Hope you guys enjoy this new chapter!

Chapter 8: A Memorable Battle

"Find anything yet?", Rai called out to Jellal, who had climbed up the top of a tree to see where the abandoned temple was. He looked down at the Dragon Slayer and shook his head. "Nothing." He proceeded to jump down from the tree and landed on his feet. "This is very challenging. We'll never find the temple at this rate." Eventually, the two returned to where Jaune and Pyrrha were and the four started walking through the forest again.

Elsewhere, Kratos and Natsu had managed to find the temple on their own and started looking around it. What surprised them was that on the many stone podiums there were different types of chess pieces. Some were yellow while some were black. Some pieces were already gone. "Looks like we weren't the first ones to get here.", Natsu said. Kratos nodded in agreement to what he said. "Yeah."

At that very moment, Blake and Yang arrived and saw that the Slayers we're already there. "What's up, guys?", Yang asked, waving to them. Natsu smiled when he saw the two and walked over to them. "Hey. You guys just got here too?" Blake shrugged to him. "Obviously. It's not like this place is hard to find."

Near a rocky cave just far away from the temple, Jaune, Pyrrha, Rai, and Jellal were staring at it as if they were very cautious to enter. "Think this is it?", Jaune asked. Very soon, the four were walking inside while Jaune was holding a torch in his hand. Pyrrha looked very concerned at the moment while walking. "I'm not sure this is it..." Rai ended up nodding in agreement as he looked around. "I totally agree. Maybe this is just a cave."

Jaune sighed as he turned to the others. "Guys, I made the torch. Could you at least humor me for maybe 5 more feet?" Suddenly, Jaune tripped over on his feet and dropped the torch into a small puddle. Jaune stood back up and, though it was now dark, was clearly upset. "Do you feel that?", Pyrrha asked while looking around. "Soul crushing regret?", Jaune asked. "No, it's...warm." Jellal had noticed the warm feeling from inside the cave and had now become suspicious. Weren't caves supposed to be cold, not warm? Strange.

Back at the temple, the other two teams were deciding on what chess piece to take back with them. Yang was staring at a yellow knight piece before deciding to grab it and hold it up for Blake to see. "How about a cute little pony?" Blake smiled as she rolled her eyes. "Sure." Kratos eventually grabbed a yellow king chess piece and tossed it to Natsu, who was quick to catch it. "Got what we came here to get. What now?", Kratos stated. The others shrugged to him.

Walking until they reached the end of the cave, they sighted something that was floating and glowing a bright yellow. Jaune ended up smiling big. "That's the relic!" As he tried to grab it, the yellow thing pulled away before he could. "Hey! Bad relic!" Jaune would then jump at it and was successful at grabbing it. "Gotcha!" Suddenly, Pyrrha, Rai, and Jellal all looked very scared when they realized what Jaune was holding onto. "Jaune..." Red lights soon lit up to reveal that the thing Jaune was holding onto was the stinger of a Deathstalker.

Jaune ended up screaming so loud and high pitched that it could be heard from the temple by the other teams. Having heard the scream, Yang turned to the direction it was heard from. "Some girl's in trouble!" Blake became very concerned upon hearing the scream. "Blake, did you hear that?"

Though Jaune was still screaming from inside the cave, Pyrrha and the two men were quick to run out of the cave. The Deathstalker burst out of the cave while Jaune was holding onto the stinger for dear life. The Deathstalker roared loud as it tried flinging the young man off its stinger. "Why?! Pyrrha! Jellal! Rai! This is not the relic! It's not! Do something!" Rai and Pyrrha had drawn their weapons while Jellal had taken a defensive stance. "Jaune! Whatever you do, don't let-" before she could even finish, the Grimm was able to fling Jaune off its stinger and into the air, causing him to scream again. "...go." Turning back to the large Grimm, Pyrrha scratched the back of her head nervously before making a run for it.

The Deathstalker proceeded to follow after her through the forest, leaving both Jellal and Rai behind to watch. "And it's going after Pyrrha, not us.", Rai said, lowering his sword. "What do we do now?" Before he could even say anything, a loud hiss could be heard from behind them. When the two turned around to see what it was, it was a large spider Grimm, also known as a Recluse. It had white armor with red details on its back, legs, and head while the rest of its body was black and its eyes were red.

