Hey everyone, want to preface this chapter by apologizing in advance for the short length, without giving the chapter away I think you'll understand why I ended it where I did. As for other notices, I wanted to apologize to anyone who's sent me a PM recently (In like the last 2-3 Weeks) I've been away on vacation and haven't really had a good chance to sit down and read them, let alone answer them. I promise that I'm not ignoring any of you and will send replies as soon as I get a free moment!

As always, thank you to all of you for sticking with me, I never expected this story to gain the popularity it has since I hate my writing so much. I won't turn this into a big spiel but long story short I appreciate all of your support so very much!

Here's we go! It's Chapter time!

Disclaimer: I don't own RWBY, I just like sandboxes and throwing sand at awful people.

Chapter Ten: Clash In The Land of Beacon

Jaune looked down toward the arena, privately feeling very thankful that he was not one of the two present in the ring currently. He knew that he'd mostly been surviving his fights on luck for the most part and in no small part thanks to Crocea Mors' involvement when he needed it most. While his resentment for the lack of understanding he possessed in regards to the weapon, he had to, albeit begrudgingly, thank the weapon for his ability to even make it this far.

"The rules," Miss Goodwitch cut through the silence and effectively brought Jaune's internal musings to a halt, "Will be the same as a tournament style match-up, the winner will be determined by either ringout or when one fighter's aura drops into the red zone. Any questions?"

"Nope!"

Yang dropped immediately into her stance, small clicking noises sounding through the auditorium as Ember Celica opened up into its battle-mode. She bounced a little on her heels, watching her younger sister with focused violet eyes. Ruby, in contrast unfolded Crescent Rose and twirled it backward as she took her own stance and prepared for the battle ahead.

"Ready!" Ruby called exuberantly.

Jaune wasn't entirely sure, but the exuberance in Ruby's voice didn't seem exactly the same as the tone she'd used for a good portion of the time they'd both spent together since arriving at Beacon. If he were to make an assumption, her current tone was faked? He supposed that only time would tell.

"Very well, then you may begin."

The literal second the final word left Goodwitch's mouth, Yang lunged in toward Ruby. She hammered off shots with Ember Celica in her sister's direction yet Ruby seemed able to zip through the shots and narrowly avoid taking any damage.

"She's quick," Pyrrha noted.

"Hmph," Weiss agreed.

Jaune's own gaze remained fixated on the battle, ignoring the conversation between the two girls for the most part. He'd not started his training with the girls yet, but he knew he had absolutely nothing to lose to paying attention to how other people fought. Observation was, after all, a very good way to learn something.

Finally having gained some distance from Yang, Ruby let loose a few shots from Crescent Rose's Barrel, however, much like Ruby had done with her shots, Yang weaved between them all and avoided taking any damage.

"And they have skill to rival that speed," Ren observed.

"All this dodging is booooring," Nora complained, "Fight, already!"

"Miss Valkyrie, please!"

Nora wisely shut her mouth under Goodwitch's reprimand, yet, all through this, one Jaune Arc's gaze had not left the battlefield at all since the beginning of the fight. His left eye followed Yang's backward somersault as his right moved to track a similar motion from her smaller crimsonette sister.

Clash!

Jaune vision recentered on the blade on Crescent Rose and the metal of Ember Celica crashing together in the centre of the ring, a powerful eruption of gale-force wind burst from the point the two weapons collided and his gaze shot up to the screen at the back of the class now displaying that the two girls were both sitting at around half their reserve aura with Yang's a little more full than Ruby's. If he hadn't felt like a fish out of water in regards to his attendance at Beacon Academy he definitely did now. They moved so damn fast that he could barely keep up with what was going on and what's more is that the level of speed they were both displaying seemed effortless, like the two of them weren't even trying.

Yang bounced on the balls of her feet again, Jaune noticed that seemed to be a regular occurrence whenever their fight stilled for a moment. He privately wondered whether this had something to do with her semblance or was just a natural part of her stance. Given that he had no idea what her semblance was their was equal opportunity for it to be both.

"Yang!" Ruby exclaimed.

