cliff!" she shouted dramatically, pointing at the cliff face in the distance. The group shouted their affirmations and ran past the swarming Deathstalkers, narrowly avoiding another attack from the Nevermore. Pyrrha peeled Jaune off the tree at the last second and dragged him behind her as they ran.
"Ruby watch out!" cried Yang. The young reaper turned just in time to narrowly avoid a Nevermore feather. However it impaled her cloak. Jaune watched in horror as the aged Deathstalker approached the girl. "Run Ruby!" her sister continued to yell.
"I'm trying!" Cried the reaper helplessly as she attempted to escape. It was to no avail as the veteran Deathstalker approached and got ready to stab the girl with it's stinger.
"Ruby!" shouted the two blonds.
"You are so childish." Ruby opened her eyes to see that a wall of ice had stopped the Deathstalker, also destroying the feather that impaled her coat in the process.
"Weiss?"
"And dim witted, and hyperactive and don't even get me started on your fighting style." She continued, "and I suppose, I can be a bit difficult at times. Though if we are going to get through her alive, we have to do it together. So, partner?" she smiled. Ruby grinned, the heiress' smile was slightly strained but it was still a smile.
"Partners." Their bonding moment was broken when Yang jumped in and hugged her sister.
"I'm so happy you're okay!"
"We need to go, that ice won't hold it back forever!" frowned Pyrrha.
The eight huntresses and huntsmen to be sprinted back to the cliff. "Just how many are there?" asked Pyrrha curiously. Their trek through the woods with a swarm of Deathstalkers and a Nevermore garnered the attention of more Deathstalkers and increased their numbers back to before Jaune's plan.
Yang looked back for a second to see the scorpion Grimm desperately crawling over each other in order to reach them. "You don't want to know," she laughed nervously. Blake raised a brow as she saw Ren smile.
"I have an idea!" he laughed triumphantly. Jaune watched in amazement and gawked when Ren pulled out a stupidly large barrel of maple syrup from his right sleeve.
The knight laughed hysterically. "Ren you genius!" He didn't want to know how or where the boy got it from, all that mattered was they'd be able to slow down the Grimm enough to get away.
"Where and how did you get that?" Weiss asked incredulously.
Nora pouted at her long-time friend. "But Reeeeeen~ we were going to use that for the pancake restaurant for the sloth enclosure!"
Ren looked uncertain as he looked between the sloth fanatic and the barrel. "But-"
"And I was going to make my special pancakes!" she added.
"…"
"Ren, don't you dare!" pleaded Jaune.
The boy smiled sadly, "Sorry man, but Supreme Sloth Overlord, The Great and Powerful Ruler of all Sloth Kind and Devourer of Pancakes has priority over friends. And what Supreme Sloth Overlord, The Great and Powerful Ruler of all Sloth Kind and Devourer of Pancakes wants, Supreme Sloth Overlord, The Great and Powerful Ruler of all Sloth Kind and Devourer of Pancakes gets."
Jaune sighed and nodded in understanding. His only male friend had a point.
"You're actually going with it?" Weiss called out disbelievingly. "Do you dunces have a death wish?" She just could not understand what brought them to the conclusion that they didn't need all the help they could get to escape their situation. Were they incompetent or just plain dolts?
Yang groaned as they approached the Beacon cliff. "We have to get there with several Deathstalkers and a Nevermore after our asses? Normally I'd love a challenge, but this is ridiculous!"
Upon nearing the cliff the group realised something important. It was probably something they should have thought of before getting to their destination.
"How in dust's name are we supposed to get up there?" Scowled Weiss. The group came to a halt in front of the ruins at the bottom of the cliff.
Jaune frowned as the bird Grimm landed on the top of the ruins, cawing menacingly at them. "Well now what?"
"Now, we fight." Growled Yang. Jaune held out a hand before she could run to it.
"Hold on." He said in a commanding tone. He analysed the area.
