Chapter 4

Utilizing Quickening to bolster her speed, Jane strode through the forest, not allowing the verdant nature and flickers of sunlight through the canopy distract her.

Now that she had a goal, and doubly so for a goal that was competition-based, she had zero intention of losing to any of the other applicants. Of course, the forest cared not for her determination, and after a few minutes of running, she skidded to a stop before a group of black beasts, Beowolves if she recalled correctly. Drawing Crocea Mors, she steadied herself as the closest Beowolf charged at her and lunged. With a jab of her shield, she caught the paw and pivoted it away from her, Crocea Mors lashing out a moment later and removing that paw entirely. Stepping in, she twisted and bisected the creature, the first attack having clued her in to the fact that Beowolves were very similar to a weak Bloodlicker in stature and strength. Capable of dangerous attacks, but fragile at the same time.

She took a step back to keep the rest of the group in sight, drawing her pistol and blasting off a shot towards the closest Grimm, the ball of iron piercing it through the neck. She changed targets when she saw it flop down, slipping a bullet into the barrel and jerking the gun forwards to fire a second shot, then ditching it back into it's holster to focus on melee combat, the beowolves not willing to keep their distance and let her pick them off. Each beast that came within range of her blade found themselves sliced into chunks, and in the span of a dozen seconds, the entire horde lay at her feet, disintegrating into specks of dust that further faded away into nothingness.

Frowning, she inspected Crocea Mors before sheathing it, then reloaded a round into her pistol which was reholstered. Apparently her blade was rather effective against those beasts, but when she considered that it was a blade capable of harming Kin and even Great Ones, it was little surprise that it proved effective against those weak creatures. Putting that aside, she continued her run, deciding that using her pistol was completely unnecessary for beowolves. They had such little durability that even a single slash to the chest or head was lethal, and their own strikes far from strong enough to overcome her poise.

It took her another ten minutes of running, and two more groups of Beowolves which were dispatched with almost embarrassing speed, before something more interesting happened, that being that she ran headlong into a certain redhead. Green eyes met hers, and despite herself, Jane gave Pyrrha a smile as she jogged over to her. "Well hey there partner." She greeted warmly, eliciting a smile in response.

"And a fond hello to you as well, partner."

Between the pair of them, they made swift progress towards the temple.

During such, Jane felt the question burning itself within her, and eventually she set aside her concern over being seen to be less than knowledgeable and asked Pyrrha what was on her mind. "So Pyrrha, if I may, what ability do you use to protect yourself from attacks?" Pyrrha skidded to a stop, turning very confused eyes to her. "For example, that Boarbatusk-" And she was glad Pyrrha was around to mention the names of different Grimm, it saved her a lot of effort. "-which clipped you should have at least left a mark."

"Jane...do you know what Aura is?" She racked her brain for a moment, cursing her past self for joining Beacon without doing even a modicum of research, then shook her head. "Wait, is that why you jumped off the...wait, how are you able to even fight the Grimm if you don't have aura?" jane gestured at her sword, watching as Pyrrha practically turned herself inside out trying to convey what she was feeling.

"I fight the Grimm by being better than they are." She responded, gesturing at herself. "I learned my skills, I'm still standing, and the Grimm behind me aren't. But something tells me I'm missing something big here...well, it had been ever since Weiss and Ruby blew themselves up with dust and walked out of the crater covered in soot, but still." Jane then jerked back a little as Pyrrha laid a hand upon her chest, having been a little distracted. "Uhh, Pyrrha...?"

The redhead shook her head. "You really don't have it unlocked..." Pyrrha then closed her eyes. "Just...trust me, okay?" Pyrrha then began to chant something. "For it is in passing that we achieve immortality. Through this, we become a paragon of virtue and glory to rise above all. Infinite in distance and unbound by death, I release your soul, and by my shoulder, protect thee." A moment later, Jane felt...warmth, as if a well of hot water had been released from her heart throughout her body. It was like...like Quickening and Hardening, but instead of through blood and harsh training, it was as if something within her was protecting her.

However, that was cut short as Pyrrha stumbled a little, and she moved to grab and support her. "You okay there?" She asked, getting a slow nod from a slightly bleary-eyed Pyrrha. "Okay, so, what did you just do?" Pyrrha took a few moments before standing on her own two legs again, shaking her head once before refocusing on Jane.

