Team JSON
Chapter 11
Jaunedice
Team JSON is walking down the hall with Teams RWBY and JNPR.
"You guys ready for combat class?" Yang said. "Oh, heck yeah!" Niko said enthusiastically.
"I wonder who we're going to fight?" wondered Sonya.
"I bet I could beat Firecracker this time." Niko said with a smile. "Is that a challenge?" Yang said also with a smile as she activated her gauntlets.
They enter the classroom; the room was probably the biggest out of all the classrooms in Beacon. The classroom was essentially a mini arena. It had a platform in the center and a sand floor all around it. There were also risers at around the arena for the students to sit. They were the last ones there, they took their seat and waited for the teacher.
A few minutes later, Glynda Goodwitch walked in. "Good morning, class today and throughout the week I will be studying your fighting styles and prepare you for the Vytal festival, which is only a few months away, now let's begin our first match. "
She turned on her Scroll, on the screen showed to slots, she pressed a button and the slots began to spin, a giant screen appeared above her. when the slots stop spinning there were two faces in each slot, "Niko Kane versus Jason Gladius!" she announced.
Jason and Niko looked at each other with a smile, they got up and walked into the arena. "Now I will explain the rules of this match. Your aura levels will be monitored, whoever's aura level reaches the red area the first loses, if you step out of the platform you are also out of the match, understood?"
Both Jason and Niko nod, "Good then lets begin." She steps away and a timer starts. 10…
Jason equips his sword and shield while Niko readies his blade.
9… Jason studies Niko he knew his fighting style well, he could beat him.
8….
7…. Jason remembered when Nathan first learned about his semblance, at first all Niko could do was conjure up his battle avatar around his arms or legs or torso but not all at once.
6… Jason smiled, this would be fun, he waited for the timer to run out.
5… 4… 3… 2… 1 Match begin.
Niko charges towards Jason who expected this attack. Jason blocks Niko's strike. Jason then spins and kicks Niko sending him flying to the other side of the platform.
"Still making the same mistakes!" he called to Niko. Niko chuckled, "You haven't seen nothing yet!" he gets back up then opens his palm outward. In fury of flame a red hot flaming sword made of fire Dust appears in his hand.
Niko swings the blade it enlarges as he swings it. Jason gawked at the giant blade, thanks to his quick reflexes he leaned back, the sword passed over Jason's head, suddenly something in the back of Jason's mind tingled, he activated his semblance to protect himself, just in time because Niko's blade exploded in his face. The force of the explosion smashed Jason into the ground. Niko charged at Jason since his guard was down.
As Niko approached, Jason pushed off his hands, his feet slamned into Niko who was sprinting full speed
Niko flew backwards, Jason charged forward and slashed at Niko. Niko's aura level dropped to the yellow, Jason spun around an kicked Niko in the stomach. Niko doubled over. Jason jumped up and ,using the butt of his sword, he slammed Niko into the ground causing the floor to crack. Niko's aura level dropped to red.
"End of match." Glynda says, "Niko is out by red aura level. The winner is Jason."
The risers erupt in applause, Jason walks over and helps Niko to his feet, "Damn it. Defeated again." Niko said as Jason slings him over his shoulder. "You got better you managed to knock me down." Jason said.
"Yeah I did didn't I." Niko said with a smile. They made it back to their chair where their friends congratulated them.
"Awesome fighting!" Ruby said.
"Yo, Nathan I call fighting you next!" Yang exclaimed
"Good fight" Olivia said, as Blake just nodded.
"Sloppy form, but yes good fight." Weiss said
"That was great!" Sonya said as she clapped her hands, with a smile on her face.
"Thanks guys." Jason and Niko said as they got back into their seats.
A few more matches were chosen, Sonya fought a faunus named Fenris, she tried the direct approach but in the end she settled for sniping and defeated her opponent.
Olivia fought a girl with a fire sword, the fight lasted a few seconds because Olivia disappeared like a ghost then appeared behind her and knocked her unconscious.
"The next match will be…Jaune Arc versus Cardin Winchester!" Glynda announced.
"H-Huh, m-me?" Jaune said nervously. "Don't worry you'll be fine." Pyrrha said as she placed an encouraging hand on Jaune's shoulder. "Oh" he groaned as he got up and walked to the arena.
A few moments later
Cardin stood in front of a panting Jaune with a mace of his shoulder, Jaune looks up exhausted at Cardin, Cardin laughs, not even breaking a sweat. Jaune looks back down, "…come on." He says to himself then charges at Cardin.
He swings his sword down Cardin ducks forward causing Jaune to miss his strike, Jaune turns with a frightened look as Cardin swings his mace around and knocks Jaune back, flying. Jaune, now shield less gets up panting.
Jaune grits his teeth then brings his sword down on Cardin. He blocks it with the handle of his mace. Cardin pushes against Jaune causing him to lean back. "This is the part where you lose." Cardin says to Jaune.
"Over my dead—"Jaune gets cut off as Cardin knees him in the chest. Jaune falls over clutching his chest, Cardin brings his mace up and prepares to smash Jaune with it… a buzzer sounds and the match ends.
"Cardin that's enough." Glynda says, "Students, as you can see Mr. Arc's aura has now dropped into the red zone. In a tournament style duel, this would indicate that Jaune is no longer fit for battle, and the officials may call a match."
