Ch. 7 Initiation
Though he could hear the excited yells from those launched after him, he pushed them to the back of his mind. He had to focus on landing. Luckily his aura was abundant, even more so now than when he started his training. His landing strategy was to simply land on his feet, duck and roll. So he focused his aura on his legs, bent his knees a little and angled himself to land upright.
Focusing on the ground Jaune was able to successfully land into a roll without hitting any trees. Well, mostly. Some branches did decide to stand in his way, but thanks to his aura they proved to be inconsequential.
Dusting himself off, Jaune decided to take out his armoured gauntlet he worked on for the past two weeks. So for the first time since he forged it he manifested the Hidden blade
"Occultus Ferrum!"
His aura parted from his body and solidified around his left forearm forming the gauntlet. With a flare Jaune extended the blade and let it slide back to its place inside the gauntlet, nodding to himself. A loud sound alerted him to someone watching.
"That was so cool."
Jaune whipped his head around and in that single moment his deep blue eyes met eyes of silver. And so began the partnership of Jaune Arc and Ruby Rose. Jaune couldn't help but smile at her when he realised that was the case, and for a moment he thought he couldn't ask for a better partner.
=O=O=O=
"RUBY! I DON'T THINK THIS WAS A GOOD IDEA!"
"WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT, THIS IS GREAT!"
Jaune wanted to take it back. He felt Ruby was a perfect partner for him but now? Holding on for dear life to the back of a giant Nevermore while Ruby stood on the back of its neck, holding onto Crescent Rose stuck in its flesh, and laughing maniacally.
"HOW ARE WE GOING TO GET DOWN?"
"WE JUMP!"
"YOU CAN'T BE SERIOUS!"
"..."
"Oh god she already jumped."
Not wanting to fall too far away from Ruby, Jaune had no choice but to let go of the Nevermore.
Unfortunately falling from this height wasn't exactly compatible with his prior landing strategy. Luckily he not only had the time to look around for an alternative while falling, he actually found one. While Ruby was headed for the clearing with ruins in it, Jaune overshot a little. It turned out to be to his advantage as he saw two figures being chased by an ancient Deathstalker.
And so Jaune's landing strategy 2.0 was born.
"ATRA AURORA!"
Jaune manifested his sword and pointed it down. As the Deathstalker raised its tail to strike at one of the figures, Jaune came in flying at an angle and pierced the golden stinger. Pinning it to the ground with the Atra Aurora acting as a nail. Jaune let go of his sword and narrowly avoided the stinger as he rolled to bleed off the remaining energy.
"Jaune!"
"Oh, hello Sky. I need to go see if my partner is alright, but I'll leave you the sword."
By the end of that sentence Jaune passed the duo and kept running in Ruby's direction.
"Hey…"
"If you could send backup after that would help."
Sky interrupted his partner, just waving Jaune off with a request for reinforcements.
Only once Jaune left the duo behind did he realise that the voice of Sky's partner belonged to Winchester Jr. himself. Though that thought quickly left his mind as a mass of rose petals knocked him to the ground, revealing itself to be none other than Ruby, who now sat straddling his chest.
"Jaune, are you okay?"
"Yes Ruby I'm fine. Would you let me stand up?"
"Uh… oh… right, sure."
Just as quickly as she knocked him down she stood back up a few metres away from him.
"OH, right! The nevermore is going after your friends! The redhead and the ninja!"
"Well a deathstalker set its sights on two guys back where I came from. I pinned its tail to the ground when landing but they'll need reinforcements."
"We should go help with the Nevermore. My sister is at the ruins, but she's a bad matchup against flying opponents."
"Great, we can send her to help with the Deathstalker. Let's get going."
=O=O=O=
"Ruby! Where did you run off to!"
"Yang! Two guys back that way need help against a deathstalker!"
"How far?"
"About half a kilometre. I pinned its tail down but that won't last."
"We're on our way!"
With the quick exchange over Jaune barely noticed Yang leave together with a redheaded gladiator girl. Keen to provide assistance they ran over to Ren and Nora.
"Hi! Ruby, Ren and Nora. Ren and Nora, Ruby. Introductions over, we have a big bird to ground."
"Yeah! Let's break its wings."
Responded Nora with enthusiasm.
"That will prove to be difficult."
Replied Ren, somewhat curbing Nora's enthusiasm.
"But not impossible, what are we working with weapons wise?"
Asked Ruby as she unloaded a salvo of rounds from her sniper.
"I still have throwing daggers, sword is preoccupied."
"Hammer and grenade launcher"
"Dual submachine guns with short blades."
"I think I have an idea. Ren, Jaune taunt it, get its focus and draw it as low to the ground as you can, Nora can you use your hammer to launch me into the air?"
"Can do!"
"Let's do this team!"
=O=O=O=
Ren's gunfire did little to the Nevermore but annoyed it, though that was the intention. Soon the Grimm decided to try and make a pincushion out of him by launching its feathers at him.
Jaune called upon Gemini Aculei. His semblance taught him how to use them, but the experience required to get the timing right was not something Jaune had the time to develop. Luckily thanks to his semblance he could throw his blades and recall them as much as he wanted with only a minimal aura loss.