"I unlocked your aura, but, you have a lot of aura, and it's a balance, I used a lot more aura up unlocking yours than I expected to." Nodding, Jane showed she understood the gist of what Pyrrha just did. "Okay, well, you know how to fight already, so I'll just say this. Your aura will protect you from harm and reinforce your body, you just have to direct it to what you want it to do." Nodding once more, Jane grasped for that feeling within her, pulling it up into her arms, and seeing a glow shimmer from shoulder to fingers, gold but tinted with streaks of black and red. "Excellent. You'll need to train to do that automatically, since you can't focus on it all the time in battle, but I don't think you'll have too much trouble with that."

Humming, Jane turned her arm over as she let her aura dissipate, receding back into that pool of it that dwelt within her. "Thank you Pyrrha." She bowed her head and tipped her hat in acknowledgement, rising her eyes back up to see that Pyrrha was blushing lightly and a little bashful of her actions. "Now, I think we've tarried long enough, we should get moving." With that, the pair set off once more, and as they ran, Jane continued to practice pulling her aura around her body.

If she sent it to her legs, it helped her to run faster. When they got into a fight and she sent it into her arms, she struck and blocked with much greater strength than before, accidentally sending the beowolf she struck with her shield through a tree, much to her bemusement. She hadn't yet tested exactly how good the protection of her aura was, since she wasn't exactly going to let a Grimm hit her, but from what Pyrrha had told her, it would be an invaluable defence.

Even with their pausing to unlock her aura and to fight several groups of Grimm, by the time the pair arrived at the temple, having bypassed a suspicious-looking cave which most definitely wasn't a temple, only one of the relics was gone. Wary of traps, Jane made sure to exercise caution as she approached the pedestals, inspecting the figures on each. One of them in particular felt different than the others, and her first kneejerk reaction was to avoid it at all costs, seeing it as the machinations of the headmaster.

Before she could though, Pyrrha had walked over and picked it up, flipping it over and snatching it out of the air. "Relic acquired, let's get back to the cliff." Though she wanted to take a different relic, Pyrrha seemed satisfied with her pick, and without a good reason to ask to pick another relic, Jane simply accepted the choice. As they made to leave though, Yang and the black-haired girl that had baited Weiss, which meant she was several stps above Weiss in the pecking order of potential friends, arrived.

"Aww nuts, you beat us here?" Yang asked somewhat redundantly, but seemed to brush it off easily enough as she put her hands behind her head and wandered over to inspect Pyrrha. "Pyrrha, right? Watch out for her unless you want vomit on your shoes." Jane responded with an eyeroll even as Pyrrha turned very confused and questioning eyes towards her. She noticed that the black-coloured girl had already snuck over to the pedestals and picked one out, drawing Yang's attention only after she had picked up the relic she wanted. "Aww man, why a pony?" Yang grumbled, though it was obvious she was just arguing for the sake of it.

Before Jane could even say anything, a large, bear-shaped beast that she and Pyrrha hadn't encountered yet stumbled into the clearing with a loud roar. And, once more preventing her from acting, it received an explosive to the back of the head, sending it tumbling down facefirst and revealing a girl with orange hair who had, apparently, been riding the beast. "Aww, it's broken." She announced, hopping onto the dead creature's head to inspect it as it started to disintegrate.

A boy with a pink strip in his hair then showed up and grumbled at his partner, who was ignored entirely when the girl, who she now knew from aforementioned grumbles was called Nora, darted over to the pedestals to immediately pick one out. Nora proceeded to dance with her chosen artifact until her partner yelled at her, and fro mthat she learned that his name was Ren. Humming once to herself in consideration, she heard Yang's partner ask whether Nora had just rode in on an ursa, which just kept adding new names of people and creatures for her to remember.

As she opened her mouth to speak, a red-clad blur suddenly slammed into the ground, digging a furrow into the dirt. A quick look revealed a very dazed-looking Ruby, and Yang quickly ran to check on her sister. Said sister looked at her sister, then gulped and pointed up in the sky. "Uhm, Yang...?" Following her finger showed that Weiss was hanging off the talon of a massive bird-like beast, which also answered just where the fuck Ruby had come from in the first place.