Before them was the cliffs and a Nevermore, the Nevermore was situated upon an old building that was suspended over a dust knows how many feet drop.
Behind them was a relatively small area surrounded by a few ruins, and knowing his luck the large group of Deathstalkers were going to be crashing out of the forest at any moment.
Nodding to himself he started. "Okay, Ruby, Yang, Weiss and Pyrrha, since you have experience with a Nevermore you will retreat deeper into the ruins to fight it. Try to use the height of the ruins to your advantage."
Yang looked incredulously at him. "Are you kidding me? That thing is three times the size of the other one we fought!"
"Just make it work!" snapped the knight. Yang staggered back, dazed by the sudden shout, but quickly recovered and grinned.
"Seriously, you need to do that more. It's a really big turn-"
"Ren, since you and Blake are the fastest out of us left I need you two to distract the Deathstalkers, taking out some when you can, while I get an idea of their battle pattern. Nora, pelt them with some explosives. But be sparing, I don't know when we'll need a lot of them. If too many appear then we retreat to the ruins with the girls." He continued, ignoring Yang.
Nora saluted. "Okie dokie Jaune-Jaune Arc!"
Jaune turned his gaze towards the tree line. "Once the Grimm come out of the forest, get ready." He turned towards Ren, "Ren, a word of advice. If you feel like you're getting tired don't be afraid to tell us, we wouldn't want you fainting from exhaustion when we really need you." The boy nodded.
Once orders had been given the two groups got into their positions. Pyrrha however was feeling slightly sad. I'm his partner, so why didn't he include me in his group? She wondered to herself. She shook the thoughts away. It was the logical decision for his plan. What's wrong with me?
Meanwhile, Jaune was sweating heavily. Hopefully his strategy would work. He already used up most of his aura secretly making sure no one was harmed earlier today, so he wasn't as energised as he would have liked. This meant that he could barely fight. Not that he could beforehand.
Blake's voice brought him out of his musings. "Here they come." She frowned.
As she finished her statement the horde of juvenile Deathstalkers erupted out of the forest. "Remember, try to stick to the plans but don't be afraid to shake it up a bit if you deem it necessary!" Jaune's voice was nearly drowned out by the oncoming swarm of Grimm, but they managed to hear him. Ruby's group headed towards the ruins whilst Jaune's group charged to intercept the scorpion Grimm.
The four sides clashed.
The team consisting of Pyrrha, Ruby, Yang and Weiss ran to the ruins like Jaune suggested. "So, how are we going to cage the birdie?" questioned Yang, getting Ember Celica ready.
Weiss frowned as she watched the bird Grimm fly around the ruins. "The real question is how are we going to lure it over here?" Yang grinned at Weiss.
"Oh, I have an idea~"
"…"
Weiss' eye twitched as she looked over her new attire. "I don't even want to know why you had this on you." Ruby and Pyrrha were trying to suppress their laughter at the heiress' costume. They were failing miserably mind you. The poor girl was standing on top of a ruined pillar.
Wearing a worm costume.
Ruby smiled at her, "Don't worry Weiss, you look adorable in a worm suit!" She called out.
"I will kill you all if you tell anyone about this!" growled Weiss. Yang brought out a camcorder out of her… somewhere.
"Yeah, yeah, now can you do a twirl?" Weiss twirled with elegance and grace befitting of a princess on top of the pillar. Ruby smiled triumphantly, I knew she was a princess!
"Wait, why am I listening to you?" the heiress cried, "and where did you get that camcorder from?" Yang grinned back.
"The same place I got that worm suit from."
Pyrrha watched in mixed amusement and worry as the Nevermore swooped and grabbed Weiss. "I don't know how that worked, but it did… Now what?"
Yang shrugged.
Ruby shrugged.
"What do you two dunces mean you don't know?" Weiss cried from the talons of the Nevermore. Twice in one day! She mentally sighed.