It took several throws before he even hit the bird Grimm and even then it proved to simply bounce off. It took several more before Jaune realised he should be aiming for a weak point. Taking careful aim Jaune aimed for one of its four red eyes. It took him two misses before the third one struck its target. Jaune barely noticed the success and recalled the dagger. But something was different. Before he felt the aura return along with its vessel, but this time it felt empty.
At the same time the Nevermore howled in pain, its eye glowing white for a second. When the glow disappeared the glowing red eye was replaced with an ashen grey slowly turning into ash much like when a Grimm dies.
That made the remaining three eyes focus on Jaune as the enraged nevermore tried to ram into him.
The sound of Nora's hammer going off could be heard in the background, soon followed by five consecutive shots from Crescent Rose.
Jaune felt that the timing was just slightly off. Sure Ruby will in all likelihood land the attack, but the bird would reach Jaune first. And so he did the only thing he could think of at the moment. Reinforced his aura and prepared to punch it with his right arm.
As the Grimm got closer and closer a flash of inspiration went through his mind.
As his fist finally connected with the Nevermore's beak he launched a second attack with his left towards one of the healthy eyes.
The Grimm screeched in pain as the hidden blade went through his eyeball. The next second it went silent as a red blur sliced through its neck from above, silencing it forevermore.
After a moment of silence Ruby yelled, at first in excitement and then in a panic.
"Oh no, we forgot about the relics!"
Jaune's eyes widened as he too had completely forgotten about the main objective of the initiation.
Luckily Nora came to the rescue tossing Jaune a gold rook piece, which he, to his surprise, caught with minimal fumbling on his part.
"Don't worry queen Nora still requires the service of a knight to guard the castle."
"NORA! Thank you, thank you, thank you."
Ruby tackled Nora in a hug as she repeated the thanks. Nora surprisingly managed to keep standing despite the speed at which Ruby did so.
"How did you…"
Jaune was a bit confused about this, but Ren came to the rescue with an explanation.
"We overheard the two girls that were here talk about keeping an extra relic, in case a sister of the blonde one came here late. So we thought "why not?""
"Oh, um… that was my sister, Yang."
Ruby looked downtrodden by
"Do you… want to be on her team instead?"
"I don't know, Jaune. The first thing she did after we arrived at Beacon yesterday was ditch me… I just… I'm not sure I can trust her not to do it again."
"Then let's just stay with Ren and Nora. It's not like you can't hang out with your sister just because you're on different teams. Are you alright with that?"
Ruby took a deep breath before smiling.
"I think I am, thanks guys. We should see if they need any help with the deathstalker."
"Deathstalker?"
Asked Nora.
"Yeah, I impaled its stinger with my sword as an improvised landing strategy when we jumped from the Nevermore."
"You rode the Nevermore too? I saw Ruby landing, so I kinda knew she had the same idea as me when I rode that Ursa here, but now that I know you both did it I want to ride a Nevermore too. Do you think we can find another one before initiation ends?"
As Nora talked at an increasing speed, the whole team walked towards the spot where Jaune landed. Ruby and Nora were busy planning a team exercise in flying a Nevermore. Jaune meanwhile contemplated whether being on a team with the two lovely girls was a blessing or a curse. Ren, being far more used to this type of shenanigans, offered quiet support to his recently found kindred soul.
They were maybe halfway there when they met the other group of students. Upon meeting them there was a quick exchange of words between Sky and Jaune.
"Hey, 's the Nevermore dead?"
"Yeah, Deathstalker?"
"The same."
"Good."
The important stuff out of the way, Jaune turned his attention to other stuff. Such as Winchester having his sword. Jaune could have of course recalled it at any time as he has yet not found the maximum distance from which he could do so. But in line with keeping his semblance at least somewhat hidden he decided against it at the moment.
"Oh hey, thanks for bringing me back my sword."
Jaune offered a smile to Winchester. It wasn't wholly sincere, but he has only had problems with his father so far, so until proven otherwise he would be nice to him.
"I don't remember this being your sword, I think I'll keep it."
Jaune couldn't help but think "Well that was quick." as Winchester immediately proved himself to be a pain in the ass.
"Cardin, just give him back his sword, the teachers know it's his. Plus if you recall he saved your life a little bit ago, you really shouldn't antagonise him."
Jaune smiled at Sky silently and extended his hand towards Winchester, who he now knew was named Cardin.
Cardin just grunted and handed Jaune the sword. Jaune shouldered the blade, as he still didn't have a sheath for it.
Ruby smiled for a moment as if in a moment of revelation and proclaimed while smiling.
"Well since we have all the relics we should get back to the cliffs."
Sky was the first to express confusion.
"Wait do we? Me and Cardin haven't even been to the ruins yet."
"Well, me and Jaune have one as do Ren and Nora, and I just so happen to know Yang has two, since she kept one in case I didn't return in time when I went to find Jaune. So four relics, eight people."
"Ok… Yang since you have an extra one, do you mind sharing?"
