Chapter 2 – On A Grimm Horse I Ride

In which Jaune Arc mounts up and rolls out.

When they were trapped in the cave, the chase went down about as normal as you'd expect. The monster chased him around, tried to prick him with that big old glowing tail, missed, and exploded the rocks it hit instead. The sheer force of its swing was probably enough to crack Jaune in two like a candy bar, and even if it didn't, whatever Grimm venom it was oozing would probably take care of it.

The monster was surprisingly fast inside the cave. Its six legs were all exceedingly well-coordinated, and when one of them mis-stepped, the others picked up the slack and ensured that the Grimm didn't lose its footing and trip. By the time they ran out of the mouth of the cave, the creature was so close that its pincers could probably grab hold of either buttock of Jaune's if it tried.

And then it stopped.

It didn't stop running; oh no, if anything, it started to run a whole lot faster. But all of the swinging scorpion tails and grabbing claws just completely ceased, as soon as daylight broke and the pair of them were running through a forest.

Jaune kept sprinting away from the creepy-crawly as fast as he could, but it was no use. Within seconds, the back of his hoodie was flapping into the Grimm's mouth mandibles. Strangely enough, it wasn't even biting at him, even though it could have easily snapped up his head if it so desired.

Stockholm Syndrome? Nah, he'd have to be captured by it first for that to be the case.

Up ahead, Jaune saw a small arroyo with a faint trickle of water passing through it. Putting all of his remaining strength into dashing forward as fast as he could, Jaune reached the stream first and leapt over it. It was common knowledge that monsters couldn't pass over running water, which meant that once he landed on the other side, he'd be–

Screwed!

The Grimm didn't even break its stride, instead hurtling forward right through the ditch. Its legs splashed in the creek, and then it was past it, continuing to zoom forward. Jaune didn't land on the other side of the arroyo – the Grimm had surged forward when he was above it in the arroyo. It moved so fast that it actually eclipsed him and was directly beneath the young huntsman when he fell back down to Remnant. Jaune ended up planting both cheeks on the Grimm's sturdy carapace.

I – I'm riding it? What is going on?

The only conclusion Jaune could derive from the data present was that the scorpion was blind in the daylight, because it was only when they left the darkness of the cave did the weird stuff start happening. It had lost sight of him due to the bright light blinding its eight cave-dwelling eyes and was now running at random without any rhyme or reason.

Actually, maybe this was for the best. Ruby had ridden a Grimm, and she was such a great huntress that she'd been pushed forward two whole grades. Maybe if Jaune imitated her and used this scorpion like his own personal mount, he could catch up to the temple in time to get a relic and meet up with the other students.

And the other students can kill this guy when I dismount. It's a win-win for everyone! Except Mister Longlegs here, but he's a Grimm, and I'm training to kill them.

It would've been better if Jaune was able to kill it himself, but the thing was huge, and he couldn't even outrun it. The other kids would probably laugh at him if they knew, but maybe he could pretend that this was his landing strategy, and he'd intentionally spared the Grimm so it could be his steed.

"Onward!"

Jaune looked up ahead and saw the back of orange-haired girl's head, the one who'd wished him good luck. She sat atop an Ursa that was dashing through the forest with reckless abandon.

"Yeeeeeee haw! Let's f#&*ing go, ya honeymunching galoot!"

Jaune let out a sigh of relief. If riding Grimm was a normal strategy, maybe he wouldn't even raise any eyebrows when he arrived at the temple atop one. Ruby, this girl – everyone was doing it.

See? I'm already picking up hunter mannerisms already. Maybe I was supposed to put a harness on the fish Grimm and use it – nahhhh, it could only move in the water. I ought to stick with terrestrial Grimm from now on.

"Hard left, Smokey!"

Orangie smacked the Grimm's head with her hammer, and the Ursa changed directions. Strangely enough, Jaune's did as well.

Hmmm. If it want to become a Grimm-rider, I'd probably ought to figure out how to control which direction mine goes in. She used her hammer, but my sword might cut right through it. How do people normally control riding animals?

Jaune didn't have a bit and bridle to control it like a horse, and he wasn't even sure how that would work, given the Grimm's large mandibles in place of a jaw. Unsteadily rising to his feet, he hugged the tail with both arms and tried to tilt it like a rudder, but the tail just flexed, knocking him back onto the Grimm's back. It shot down and nearly impaled him. It would have, if not for the breastplate he wore catching the sharp point before it could pierce his chest. Jaune pushed it off before any of the sickening black venom could stain his hoodie or poison him, then braced himself to defend from further attacks.