Pyrrha looks worriedly at Jaune as he gets into sitting position.
Glynda turns to face Jaune, "Mister Arc it's been weeks now, please try to refer to your Scroll during combat." She said as Jaune pulls out his scroll and stares at his red aura bar. "Gauging your aura will help you decide when it is appropriate to attack, or when its better to move to a more… defensive strategy."
Jaune quietly groans to himself. "We wouldn't want you to be gobbled up by a Beowolf, now would we?"
Cardin grunts, "Speak for yourself." He hefts his mace onto his shoulder then walks off the stage.
"Remember everyone! The Vytal Festival is only a few months away, it won't be long before students from the other kingdoms start arriving, so keep practicing."
As she says this Yang punches the air a few time, Weiss practically shakes with excitement and same with Ruby, Sonya clamps her hands together and lets out a soft squeal, Nathan and Jason fist bump each other.
"Those who choose to compete in the combat tournament will be representing all of Vale."
The bell rings and everyone starts to file out. Pyrrha looks on at Jaune with a worried look as Jaune sits there with a depressed look.
Beacon Cafeteria
"So… there we we're… in the middle of the night…" Nora said telling a story, "It was day..." Ren interjected as Yang and Sonya look on in interest while Blake is reading her book and Olivia just eats quietly. Nora ignores him and continues on, "We were surrounded by Usai." Nora said in a dramatic voice. "They were Beowolves." Ren says looking bored.
"DOZENS OF THEM!" Nora says as she stands up. "Two of them."
"But they were no match and in the end Ren and I took them down and made a boatload of Lien selling Ursa skinned rugs!" Nora said.
Ren sighs, "She's been having this reoccurring dream for nearly a month now." Throughout all this Ruby, Jason, and Pyrrha have been looking at Jaune with worried expressions.
"Yo, Jaune you feelin alright?" Jason asked, Jaune takes a moment to answer, "Huh? Oh, yeah! Why?" he says.
"It's just that you seem a little…not okay." Ruby says. Everyone stops what they were doing to look at Jaune, except for Nathan who was busy stuffing himself with food.
"Eh, guys I'm fine! Seriously, look." he says as he give everyone a thumbs up with a nervous laugh.
They hear laughter come from a nearby table. Everyone turns to look to see Cardin and his team around a rabbit eared faunus mocking her.
"Jaune, Cardin's been picking on you since the first week of school." Pyrrha says.
"Uh…who? Cardin Winchester? Nah… he just likes to mess around, you know? Practical jokes." He says trying to wave off the comment.
Jason scoffs, "Yeah, practical jokes, totally." He says sarcastically as he glares daggers at Cardin from his seat. "He's a bully." Ruby said.
Jaune scoffs, "Oh please…Name one time he's "bullied" me." He said.
Flashback
Jaune is walking down the hall. Cardin walk by and knocks the book that Jaune is carrying out of his hands. "Aw, come on!" Jaune groans.
Jaune is entering a room as Cardin exits. Cardin presses a button on Jaune's scabbard causing it to pop into shield form and lodge itself into the door frame. Jaune tries to pull it out but fails, "Aw come on!"
"Each of you will be assigned one rocket-propelled locker to store your weapons and extra armor." Glynda say, "Additionally, your locker can be sent to a custom location based on a six digit code.
Cardin and Jaune are standing next to each other. Cardin sees a open locker right next to Jaune. He pushes Jaune in and locks the door, "What!? No, wait wait, you gotta get me out of here!" Jaune protests. Cardin punches in a random coordinates. "Don't don't, don't do it!" the locker blasted out of the room with Jaune screaming, "Nooooooo!"
Flashback End
"Well, at least he got in trouble for the last one." Jason said.
"Yeah, but Jaune ended up in the Emerald forest in a tree with a pack of Beowolves under him. They had to send out a second year team to take care of them!" Sonya said.
Everyone turns to look at Jaune once again. "I didn't land that far from school." Jaune protested.
"Jaune you know if you ever need help you can just ask." Pyrrha said.
"OOH" Nora jumps out of her seat, "We'll break his legs!"
"Guy's really, its fine." Jaune says as he stands up with his tray, "Besides, it's not like he's just a jerk to me, he's a jerk to everyone."
"Ow, that hurts!" The rabbit eared girl said as Cardin and his goons pulled on her ear, "Please, stop." They all laughed, "See I told you guys it was real." Cardin said, his team laughed, "Man what a freak!" one of them said as Cardin lets the girl go.
"Atrocious, I can't stand people like him." Pyrrha said as she turns around. Jason picks up his empty plate then throws it like a Frisbee at Cardin. It smacks him in the face then bounces of and hits his team in the faces, too before returning to Jason.
"Same here." Jason says as he catches the plate and sits down, he sees everyone staring at him, "What?"
"He's not the only one." Blake said.
"It must be hard being a faunus." Yang said as Sonya gave Yang a 'you have no idea look', almost as if she's been through their pain. Jason looks at Sonya with curiosity but then ignores it and turns back to Jaune.
"Hey where you going?" he says as Jaune walks away with a sigh.
"Cun e at lest ave ur ood?" Nathan calls to Jaune.
"Shut up Nathan." Jason says, "and swallow please that's just gross."
The group of friends turn to look at Jaune walk away with his head held low. Not noticing that behind them Cardin has gotten back off the ground and was giving Jaune a menacing smile.
