Ruby Rose watched her best friend with an adorable little glare as the young man held a mug of mead in one hand while he bit through a chunk of meat from a chicken's leg. Strong pearly white teeth easily tore through the meat as he downed it with a mug of mead. She could never forgive her best friend.
Weiss Schnee looked at the Blonde doofus voraciously scarfing the meal before him with his bare hands! Did this doofus lose his sense of manners and etiquette?! She was impressed by how there was no mess despite how fast he ate.
Blake Belladonna nervously looked at Jaune. Her faunus instincts screamed at her to be careful of the blonde. She did not know why but one move and knew it wouldn't end well.
Yang Xiao-Long watched with wide eyes at how Ruby's best friend, Vomit Boy, downed another mug of Mead like it was water! Even she can't do that! What the hell happened to Vomit Boy?
"Here you go," the grumpy innkeeper, Delphine if Yang remembered her name correctly, set another mug of mead and another helping of cooked fish.
Vomit Boy must attract older women more than the ones our age.
Only if Yang knew.
"Jaune, where's Crocea Mors?" Ruby's innocent question caught the attention of the group. During their return from Bleak Falls Barrow, Jaune did not even use his sword. For a strange reason, no wild animals attacked them.
"Crocea Mors?" Jaune asked after downing his food. "I never brought Crocea Mors with me," Jaune said as he looked at the girls. "I do have a personal weapon,"
The girls of Team RWBY looked at the sword strapped to his waist. As if it was alive, the red diamond on the guard glinted like a heartbeat from the attention.
"You owe me a new cape, Vomit Boy," Ruby said with a pout.
"No problem, Crater Face," Jaune said with a grin as he looked at them. "We can check if most of the items in my treasury are still intact," Jaune said with a smile.
"Treasury?" The heiress asked, looking at Jaune.
"Yup! I own a wizard's tower just south of Helgen," Jaune said with a grin, remembering his tower. It was not as big as his castle but it was his first property. How ironic that he owned a Wizard's tower without being a mage. Well, he did become a master Wizard... Take that, worm fucker!
"Wait... you can use magic?!" Yang asked as she connected ever dots together.
"Yup," Jaune replied as a flower of dim lightning formed in his palm. "I'm just average with magic," Jaune said with a proud smile.
After a night of rest, Team RWBY and Jaune prepared themselves for the travel to Whiterun. "Wait, Jaune! We can pay for these!" Ruby said to her friend as she secured a new red-dyed fur cloak around her shoulders
"I insist Crater Face," Jaune said with a smile, rubbing his best friend's head as he still wore his armor but with the addition of a red mantle with fur lining the area around the neck. Dropping several diamonds on the counter, the young man looked at his supplies and his new steel Battleaxe with a single edge and a beak on the other.
"Aren't these too expensive?" Blake asked with a wince.
"When you buy travel supplies, the better the quality, the better the deal," Jaune said as he looked at the girls. A stack of books can be seen on the counter. "Besides, I can just repair our items later," Jaune said as he counted his stacks of repair hammers.
"Why not just buy us a carriage or a horse?" Ruby asked, looking at Jaune curiously.
"That's the problem, Horses will be tough to take care of without a steady source of income and they can be more of a liability depending on the situation," Jaune said to them. "Besides, a single horse costs around... 1000 Septims."
Hearing about the cost, the girls of Team RWBY's eyes went as wide as dinner plates. 1000 Septims cost about the same as the reward they got from helping Lucan. After their meals and maintenance and shopping for supplies, they were left with around 200 Septims. Meaning they have to go for 5 jobs that were as dangerous to buy one?!
"On second thought, it's better to go on foot," Yang said with a chuckle. Woah, this place was hardcore and Vomit boy thrived in this place.
The travel to Whiterun was uneventful, thankfully. The group had reached the bridge in a manner of several hours with no animal attacks. For some reason, the wolves acted like puppies around them. Hell, a bear that got near them just let itself get pet.
"So that's Dragonsreach," Jaune said with a quiet whistle as he sat on the stone walls of the bridge, looking at the massive castle in Whiterun. He looked like he just got out of a shower while Team RWBY looked winded. "Come on, girls!" Jaune called out to them.
"Sheesh, Vomit Boy got a whole lot durable!" Yang said as she finally reached the bridge, soft pants of frosted white cloud escaping from her mouth.
Black feathers danced around the blonde as a raven landed on his shoulder. Pulling something out of his pocket, the second Divine Crusader held it out in his fingers and the Raven flew away, taking the item with it. Holding the battleaxe, the second Divine Crusader walked by team RWBY's side.
Blake looked at Jaune curiously. He looked fine but his body was subconsciously ready to move. Just like a veteran member of the White Fang. Cat ears on top of her head twitched as she heard something as they passed by the nearby meadery.
"Holy shit!" Yang shouted at the sight of a giant, a real giant. Wielding a massive club that would easily break their auras if they got hit.
"Oh no!" Ruby shouted at the sight of the giant turning to some civilians who were near the battle, some children. "Blake! lead the giant away! Weiss follow her!"
Hearing the commands, the B and W of team RWBY nodded at each other as they prepared their weapons, ready to react when. A ray of condensed lightning from a hand that glowed with a silver light coming from a certain Divine Crusader disintegrated the giant's weapon hand along with its club.