Again, Jaune's brow shot upward. Yang had separated Ruby from Crescent Rose and looked like she'd been announced as the victor of some prestigious tournament. The look in the Brawler's eyes told Jaune that his team-mate thought this battle was over. Though from what he could tell, a good shot to Yang's legs would destabilize her. He was no fighter, but his keen eye and strategic mind picked up on that part of Yang's fighting style very quickly. She relied heavily on her upper body strength, fueled on by her weapon's power. If she trained with her feet as well and found a way to incorporate a similar design to Ember Celica as boots then she'd become twice as lethal...Not that Jaune thought a more lethal Yang was something anyone should deal with, of course. Was something to think about, though.

Back in the ring, Yang advanced on Ruby. She took absolute advantage of Ruby's lack of ability when it came to hand-to-fight and within only a few moments, their battle had come to an end, "And Miss Rose's aura has been depleted into the red zone, making Miss Xiao Long the winner."

Ruby pouted as Goodwitch announced Yang as the winner but accepted her loss with a determined nod, folding down Crescent Rose and returning it to the clip at the back of her combat gear.

"You both did very well for the first lesson," Goodwitch told the two girls, "However, Miss Rose I would highly suggest coming up with a way for you to manage without your weapon. It is unwise to leave yourself in a position where you're absolutely defenceless the moment you let go of it. Miss Xiao Long for you, I would advise not pulling your punches against your sister. What if she'd truly betrayed you? Would you be able to forgive yourself if your reluctance to hurt her cost you someone you cared about?"

Both girls were silent, but Jaune could tell from the expressions on their faces that they were deeply considering the advice that Goodwitch had just given the both of them. Once Yang and Ruby had both returned from the lockers now dressed in their school uniforms, Goodwitch's attention was once again drawn up to the stands, "Next up, we'll have Mr. Winchester and...Mr. Arc, how about you?"

'Me already? I've not even had the chance to train yet! This is not going to end well! Isn't there literally anyone else who can fight that big brute?'

"Uh...Um sure, why not?"

"You don't sound too confident about it, do you?"

Jaune didn't need to turn his head to know who'd spoken. He'd not personally had any interaction with Cardin before, but he'd seen well enough how he was around other students to know that the guy was bad news and this was only the beginning of his problems with the larger young man. Jaune instead looked toward Yang, a silent question of what he should do written on his face. To Yang's credit, she didn't laugh at her leader she instead offered a sad expression and shrugged her shoulders, indicating that she was at a loss for what he should do as well.

"Well," Goodwitch said sharply, cutting through the silence, "You'll need to go and collect your training gear, Mr. Arc."

'Er, right."

Jaune's thoughts were pounding against his skull and no matter how much he advanced toward the lockers, these thoughts didn't abate for even a moment. The literal only chance he had of winning this fight was if Crocea Mors interfered like it had done when he was in the Emerald Forest during initiation, it'd not happened in a fight since then but since it was literally his only hope of making it through this without being pounded into a pulp by Cardin, he had no chance but to rely on the thought that the sword would finally come to his aid again.

After changing into his combat gear and strapping Crocea Mors to his waist, Jaune returned to the auditorium and ascended the stairs to the platform that would double as the ring for his incoming clash with Cardin and he took a sole breath, drawing the sword and unfolding the shield into his grip. He crouched down slightly. No vibrations yet like had been there in the Emerald Forest...but the fight hadn't begun yet...there was still time for the sword's power to kick in.

"I'll try and make this quick for your sake," Cardin assured Jaune in an arrogant tone, "Shouldn't take me more than five seconds to wipe the floor with you."

Jaune's eyes narrowed, he was trying his best not to be overwhelmed by what his opponent was saying, but his anger was quickly rising to the surface. He'd been treated like this in the past and though the words were different...the way his opponent was standing over him and belting out insults was exactly the same.

"Though, I might draw it out and have some fun."

Goodwitch sighed, she wanted to intervene, but this was now a sanctioned match between two students and trash-talking was naturally going to be a part of it. Though, it surprised her somewhat that the Arc kid wasn't biting back even in the slightest. Jaune looked down at the blade...not even a tremble of that power from earlier making itself known to himself. Was he doing something wrong? He'd triggered it so easily in the forest and yet had never been able to do so again.

'Answer the call,' he practically begged the weapon from the interior of his mind, hoping to will it to life with his heartfelt plea and yet, even then, the sword didn't respond, it still remained as still as ever. Jaune was so focused on trying to get Crocea Mors' hidden powers to activate that he almost didn't hear Goodwitch call for the match to begin and it was, admittedly, only thanks to luck that he managed to roll out of the way of Cardin's initial strike.