"Wait, but I have two of the gold knight chess pieces. Since each relic has an identical counterpart, doesn't that mean you two would be on a team with us? No offense but I'd rather be on a team with my sis."
"But Yang, the teams would be balanced like this, two guys, two girls on each. If I join your team, it would be three to one on both teams. I can't just abandon Nora to be on a team with three guys."
Ruby went over to Nora and put an arm around her shoulder. Yang narrowed her eyes at this out of character gesture but didn't protest.
"Guess you have a point… you alright with this P-money?"
"I suppose so, it's not like we are likely to find another pair to give the relic to, and honestly I'm still not sure we should have taken the extra one."
"Well guys, welcome to the team."
Said Yang as she threw the chess piece to Sky. With that sorted the group started moving back towards the cliffs.
Jaune and Ruby fell back a little from the group so they could speak without being overheard by Yang.
"Wasn't that a bit too much?"
"I think it was well deserved, Yang ditched me the moment we got to Beacon. Being on a team with Cardin is a fitting punishment. On the other hand Cardin has to deal with Yang on a daily basis, which I'd argue is even worse. Trust me, I speak from experience, Yang is a great sister and all but she can be downright unbearable to be around when she wants to be. And I think being around Cardin all day will see to that."
"Ok, wow, now I just feel sorry for Sky and that other girl…"
"Wait, wait, wait, you did not just call Pyrrha Nikos "that other girl"."
"Is that her name?"
"She won the Mistral tournament like three times."
"So she's like, really good at fighting? Sorry I haven't really kept up to date with any tournaments or TV in general."
"Jaune, she's on every box of Pumpkin Pete's."
"Haven't had any in years. Wait, don't they only do that for cartoon characters and star athletes?"
"Yes, Jaune. And riddle me this, is Pyrrha a cartoon character?"
"No, Ruby. I get it, Pyrrha is a star athlete. But consider this, I've spent several years with little to no free time during my apprenticeship. My days consisted of smithing, eating and sleeping. I had no hobbies and any free time I had I spent either sleeping or smithing some more. And even after all that I'm only decent, had I spent any less time honing my craft than I did, I literally wouldn't be here."
Jaune remained calm outwardly, but in his mind the reality of it all. He made it. Not only is he now officially a student at Beacon Academy, he got here not by cheating, but through his own power. Power that while not gained through traditional training, was still obtained through significant effort on his part, even if not intentionally.
"I made it here through my own efforts."
Plus he really won the lottery when it came to teams. He was on a team with Ren, his first friend he made in years. Nora, Ren's childhood friend, who reminded Jaune of his younger sisters. And last, but not least his partner, Ruby, the extremely talented prodigy huntress and weaponsmith. From the moment she introduced her weapon, Crescent Rose, Jaune knew that she possessed a love for weaponry matched only by old Cobalt himself. And frankly after years of studying the craft himself, he found it to be an attractive quality in a girl. Plus now he thought about it, Ruby was really pretty.
Then again, most huntresses were physically attractive. An active lifestyle combined with aura saw to that. Aura had the side effect of keeping skin blemish free. Jaune once jokingly thought that going through puberty acne free was probably worth almost dying for.
Jaune's mind kept going in circles. Meanwhile Ruby was having a silent anxiety attack caused by Jaunes silence.
Sure Jaune's demeanour was calm and it wasn't like he yelled at her, but the explanation and then sudden silence made her think he was mad at her, or felt insulted, or any number of other negative things he could be thinking about her right now. After all she only got here because Ozpin invited her. Did she make it here through her own efforts?
But she was surrounded by six people she barely knew and her sister, who would no doubt make a big deal out of it if she freaked out. So Ruby suffered her anxiety in silence, like a "well adjusted adult" or something like that.
The group overall wasn't silent, rather there were several quiet conversations going. Nora excitedly told the story of their fight against the Nevermore to Pyrrha and Yang, with Ren occasionally correcting her when she over exaggerated a bit too much. Ren himself was having a conversation with Sky about how they ended up being chased by a Deathstalker. Cardin was silently leading the group, though he was clearly listening to Nora's story as he audibly groaned every time Yang made a pun about something Nora said.
Overall the journey back was uneventful and though it took quite some time to get back to where they were catapulted from, it seemed most of the Grimm were purged when the students came through the Emerald Forest the first time. They were not the first to return, nor the last.
From the looks of it almost all pieces were represented already, though about half of them were missing the other corresponding piece.
One such example was Cocra and Maroon. They took the gold bishop piece and were still waiting for its pair to show up.
Jaune wanted to talk to them, but professor Goodwitch urged the formed teams to go assemble in the auditorium.
=O=O=O=
Author's note:
Just to give an update on the story as a whole; the written material currently sits at 47,500 words. Unfortunately there are large gaps between the chapters, so the buffer of chapters ready to be published only goes up until chapter 12. The main plot, including the end is decided and mostly written, it's just a matter of connecting them.
Anyway, hope you've enjoyed this chapter and are looking forward to the nect chapter: Ch. 8 Teams formed