On the far opposite side, the creatures slithered, twisted around the red trees and grass as they continued to make their way towards their destination.
They stopped.
Whatever could be considered heads turned over to the far opposite side of the forest. There was a vivid, tasty, and raw negative emotion attracting them all from one being. They had orders yes, but they could not reject what was so carved into their essence. Yet they didn't even hesitate and slithered their way towards the massive emotional spike.
It all hurt to be honest, the ringing in his head, the strange flat, high pitched white noise that sometimes comes with temporary deafness, and worst of all is the blurry eyesight that can only take shadows and shapes much like that tall vague shadow looking to be reclining something big to smash Jared's face in.
The thing about being a Hunter was that sometimes you were trained to the point where your body would move even before the rest of your mind did. From whatever slow gaining comprehension Jared was having, he instinctively powered up his arm and backhanded the fist—which felt like slamming his arm on steel—and made it miss his head by inches, still he still felt the ground shake and the strong dust fly into his face again. That really didn't help his healing senses.
"…in!? G… ff! Gah!?" Jared felt several figures go on top of the figure above him, as if trying to stop whatever pinned him down. He felt a huge relief on his neck go, and his eyes focused.
Cardin was already pretty huge among everyone here, but his armor just had to make things worse by making him even more juggernaut like. His helmet looked cylindrical in shape, with the top looking only slightly rounded the visor this time was a short cross where his eyes were near the two side edges. His shoulder pads were huge, bulky, but also looked heavily armored. His chest plate looked bulky and there was this huge X stretched across the plate that looked similar to the ancient order of knights known as the crusaders.
The rest of RDL were trashing around, clinging desperately on Cardin's powered up form, only to be tossed like rag dolls in three different directions.
Jared tried to get back up, but coughed violently some spit, his aura may have protected him, but the pain he felt around his body still forced him to stagger back down. That cough caught the attention of Cardin as he turned his glowing indigo eyes towards the downed purple boy.
"RAH!" Cardin screamed as he charged right for Jared.
Thinking fast, he forced himself up—gaining enough of his mind back to jump out of the way of being rammed again.
But he didn't need to, something froze Cardin mid charge.
"Cardin Winchester!" The voice of Glynda Goodwitch the teacher screamed as she held her crop with both her hands as Cardin somehow was overpowering Glynda's telekinesis. "I've never seen this before…"
"Resh!" Jaune's voice rang in his ears with shock and worry. He was shortly followed by the rest of both Teams RWBY and JNPR.
Suddenly, Cardin's entire body jerked free and wailed to the opposing skies above the red earth. For one second, they all could have sworn the trees around them freeze, as if what power held them together was waning slightly at the aura enhanced roar. The fierce armor's body slacked, as if tired from his mighty shout. Everyone paused for a second, wondering what was going on. The head was bent down as it slacked, but then it slowly turned his head towards Glynda with his pale, glowing indigo eyes behind a black visor seemingly locking onto her direction.
Then with almost something akin to an after image, Cardin punched the ground beneath him, causing the area to rumble from the strike and a chunk of earth to protrude up and outward from the ground. Jared's eyes widened, but he was too late to react as Cardin punched the boulder to be launched at blurring speeds towards the Huntress who was ironically sent to protect them. Glynda acted quickly, stopping the rock just before it crashed into her.
"Ms. Goodwitch, get out!" Jared screamed with urgency.
One second too late.
The boulder cracked, a small one—that encompassed the entire rock in milliseconds before exploding all towards her. Instinctively she set up another barrier, but Cardin came smashing through the rock fist first, that shattered the defense and slammed his armored limb right into the teacher's stomach, sending her flying through several trees a good distance before the trees themselves corrected themselves in place.
To his credit, Professor Oobleck reacted quickly, turning his mug into a weapon just as quickly. It was odd to see the mug quickly turn into a kanabo like flamethrower.
"Mr. Winchester, I order you to desist—" Unlike Glynda who was caught off guard, Professor Oobleck seemed well trained in parrying the flurry of fists Cardin threw at the Doctor.
Mr. Oobleck dodged amazingly, but Cardin suddenly backed off a good distance away. In the space where he once was, sniper bullets and other blasts hit the empty space in front of the Hunter/professor/doctor.
"Teams RWBY and JNPR. Let me handle this, take care of both the rest of CRDL and Ms. Goodwitch." He calmly told them as he fixed his glasses before Cardin launched himself at him again fist thrown.
Jaune looked back quickly at the indisposed RDL before saying to Pyrrha, Ren and Nora, "Guys! Get the Sky and the others, I'll go get Ms. Goodwitch!"
Jared looked back to his dad, slightly glad that he acted fast, before he was distracted by Cardin's wails and looked back at the fight.
The professor nimbly dodged a left and a right punch while spinning his thermos weapon behind him. Cardin then twisted his entire body, lifting his right leg into a hook kick aiming right for the head of the professor. The green haired doctor dodged by ducking under it, and stepping forward as he did before spinning his body in order to make his half Thermos half Kanabo like weapon smack the back of Cardin's neck, an area not so protected by armor. Cardin staggered forward, tripping a bit before catching himself and launching himself back at the Hunter.