"Slippery little thing aren't you?" Cardin mocked, "Don't worry, it'll be all over soon, just stay still."

Up in the stands, several sets of eyes bore into the fight below. Yang's fist was clenched tightly as her eyes flickered between lilac and crimson. Pyrrha was tapping the ball of her foot against the concreted flooring beneath them all repearedly, narrowed eyes aimed in Cardin's direction and for some reason Blake was covering her mouth with both her hands, a glare of her own aimed in the red-haired boy's direction.

'Y'know,' Jaune thought, rolling out of the way of another strike, 'If you want to help me out, now would be a great time to intervene!' Unfortunately, the time that followed up from the initial strike didn't see Jaune being so lucky with his dodge and he was struck by the bludgeon of the mace, luckily taking the strike to the center of his chest=plate which absorbed most of the damage so that his aura didn't deplete too much from a single strike, still it'd down about as much as you'd expect it to.

'Thank you for nothing you useless hunk of metal,' Jaune thought sarcastically, trying to push himself to his feet and the moment he managed it, the bludgeon of Cardin's mace crashed into his chest-plate again, sending him flying transversely off the side of the platform and down onto the floor below.

"And that's the end of the fight," Goodwitch said serenely, "The winner is Mr. Winchester."

The winner is Mr. Winchester.

Jaune didn't know what he'd been expecting, surely not to win. Yet, he didn't just lose, he lost decisively and definitely looked like he shouldn't be here in front of the other students. Jaune sighed, pulling himself to his feet and moved back to the platform.

"Well done Mr. Winchester, you demonstrated an unrelenting barrage of offense and showed your skills. One thing I would urge you to work on is the manner in which you conduct yourself during a battle. Arrogance has felled greater and more experienced warriors. Never assume. As for you Mr. Arc, well, you did awfully, hopefully it was just the nerves of the first day but you clearly have much to work on."

'Thanks for pointing that out,' Jaune shot back through his thoughts.

Both boys nodded, then departed the room in pursuit of the lockers to change back into their uniforms.

"What the hell was Arc playing at?" Weiss vocalized.

"Not. A. Word," Yang cut her off, a sharpness to her voice that exceeded the one she'd used the last time Weiss had acted this way. Sure, she knew Jaune had not done very well at all, but considering his experience level, Yang was incredibly proud of him for not getting stomped in one hit. Sure, he'd still been absolutely picked apart by Cardin but someone with as little fighting experience as Jaune had lasting that long against someone with years of training? It meant he had raw talent and that was something she, Blake and Pyrrha could work with. She did know that wasn't the only problem they were about to face though, Jaune had proven to take loss of any kind very harshly and this in her opinion would be no different.

Whatever was to come, they'd all have to face it one way or another.

Yang had been correct about one thing that day. Jaune Arc had taken his loss to Cardin horribly. It didn't help that said boy was giving Jaune a difficult time over it at every single opportunity that he got. It seemed that every time the Arc turned his head, Cardin was there to ridicule him about his performance in combat class.

"You're better than what he thinks," Pyrrha would try assuring him, "He wasn't there when we were all in the Emerald Forest."

"That was one time," Jaune countered for what he felt like was the hundredth time, "And I've never been able to replicate it. It might be safe to assume that he's onto something."

"Then, you know what we need to do, right?" Yang said, trying her best to jump in to the conversation and steer it in another direction. The hurt look in Pyrrha's eyes thanks to the comments made by the Arc wasn't something the Brawler wanted to extend. She was a girl of solutions and solutions she would make, "Instead of bitching about it, you need to prepare for it. I said I'd help you and I'm not backing down on that, Jaune."

Yang pushed herself up from her bed and playfully thumped Jaune on the shoulder, "Remember our conversation about letting people in lady-killer, you don't have to do this on your own. If you were supposed to fight all of your battles on your own you'd have been put on Team Jaune not Team ABYN."

"I'd like to help you as well, if you'll let me," Pyrrha contributed, "In whatever way I can."

"Well," Yang observed, "Blake uses a Katana which is closest to Jaune's weapon so we should put her in charge of helping Jaune with his sword-work, but we'll also incorporate that with you teaching him some of your moves as well, Pyrrha but we don't want to rely on it too fully since a lance and a sword are two entirely different weapons. I think it'd be best for you to help Jaune build his endurance since out of the four of us you can go longest in a fight."

