*Author's Note* *Hey there . I'm glad to see that chapter 4 was well received. I had figured the lack of progress so far would cause some of you to drop the series, or maybe demand that I speed it up a bit. I'm glad that you guys seem to like the gradual progression instead of "Hey, we just met. Let's make out." As promised, partnerships and teams will be formed here. I spent quite a bit of time agonizing over how to do this, due to my OCD, ADHD, and love of acronyms. I hope you all enjoy! *
"WOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
As she flew through the sir, barreling towards the forest below at incredible speeds, Ruby could not help but enjoy herself. The freedom of flying through the air, unrestrained by ground below was so liberating. But gravity seems to have other plans for the 15 year old huntress. Starting to descend, Ruby pulled out her precious Crescent Rose and began firing towards the ground to slow her descent. Several shots and a few dead crows ("Birdie no!") later, as her descent began to slow, Ruby unfolded her precious scythe into it's full and lethal form. Wrapping the scythe around a tree branch, she pulled a few somersaults and landed with a grace rarely seen in girls her age.
Head snapping up, Ruby began to run. Hitting speeds that most normal Hunters could not even imagine, she began to run. Without a specific destination in mind, and with only one purpose in mind. Find Yang. As she pondered her chances of finding Yang, among all of the other freshmen who had just been launched. At this, she tried to think of others who could be possible teammates.
There was the nice girl who helped her in front of the school when Weiss was being mean. Blake! She's calm, mysterious. And she loves books! But I'm not too sure we'd be able to hold a conversation.
Weiss might end up a possibility. She's not the easiest to get along with, but I want to try being friends with her! And she seems capable of holding her own in a fight. But we'd most likely end up fighting each other more than the Grim.
Ohh ohh, and there's Jaune. He's nice. Funny! He's pretty cool and treats me like a normal person. Not like I'm the bee's knees or anything. He treats me as a normal person. Though I'm not sure how well he'd fight. He doesn't look as good as the others.
As she was pondering this, Ruby could have sworn she heard something. Screaming? Shouting? It was getting progressively closer. Though from where, she wasn't sure, slowing down to a walk, she strained her hearing to locate the source. It seemed that the source was somewhere beside her. Or behind her? No, it was. . . above?! Turning around and looking towards the sky, Ruby saw a large black object falling at an incredible speed. Wait, the black object was screaming? What?
"Ruuuuby! Watch oooout!" It was Jaune! But why was he flailing like that? Couldn't he use his shield or his aura to mitigate the impact? Oh wait, he's falling right at Ruby?! Oh n-!
She never got a chance to finish her thought, as Jaune violently impacted her, knocking the wind out of her and throwing her to the ground.
"Ohhhhhh, what happened?" Ruby felt like she had just been hit by a raging Yang. Beowolves and stars encircling her head, Ruby was down for the count. After a few seconds, Ruby regained her senses and tried to get up. Tried. But something rather heavy was on top of her. A large black lump with some yellow fuzz. Oh, wait, that's hair.
"Errrgh. Hey Ruby." Yup, it was definitely Jaune. After a few seconds, he realized he was laid out on top of Ruby. Quickly jumping off of the younger girl, he dusted himself off and offered a hand.
"Oww. Seriously Jaune, what were you thinking." Accepting his offer, Ruby grabbed his outstretched hand and pulled herself up. Dusting herself off and looking around, Ruby realized she and Jaune were alone. *GRRRROOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAR!* Okay, so maybe not alone alone.
Beowolves. Figures. These things were always trying to pick a fight with Ruby. It seemed they all have built in Ruby GPS. And she wasn't sure why either. She thought they were cute. Well, as cute as 6 foot tall, boney werewolves could be. Readying her scythe, Ruby took a position and prepared to fire on the Grim. Right beside her, Jaune had readied him, getting into a defensive stance with his shield raised, and his sword ready to strike.
"Well Ruby, I wanted to use some cheesy and overly cliche line like 'Just dropping in', but now it looks like we'll be a bit to occupied to worry about that. So uhh, you take the few dozen on the left, and I'll take the 4 or 5 on the right?"
"Better yet Jaune, you handle them from close quarters, and I'll support you with cover fire."
"Oh uh, you sure about this? I mean, I don't wanna get i your way and all."
"Jaune."
"Okay, so let's do this."