None came.

I guess it only gets mad when I disturb it. Well, I can't control it, but if it's following hammer girl, she'll probably lead us both to the temple. I really ought to enroll in a riding class when I'm properly a student.

Jaune was starting to feel a lot better about this whole fake huntsman thing. After all, if he was already picking up the tricks of the trade on the first test, it would only be a matter of time before he was at the same level as the other students. His confidence was so great that no longer did it seem like a matter of whether or not he would grab a relic, but more like a question of how long it would take.

The massive stone ruins came into view, as did the clearing surrounding them. Lady Hammer-Bear stopped when her Grimm crashed into a tree, but Jaune and his mount didn't.

Wait, it's not following her? But why was it…

The answer came into view seconds later. About five other students were congregated around the relic temple, their weapons drawn for combat. His Grimm must've broken its pursuit of the hammer girl when it saw a more mouth-watering target – a whole field full of humans.

Grimm are attracted to people. It makes sense that it would leave behind one tiny human in favor of five taller, fatter, juicier ones when they're all so close by.

…but then why did it ignore me when I was the only one around? Why does it only seem more interested in all the other students?

Jaune had no clue. For now, the only reason he could think was that the scorpion monster had somehow subconsciously sensed that the other humans, as real hunters, were more dangerous to it and decided to prioritize them over Jaune. That didn't really make sense, but he couldn't think of anything better for now.

Shutting his eyes, Jaune braced for impact when the Grimm inevitably stopped and he was thrown off its back. He grabbed down on the bumpy spike-like ridges of its carapace and held on tightly.

Five, four, three, two…one!

The impact he'd been expecting never came. Jaune looked up and saw that the students had actually begun to retreat as the eight-legged abomination and its blond rider approached them. It had seemed like a foregone conclusion that these master fighters would stand and face the Grimm, but apparently they were just as intimidated by it as he was.

The Grimm chased the students past the temple they'd all congregated at. When it stepped up to the elevated platform on which the relics were stored, the bump nearly threw Jaune off of it. His right hand maintained its grip on the tines that ran down its back, but the rest of his body dangled off its side helplessly.

For some reason, as he passed by the relics, Jaune instinctively snatched one off the pedestal. It was probably a stupid thing to do – his left hand was no occupied by holding it, and it would've been just as easy to double back and collect it when he wasn't in the middle of a high speed chase – but it just seemed like he needed to grab hold of one while he was here. The panic of falling off the Grimm remained, but that small nagging feeling that said he wasn't going to pass the test did go away.

E̶v̶e̶n̶ ̶i̶f̶ ̶I̶ ̶d̶i̶e̶,̶ ̶I̶ ̶p̶a̶s̶s̶e̶d̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶t̶e̶s̶t̶.̶ ̶I̶'̶m̶ ̶a̶ ̶r̶e̶a̶l̶ ̶h̶u̶n̶t̶s̶m̶a̶n̶ ̶n̶o̶w̶.̶

Jaune could clearly say that some of the runners up ahead of him were faster than others. Ruby, who he recognized from the red cape, was league above the others in terms of both speed and stamina, and it seemed like she could probably run around the entire world and lap the others if she so chose. Weiss and her adorable flopping ponytail were in second place, and there were these weird white symbols on the ground where she ran. Jaune knew Dust was cool, but he'd never known that it could do so much amazing stuff. The others he didn't recognize, at least not from the back of their heads.

I still haven't even made eye contact with anyone yet. I've had two close encounters with the Grimm kind, but I still don't have a partner. Weird how these things work out.

Now that he had a relic, he didn't need his scorpion steed any longer, so Jaune decided to set his mind towards figuring out a way of stopping it. He could see up ahead, and just beyond a stretch of stone pillars was a giant chasm. Jaune's possible friends didn't have much solid ground left to run on, and he was possibly the only person in a position to save them. After all, the Grimm didn't seem to care about him, and he was right up close to it.

It's up to me to save them all…

The bone plating that covered the Grimm's back was stronger than concrete, and Jaune figured that Crocea Mors would probably break before it would. He could lop off the tail and make this beastie a whole lot easier for the others to fight, but he knew that the second he got aggressive, the Grimm would get pissed off and snip him in two with its claws. Alternatively, he could declaw it, but then it would just stab him with its tail. Jaune didn't think he was fast enough to take out the claws and the tail at the same time, so his only option was to somehow kill the whole thing in one go.