Upon seeing such a thing, Rai fell back onto the ground unconscious. Jellal had saw this and was quick to make him stand back up. "This isn't the time for your phobia to kick in! Run!" Now standing again, Rai started running with Jellal down the same direction where Pyrrha and the Deathstalker went, the Recluse following after them.

"Ruby!", Weiss shouted to Ruby as they were holding onto something with black feathers.

"I told you this was a terrible idea!"

"We're fine! Stop worrying!"

"I am so far beyond worrying!"

"In a good way?!"

"In a bad way! In a very bad way!"

"Well, why don't we just jump?!"

"What are you, insane?!"

No response was heard as Ruby was now gone. "Oh, you insufferable little red-"

Yang looked at Blake, who was staring up at the sky and pointing at something. She was waving at her to try and get her attention. "Blake, did you hear that? What should we d-" Suddenly, she looked up to see Ruby flying straight towards them. "HEADS UP!" Before she could crash into the ground, Jaune flew right into Ruby and both crashed into a nearby tree. Ruby, now laying on a branch, was dizzy and confused as to what just happened. "What was that?" Shaking her head, she looked up to see Jaune hanging upside down on a branch. "Hey Ruby..."

Walking over to the two girls, Kratos and Natsu were equally confused at the moment. "Did your sister just fall from the sky?", Blake asked. Yang was about to answer, but nearby, an Ursa was roaring and flailing its paws around before being shot by something and falling dead to the ground. On its back was Nora, who had used the beast as a ride. "Yeehaw!" She rolled off the dead Grimm and stood back up with a sad look on her face. "Awww. It's broken." Nora then jumped back on it and looked at it as Ren came running in and was now trying to catch his breath.

"Nora? Please...don't ever do that again.", he begged. After catching his breath, he looked up to notice that the hyper girl was now gone. Nora was now at the temple staring at a yellow Rook chess piece. She grabbed it and began to cheer. "I'm queen of the castle! I'm queen of the castle!" She was interrupted by Ren yelling at her. "NORA!" Nora chuckled and saluted like a soldier as she skipped back over to him. "Coming, Ren!"

"Did that girl just ride in on an Ursa?", Natsu asked while dumbfounded. Yes, even he knew what an Ursa was. Being in Remnant and learning from the books (Thanks to Kratos) helped him understand what kind of creatures lurked in the world. Yang tried to answer once again, but was again interrupted when they saw Pyrrha running towards them with the Deathstalker right behind her. "Jaune!"

"Pyrrha!", Jaune shouted back when he saw his partner in danger. Ruby stood up and jumped down from the tree. "Ruby!", Jaune called to her.

Ruby rolled on the ground and stood up next to the others. "Ruby?" Seeing her sister, Ruby became very happy and went in for a hug. "Yang!" before that could even happen, Nora got in between them with a happy expression on her face. "Nora!" Natsu couldn't help but laugh when he saw such a funny moment happen in front of him.

Kratos turned to see the Deathstalker still chasing the redheaded warrior. "Did she just run all the way here with a Deathstalker on her tail?" That when Yang grew extremely angry from having been interrupted multiple time. "I can't take it anymore! Could everyone just chill out for two seconds before something crazy happens again?!" As the two seconds flew by fast, Ren had made his way to the others and was once again out of breath. Ruby would then tap Yang's shoulder while staring up at the sky. "Um...Yang?"

In the sky, Weiss was holding onto the Nevermore's talon for dear life while visibly scared. "How could you leave me?!" The others stared up at the sky, specifically at the Nevermore and Weiss.

"I said jump.", Ruby said.

"She's gonna fall.", Blake replied.

"She'll be fine.", Ruby replied.

"She's falling.", Ren stated.

Having gotten himself off the branch, Jaune looked up to see that Weiss was falling out of the sky. Taking this opportunity, he jumped straight for her and was able to catch her in his arms. He smiled while holding her in his arms. "Just dropping in?" Eventually, they both realized that they were still in the air and both hung onto each other. "Oh God..." They began falling, their weapons following after them. "Nooooo!"

Kratos ended up sighing after seeing such stupidity happen. "I got 'em." He ran straight for them with such speed. As Jaune landed flat on his belly, Kratos jumped onto his back so that he could catch Weiss in his arms. She couldn't help blush and look away from him. "My hero..." Jaune was now groaning in pain from the weight on his back. "My back..."