No sooner than the two had finished their strategy meeting when the Beowolves lunged forward. Raising his shield up, Jaune ran into the fray. The first Beowolves claw glanced off his shield, not even a scratch. Pushing the Beowolf off of him, Jaune plunged his blade into the Grim's chest. One down. Thirty-something to go.
*Click Click* *Bang!* *Click Click* *Bang!*
Without missing a beat, two others had broken from the pack and tried to flank Jaune as he had taken out their friend. In the short time frame between Jaune running forward and taking down the first one, Ruby had planted Crescent Rose business end down into the soft earth below her feet. With the scythe as stable as it was, Ruby had fired twice and taken out the two attacking Beowolves with clean, precise shots to the head.
Holy crap, she's an amazing shot! Even in the midst of an assault by a pack of several dozen Beowolves, Jaune had time to be impressed with Ruby's marksmanship. And who wouldn't be? With such a large, heavy weapon she was able to precisely take out two targets from quite a distance with barely any lag between the shots. Outstanding. Maybe she could teach me to use a gun or something? He errantly wondered.
Meanwhile, unaware of Jaune's little inner fanboy praising Ruby, the Beowolves renewed their assault. Snapping out of his thoughts, Jaune barely managed to block an oncoming Beowolf with his shield, and cut the arm off of another with his sword. Pushing away the two, Jaune lept back, putting some distance between him and the pack. Behind him, Ruby was still firing off, taking out at least one Beowolf per shot. After taking down another seven or so, Jaune could hear Ruby begin to. . . laugh?
"Haha! Woo hoo! Come on Jaune, it's just starting to get fun!"
Wow, she is crazier than the Beowolves! But, unwilling to let himself be outdone by Ruby, Jaune hopped back into the fray. Amidst the flying claws and legs and- wait, was that a tail? Amidst the flying body parts, spray of rose petals (seriously, was that Ruby's semblance or something?!), and with her laughter in the background, Jaune began to find himself having fun. Smacking aside another Beowolf, and lopping it's head off, Jaune began to laugh, as though he was enjoying this, this madness.
Finally thinning the horde to just a few, the Beowolves began to show signs of fear. Keeping their distance from the Knight and the Reaper, they began a slow retreat. Without facing away from their would-be prey, the Beowolves began to back up slowly, cautiously. Watching their hated foes slow retreat, the two rookie Hunters deliberated on whether or not to give chase. After a a second or two, they decided against it, and began to loosen up.
"Well, that was a thing. Huh Ruby?" Jaune, clearly having enjoyed himself in the little fight before, was still smiling broadly. Chuckling a bit, he collapsed his shield back to it's original form as a sheath, hung it at his waist, and put his sword away. Ruby, following his example, folded Crescent Rose up and put her away in the sheath on her back.
"Yeah," she said with a chuckle. Walking to Jaune, she stuck her hand out in an overly emphasized manner, and with a cheerful voice said "Hello. Nice ta meetcha! I'm Ruby Rose!"
"Uhh," began Jaune. He was a little unsure of what was going on. Tentatively, he took Ruby's hand in a firm grasp, and replaied "Jaune, Jaune arc!"
"Well Jaune, this makes us partners from now on."
"Oh, so that's what that was. I thought you were- err, nevermind. Just forget about it." With these two teenagers now aware of their partnership, a smile and an awkward handshake later, the two set off to find the ruins, retrieve the artifact, and get back to Beacon safe and sound.
*Meanwhile, at the cliffs with Professors Ozpin and Goodwitch. As the students form their partnerships and fight their way through the Grim, these two watch on. Evaluating.*
"Looks like the group forming is going well. It seem that Miss Valkyrie has found a partnership with Miss Schnee. Oh boy, I don't know how she'll survive with Miss Valkyrie. And it seems Miss Rose has found a partner in that Jaune Arc fellow. His transcripts seem impressive, but his fighting before was all over the place."
Prior to the mention of Ruby, Ozpin had been disinterested. But upon the mention of the silver-eyed girl, he perked up a bit. Leaning over to view Glynda's Scroll. Seeing the little red-head as she chatted animatedly with a young blonde boy.
Pulling out his own Scroll, Ozpin switched to the live feed to watch their progress himself.
*Back with our pair of socially awkward teen Hunters as they trudged their way through the forest in search of their first grade.*
"Well Jaune, I think we should be heading in this direction."
"Why's that Ruby?"