"She's gonna fall." The black-wearing girl announced in a dead-pan, followed two seconds later by the event coming true. "She's falling." Honestly, just from her tone she could have inferred that she was probably a faunus, since she obviously expected her to die from the fall. Sighing, Jane watched as the girl fell for a short while before apparently remembering her landing strategy, as she drew her weapon, a rapier of course, and started making platforms in the air to land on, the first few just slanted to slow her down.

By the time she made it to the ground it was obvious the platforms had drained her, but she still had enough energy to point her rapier at Ruby. "You. Left. Me. On. A. NEVERMORE?!" Each word bar the last was enunciated clearly and with rather visible rage, a tick developing in one of her eyebrows as she glared at Ruby quite murderously. Jane held back another sigh as she added a new name to her rapidly-expanding vocabulary, tying the name to the bird that was now sweeping around for a strafe.

"We should probably get some cover." Jane announced, expanding Crocea Mors into a shield and watching the bird approach. Apparently the others had different plans, as about half a dozen different weapons began shooting at the avian Grimm, forcing it to abort the attack. It circled around once more, and this time, it flew down low, blocking line of sight using the forest until it was much closer. This time, while the gunfire seemed to deal more damage, it wasn't enough to stop the beast, which was apparently pissed off enough to attempt to ram them.

Drawing her pistol, Jane added her own shot to the mix, watching as the shot caused a crack in the Nevermore's mask. The beast's head jerked, but it maintained it's course, bowling into the group. Jane had taken her own advice and moved away, so a quick roll saw her out of the attack. Pyrrha, Nora and Ren had also moved away. Ruby used her scythe to shoot herself up and over the strike, whilst Weiss had used her platforms to do the same. The black-clad girl used a ribbon attached to her weapon to yank herself out of harm's way.

Yang, meanwhile, apparently didn't get the message. Instead of dodging, she reared back her arm and punched the Nevermore right in the mask. In any betting situation ever, Jane would have bet that Yang would get sent flying or turned into a smear on the ground. Of course, the realities of the waking world cared little for the experience in unstoppable forces meeting movable objects she had painstakingly suffered through in Yharnam, and the punch that Yang unleashed forced the Nevermore to flip over backwards with an almost offended squawk.

The beast crashed to the ground, and from there, it was honestly a slaughter. Before it could take off again, Ruby was on top of it slashing with her scythe, and very quickly after her was Nora with her hammer which also launched grenades. The others helped in their own way, and the beast quickly succumbed to the combined melee and firearm attacks of all eight of them. It was slightly anticlimactic, but at the same time, she had witnessed a single seventeen year old girl make something that outweighed her several hundred times over do a backflip, so that was dramatic enough for her.

It seemed that aura really was going to flip her perception of the world quite drastically.

Standing with Pyrrha, Jane watched placidly as the teams were announced.

The reveal that the artifacts were pairs and that whatever pair was picked would dictate who their other two teammates were rankled her, but she didn't let that get to her. The headmaster was playing his game, and for the time being, she was just a piece on the board. Best to remain that way until she had enough information to flip the board entirely. As for whether that meant she would be killing him or not, she knew not, that that was why she needed more information about what his situation was.

For all she knew, he was unaware of the influence surrounding him. Or maybe he was well-aware of it and was using it to help him with whatever his scheme was. Intel was needed before she could make a move, and so, despite not wanting to be anywhere near him, she kept her head held high and her stride dignified as she marched up onto the stage along with Pyrrha, whilst Nora and Ren followed behind them, cluing her in as to her other two teammates.

"Jane Arc, Pyrrha Nikos, Nora Valkyrie, Lie Ren. The four of you collected the White Rook pieces. From this day forward you will work together as Team JNPR, led by Jane Arc." Blinking, Jane gave the headmaster a stare, conveying just how unwilling to be teamleader she was. She was a Hunter, a lone wolf, both by training and by environment. Yharnam was not a place where you could easily trust others, and she had decided after the dozenth time she was stabbed in the back that working with someone else was a stupid idea.

But the headmaster ignored her utterly, giving her a look that she decided was amusement more than anything. "Congratulations young lady." Her eyes narrowed at him then, deciding that yes, he knew exactly what he was doing, probably having cold-read her lack of desire to lead a team, and was taking great amusement in knowing she was now going to sink or swim. Well, he was going to be left unamused if he thought she would just flounder around helplessly.

She was a Hunter, a petty little thing like leading a team wouldn't bring her down.