"Can this day get any weirder?", Ruby asked while seeing the scene in front of her. Suddenly, Rai, who was screaming, and Jellal came running out of the forest with the Recluse behind them. "Oh cool! It's a Recluse!", Nora exclaimed in excitement. Ren looked at her with a surprised look. "Cool?! That thing is extremely dangerous!" At the same time, Weiss, having gotten out of Kratos' arms, had summoned a glyph that froze the Recluse's legs on the ground with ice, allowing the two to get away safely. "Thank you!", Rai called out as he ran with Jellal to the others. Just as they made it, Pyrrha was thrown straight to the ground in front of the others. "Great! The gang's all here! Now we can die together!"

Ruby turned to look at her sister. "Not if I can help it." She then charged at the Deathstalker with her scythe now drawn. She failed to lay even a scratch on the creature as it hit her and made her fall to the ground. Ruby slowly stood back up. "D-Do-Don't worry! Totally fine!" Turning back to the Grimm and firing one shot at it, she began walking back to where the others were. The Deathstalker started chasing her as yang began running towards her. "Ruby!"

As the sisters ran towards each other, the Nevermore from earlier began to fly towards them, firing large feathers at the red hooded girl. One was able to pin her hood to the ground as multiple almost hit Yang, causing her to fall to the ground. Ruby was now trying to free herself from the feather. Yang got up on her knees and looked to see Ruby trying to escape. "Ruby, get out of there!"

"I'm trying!", she yelled back while pulling on her hood. Very soon, the Deathstalker was right in front of her and prepared to strike her down with its stinger. Yang reached out for her sister, but a white figure passed by her with blinding speed and the sound of ice cracking was heard. "You are so childish.", Weiss' voice was heard. Ruby, having braced herself, looked up to see Weiss in front of her and ice around them. "Weiss?"

"And dimwitted, and hyperactive. And don't even get me started on your fighting style.", Weiss continued saying to her. "And I suppose, I can be a bit...difficult. But if we're going to do this, we're going to have to do this if you quit trying to show off, I'll be...nicer." Ruby looked at Weiss. "I'm not trying to show off. I want you to know I can do this." Weiss didn't look convinced at that moment. "You're fine." As she started walking away, Ruby sighed and placed her hands together. "Normal knees..." Looking at the Deathstalker, she saw that Weiss had frozen its stinger to the ground with ice. "Whoa!" Yang was quick to run over to Ruby and give her a hug. "So happy you're okay!"

The Nevermore was now circling around in the air, waiting for its prey. "Guys! That thing's circling back! What are we gonna do?", he told them while pointing up at the sky. "Look, there's no sense in dilly-dallying. Our objective is right in front of us.", Weiss replied, referring to the relics. "She's right.", Ruby responded to the others. "Our mission is to grab an artifact and make it back to the cliffs." Weiss smiled as she listened to what Ruby was saying. "There's no point in fighting these things." Jaune ended up smiling as well. "Run and live. That is an idea I can get behind." Soon, Ruby grabbed a yellow knight chess piece while Jaune grabbed a yellow rook chess piece and Rai picked up a yellow queen chess piece.

The group soon saw that the Deathstalker and the Recluse were close to breaking out of their icy traps. "Time we left.", Ren said to the others. "Right. Let's go.", Ruby said as she and the others started running through the forest. Before he could start running with them, Rai was stopped by Kratos, who was smiling at him. "What?", Rai asked his older brother. "You wanted to save her from the Grimm, didn't you?" Rai ended up scratching the back of his head and slowly nodded to him. "I would of, but Weiss got to her first." Kratos chuckled and patted Rai's back. "Don't worry. You'll beat her to her next time. Let's go." The two brothers soon began running after the others.

Soon, the 12 people found themselves in a large abandoned ruins just close to a large clip. They are forced to hide behind different walls to keep themselves from being seen by the Nevermore. As they hid there, Jaune turned to see that both the Nevermore and the Recluse had broken free from their restraints and were now charging towards the teams. "Oh, man, run!" Everyone began running away from the creatures some started fighting them.

"Jellal, watch my back!", Natsu shouted to him as he charged at the Deathstalker. "Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!" Natsu punched the creature with a powerful and fiery punch, sending it flying a few feet before running back to the others. Forced to run onto the bridge now that the Deathstalker was blocking the other side, the teams attempted to run to the other side. But the Nevermore soon flew straight into the bridge and destroyed almost half of it, separating the teams.

Each team was now fighting one Grimm:

Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang Vs. The Nevermore

Jaune, Pyrrha, Nora, and Ren Vs. The Deathstalker

Kratos, Natsu, Rai, and Jellal Vs. The Recluse.