"Whoo! Go teach!" Yang cried as the rest of Team RWBY looked impressed by the skills of the quirky professor.
However, Jared saw the gleam in the face visor sharpen and glow more vividly. He cursed inwardly since he knew what that meant.
Cardin punched only the air as Oobleck rolled to his right side and slammed his weapon into the armpit of the extended arm, causing Cardin to flinch once more. The hunter capitalized the moment, hitting the back of Cardin's knees to make him bend and fall over before continuing to spin once more and smack the left side of his neck, carefully aiming for all parts not so heavily plated.
Oobleck held his weapon with both of his hands and swung his signature weapon towards the neck once more to the staggering juggernaut.
Then Cardin ducked.
Jared's eyes, and essentially everyone else still conscious, widened in fear at what actually happened; Cardin did not just duck, he fell to the ground, hands stabilizing him at the same exact time he jumped and kicked off both his feet and slammed them right into the unsuspecting Hunter's stomach. There was a loud metal 'Thwang' that everyone could hear as Professor Oobleck crashed into a tree and bounced off it from it under three seconds.
Cardin did not waste any movement or moment, as soon as he kicked the teacher, he swung and rolled his body in a break dance-like fashion to have his legs spin 180 degrees and make him face the direction where he kicked his teacher. Then he jumped off from the ground like a marathon runner and rammed into Professor Oobleck seconds after he bounced off the tree, crashing through it and crushing the skinny doctor between a tree and a really, really hard place.
Ruby gasped before acting quickly with Crescent Rose drawn out. "Alright, I'm not watching anymore! Team RWBY, it's go time!"
Cardin was on top of the injured protector, ready to bring his empowered fist down hard on the professional hunter. A black ribbon tied itself around the raised fist quickly, Blake pulled back on the black weapon to prevent the fist being brought down. Oobleck tried to act fast, but Cardin acted even faster. Instead of his fist, he slammed his head down onto the down hunter and repeatedly head butted him with his reinforced skull. Several hits in and Oobleck's Aura was already taking nose cliff dives.
Yang helped Blake and then the two yanked the weapon as hard as they could to get Cardin up and off Professor Oobleck, that Jared swiftly skated in and scooped him out of the fight. Cardin glared angrily as he saw Jared's color pass by him, but he lifted his arm to block a scythe hitting him in the chest.
"Cardin! Snap out of it!" Ruby cried before backing off as Cardin pushed the scythe back and then his free hand grabbed his mace. Then Cardin used his restrained hand to grab onto Blake's tether before tugging hard on it, making Yang and Blake slowly move towards him.
"Guys!" Ruby screamed as Yang and Blake pulled back to prevent them coming closer. Weiss jumped and launched an electrical blast at Cardin, who swatted the attack away with his mace.
It was then Ruby remembered something about the armor from her experience. "Aim for the orb! Remove it from the chest!"
Jared paled as he remembered something crucial. "Wait! Ruby! Not in that—" However, the moment their leader cried out the order, Yang and Blake launched themselves at Cardin. Yang first to counter the blow from the Mace, while Blake nimbly stepped in between them, her hand about to reach for the orb etched into the chest plate.
The moment her finger touched the orb, a blast of electricity shot out through the armor and shocked Blake and Yang.
"Only the wearer can take out the orb! Anything else that physically touches it gets shocked with a high voltage!" Jared finished, throwing rocks and getting Cardin's attention and forcing the enrage behemoth lock on to him.
"Why didn't you tell us that earlier!?" Weiss screamed out before she and Ruby picked up their downed teammates.
"… It… slipped… my mind!' Jared weaved under the wild and fast swings, before taking a page from the professor and rolling beside a wide punch into a jump and hook kicking Cardin right under the armpit. Cardin staggered from the blow only slightly before regaining his composure and snarling angrily as he looked back at Jared.
Cardin raised his mace, only to find it for some reason stuck mid air with a black hue around it. Cardin grunted and soon his mac moved again to slam down on Jared, but the pause allowed him to get away from the crater that was created from the impact.
"Resh!" Jaune and the rest of Team JNPR came in.
"What happened?" Ren asked both Ruby and Weiss as he and Pyrrha helped them move Blake and Yang.
"Don't touch the orb, it looks like a weak spot, but it's deceptively not." Weiss adamantly said. "Are the others safe?"
"Yeah, but we need to focus on Cardin! Resh, what's happening to him!?" Jaune cried over to the boy.
Cardin seemed still heavily focused on him, so it was quite hard for him to answer. "Little… BUSY!?" Jared ducked under a high side kick, only to block as he saw the other leg jump off and kick his coated arms and send him tumbling and slamming into a tree.
The brown crusader screamed wildly before running angrily towards the purple boy. To Jared's surprise, Jaune stepped in, shield first between him and the berserk crusader. Of course surprise was only for a few seconds before all feelings of shock were replaced with horror When Cardin just punched the shield, pushing Jaune back like he was never even there. The boy from the future gritted his teeth, got up and quickly pushed with Jaune against Cardin though it did very little to stop the force pushing them both back, forcing the ground to scar as their feet dug in to the ground to stop.
Everyone raised their weapons, but Ruby shouted, "Wait! You might hit Jaune and Resh!"