The armor doesn't extend to this dude's underside…

If Jaune could somehow climb underneath it, he could easily stab it through and destroy the whole thing in one go. The only downside was that to do so, he would need to climb underneath it. All six legs were rapidly moving, massive stalks of Remnant-shaking destruction and terror, and he didn't feel confident in his ability to slip between them without getting squished in the process.

"KRE-AAAAAAAW!"

Jaune looked up to see a simply monstrous bird Grimm, the one Ruby had been riding before.

Did she call in her air support?

A stream of feathers shooting from the bird into Ruby's path and nearly slicing her apart answered that question.

Okay, so now we've got two bad guys. I guess this explains why they chose to run rather than fight. If that thing's on our tail, I wouldn't want to stick around and try my swordsmanship against it either.

The other students had now run out onto a really rickety-looking rock bridge that led to some spires above the abyss. Jaune's scorpion didn't follow them; it couldn't, even if it wanted to. The bridge was too narrow for it to walk along. The bird flew right over the abyss and began to circle around the students as they made their way to the top of one of the spires, but the scorpion just angrily hissed.

Still, Jaune wasn't out of the woods yet. Well, he was out of the woods, as the abyss was surrounded by some open grasslands and not trees, but he was still in trouble. The Grimm scorpion, unwilling to give up its pursuit, simply tossed itself over the edge of the abyss' cliff and began to walk down the vertical wall.

So I guess this thing has spider powers. Dust, I hope it doesn't shoot any webs.

The air was a whole lot colder at the bottom of the canyon, and it got so misty that he could barely see. The only way he could actually tell that he was at the bottom was because the two of them stopped moving downwards, and gravity started to point into the scorpion's back. Ten seconds of horizontal movement passed, and then Jaune was once again moving vertically, though in the opposite direction this time.

But if we get to the other side of the canyon, the Grimm still won't be able to get to the students on the bridge. Why would it take all this effort just to get to the cliff on the other side? It's a bit higher than where we started, but there's still no path to the students. They're completely isolated in the spire.

As the mist began to grow less thick near the top of the cavern, Jaune got a good look at just how rickety the ruins were.

"Oh no."

The only advantage of being on the side opposite the relic temple was that the scorpion Jaune was on would be higher up than the spire itself. The monster was planning to climb to the top of the cliff and throw itself into the canyon. The weight of the massive creature would be enough to destabilize the spire and bring the entire thing tumbling down. Sure, it would probably die in the process, and so would Jaune, but Grimm were well known to be mindlessly destructive. As long as it could kill the five – make that six, he could make out orange hair bear-rider now among them – humans it had set its sights on, it wouldn't care if it killed every other Grimm in the forest.

Every other Grimm…

The bird Grimm, which Jaune now recognized was just a Nevermore but gigantic, was still circling the other students as they shot at it.

They got to the top of the cliff, and the scorpion turned itself around. The tail behind Jaune coiled back as though it were preparing for a strike.

Jaune rapidly looked between the scorpion's tail and the Giant Nevermore, wondering if he could actually pull off what he was thinking. It was probably suicide, and it had almost no chance of working unless he perfectly timed it, and it probably would have been easier to just hop off and sneak back out to the forest and hope the Grimm died on its own.

But Jaune was supposed to be a huntsman. He was supposed to save people.

Jaune drew Crocea Mors and waited for the scorpion's six legs to crouch as it readied itself to jump. His gored arm still hurt from the fish' bite, so he let go of it and held the sword in one hand.

The Nevermore had apparently gotten tired of flying circles around the six students and was now closing in on them.

The scorpion tensed.

The Nevermore cawed.

The Jaune swung.

The scorpion sprang…with only four legs still attached.

It had been expecting to launch with all six, but Jaune cut off the rest the second he was sure it was going to move. The lopsided jump moved the scorpion forward, but also far more to the right than it had been anticipating, as it had only kicked off using its three left legs and one of the right ones. Based on how close the bird Grimm was to the tower on which the other students stood and how powerful each of the arachnid legs seemed to be, Jaune figured that it would take roughly three times as much spring-loaded leaping on one side compared to the other for the scorpion to get where he wanted to go.