Ruby brightened, "I have an idea!"
Weiss glared at the reaper as she brought out Crescent Rose. "Don't shoot it!" She yelled, "You might hit me!" Ignoring the worm heiress' protests Ruby fired... behind her. The force of the shot pushed the cute reaper forwards towards the Nevermore.
"I'll save you Weiss!" she yelled heroically. Using her momentum to her advantage Ruby swung her scythe until she was spinning rapidly in mid air.
She wasn't expecting the Nevermore to throw the hostage at her.
Meanwhile, Jaune was narrowly avoiding the small attacks coming from the Deathstalkers. Ren, Blake and Nora had managed to take out at least a sixth of them, but their numbers still appeared to be endless. Unfortunately, despite his clear warnings, Ren had exhausted himself too much and was too tired to run.
He frowned as he cut off the top of a juvenile Deathstalker's stinger. There was just no end to their numbers; it was like fighting a hydra. If you cut off one head two more replace it. He watched as Blake gracefully avoided a strike from a Deathstalker before taking out five in rapid succession. The girl had inhumane flexibility and agility, able to take out several Grimm in a row with relative ease. He envied her strength, all he had was his hand-me-down sword and shield and his semblance. There was no way he could take all these Grimm on his own. He'd quickly be overcome by the amount of smaller Grimm; he wouldn't even stand a chance against the Veteran Deathstalker.
"Jaune, what's the plan?" frowned Blake as she landed near him. Jaune turned to her, quickly hiding his true feelings on the situation.
"The best thing we can do right now is head to the ruins for a tactical retreat, hopefully the enclosed space will stem their advance." The smu- art lover nodded, it was a sound plan. Quickly dashing to the trigger happy Valkyrie Blake relayed the message.
"Okay!" she smiled. The girl scooped up her childhood friend in her arms and made a dash for the ruins, Jaune and Blake quickly following.
"Watch out!" cried Ruby. The group turned to see the reaper flying towards them, Weiss screaming behind her in a… Worm costume? Before the four could react the partners crashed into Blake, sending the three of them sprawling off the bridge.
"Blake, Ruby, Snow Angel!" exclaimed Jaune worriedly. His hand was outstretched over the edge of the bridge. His gaze widened when he heard a faint noise. "Guys?"
"CAW!" screeched the Nevermore as it crashed into the bridge, destroying it in the process, effectively sending the group flying.
From the ruins Yang and Pyrrha had watched the whole spectacle.
"Ruby/Jaune!" they cried simultaneously. Quickly taking action, the two jumped off of their platform and landed on the broken remains of the bridge. They scanned the area below for any signs of the six people.
Yang was almost ready to cry when she ducked under a barrage of feathers. Pyrrha deflected each of the oversized feathers with ease as she glared at the Nevermore, when she was done with it, it won't need those feathers. She nearly paled in fear as Yang got up, a patch of her hair clenched in tightly in her hand.
She deadpanned, maybe Yang's got this one. Indeed the blond brawler did. If looks could kill, a description would do no justice to the horrible things the Grimm would experience. Her hair and Ruby were the two things Yang would not stand to see harmed. Therefore, the Nevermore that took both away from her would not live to see the next minute.
"Yang! We're okay!" shouted a voice from below. The two beauties looked below them to see their missing friends standing on floating white circles. Pyrrha watched them in interest; they resembled Weiss in a strange way. Is this what Jaune meant by 'glyphs'? She wondered, recalling his previous statement in the forest. So like how she herself could control polarity, Weiss had her glyphs. The rest of the group slowly made their way back onto the broken bridge.
"Move!" cried Jaune as soon as they got back on the bridge, his eyes glowing as he pushed Blake, Ren and Nora out of the way. The boy was then sent skywards by the Nevermore. "Combat is just not my thing." He groaned.
