Welcome to part one of two of the director's cut!
Here are parts that I couldn't include in chapters 13 and 14 without breaking the flow, so they are here.
This chapter will be comprised of (Hopefully) short, 'comedic' stories which I added to have a little fun.
Is it a fully-fledged chapter? No. Do you need to read this chapter to understand the story? Nope. Will it make me happy? Absolutely!
Expect some in-story commentary too.
Enjoy!
Story I:
Bad Karma
"We are approaching the third convoy, are you ready?" Packleader called out using his radio.
"You are clear to approach!" Packleader heard Nikki's voice back from the device, along with some strange and loud noises. "But you might want to cover both sets of ears…"
"You don't have to tell me twice." Packleader replied and changed the frequency. "Packleader Bjorsson to the rest, put on your earmuffs." And all of the fangs in the group put on the earmuffs without question.
Soon, the third convoy was in sight, and on the battering ram stood four identical goat faunus with white hair, black and white uniform tops, and red kilts instead of trousers. Each brother played on a set of large bagpipes to the music only they could hear, while Nikki, their younger sister acted as a conductor to their music.
For a moment Packleader felt bad to the citizens of Vale living along the convoy's path. Poor bastards, no sound barrier is going to stop THAT.
"Okay, okay wait wait!" Nikki waved to her older brothers and they stopped playing. "I have to call Romy, then we are going to play "79th Farewell to Vale", sounds good?" One of the brothers raised his hand. "Yes Daryl?"
"I would like to play Highland Cathedral…" He said, only to be smacked by his brother.
"You bloody idiot, it's a wedding song!" Second brother shouted. "We should play Callahan the Brave!"
"But aren't we attacking Callahan's city Daniel?" Third brother questioned, genuinely puzzled, only for the fourth brother to step in.
"Dale, we attack the corrupt society ruling Vale!" He explained, and his three brothers stared at him. "We fight for a better Vale!"
"Ooooh… so it's patriotic revolution?" Dale questioned further
"Exactly!" He replied, and three brothers nodded their heads in understanding.
"That's why you are second brain after Nikki Gary." Daryl chuckled, and Nikki just rolled her eyes. Her brothers weren't the brightest eggs in the basket, but they were part of a clan and a really caring family.
"We will choose later!" She jumped into the truck to inform Roman while brothers readjusted their bagpipes for another recital, unaware that on the bridge in front of them awaits a team of Hunters.
"They are coming Cardin." Russel said from his hiding spot.
"I see that, you idiot." Winchester smirked. "This day couldn't get any better."
Previously, he followed behind the team JNPR to see where were they going, and possibly, spoil their day off for his own amusement, so they took a taxi and tried to follow the bus, but because of the unfortunate* series of red lights, they nearly lost them.
And then, the White Fang attacked, which presented itself an opportunity he couldn't possibly miss.
"Ruby just wrote to me that Fangs are probably going to use the highway to escape." Cardin ear-dropped on Jaune-boy and couldn't help himself but grin. They will try to stop the Fang on this Highway, and will get bodied because of Arcy boy, for everyone to see. That means if he and his team score a win, they will be in the headlines, not Nikos.
"Champion lost while Cardin Winchester scores a victory", "Beacon's new shining star" Cardin could envision the newspapers and socials, how television will ask him for exclusive interviews…
"Alright, here we go!" He yelled and jumped of the bridge at the passing trucks, his teammates behind.
"Hunters!" One of the fangs yelled as Cardin struck him with the Executioner, and faunus tumbled from the truck.
Achieving total surprise they managed to defeat few more fangs, but more and more started to pop up from inside their vehicles.
"We have Hunters on our back!" One of the Brothers opened the hatch and yelled to Nikki, and she nodded quickly.
"Some bully hunters decided to show up, Nikki signing off." She said to the radio, turned it off and looked at the driver. "I will be busy in the next few minutes, if Romy calls just answer, okie Paul?"
"You got it girl! Kick their asses!" Paul replied, and Nikki couldn't help but squeaked, barely able to hold her excitement.
She joined White Fang later on due to the letters her brothers sent back to the clan, in which they spoke about their badass leaders, Blake Belladonna and Adam Taurus, and even sent the pictures of themselves laughing and smiling.
She picked up the Crescent blade and looked at her reflection.
For years while growing up, she fantasized about their adventures, fighting against the evil for justice and peace, like heroes from the old fairy tales her grandma read her before sleep. She wanted to be like them, and so, when she finally reached twelve winters, she left safety of her clan to join her brothers and her idol.
She checked her long, white like a wool hair and left a sigh.
When she arrived to join the Fang, her brothers welcomed her with an open arms, and she met Blake. It was like a dream come true! Even though Belladonna tried to persuade her from joining them on the missions, but after her brothers plead, she reluctantly agreed, and even helped with Nikki's training.
"We go with the plan two, like Romy told us too! And tell everyone to remain inside the trucks!" Nikki ordered, and faunus looked at her in surprise. "Me and my Brothers will handle the Hunters."