The trajectory of its new path wasn't perfect, but it was close enough to cause it to collide with the Nevermore tangentially. The bird flapped wildly and let out another caw, but the sudden impact of another giant Grimm, combined with the added weight its new passenger, extra-large, brought, caused the Nevermore to swerve out of the way of the spire and back towards the lower cliff. Both Grimm began to furiously attack one another, clearly unaware that they were on the same side. Apparently mindless destructiveness meant tactics weren't really in either of their repertoires.

Jaune, now aware that he was unsafe regardless of how still he remained, hacked into the bird's feathers as violently as he was able to, hoping to cut off something important. The scorpion's tail stabbed into the Nevermore's beak, snapping to upper half entirely off. Jaune turned and swung, puncturing deep into the tail's chitinous mass but not managing to slice it off completely. Still, he did manage to damage the Grimm's primary weapon so much that when next it reeled back, this time aiming at Jaune, the subsequent attack was slow enough for Jaune to dodge. A talon caught the tail on one end, and the other grabbed the scorpion's face. The two clawed black feet pulled apart, and Jaune's noble steed was torn in half.

The remains of the scorpion fell into the chasm, and Jaune, now riding a very irate, very oversized sparrow found himself in the precarious position of being the sole enemy on which it could direct its murderous focus.

Then, their aerial voyage came to a conclusion as the Nevermore finally contacted the ground. Its head hit first, landing at a painfully bent angle. Jaune was thrown forward from the impact, and he bounced onto the Nevermore's left wing and rolled down it. His momentum carried him as he tumbled along the Grimm's appendage, but the second he fell onto the ground, things got a lot worse. The grass and rocks were not beginning to disintegrate after having their necks snapped, and thus were not nearly as soft as the Grimm. On top of that, he was still moving rather quickly, and friction was not his friend.

Long story short, Jaune's entire body was broken, burning, and busted up.

For the next two minutes, Jaune lay there. He was completely motionless save for his lips, which screamed out in suffering, and his tear ducts, which cried like a baby.

By the time he got his faculties under control enough to stop wailing, Jaune sat up and felt something sharp poking into his leg. It couldn't be Crocea Mors – he could see it some distance away, lying peacefully on the forest floor as though it hadn't just braved a trial by Grimm alongside him. Pressing a hand against his pants and feeling the wet spot, he realized what the pain actually was.

The relic, which he'd hastily stowed into his pocket, had cut into the back of his thigh with its sharpened edge. Taking it out, he could barely tell that it was supposed to be a golden rook chess piece due to all the blood smeared across it. Jaune tried to stand up, but the friction burns that even his jeans hadn't been able to prevent made it difficult.

I'm a huntsman now.

Man, this is the life.

He was able to sort himself out by the time the others finally made their way out of the spire and over to his location. Ruby was practically running in circles in her excitement over the epic move her super cool new bestest friend had pulled.

"Did you guys see? He tamed the Deathstalker until it was obedient to his each and every command and then he saddled that son of a Grimm and rode it to distract the Nevermore that was chasing us and provide ground support and then he climbed up–"

"We know, sis. We were there."

"–a mountain and used trigonometry or something to calculate the vector of attack and self-destructed his Deathstalker smack dab into the middle of the Nevermore and then killed it the rest of the way with his sword! That was so coooool! Jaune, can I be on your team?"

"I dunno, Ruby. Did you make eye contact with someone already? I haven't, apart from you guys."

Ruby gravitated toward Weiss, and her sister threw an arm around the quiet girl with black hair. In Ruby's hands were a horseman chess piece, matching the one her sister held out. It was almost funny; Jaune was a literal knight with a sword, shield, and armor – the whole shebang – but they were the ones with the knight tokens.

The other couple – hammer girl and her boyfriend – held out a matching rook.

"Sorry, Ruby. I got the castle. If we get paired up by the chess pieces we took, we probably won't be on the same team." Jaune held out his bloodstained relic, which probably looked cooler than it had any right to be given that it was his blood and had come out of his buttcheek.

"Dang, that's kinda metal, vomit boy! Maybe I misjudged you. That relic looks…wait, is that real blood?"

Jaune hastily tucked it back into his pocket. "I…uhhh…yeah? I took a bit of a hit when I landed. The second time, with the bird, that is. The first time I landed, I had to kill this Grimm fish that kept trying to eat me. That's how I got this." Jaune tapped at the hole on his breastplate.