Pyrrha held back a cry of worry and watched as he landed on the opposite side of the bridge. Where the swarm of Deathstalkers were waiting. "We need to get over there!" Nora nodded,
"On it!" Before anyone could ask what her plan was the Valkyrie launched Ren and Pyrrha to the other side, using part of the bridge as a catapult. She then proceeded to laugh maniacally as she launched herself using Magnhild towards them.
The second Nora landed on the bridge Jaune announced his master plan. "Run!" he shouted as the bridge began to break behind them. The four managed to take two steps before they encountered a juvenile Deathstalker. "Ignore it!" he shouted, he remembered his analogy of the Deathstalkers and a Hydra. The best way to take one out, he grinned as he looked at the aged Grimm. Is to kill it by the body!
"Focus on the Veteran!" Yelling a battle cry, the group charged past the smaller Grimm and attacked the large one. Pyrrha blocked a swipe from the scorpion and used the momentum to take out a juvenile Deathstalker. Jaune copied her and blocked a swipe from the right, allowing Pyrrha to score a hit on it. Ren then used his leftover energy to run in and launch off of Jaune's back to reach the stinger, much to the displeasure of the knight. "Nora, aim for the face!"
The sloth-loving girl grinned and attacked. The two sword and shield bearers jumped back as the Deathstalker blocked the attacks with it's claws. Jaune managed to stumble on a rock, but it gave him the angle to see an opening.
"Pyrrha!" The girl nodded and took the opportunity to throw Miló at it. Ren smiled as it nailed an eye. Unfortunately the pain caused it to fling him towards a pillar.
"Ren!" cried Nora. Pyrrha turned to Jaune in hopes of a plan.
"Jaune!" before she could ask he pointed towards the stinger, Ren's continuous shooting had loosened it. Leaving it without its main form of attack. "On it!" The champion threw Akoúo̱ towards the stinger, subtly manipulating its course with her semblance, and nailed a direct hit, dislodging the end. Jaune quickly rammed into the large Grimm with his shield, thankful that the other Deathstalkers were not engaging. He quickly caught the large stinger, nearly doubling over from its weight.
Ren came running behind the Grimm and leaped over it, shooting a few rounds into its face to daze it. "Nora, do what you did back in the forest and use Pyrrha's shield to get height. Ren, do you have it in you to daze it once more?"
The silent boy nodded whilst Nora saluted. "You got it boss!"
Ren sent another volley of shots into the Grimm's face while Pyrrha got into a sturdy stance.
"Now Nora!" she shouted. The Valkyrie smiled and laughed maniacally once more as she launched off of Akoúo̱ and flew above the group. Jaune called to her as she reached the apex of her ascent,
"Nora, spike it!" He shouted as he threw the stinger up. This isn't volleyball! He mentally berated.
"Nora!" she began as she readied Magnhild. "Smash!" Jaune cheered as the stinger was sent straight into the Deathstalker's head. The smaller Deathstalkers, at seeing the strongest be defeated, chose that moment to regroup and retreat.
The knight grinned as he high-fived Ren, hugged Pyrrha, much to her embarrassment, and got tackled by a happy Nora.
"How did you know that they would run away after we took out the aged one?" queried Pyrrha curiously. On the inside she was grinning madly, I knew he would make a great leader. Jaune shrugged,
"Pure luck." He smiled, "I'd say stuff about Grimm instinct to sound cool, but it was really pure, dumb luck that they retreated." Before he could say anything more he found himself at gunpoint.
"So you're saying that it was pure luck we didn't get swarmed by the juvenile Deathstalkers?" Frowned Ren.
"Yep!" he answered cheerfully.
"…"
Weiss blinked. One moment Yang was hugging Ruby happily, then she blinked and saw that Yang was in the sky beating the life out of the Nevermore. "What just happened?" questioned Blake as she watched her partner repeatedly fire shells into the bird Grimm's mouth. Her questions were answered somewhat when Ruby happened upon a lock of Yang's hair and explained the situation. If it weren't for the fact that it tried to kill her, the bookworm might have actually felt sorry for it. Speaking of worms,
"Why haven't you gotten out of that worm costume yet Weiss?" questioned Ruby. The heiress scoffed, "who am I, Jaune? I can't get changed that quickly."