During Jaune and the others' battle, Jaune was able to figure out how to defeat the Grimm. Earlier, Ren was able to injure the Deathstalker's stinger severely before being thrown into a wall. Now, the stinger was close to falling off. "Pyrrha!", he shouted to her. Knowing what she needed to do, Pyrrha threw her shield at the creature's tail and severed it's stinger, causing it to pierce into its head. "Nora, nail it!" Nora was quick to act. "Head's up!" Jumping onto Pyrrha's shield and firing a single shot to throw herself up into the air, Nora fell back down and used her hammer to slam the stinger into the Deathstalker. The force not only killed it, but it caused Jaune and Pyrrha to be launched over to the cliff and land safely as Nora was able to get onto the cliff as well. They had won their battle.

Now onto the girl's fight. Yang was now on a piece of ruins as she fired multiple shots at the Nevermore using her gauntlets. She would then jump into the air and jumped into the creatures mouth, but kept its mouth open so that she wouldn't be eaten and began unleashing rounds into the Grimm's mouth. "I! HOPE! YOU'RE! HUNGRY!" Yang then jumped out of its mouth and onto a bridge as the Nevermore flew into a wall. it was able to get its footing back and turned around before roaring. Weiss passed by Yang at top speed and used her Semblance to pin the creature down by its tail with ice so that it wouldn't escape.

Running back to the others, Blake and Yang had created a catapult using the rope on Blake's weapon as Ruby jumped on it with her feet on the blade of her scythe. Weiss also created a glyph so that it would keep Ruby in place before launching. "Of course you would come up with this idea.", she told her. "Think you can make the shot?", Ruby asked her. "Hmph. Can I?" Ruby became confused and looked at Weiss. "Can-" She was then interrupted by her. "Of course I can!" That was when at that moment, Ruby was launched into the air straight at the Nevermore, driving her scythe into its neck and landing on the cliff.

Weiss was quick to summon multiple glyphs going from Ruby up to the top of the cliff. This helped Ruby run up the cliff at top speed, dragging the nevermore with her. Once reaching the top, Ruby used all her strength to decapitate it. They had won their battle.

Meanwhile, Kratos and the others were in a heated battle with the Recluse, which was crawling on the cliff and firing balls of web at them. Jellal was doing his best to distract the creature by firing bright beams of light at it. Though this didn't kill the creature. The recluse then lunged off the cliff to try and get Jellal. Just before it had the chance to grab him, Rai fired straight at it and punched it with a lightning enhanced fist. "Lightning Dragon's Iron Fist!" The recluse was sent flying back into the cliff. While the battle kept going on, Kratos was trying to think of a strategy to kill it. That was when a memory appeared in his head.

(Flashback)

"Listen up, Kratos. It's time I give you some words of advice.", Makarov told him while he sat on the bar counter of the guild while Kratos stood there in front of him.

"Even though you may be a Fire Devil Slayer, that doesn't mean you're the most powerful Fire Wizard out there. I've seen a lot of Fire Wizards out there during my life, but so far, the best I've seen are those of you and Natsu. Remember though it is believed that the Devil is the Lord of Fire, even he can be defeated by the flames of a Dragon."

(Flashback ended)

Just remembering those words of advice from his master helped him with finding a strategy.

(*cue Fairy Tail Main Theme*)

"Jellal! Send the Recluse flying! I have an idea!", Kratos shouted as he ran over to Rai and Natsu. "Here's the plan." As the three went over the plan, Jellal started running on the cliff towards the Recluse, firing a barrage of beams at it. This got its attention and it crawled straight for him. Taking the opportunity, Jellal slid right under the creature and fired what appeared to be a very large beam of light under it and sent it flying over the ruins just above everyone. Rai, now on his hands, had Natsu's feet on his, for he was ready to launch him into the air, similar to how Weiss launched Ruby. "Kratos, now!"

Hearing the signal, Kratos had ran up the side of one of the pillars and jumped into the air. "Fire Devil's...Soaring Breath!" That was when he fired a large ball of fire from his mouth straight down to where Natsu and Rai were. "What is he doing?!", Pyrrha exclaimed when she saw what was happening. Smirking, Natsu caught the fireball in his hands and, using his magic, swallowed the entire thing up and sighed in satisfaction. "Thanks for the meal, Kratos!" Everyone else nearby was in shock upon seeing what Natsu just did.