All three of the other members of Team ABYN looked at Yang as though she'd grown a third head.

"What?" she answered them, "Just because I like to be playful and make jokes doesn't mean I'm some idiot. If we're going to make the most of this we need to make sure that we're all on the same page. Blake has a sword, so she's best to help Jaune with his. Pyrrha is a champion fighter meaning the endurance she has for multiple opponents and matches in succession is at a high level and I'm going to teach Jaune to manage agility and hand-to-hand combat."

"There's no reason we should necessarily limit it to Jaune," Blake put in quietly, "I think we all have a lot to learn from each other. Of course having teams for missions is the ideal situation but I think this is the real reason we're put on teams during Beacon. To learn from each other as well as the staff so we can grow both in mental and physical ways."

"Makes sense to me," Jaune agreed.

"A shame many of the other students do not see things this way, isn't it?" Pyrrha vocalized, "They all come here thinking that they've already learned and trained all they need to. Which creates attitudes like the ones Weiss and Cardin possess."

"I don't think Weiss is necessarily cut from the same cloth as a guy like Cardin. She's had a rough upbringing, Cardin's just a bully who thinks he's owed something because he's a big bulky dude who can swing a metallic ball on a stick."

"I knew you had a thing for her," Yang teased upon hearing Jaune's response, a smirk on her face.

"I do not!" Jaune fired back, crossing his arms over his chest and sticking his tongue out at her playfully. Laughter rang out through the dorm and for a moment thoughts of Cardin and Weiss were forgotten. Jaune stretched out some then grabbed his hoodie off the end of his bed, "Well, no reason we can't start now, right?" He collected his sword from the bed as well, revealing it to have been sitting on the bed beneath his hoodie.

Team ABYN walked from the dorm out onto the rooftop behind their room, it was, in Jaune's opinion, somewhat similar to a balcony, except several times larger and meant it would be easy enough to use it for training. He slowly walked into the center of the area and slowly drew Crocea Mors.

"One second," Yang said, approaching Jaune. She quickly removed the shield from his waist and moved back to the wall, where she leaned the folded down object against the wall, "You have aura, a shield is practically useless and only going to slow you down." Yang almost shivered when she felt the narrowed and hurt eyes of one Pyrrha Nikos glaring into her back. The brawler didn't dare turn back for, unlike Jaune, Yang had grown up with a sister who's puppy eyes had the strength of nine girls and she was powerless to resist any form of them. It wasn't that she was soft towards them at all, nope, how could you even suggest that?

"But if you insist on using it later, then we can accomodate that into your fighting style," Yang corrected herself, knowing it had to be Jaune's decision in the end, "But either way it's a good skill to have, being able to fight with or without one. That way you won't fall into the trap Ruby did which is relying on your full load-out so much. If the shield ever gets pulled away from you, knowing how to fight without the extra weight is important as well."

Pyrrha stepped up beside Yang and gently extended her foot to tap it against the side of Jaune's leg, "Bring your legs in a little, you're not Cardin's size so a wide-stance won't suit you, you want a stance that's going to capitalize on your manoueverability. The flow of battle is just as important as landing big hits. Sometimes many small hits can do more damage than one big one. Plus it'll allow for an easier transition between offense and defense than a bigger fighter has."

Jaune did as instructed and brought his legs in little closer, he'd barely accomplished this when another foot tapped into the back of his right leg, "Right foot forward," Blake told him softly. She was much quieter than his other team-mates so Jaune was hardly surprised when she didn't offer a similar explanation for the choice of movement for his stance like Yang and Pyrrha had. She then moved back to the front of Jaune alongside Pyrrha and Yang.

"Alright, Blake, take a swing at him."

Wordlessly, Blake took Gambol Shroud into her hand and clicked it into place in sword-form then she advanced toward Jaune, swinging it toward him. The absence of his sword was partially to blame, he felt the lack of being able to raise it to take an incoming blow was frustrating for sure but on the flip side of this was the lack of the exxtra weight. His sword moved before his mind could fully register what he was doing and a loud clang rang off the rooftop.

Jaune had just blocked Blake's attack.