Jared looked to Jaune before both of them nodded in silence. They both retracted their arms, Jaune's right and Jared's left arm, together, coating it with their aura before both punching Cardin in the face. The impact from both of them was enough to knock him back a few feet, but it only seemed to make him angrier.
"Now we can unload everything." Ruby cried out before everyone else fired at Cardin, the bullets seemed to not do much but annoy Cardin even further before he momentarily forgot about Jared and launched himself towards the others.
"Alright!" Jaune grunted, "Now can you tell me what's going on?"
"My armor amplifies everything. That includes negative emotions. For some reason, Cardin was angry when he first activated it, and now he's in a state of rage," Jared sighed. "Unfortunately this means that the angrier he gets, the harder he fights."
"Wow, comic book much? So why hasn't he shown any signs of stopping since you say it's supposed to drain aura quickly?" Jaune noted he started to get anxious as he saw Nora slam her hammer into Cardin but just made him scream even louder in almost a mad annoyance.
Jared looked back at his dad. "In all fairness, we all do stupid things when we let anger get the better of us… currently Cardin's anger has been supercharged. And since he's pretty much running on adrenaline, his aura is probably sky rocketing to the point it evens out the usual drain the armor does to someone in a normal state. I'm starting to think comic book writers were on to something about making a super powered being stronger based off anger." He tried to remain calm as he saw Weiss froze Cardin whole, only for the latter to shatter the ice and break free of it mere seconds after it was cast.
Jaune's blue eyes suddenly lit up. "Wait, how similar is this situation to a comic book?"
"Uhh, well to be honest I have been in this state before, it took my dad a hard time to stop me. But if I was to guess, it should be pretty similar." Jared answered unsurely.
Jaune solemnly placed his hand on Jared's shoulders. "We've been going about this all wrong. I have an idea but I need you to trust me completely."
Jared nodded willingly. "I trust you sir."
"Then strip."
"Wait wha—"
Everyone was surprised when Jared, with his hood up, jumped out and started waving his hands frantically in the air and doing a lot of awkward movements. "Hey, look at me! I'm Resh Kolc, a super sadistic Jerk who thinks he knows everything!"
Cardin turned away from the tiring group of students and wailed madly at the screamer before launching himself after the purple clad boy started running in the opposite—did he just scream like a little girl?
"Wait… was Resh the one screaming like a little girl back at initiation?" Ruby asked out loud as he saw Jared run away… which was odd now that she thought about it.
Pyrrha quickly turned to Jaune… who also had his hood on and was almost looking in disbelief at where Jared and Cardin went off… wait. Something actually seemed off with Jared with the way he described himself, it was actually something Ja—
The Amazon found herself walking up to her 'partner' and removing his hood, only to find a shocked Jared staring off in the distance with his mouth wide open.
"Resh?!" Pyrrha cried out. "Di-Did you two swap clothes!?" And how did you do it so fast? The very curious side of her brain asked.
"That's what he was trying to do!?" Resh snapped out of his stupor by yelling that.
"I knew it! Resh and Jaune secretly are clones!" Nora snapped her fingers while swinging her hand.
"Wait," Ren spoke out. "What were you two doing?"
Ruby was surprisingly the one keeping her head straight. "Resh, explain that later. We have to go after Jaune! Ren, Nora, can you guys watch after the others?"
"Okie dokie!" Nora saluted while Ren nodded.
The smaller girl pointed ahead. "OK, the rest of us chase after Jaune!" Before racing off with Weiss, Pyrrha, and Resh.
"Why on earth did you two swap clothes!?" Weiss demanded from Resh as they followed the trail of broken trees and loud crashing in the distance.
"Right, I first have to tell you what I told Sir."
'OK, not one of my better plans I admit!' Jaune frantically panicked as he struggled to skate on this terrain. It was a good thing he knew how to skate as a kid, and it was also a good thing he also borrowed Resh's skates when they swapped clothes.
The wheels were certainly helping, albeit not quite as much in trying to avoid someone who could currently launch themselves around a hundred MPH. Yet the key to all of this was making quick turns and erratic movements instead of just going one straight line.
It was also a cool bonus that the area was fixing itself after being destroyed a few times. It was really helping out his strategy, which he really, really hoped was going to work.
Basically, Cardin was only going to get angrier the more he fought with everyone or aim for Resh for some odd reason. But in the comics, they actually showed that berserk rages like these are just like tantrums, to a more damaging and violent extent, you just have to let them lash out without giving them more reason to get angry. Some heroes simply dodged all attacks and waited for the berserker to simply tire out, which what he was doing right now.
Resh told him that it was adrenaline and anger that was making Cardin keep the armor longer than usual, so it stood to reason that if he wasn't angry, his mind would come back and the armor would do the rest. Since you could calm yourself by hitting things, preferably the kinds that were not living beings, Cardin would become less angry if he kept hitting these trees while not hitting Jaune. Eventually it would come to a point where his anger would die down and exhaustion would catch up, allowing his mind to kick back in.
But he really, really neglected the speed boost part of the armor.
Jaune yelped as he ducked under a large root Cardin busted through only a few seconds after. He wasn't actually sure if his idea was working since he was so focused on not being pummeled by the big brute.