"Go!" A single whisper from the young knight caught their attention as he snuffed his killing light
Yang gave Jaune a look and a raised brow before she roared and delivered a brutal hook to the Giant's knee, shattering it while whistling at how a man dressed in steel armor with fur used a greatsword to cut off the Giant's ankles and how several arrows pierced through the Giant's hide. Seeing her chance, Weiss nodded at Blake before a glyph formed in the air and the B of team RWBY launched herself off the platform before ending the giant with a stab to the head.
"You handle yourself well. You could make for a decent Shield-Sisters." The red-haired archer said a few moments after the giant had been killed, looking at the members of team RWBY. "But not you," Aela said, looking at Jaune who raised a brow with his battleaxe dripping with blood.
"Aela! We found our culprit," The only male of the group, the one dressed in steel armor.
"Good," Aela said only to raise a brow at a Breton mage dressed in furs and with no top laid dead on the ground, his body almost severed in two with wounds that looked like it came from a...
"So, are you a knight?" Ria, the youngest of the companions, asked Jaune as the young man burnt the blood on his battleaxe. She stood close to Jaune, looking at his armor curiously.
"I am," Jaune replied with a fond smile, missing how Ria turned a bit red. "I belong to the order of the White Stallion of Leyawiin,"
"Leyawiin? You're from Cyrodiil?." Ria said with a smile.
Aela looked at the young knight and companion talking to each other and at the battleaxe carried by the Knight.
'He killed the Mage that did this without any of us noticing,' Aela thought as she looked at Jaune, a smirk in her place. 'Interesting,'
"Hey, vomit boy!" Yang said, cutting through the conversation between the Young Companion and her sister's best friend. "Mind telling me about that glowy hand trick of yours?" Yang asked with a grin and slung an arm around his shoulders.
"Sure, but after a drink!" Jaune said with a grin, leaning down to allow Yang to easily lean on him as he slung his arm around her shoulders. "I will kill for a bottle of Nordic Mead" A melancholic vision appeared in his mind as a memory after the battle of Bruma appeared in his mind.
Unknown to them, from far away, a man dressed in black robes with golden accents looked at Jaune with fear in his eyes. Golden hair streaked with white and a face filled with wrinkles saw the red diamond over the figure of the Knight. "By the nine..." The figure whispered with tears in his eyes as a necklace of a red diamond stood proudly on his chest. "Lord commander..."
Let's go, baby! I am back with another chapter of Arc of the Red Diamond. I was supposed to finish this a few days ago but I got hooked to ESO. Currently playing as a sorcerer, baby! Now, we find out what this Jaune is capable of. Killing a mage controlling the giant (this is a part I made up and the mage is the Skeever king under Honningbrew Meadery. Basically, during the time team RWBY and the companions fought the giant, Jaune killed the mage before team RWBY and company could kill the giant.
Before you make a fuss about Jaune killing the mage in cold blood, Jaune has fought through a war against the Daedra and members of the Mythic Dawn along with Umaril the unfeathered. This means that Jaune in this fic is more or less unaffected by killing other people or animals.
ThunderBasilisk: the reason for that is during the events of the Knight of the Nine, most of Jaune's artifacts have already disappeared leaving him with the Skeleton key and the Sanguine Rose. Since it's been 200 years since Jaune had them, he was presumed dead, his championship is kind of terminated.
DragonTetho: Oh, trust me. She will.
DdraigTheDemon: No, this Jaune did not do the Shivering Isles questline. Someone else did it.
007foamy: Oh, a lot more will be coming. Just wait up.
Thank you guys for reading this fic. It means a lot to me!
Here's a sneak peek at Jaune's past.
Jaune Arc of Remnant, the legendary hero of Kvacth, the Champion of Cyrodiil, the infamous Gray Fox, and many more titles, stared in shock at the gruesome sight before him. He had massacred enough people to earn his titles but this one.
A man hung upside down, his body turned into a grotesque piece of art... No! Not again! He was too late! The severed head of an old woman in his hand and the journal in his pack was too heavy. He went as fast as he could. But why!? Why was he too late again?!
"Silencer! At last you've arrived! Fear not, for the crisis that has threatened the Dark Brotherhood has finally come to an end. I am Arquen, Speaker for the Black Hand. As you can see, we have dealt with the betrayer, Lucien Lachance! No longer will you serve as his puppet! It seems Lachance wanted revenge against the Dark Brotherhood for some reason, and used you to do his dirty work. But now, we can begin anew! I bestow upon you the title of Speaker. You will take Lucien Lachance's place on the Black Hand! Welcome! As you know, the Black Hand is now in a state of disarray. Lachance ordered you to kill us off! We five, including you, are now all that remain. Even worse, you killed the Listener! The Black Hand without a Listener is like a hand with no thumb. Even the Listener's successor is dead! So, we have no choice but to invoke an ancient ritual. We must wake the Night Mother from her slumber, and seek her guidance! Between the hours of midnight and 3:00 AM, ask me about the Night Mother, and we will away to our Lady's home. Only then will the ritual begin."
"When we confronted Lachance he tried to defend himself, tried to declare his innocence! But we would not hear his treacherous lies! As you can see, he was no match for the combined power of the Black Hand, even weakened as we are."
The rest that happened was a blur. His mentor was dead, betrayed unknowingly by their 'family'. No, he promised... not this time...
As darkness shrouded the empire, the red diamond glowed for the first time. The blessed and favored Akatosh snapped and showed the fury of the Whitestrake. The black blade lined with gold glinted with the torchlight and struck. Black robes drenched in crimson blood and gore. The fear and dread he had experienced made him snap and when he came to.
He stood over an unrecognizable pile of meat and bones, covered in blood.