Yang nodded, but didn't unfold her arms. It was just like she thought. The Emerald Forest had clued her into as much. As a smaller fighter, a large shield like the one possessed by Crocea Mors was at most only weighing Jaune down. In the Emerald Forest when the magical aspect of his sword had activated, the shield hadn't been touched once. Still, she would leave the decision in his hands. She wanted to teach Jaune how to fight without a shield so that he had access to a more versatile approach when faced with battle, but the decision on what weapons to use would always rest with Jaune himself.

"Again," Jaune said.

Blake nodded and slashed at Jaune, this time doing it much faster, and Jaune was able to narrowly block the incoming strike, however, Blake retracted Gambol Shroud and whirled to the side, extending the blade again, effectively slashing at Jaune and the Arc doubled over, surprised at the sudden change.

"A Huntsman must be ready for anything," she told him plainly, "Just because I'm your team-mate doesn't mean you should expect me to take things easy on you. If we're going to make you into the fighter you want to be then you're going to need to take this seriously and so are we."

The night went on with all three girls beginning to introduce Jaune to the aspects of the training that they'd be carrying out with him. The four of them worked well into the night, clashing metal ringing out through the academy as they worked and by the time the darkness had fully set in Jaune, Pyrrha, Yang and Blake had worked up a good sweat, they each took their turn in the showers and were now dressed in pyjamas seated at the ends of their beds talking.

"You've a natural talent for this, to think you improved so much in so little time," Pyrrha observed, "I've never seen anyone take to anything as quickly as you've taken to battle."

"He's a natural," Yang agreed, thumping Jaune playfully on the shoulder, "Which is why you shouldn't let someone like Cardin get to you. He's probably reached close to the height of his potential. Especially since he believes that he's got no room to improve."

"One can never grow if they are unwilling to move," Blake observed.

The day had turned out to be rather interesting for Jaune. At first he was angry, frustrated and hurt that he'd lost to Cardin. Someone with an attitude like that...it was an unhappy reality that he knew he'd have to face until he got better at fighting. Everything had improved though and he knew two things. In time, he'd prove himself worthy of being a Huntsman and that he ended up on the best team he could've managed. He'd never really had friends before, but he wondered if this was what it felt like to have them.

"Well, we should probably be getting to bed," he said aloud.

"Shouldn't we have a round of Ninja Madness first?"

Jaune groaned, "Tomorrow's another day, Pyrrha."

"I'll hold you to that, leader."

'Of course you will.'

Goodnights were then exchanged and then Jaune heaved himself into his bed, being asleep practically the moment his head hit the pillow.

A man slowly stepped into the light. He was dressed in black trousers, combat boots and a sleeveless black shirt underneath a green tunic that covered most, if not the entirety of his body. A black bandana was loosely tied around the man's forehead that seemed to be holding his ashen colored hair away from his face.

The figure silently advanced through the sand, his boots creating a crunching sound underneath the force of the man's footstep against the ground below. His vision seemed entirely focused on something not yet revealed to the scene.

"So, you've come, Acheron."

"As you knew I would, brother."

The dark-haired man slowly reached up behind him and encircled his fingers around the handle of the weapon concealed beneath the tunic. He drew his sword from the inside of the scabbard and pulled it to the light.

"E-excalibur," the other man murmured, almost every octave of his voice was laced in disbelief. His disbelief was quickly replaced by anger, however. His fist clenched and his entire body trembled with rage at the very sight of the weapon, "He chose you!?" the man snarled, "You are who not even a member of this family by birth? He chose an adopted bastard to wield the most powerful weapon in existence!?"

Ozpin closed the cabinet behind his desk and a low sigh left his lips. As the memory once again rolled through his mind. These situations seemed far more frequent of late. Little flashes of a life he barely even could recall it had been so long ago. He remembered all of his lives strongly, but he hardly ever recalled sections of memory without any warning, Ozpin sighed.

"Just when I thought I'd escaped the life of Acheron Arc."

End Chapter

Well, there you have it folks another chapter. Let me know what you thought! Hope to see y'all on the next chapter when it releases. Until then, farewell! Also, on another note (While the thought is here to ask you guys for your input) I've been thinking of doing a fic similar to this on scale but with a different combination of team members, the verse will still center around Jaune but it'll be vastly different in terms of what kind of spectacle it is! Feel free to throw me some ideas if you're down to see something like that. If you want to submit an idea, I only ask that you submit the Team Name as well because I'm just god-awful with them.
Well, thanks again guys and I'll see you soon!