He heard another roar from Cardin as he saw the figure jump high, mace ready then slam it on the ground he was mere seconds ago. Amazingly enough, a large shockwave followed after the hit, making the ground shoot up and seemingly aim after Jaune.
"Aww come on?!" Jaune whined quickly before the ground shot up beneath him and made him fly into the ground. "Oof!"
"Kolc! You are dead!" Cardin's distorted, enraged voice came out as he stalked towards the boy in disguise.
Hold up, Cardin was actually speaking this time. Now was the time to see if his gamble was really paying off. Jaune faced towards Cardin and removed his hood. "Cardin, wait it's me, Jaune!"
The crusader paused, the glow around the orb dimmed, much to the great relief of the young knight. "Arc?"
Jaune got up, putting his hands out carefully, and walking cautiously to Cardin. "Yeah it's me."
The glowing color of the eyes seemed to become less bright as well then Winchester placed his free hand on his head. "Wha… what's…" He dropped his mace, and then in a flash of brown light, Cardin was on the floor, almost looking passed out completely.
Jaune would have leaped for joy if he wasn't so tired. "Phew! Oh Thank Dust that worked!" He chuckled to himself. "Man, and things usually go bad for me."
So when he heard a different kind of growling coming from behind him, he cursed himself for performing the ultimately stupid cliché: tempting fate by saying something dumb.
It was a good thing he kept his blade and scabbard shield with him. Jaune armed Corcea Mors before turning around and seeing the biggest Ursa he's seen yet. The Ursa roared spitefully before running towards him. Jaune had half a mind to get out of the way, but quickly recalled that he was the only thing standing between Cardin and a giant Ursa.
The Ursa stood up on its hind, stubby legs and towered over nine feet tall. It then raised its paw high before smashing it into Jaune's raised shield and forcing the boy to stagger back.
It unfortunately continued its slashing, forcing Jaune to strengthen the aura around his arms to mitigate the heavy blows and hold his ground and duck under a few blows. "Of course, I have to protect an unconscious guy—hrk! Who was previously trying to punch my faceiiinnn!? From a stupid—Ursa Grimm that just so happens to come, when I thought I was finally done!" Jaune complained as he held firm against the taller Grimm.
The Ursa slashed left and right at the shield until it brought both of its claws raised up high. Jaune panicked, at that stance and the way it brought its arms up, it was going to try and crush him with his weight.
Moving quickly, and mentally hoping Cardin would forgive him, Jaune kicked his body with a little more force to roll him out of the way… a few feet away, and sent him rolling like a rag dool, before jumping in an opposite direction to avoid the body slam.
CRUNCH!
Jaune raised his brow before looking back, what just made that sound? It seemed to have come from when the Ursa body slammed the place he and Cardin were momentarily…
What are those chunks of metal on its paw? Is that a piece of shattered crystal on its claws with small sparks of electricity?
A dark thought dreaded over Jaune's mind.
"Did I just destroy Resh's weapon?" Cardin last had the buckle; he must have fallen on it when he collapsed. And Jaune just kicked his body out of the way, leaving the oh-so helpful weapon crushed under the weight of a giant Ursa.
Jaunbe looked down and paled, he saw the buckle, dented, cracked, and crushed but it still looked to be in one piece—one flat piece, but Resh was going to kill him.
The Ursa looked at Jaune, but he was so stunned in his thoughts that he was as still as a rock. It then looked over to Cardin, lingering hateful emotion was still there and it stalked towards the unconscious boy.
Jaubne snapped out of his stupor when he saw the beast move again. "Oh no, you don't!" He quickly ran, getting Corcea Mors ready before leaping high and stabbing his sword right at the back of the Ursa's neck.
The Ursa jerked high upward in pain as it tried to trash whatever was on it off it. Jaune held on, briefly wondering how Nora made this look so easy, as he felt himself being a little sick from the sudden jerking motions.
Ruby and the other three finally came and saw Jaune ridding on top of a stabbed Ursa and trying to steer it away from Cardin. Then Jaune twisted the blade and tore it from the inside of the neck to the outside.
The large beast had one ghastly roar before quickly being silenced and fell. Jaune jumped off at the last second before being crushed under the weight of the beast, but feel on his back with a groan.
"I got Cardin. You girls get Jaune." Jared quickly said, but saw all girls heading towards Jaune almost the moment after he said he got Cardin. Jared couldn't help but smile. "So that's how his luck balances out."
Jaune slowly opened his eyes to see three figures staring on top of him. "Man, am I dead because I see three beautiful angels."
Weiss scoffed. "If you're still flirting then you appear to be alright."
Jaune chuckled weakly before sitting up and being helped by Ruby and Pyrrha. Then he paled as he saw Jared standing over what was left of his weapon. Jaune shot up and said. "Resh! I am so sorry!"
"…" Jared just sighed heavily. "It's fine. At least you guys are safe."
"Look I didn't mean to leave it crushed. I forgot Cardin was holding it and he and I were about to be crushed so I had to kick him out—"
Jared raised his hand out to him in a stop motion. "Sir, it's fine. Really." Jared bent down and picked up what was left of his weapon, seemingly thinking about it as he looked at its tored up state and honestly looking a bit sad.