"But isn't it a zip-on costume?"
"…"
"Weiss?" Blake interrupted Ruby's pestering as she pointed towards the Nevermore. It was diving right towards them. The three girls squealed uncharacteristically as it destroyed the ground slightly. "Weiss, ground it!" cried the reaper after coming to her senses. The white haired girl nodded and froze the tail feathers in place. "Second time's the charm!" shouted Ruby as she rocketed towards the Grimm using the same spin manoeuvre as last time. This time however, she actually managed to land a direct hit. Jumping off of the injured Nevermore she landed on the ribbon of Gambol Shroud, stretching it far enough that it hovers next to Weiss' glyph. The heiress smiled slightly as she rolled her eyes,
"Of course you would come up with this kind of plan." She chuckled.
"Think you can make the shot?" The girl scoffed.
"Hmph, can I?" she asked rhetorically,
Ruby turned to her questioningly, "can y-"
"Of course I can! I'll have you know, I played a lot of angry birds!" Before Ruby could comment the glyph turned red, showing that their semblances combined, launching the reaper at the bird.
The hooded girl continuously unloaded her clip into the air to keep her momentum as she clotheslined the Nevermore with Crescent Rose. Weiss put up speed glyphs as Ruby landed on the cliff. Letting out her battle cry Ruby ran up the cliff, Nevermore in tow, before reaching the edge of the cliff and beheading the bird Grimm with a final shot. She looked up to see a shocked Glynda Goodwitch and a smirking Ozpin. "Hi Professors!" she smiled childishly. Before any of the two could comment a girly shriek came from below. The reaper shook her head in disappointment. "Jaune probably pissed Ren off again."
Ozpin watched in mild amusement as she jumped back off the cliff to see what happened. It's a shame that they don't have some form of reward system where they get points for every Grimm killed, because those two teams would've had plenty. "So, Ruby had gotten her team to work together to decapitate the Grimm despite their glaring differences in personalities, whilst Jaune banded together with his team, cut the stinger of a Veteran Deathstalker before proceeding to impale it with it's own weapon. Not to mention his apparent tactical skill. Interesting, what say you Glynda?" He smiled as he mockingly took a sip of his coffee. The witch rolled her eyes, though she was impressed by the two. It appears she was wrong, for now.
"I say that, if you weren't the headmaster of this school, spying on kids as they traverse through a forest would come off as rather creepy." She commented. Ozpin merely nodded absentmindedly, only barely hearing her.
"I suppose it would be." He replied, too busy watching to actually make a proper response.
The two groups of Huntresses and Huntsmen in training laughed heartily, they had just survived their first encounter with Grimm at the school. Yang chucked, "Well that was a thing." She commented. The rest of the group made a mental note to never harm Ruby or Yang's hair. Ever.
"All's well that ends well." Laughed Jaune as he high-fived his team. The two males shared a look and nodded before turning to the others. "Now, if you'll excuse us for a moment." And with that, the two fainted on the spot. Exhausted from their work, each fell into the arms of their partners.
"… So how are we going to get back up?"
Well. That's it. I'm so sorry that you guys had to wait so long for another chapter, only for it to be shorter than the rest. As far as I can tell, I'm not that good at writing action, so sorry if you guys had to pull your hair out at some scenes.
The reason that this chapter is shorter is because it was originally a part of the previous chapter, but the transfer from draft to second copy made it too long to just be one chapter; and I wanted to save the next bits for the following chapter.
Either way, it's done so here it is. Hope you enjoyed it!
Please favourite, follow and review if you did!
Anyone who can guess all the references to things gets a stack of Nora's special pancakes to bribe your nearest Ren.