Staring at the dormroom they had been given, Jane couldn't help but wonder if Beacon had a more nefarious purpose than just training the next generation of Huntsmen.

Four beds, all right next to each other, without even so much as privacy curtains. Considering most Beacon teams had at least 1 of each gender, barring a few exceptions, that led her to some questionable thoughts. It wasn't even that unfounded considering some people had been 'comforting each other' in the fucking ballroom before initiation. Still, she set that thought aside for future contemplation and focused upon the fact that there were four beds, in one small room.

Walking over to one of them, she nudged it and discovered that they were movable. Ignoring the others, she pushed the bed on the side into the corner, sitting down on it and silently claiming it. She folded her hands into her lap, then raised one to gesture at the other beds. "So, let's avoid any confusion regarding beds. This one is mine, you three may pick whichever bed you'd prefer." Nora, being altogether too energetic by far, leapt for the bed one over from hers, and Ren took the one on the end, leaving Pyrrha to take the bed closest to hers. "Alright, that's beds sorted. Desks, each have the one that matches the bed we took." She again raised her hand to gesture at the desks, each one having been lined up with the individual beds, and shelves above the desks.

"We'll also split the shelves, so each shelf is for the corresponding desk, any questions?" She received only shrugs in response, so continued on. "Dressers are the same, this one is mine-" She reached out to point at the dresser that was at the foot of her bed. "-which means this one is yours, Pyrrha." She then tapped on the dresser between their beds. "And so you two can have those two and do the same thing?" She looked over at Nora and Ren who both nodded after glancing at each other.

Returning her hands to her lap, Jane looked at her three teammates. "Okay, then let's set a few ground rules. One, don't touch anything that's in someone else's area without permission, that means if it's on or in their dresser, on or under their bed, on their desk or shelves, etcetera etcetera." After giving the group a moment to ask questions, she continued. "As for bathing, there are two bathrooms to use, so you two have that one, Pyrrha and I will share this one." She pointed at the two on-suite doors as she spoke before returning her hand to her lap.

"And finally, cleaning. We have bins by our desks, so if you make a mess, bin it, and clean any stains left behind. We're all...semi-mature adults, so I'm sure I don't need to be your mother, do I?" She received amused looks from that, Pyrrha covering her mouth to stifle a laugh, and smiled. "Okay, well, let's get our things unpacked then." She announced, turning her attention to the suitcase she had left by the door.

Honestly, she couldn't for the life of her remember what she had packed into it. So, retrieving it and placing it on the bed, she flipped open the clasps and revealed clothes. But not anything worth wearing, no, it was shirts and pants and skirts, nothing that she would dare wear in a fight. There were some hideous pyjamas she only recalled owning after seeing them, and immediately decided would need to be cut into strips and used as tinder the first chance she got, they were that bad. There were some comic books, some toiletries which she set aside in the keep pile, a few sentimental items like a hair clasp one of her older sisters had bought in Vacuo for her, and various other detritus that had no real value to her, and it made her wonder just what she had been thinking when she packed this suitcase and ran away to try and be a Huntress.

Sighing, she stuffed most of the stuff that had been in the suitcase back inside, keeping only a small pile of things, mostly the stuff that she remembered had importance to her, since even though she had lost that bond with those few things, they were still important to her once, and she couldn't bear the thought of throwing them away, not after so long holding onto Crocea Mors, her only lifeline to the waking world. She also kept a few of the more sensible shirts and skirts, since in a more sensible setting they would be good options to wear.

Closing the suitcase and putting it under her bed to empty tomorrow, she turned and sat on her bed, watching as the other three livened up the room. Nora and Ren seemed to be very close friends considering how they were basically synchronised with each other in how they moved around, Nora putting up a poster only for Ren to actually put it up in such a way as it wouldn't just fall off the wall, then Nora catching a sock Ren had sent flying by accident, it was like watching a married couple working in a kitchen and finishing each other's dishes.

Pyrrha on the other hand was a great deal more awkward, apparently just as unused to such a close-together space. Jane had to turn away and cough politely when Pyrrha fished around under the stuff in one of her three suitcases and retrieved, with initially great triumph, a rather risqué thong. Her face went redder than her hair as she practically slammed the black article of underclothes back into the pile, and only Jane's commiserating look placated her mortification.

If this was how her first night at Beacon went, well, at least she could say it wouldn't be boring.