"Well, as you know, the run rises from the East. It's still the morning, so we can tell the sun came from that direction," accentuating her point by gesturing at the Sun's current position. With this, we can assume that North is that direction. And the Ruins where we find the artifact thingy are supposed to be at the Northern most part of the forest."
"Wow Ruby, you're pretty smart. Where'd you learn this?"
"Oh well, while growing up I always loved camping and hiking. There were these woods near my house, and me and Yang would always go exploring and stuff. Our dad knew I enjoyed it, so he taught me a bunch of stuff about surviving. How to hunt, tell direction, and make torches."
"Torches?"
"Don't ask."
Continuing with the small talk, the two worked their way North, walking for several minutes. After a bit of stumbling, bumbling, and overall awkward small talk, the two managed to get within sight of what appeared to be a bunch of crumbling stone structures.
"Think this is it, Ruby?"
Not even gracing that question with an answer, Ruby just gave a little smirk to continued on. Coming down, she noticed there were some other groups there. She noticed the hyperactive girl in pink from before, and it seemed that she was teamed up with the mean girl, Weiss. She appeared to be, singing? Okay, that's just odd. She also saw Blake, he ribbon looking strangely like kitty ears from this distance, and the red haired girl from before. Pyrrha I think. The one who tried to spear Jaune earlier. Remembering this caused Ruby to get a little angry. Unsure of why, Ruby thought it was because it was done against her friend, and decided to just leave it at that. And- oh hey, there was Yang! She seemed to be teamed up with that Ren guy from before. He seems good, so no problem there.
Rushing down, Ruby and Jaune joined the other six down in the ruins. Looking around, they noticed that the "relics" were all just oversized chess pieces. Half of them black, and the other half were gold. And shiny. Ooooh, shiny.
"Ruby!"
"Yang!"
"NORA!"
Well, their touching sisterly reunion was ruined. Oh well. So of the four groups gathered here, the only ones yet to choose a relic were the newly arrived group that was seemingly headed by the youngest student to ever grace Beacon's hallways. Checking out the relic, Ruby and Jaune deliberated for a few seconds. Eventually, the two settled on the golden knight. Why? Because Ruby liked the horse design. And Jaune didn't wanna argue with her.
With their artifacts chosen, the four groups decided to head back to Beacon. It looked like it would all be smooth sailing from here on out.
*GGGGGGRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWW*
*SSSSSKKKKKRRRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE EEEEEE*
"Oh for the love of-!"
"Ohh boy, oooh boy ,ohhh boy ,ooooh boy!"
"Uh oh."
"Oh, you have got to be kidding me!"
"Here we go."
". . ."
Everyone seemed to know that they weren't getting out of this forest without a fight. Readying themselves for what was to come, the eight young Hunters faced the direction the noises came from.
"Well guys. This is gonna be fun." Ruby could only feel excitement at the oncoming fight. Of course. She was ready for this. She wanted this. Every nerve was on overdrive, every fiber of her being eager for the coming fray.
"Sis. Remind me to buy you a dictionary later and highlight the word fun."
*Well, the partnerships have been formed. Ruby and Jaune. You had to see that coming. Ren and Yang. This I deliberated on for a while. I finally settled on this combination after considering that Ren's stoic attitude perfectly balanced Yang's outgoing personality. I decided on Nora and Weiss because, well, I wanted Weiss to suffer. And suffer she shall :D Muahahaha! Ahem. I put Blake and Pyrrha together because I find that a pair of less excitable people would be a good foil for the teams I have planned. Also, my acronyms demanded it.*
*So, that was chapter 5. I wonder how you enjoyed it? I tried my best with adding a little fight in there. A little comedy, and a quick shift to Ozpin and Glynda for good measure. Anyhow, as usual, I hope you guys found the chapter to be satisfactory. I'm gonna speed the next one up. Likely be a slightly shorter chapter than the recent 1500 and 2000+ word (this one is over 2500 words, wow!) chapters, but I'll try to not skimp on the quality. Expect to formation of the actual teams next chapter, as the next chapter kind of follows episode 8 to a degree. Fight with giant Grim, and Ozpin making the teams official. Anyhow, if you want, try to guess the teams and the acronyms I'll be using for the team names.*
*Okay, so to end the long after note, as always, I appreciate comments, critique, and suggestions. Have fun, leave a note with your complaints/such, and I'll be seeing you for chapter 6 next time.*