"Resh, seriously, I know how much that weapon meant to you."
"And I know how much you knew. Don't worry Sir, I'm… upset… but I know you didn't mean it."
"But I should have done more—"
"Jaune," Jared smiled kindly. "It's OK. I forgive you."
Jaune slumped in defeat.
"Resh is right. You still helped us Jaune." Pyrrha said, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder. "If it wasn't for you, Cardin would still be causing everyone trouble."
"Yeah!" Ruby came to his opposite side. "And did you see how cool you were ridding that Ursa? Sure Nora did it, but you went full rodeo like and lopped his head off like butter! I mean who cares if you broke one of the coolest weapons ever?!"
"I give you an 'A' for effort; 'C-' for execution, Ruby." Jared quickly said as Ruby faced away with her hood on.
"We might want to return to the others." Weiss voiced out, her hands folded. "We might need medical attention for some of them."
Jared complied and went towards Cardin—before freezing and his eyes widening.
Weiss, Pyrrha, Ruby, and Jaune noticed that sudden movement.
"Uhh, Resh?" Jaune asked hesitantly the boy wearing his clothes.
Jared quickly moved and slugged Cardin over his shoulder. He grunted slightly from the weight before looking to Jaune. "Sir, this is important, did you run into this Ursa, or did this Ursa find you?!" He tried his best, but no matter how much he tried, he still sounded to be in panic.
"Umm… the Ursa found us?" Jaune answered before Pyrrha's eyes widened and she armed her weapons again. "Resh, what's going on?"
"Don't you remember!? My armor amplifies emotions!" Now Weiss seemed to get some secret code as she also took out her rapier again.
"W-What?" Jaune repeated. "J-just say it!"
"Sorry, my armor just magnified a negative emotion, anger, tenfold, and what is attracted to negative human emotion?"
"Grimm." Ruby answered automatically.
Jared nodded darkly. "Cardin was a rage induced monster, there's going to be more than just one Ursa heading our way, so we need to leave, yesterday."
Jared turned, but froze again. There was something behind the trees he was going to walk to. Something big, and it was snarling softly.
"Really!?" Jaune put his hands on his head. "Can this get any worse!?"
The large body then split into three, long, lanky, snake-like bodies. That all stood up at a towering height that made the giant Ursa positively miniscule. It was actually twice the Ursa's size, but it was still terrifying none the less. Their masks were the only thing remotely clean while the rest of their body looked horribly ugly with some odd combination of skin, scale, and feathers on their root like arms. They had large wings—or what looked to be bat wings that still stretched wide that blocked the sunlight for the six hunters in training. Their claws looked like giant bird talons but were almost twisted and willowy, as if they could curl or straighten at any moment. The feet, if it could be called that, were huge bulky, but looked to be rotting. The eyes behind their masks glowed a eerily gold. And lastly, their hideous heads looked like some kind of cross between a monster and a catfish's face, all of their mouths looked disgusting, dripping with odd goop on their rotting scales.
Jared turned to Jaune with a deadpan look of disappointment. "I hate you."
"I hate me too." Jaune nodded.
"Weiss, what Grimm is that?" Ruby asked while readying Crescent Rose.
"No it couldn't be… those are Jabberwockies, A-class level Grimm! Their kind shouldn't be here, let alone in groups! This does not fit their habitat!" Weiss cried out.
It was then two of the horrid Grimm, flew from both sides while the middle one fell to the floor and slithered quickly on the ground, coiling its long lanky body around the group with his head snarling at them. Ruby and Pyrrha unloaded some rounds at the head, yet while the bullets hit their mark, they didn't seem to be doing much, the scales looked like they were giving way and absorbing the bullets.
"Why isn't shooting at its face working? Shooting something in the face should always work!" Jaune cried out.
"Jabberwocky Grimm have a very powerful regeneration and healing ability. Their skin can heal bullet wounds faster than a minigun can shoot. And their rotting scales weakens elemental dust used against them."
"Do they have a Weak Spot?!" Jaune asked quickly, remembering that Boartusk had a weakness that could be exploited.
Before they could do more, the Jabberwock surrounding them inhaled before blowing a green, nauseous gas at them.
"Don't breathe its breath, its poison!" Weiss cried quickly, using a wind dust to blow away the breath cloud away back at the creature.
The sun became blotted out. The other flying monsters were preparing to inhale another toxic breath at the encircled group.
"They're trying to trap us!" Jared yelled out. Pyrrha and Jaune tried to attack the body of the beast, but then their blades stopped from the scale, instead of cutting through, it almost looked like the skin was absorbing the blades.
Ruby tried to jump out, but the tail of the trapper Jabberwocky slammed her quickly back in.
"Weiss, if you remember, what's their weak spot!?" Jaune cried as he and Pyrrha yanked their weapons from the body.
The heiress seemed to struggle, switching the dust chambers in her weapon almost nervously. "I... I didn't read that far!"
The two flying monsters unleashed their poisonous breath down on them.
"It's their neck!"
Suddenly a hail of dust arrows shot in the air between the six and the falling poison, the arrows exploded upward and a powerful gale of winds directed the poisonous air to scatter away.