"Did he really just eat that entire ball of fire?!", Weiss exclaimed in complete shock. Now fired up, Natsu was ready for battle. "Fire in the hole!" Rai used his Lightning Magic to launch Natsu straight into the air towards the Grimm. Fire began to engulf Natsu's body as he used it to his advantage. "Fire Dragon's Cosmic Tornado!" Spinning like a tornado, he flew straight into the Recluse's body, tearing a very large hole in its body and killing it. Its body fell into the canyon just below as Natsu landed on the cliff just far away from Ruby. The battle was officially over.

The others stood there in shock as they had just saw what Natsu had just did. "He killed the Recluse.", Ren said slowly. Nora was now extremely excited and started jumping up and down. "And in an awesome way! Better than us!" Standing there on the cliff, Natsu held his hands in fists as he let out a victorious roar, similar to when he first defeated Laxus.

(*Fairy Tail Main Theme End*)

"Russel Thrush, Cardin Winchester, Dove Bronzewing, Sky Lark.", Ozpin called out as four students stood on the stage. "The four of you retrieved the black bishop pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as...Team CRDL (Cardinal). Lead by...Cardin Winchester." Everyone in the audience began clapping as the new team left the stage. Jaune and his team stepped onto the stage after them.

"Jaune Arc, Lie Ren, Pyrrha Nikos, Nora Valkyrie. The four of you retrieved the white rook pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as...Team JNPR (Juniper)." Everyone started clapping for them. Nora laughed happily as she hugged Ren. "Lead by...Jaune Arc!" Jaune became very surprised upon hearing that he was the team leader while Pyrrha smiled right at him. "Huh? L-Lead by...?" Ozpin looked at the young man. "Congratulations, young man." Pyrrha happily pulled Jaune by his shoulder, though it caused him to fall down and people in the audience to laugh.

"Blake Belladona, Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, and Yang Xiao Long." Ruby and her team were now on the stage. "The four of you retrieved the white knight pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as...Team RWBY (Ruby). Lead by...Ruby Rose." Weiss was surprised to hear that Ruby was the leader of the team and not her, while Ruby ended up smiling. The audience started clapping, even whistling. Yang then hugged her sister. "I'm so proud of you!"

"And finally Kratos Sinclair, Raitsumaru Sinclair, Natsu Dragneel, and Jellal Fernandes. The four of you retrieved the white king and queen pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as...Team KRNJ (Carnage). Lead by...Kratos Sinclair." That was almost everyone in the audience began to cheer very loud for the new team. Natsu and Rai waved at everyone happily, Kratos had a smile on his face while his arms were crossed, and Jellal started clapping with everyone else. "Looks like things are shaping up to be an...interesting year.", Ozpin declared as he smiled at the new teams.

Elsewhere, in an abandoned warehouse somewhere in Vale, Roman Torchwick was standing in front of a table with a map of Vale on the wall while listening to something on the radio. He would then set it down on the table before letting out a disappointing sigh and lighting a cigar in his mouth for him to smoke. Very soon, a White Fang member came up behind him with a crate on a cart with him. Roman then gave him some Lien as payment. "Open it." The member complied and opened the crate, revealing rows of Dust crystals inside.

Near them, Dean Villiers, a young man with spiky red hair and white streaks, wearing black military like clothing with a trench coat and a silver cross with a silver star in the center around his neck with a chain, was leaning against the wall while watching a recording of Team KRNJ's fight against the Recluse on his scroll. Not looking impressed, he pocketed his scroll and walked over to where Roman was.

"We managed to secure this much from a factory just downtown from here. We plan to hit a ship that's going to be bringing larger crates of Dust here from the Schnee Dust Company in a few months.", he told him. "You in or not?" Inspecting a blue Dust crystal from the crate, Roman looked at Dean for a bit before giving him a straight answer. "We're gonna need more men."

I hope you guys liked this new chapter of KRNJ! Finally, the teams have been formed! I'm not gonna lie, I just typed up this chapter and let me tell you, it took me 5 hours to type. My fingers hurt. My normal chapters usually take me a few days or weeks, but this is the fastest time I've ever written a chapter. And it is by far my longest. I'm very proud of it.

RWBY Fact!

In the first episode of Volume 2, Mercury and Emerald referred to Tukson as a puma. This was a reference from the episode "Red Gets A Delivery" of Red Vs Blue made by both Church and Tucker.

See you guys next time!