Ruby's jaw dropped. "WHOA! You soloed a Garrial? They're, like, the top freshwater Grimm there is!"

"Good to know, otherwise I'd feel kind of embarrassed about the hole in my arm." Jaune awkwardly tapped on the cloth he'd covered up his wound with. "The oversized trout gave me a bit of a going-away present, you know, when he went away."

"Why didn't you just block it with your aura?" asked the only other boy.

Shoot. Um…what's believable?

"Uhhh…I haven't been using it cuz I…wanted to conserve it?"

"Oh, like Ozpin said?" provided hammer girl.

Jaune eagerly took the lifeline. "Exactly! He told me that I'd need it more later on, so I decided to hold off on using it up on the easy stuff, in case things got tough."

"That wasn't tough? Jaune, you saddled a Deathstalker and rode it to victory! I saw you do some parkour shiz and lean off it to grab a relic, then climb back on like it was nothing!" Ruby stamped her foot. "I wanna trade partners. I get Jaune, and Weiss goes to…uhhh…Jaune's future partner, whoever that may be."

"Wait a second," said the quiet black-dressed girl. She took out her scroll and checked it. After a second, it dinged, as did Jaune's. She gasped, and her peers gathered around her to see what was so surprising.

"Vomit b-boy…" said Ruby's sister. "Your aura level…it's actually at 100%. It's full, still green."

"Yeah," said Jaune, agreeing with it blindly for fear of saying something wrong and exposing the ruse. "I said, I was conversing it."

"You killed a Garrial and a Deathstalker and a Giant Nevermore, and you didn't even have your aura up, just in case?" asked the blonde girl.

"Oh, you know how it is," said Jaune, waving a hand. "That kind of stuff's easy. I wanted to hold off on the aura in case a real Grimm showed up."

He had no idea what he was talking about and unsure how his manifested soul could be 'up,' but stopping to ask would be the same as admitting he didn't know what it was and therefore didn't possess it. His dad said you just needed a little confidence, so as long as he confidently asserted that he knew what was going on and just bluffed his way through any trouble, everything would be fine…right?

Jaune later decided that he really needed to stop thinking 'everything's going to be fine,' because whenever he did, thing never ended up fine.

Ruby was driven to tears by Jaune 'awesomitude,' and the others seemed genuinely impressed by how daring their newest peer was. Jaune felt a little bad about lying to them, but it was probably for the best. After all…uhhhhh…they would feel sad if they learned the truth, so he was really helping them out. And if they felt sad, the Grimm would come, and no one wanted that.

So, if you think about it, I have a moral obligation to defend their safety and keep lying. Anything else would be the same as throwing to the Beowolves.

The worst of initiation was probably over by now. All Jaune needed to do was coast the rest of the way, let his new friends take care of any Grimm that got in their way, and then look up how to get his hands on some precious aura when the whole thing was over.

Now that the two toughest Grimm around were taken care of, the seven of them waited around the temple for the other teams to show up. After about a quarter of an hour had passed, four boys with equally nice suits of armor emerged from the thicket and claimed the pawn-shaped relics. From the way that they were chattering amongst themselves, Jaune didn't even feel the need to ask if they had made eye contact. The quartet was clearly already a team, or at least two pairs of partners.

I really hope I find someone before this initiation ends. I got a relic, but I was supposed to also get a partner. Rats, is it possible that I won't pass if I don't have both? But there's an even number of relic, so that means that the other students who've partnered up won't have one. I doubt Ozpin would grade people who bumbled into another person's path higher than someone who collected one of the rare MacGuffins he set out.

By the time they hit the one-hour mark and no single huntsmen or huntresses had arrived, Jaune started to sweat. Why weren't they coming? Should he go out and look for them?

But that wouldn't work, as he had no way to locate them, and he probably would expire in the forest without the magical safeguard of aura that everyone else seemed to have. No, his best bet would be to stay where he was. After all, this other student was probably on their way to the temple. Staying put and letting them come to him was both the smartest and safest way to do things.

When the sun started to set, Jaune excused himself from the card game he and the others were playing (he was running with a losing hand anyways) and started to look around in the nearby forest.

In the end, the bullheads came to pick them up, and Jaune's partner had not shown up.

tl;dr Jaune trips on his own shoelace and all the Grimm die

Next Chapter: It Was All Yellow Journalism

In which Jaune Arc gets a partner and gives a statement.