The Jabberwocky surrounding Jaune and the others screeched before opening itself up and regrouped with its two brothers. Everyone turned over to who shot those arrows, they were all surprised to see Russel wielding a bow with glowing string before he clicked something and it turned into two separate daggers with fancy dust crystals designed around the handles.
Sky, Dove, Ren, Nora, Blake, and Yang shortly came right after him.
"Ruby!" Yang cried out worriedly.
"Yang!" Her sister returned back and ran up to hug her before all of them regrouped together. "You guys are up?"
Sky placed his halberd over his shoulder. "The last thing I recalled was trying to stop Cardin, next thing I know: I found myself waking up to Ms. Goodwitch. I know she's hot, but she also scares me, so until I know the net gain of waking up next to her, I'm going to call that a bad thing."
"Oh please, at least you didn't get decked in the face for trying to wake someone up." Dove managed to give an impressive glare towards Yang also while pointing his gun blade towards the three Jabberwockies.
"Being shocked by a few thousand volts can do that to a girl," Yang answered back. "I was trying to punch Cardin. Not my fault my brain registered that thought later."
"Uhhh… my head." Speaking of the subject, it seemed like Cardin was getting his head back together. Jared placed him down and the rest of Cardin's team surrounded him.
"And this is why people don't do dibs anymore." Dove started, smilingly cockily, before he and Sky helped their leader up. "How ya feeling Cardin?"
"Like someone gave my brain to heavy metal drummer. Speaking of which, I heard there's grimm? Mind if I help in smashing their face this time?" Cardin rubbed his head before Jared gave him back his mace.
Ren looked around them. "… I hate to point this out, but while we were talking, the Grimm have encircled us."
Unfortunately for them, he was right. The Grimm were not as passive to just let their prey politely catch up and regroup. All three of them had encircled all thirteen teenagers in a much bigger circle, snarling, and seemingly patient in watching for their next move.
"Where are the teachers?" Weiss asked as the tree teams aimed their weapons at the powerful Grimm.
"Ms. Goodwitch stayed behind to watch Oobleck. Apparently, the Armor does something to really disturb another person's aura. Ms. Goodwitch was still feeling the pain from Cardin's punch."
"Can we focus on the three high level Grimm about to attack us please?" Russel asked calmly, turning his daggers together back into their bow form and aiming a green dust capsule at one of the Grimm.
"Sky, what did you mean that their necks were weak spots?" Jaune asked seriously.
"Some hunters claim that these things can only be killed with fire since they always live in cold, dark damp caves, or thick forests. But I heard from one of my sources that if you can cut of their necks, you'll stop their regeneration. They've got resistance to dust, even fire based, so unless we want a forest fire spreading throughout a never ending forest, I suggest we go for the beheading option."
"OK then. There are three of them and three teams of us. One team takes on a Jabbawocky each."
"Sounds good to me." Cardin readied his mace.
"We're totally ready for it!" Ruby cheered.
Jaune looked to his right and saw Pyrrha and Ren nodding, turning to his left Nora and Resh gave him a huge smile and four thumbs up. "Alright, let's do this! We're taking the front one! Nora hit low, Resh hit high! Ren, Pyrrha, cover them. Don't let them use their breath!"
Nora and Resh broke the formation first before Team JNPR raced off to fight against one of the Grimm. To their enemies' credit, the other two quickly locked their sights on Team JNPR and raced for them.
"CRDL, don't let that one even close to JNPR!"
"Team RWBY, show them how we do it!"
The other two teams responded quickly, intercepting their opponent's reinforcements and from utilizing their own advantage of entrapment.
Team RWBY acted fast, aiming for the one that was slithering quickly towards JNPR's left flank. It stopped as it saw the four girls and spun its body in a bizarre manner to whip its tail at them.
Blake, Weiss, and Ruby jumped, but Yang readied her fists before punching into the tail and canceling its momentum.
Despite that, the head twisted its head almost 180 degrees, ready to unleash its venomous air on the three girls coming down on it. Weiss readied a blue dust chamber ready, then fired an ice Blast that froze the head of the creature solid. Still the beast would not give up and shot out its wings like fangs towards the girls. Blake reacted quickly, creating a body double mid air to push herself towards Weiss and move her out of the way and push Ruby to dodge but still head towards the weak spot.
Ruby readied Crimson Rose, spun and in a blur of rose petals, and cut through the neck of the creature before sliding along the red grass from the momentum.
Trying to attack JNPR's right flank, the second Jabbawocky flew towards an intervening CRDL that stood their ground as it charged right for them.
"Take out its wings!" Cardin barked.
Dove spun his revolver part of his gun sword quickly before horizontally slashing it towards the incoming beast and unleashing a 'sword-beam' wave of bullets coming off from the smoking blade. A wide line of randomly plotted bullets riddled the creature's wings and made it come crashing towards them.
Russel quickly aimed his bow with two dust capsules, one pale blue and one bleak gray. He split shot them to the sides of the crashing beast, the pale blue one freezing the right wing to a halt and the other entrapping the next wing in hard stone, slowing its crashing speed greatly from the combined weight, but still coming closer.
Cardin was the only one of his team to step forward, both hands on his mace as he walked towards the moving Jabberwocky.
"Good, still got one more left in me!' Cardin said to himself before swinging his mace like a baseball bat and hitting the side of face of the Grimm. The impact stopped the face and head, but it made the body turn awkwardly and flounder ahead of the face towards the rest of RDL.
But Sky already noticed that from where they were standing, only the neck was going to hit them. He raised his halberd high and slammed down on it as it came snapping the body off from the neck and making it fly harmlessly into trees that will later fix themselves.
Team JNPR's opponent raised its wings, as if to start flying into the sky. Ren quickly acted and unleashed a barrage of bullets that riddled holes into the wings of the beast, it didn't seem to do much damage, but it prevented it from flying away, but he had to keep firing to keep up with its regeneration.
Their Jabbawocky then inhaled, but Pyrrha acted fast, throwing Akoúo̱ in its spear form into the mouth. The Jabberwocky screeched in pain as it felt the metal stab into its throat. But Pyrrha added more into it. She used her semblance to feel her spear in the creature and pushed it further, making it wail in pain more as it shot out of the back of its mouth and into a tree. The pain it went through allowed Nora to come sliding in, hammer ready to slam her weapon into one of the knee caps of the creature. She laughed maniacally as the large lanky Grimm fell forward then aimed for the other untouched kneecap.
At the same time, Jared saw the Jabberwocky falling right towards him and jumped, grabbing some of the monster's catfish-like, long, and ugly whiskers in the opposite direction of where Nora was about to hit next. So when Nora smashed the second knee cap outward, the blow from there and the tug from Jared stretched out the Jabberwocky, but it also allowed the momentum from that pull to move the giant whiskers back and whip back towards the head. Jared armed one of his arm coating and made his fist outlined in purple aura. In essence, four seconds right after Nora smashed and exploded the other kneecap, Jared rode the momentum of the beast's body part right back into his head with a empowered punch to add to the weight of movement.
The impact slammed the head into the ground, pressing hard and making it bounce of the ground violently before being pinned into the red grass beneath it.
Still despite that, it started quickly regenerating. Its legs were starting to grow back and Jared found his fist and feet being absorbed into the creature.
Jaune came in Corcea Mors ready and leaping towards Jared. "Resh! Gimme a boost!"
Jared saw and smiled before lifting his free hand above him and allowing Jaune to step on it and leap off it right towards the neck.
Empowering his hand with his Aura, Jaune swiped at the creature's bare neck, and made an odd cutting sound, 'snicker-snack'!
Everyone looked around, all three Jabberwocky heads were cut off and now they started seeing their bodies fade into the sky.
"Yes! We did it!" Nora cheered before hugging both Ren and Resh in a cobra grip.
"Good work Jaune." Pyrrha complimented earnestly, placing her hand on his shoulder again and giving him a genuine and prideful smile before everyone came back together and started cheering and talking about how they killed their Grimm.
"Children!" Everyone then looked and saw professor Goodwtich and Oobleck heading towards their direction.
"What has…" Glynda viewed the fading bodies of the Jabberwockies around her students. "The group of Jabberwockies?"
Ruby's silver eyes lit up. "Yeah! We beat them up, you should have seen it! We we're all surrounded but then…"
She stopped when the good professor's face gave a glare. "You put your lives in jeopardy while we were away?"
"Uhh…"
"Wait, Ms. Goodwitch!" Jared stepped in. "I… I think this was kind of my fault to begin with. My armor… malfunctioned, and made Cardin get lost in rage and attack us. When we finally stopped him, we realized his negative emotion was attracting these creatures towards us. So what I'm trying to say is that this is all my fault."
Glynda was about to say something before she noticed that Jaune and Jared had switched clothes. Taking another look at things, she saw that everyone of her students seemed tired.
"… You do realize that, in essence, you all have failed this field trip for not collecting sap."
"You can't be serious!" Jaune complained first out of everyone before he was silenced by Glynda turning his glare to him.
"But I suppose being able to kill three A-Class Grimm allows you some leeway. We will return to school ground and better medically care for all of you," Her glared finally turned to Jared. "Then we will have a word with Ozpin on how this all happened, am I understood, Mr. Kolc?"
"Yes mam." Jared quickly replied.
Everyone looked to be finally glad to get out of this stupid forest, but Jared stayed behind and saw Cardin slowing lagging behind as well.
"… You look tired." Jared started.
"I'm good…" Cardin shrugged it off, but in reality he looked to be struggling.
The two continued walking in a lagging pace where no one seemed to notice them.
"Why were you angry at me?" Jared blurted out, surprising Cardin at the timing of it. "My Armor it amplifies… or used to amplify emotions. You wouldn't have been angry at me if you never were."
Cardin looked back to the red trees he was walking by. It was strange that he could have swore he destroyed even some of these trees in his rage induced state, but they were still shedding red leaves as if it would never end.
A state of being the same, never changing.
It was then he recalled something, something he honestly had forgotten a very long time ago.
"Listen up, Cardin, I'll teach you how to really live. Not how to be strong like how my broth—your father keeps telling you how to. The thing about life is that it's always changing; don't be like that stubborn oaf, Cardin, you'll only get worse as everything around you changes. If you accept how things change in life and adapt to them to become a better person, I guarantee you'll change into a great person really worthy of cleaning up our stupid family name. Well… at least do better than what I tried to do. And if it makes you feel better at all, I will always be proud of you."
Cardin wondered why he remembered that moment. Was it the Armor? He heard that the armor also did things with one's mental state. But still… that memory…
"You really want to know?"
"Yeah." Jared answered easily.
"It's because you made me look weak." Cardin said.
"I… I what? When?"
Cardin turned to the boy still wearing Jaune's clothes. "When we first met, you made a fool off me out of the entire class. I hated you for that."
Jared seemed shocked, before hanging his head down in shame. "O-Oh. I'm sorry, I was just joking around."
"And that's what ticked me off," Cardin said, but instead of anger, he found himself… oddly relieved. "Did you know that my dad was a total ass? He pounded into my head day in and day out that the Winchester family were 'pure breeds' that we were supposed to be the best of the best or some other cocky BS. He was old fashioned, he really hated the Faunus and was pissed we didn't go and completely erase them from existence and genocide instead of making them sign a losing treaty. He tried to make me an exact replica of him… and it would have worked honestly. I could have been some cocky, stupid, one dimensional bully who thought I was the best… if not for my Uncle. He was the one who treated me like an actual human being, but he was shunned by the rest of my family because of it. When he died… I lost my way. I really did become more and more like my dad. So when you dishonored me in front of everyone, I hated you because an insult like that meant I wasn't worthy of my family. And ever since I lost my Uncle, family was one of the few things I had left, so losing the respect of my family would have just left me with nothing."
"I'm sorry. I didn't know."
Cardin laughed. "Before I put on your armor, I wanted to make you bend on your knees before saying that. But apparently I think your armor drained all the anger and hate outta me. I don't feel bad anymore."
"I don't think my armor is therapeutic in anyway." Jared stated with his brow raised.
"Well, armor or not, right now, when I look back at that... I feel petty. Sure, you acted like a cocky ass when we first met, but… thanks… for making me remember something I forgot." Cardin smiled.
'Now if only I could do the same with my memories.' Jared thought to himself silently.
Cardin wheezed and coughed, making Jared turn his attention back.
"You really are drained huh?"
Cardin stopped, bent over, and leaned on his knees. "How the heck do you still walk after it drains your aura that fast?"
"I got used to it," Jared lifted an open palm to Cardin's hand. "Need some help?"
Cardin stared at the hand before pushing it away. "No thanks," and standing back up proudly. "If you can do it, then so can I." Cardin smiled cockily and pointed to Jared's face. "But next time we fight, I'll make sure I'll wipe the floor with you. Next time, I promise not to lose to anyone." He finished before walking up to catch up with the others.
Jared smiled wide, before it died down a little and he fished Jaune's pockets for his now broken Armaments of Raijin.
"… At least one of us gained something."
What Jared didn't know was that his weapon… was sending a signal in its broken state.
"… What? … No it couldn't be… it was lost over almost 90 years ago…. Where is it!?"
…
"I see. Vale…"
…
"You! Activate Project Pinocchio! We are getting the Armor of Zeus back!"
{Author Notes}
Aloha people! Been a while huh? I have been lacking in discipline lately… but I can't wait to go back to school! Because oddly enough that is what help me feel inspired for all these weird stories I make.
I've been skipping Review Responses for a while, and I apologize for that (especially since I'm still not doing that this time). But I do like to thank you all for reviewing and doing everything in supporting this fic. It really means a lot to me.
This ends this arc, so we can finally set up the ends saga of RWBY first season. I apologize for going slower than most writers, but that's because I would like to put more ideas and the potential days in between all the series so far seem to have a lot of potential for me to express myself.
I really hope you guys enjoyed my take on Team CRDL. I found their weapons a bit lacking for some reason since they were mostly set up t be pwned by Pyrrha, so I took my own spin on them. I'm also toying with ideas of their semblances, if I get the chance, I would love to show you guys.
I just love writing them the way I want to. If you guys don't like them, then that's fine. I would still love to hear your opinion on them though, just be sure to explain why you hate or like it.
Anyway, thanks for reading!
{Deleted/Re-edited bits.}
"Where are the teachers?" Weiss asked as the tree teams aimed their weapons at the powerful Grimm.
"Ms. Goodwitch stayed behind to watch Oobleck. Apparently, the Armor does something to really disturb another person's aura. Ms. Goodwitch was still feeling the pain from Cardin's punch."
"Oh yeah, my armor can disrupt the natural defense of a hunter's aura. I forgot it could do that." Everyone turned to Jared with a disappointed look. "In my defense, it only happens when I get angry and that I almost never use it on a human being unless necessary."
"Then just use it right now!" Dove cried out.
"Can't, Jaune broke it."
"You what!?" Now everyone looked to Jaune.
"Hey! I saved Cardin from an Ursa before this! Gimme a break!"
Suddenly Blake froze in her tracks, something had caught her attention. At first, she dismissed these sounds as Team RWBY tried to help Professor Oobleck to subduing Cardin, yet it continued on as the fight continued.