"Are you…?" Paul wanted to ask.
"I am!" She run to the ladder and quickly climbed up. She trained for months for this, first under Blake, and when she…
"I won't disappoint you Big Sister." She thought.
Meanwhile Cardin and his team fought off two remaining fangs who didn't catch the order, and watched bewildered how fangs jump through open hatches back into the trucks.
"Are they surrendering?" Russel asked, but Dove shook his head while Sky covered the team's back.
"No, they don't, look." He pointed his sword at the four faunus in kilts carefully putting their bagpipes back into the truck, while the fifth, far smaller faunus emerged.
"Good, I almost thought it will be too easy." Cardin smirked and stepped forward.
"Hello Hunters!" Faunus girl waved to them. "My name is Nikki from the Chalk clan, the Toughest of All Clans!" She introduced herself like the clan tradition demands. "And they are my older Brothers, Dale, Daryl, Daniel and Gary also from the Chalk clan!" Four Faunus bowed with respect before their adversaries, but Cardin just rolled his eyes, Dove listened carefully, Russel yawned and Sky pointed his halberd at them. "Let our fight echo for our ancestors to hear in…"
"Shut your mouth Critter, nobody is interested." Cardin rudely interrupted, and Nikki blinked few times in surprise at the racist remark, while her brothers faces turned red, and spoke in unison:
"What did ya say to ma sister ya soy-skined, arse-faced, fishy-eyed jobby flavoured fart lozenge…!"
Authors interruption
Sorry for that, you would probably like to read this whole spectacle of insults and comparisons, but I have to take the story's rating into consideration, and some of the stuff written *puts on my glasses* …with a beowolf? Can Grimm even do that? Damn.
Violence? More than fine. Excessive Semi-Scottish swearing? Sadly, nope.
Konsilio: Oh, there will be violence, there will be blood, for there will be Kh…!
Whoa, stop right there pal! Not yet!
Konsilio: Sadly.
Back to the topic – Goat Brothers insulted the heck out of Cardin, his father, grandfather, great-grandfather, even progenitor of his whole family was not left out. What they exactly said – I leave to your imagination.
End of the Authors interruption
"… ya cunt!" Brothers finished their rant, and although Cardin could only understand part of it, he was pissed nonetheless, while the rest of his team just stared dumbfounded and slightly impressed.
"Let's teach these animals how to address humans!" Cardin roared and swung Executioner before himself in clear challenge.
„The Big Arse face is mine!" Nikki yelled as her brothers charged at CRDL, and Sky and Dove braced for the incoming goats.
„Finally!" Cardin charged back, much to Bronzewing's and Lark's disbelief, but Russel quickly followed his team leader.
Cardin swung his mace in a wide arc, but Goat Brothers either run past him or straight up jumped over him, leaving him behind and instead engaged his teammates.
„Cowardly animals!" He turned back, wanting to run after them, but a Crescent Blade struck him under his knee.
„Ya move like an old cow ya twat!" Nikki backflipped away as Cardin tried to grab her, then covered her nose with disgusted expression . „And ya smell like a Creep ya blampot!"
„You little shit!" Cardin moved to attack the faunus girl, leaving his teammates four against three.
"You call that a sword!?" Daryl chuckled as he exchanged blows with Dove Bronzewing, his heavy longsword falling like a Warhammer. "This is a SWORD!"
Dove bit his lip, barely parring a strike aimed at his head, but his opponent thrusted a longsword directly at his chest, forcing Bronzewing's back, Daryl possessing clear strength and weapon's length advantage, but Dove was a better duelist, and he slowly swung the fight in his favor.
Sky fared little better, his halberd being a match for a longsword, but he fought against Dale and Gary at the same time.
And Russel, after accidentally isolating himself from the rest of the team, just tried his best, his combat style better suited to attack his enemies backs, not engage an angry longsword wielder head on.
„Maybe Gary's name ain't starting with a D…" Dale said after Sky blocked another strike. „But he has gun instead of a leg!" Dale sidestepped, revealing Gary aiming his gun leg at Sky.
„Oh Shit!" Sky jumped away to dodge the torrent of bullets, but that opened an opportunity for Dale to run past Lark and attack Dove from behind.
Dove managed to finally leverage his swordsmanship and push Daryl back a little, only for faunus to smile mischievously.
„Let's give him the Clan's Special brother!" He yelled and only now Dove realized that he has an enemy on his back. He tried to retreat to the side, but it was too late.
„Chest-„ Dale charged at full speed.
"-Slam!" Daryl charged too, and both goat faunus crushed Dove between their chests like a subway sandwich, with a force equivalent to a mini-truck, which broke Dove's aura almost instantly, and as he collapsed, two Brothers laughed and headbutted each other.
Meanwhile Cardin kept trying to crush Nikki with his mace, but the elusive faunus proved to be hard to hit.
"Stop dancing Critter so I can hit you!" Cardin snarled, but Nikki just giggled at that.
"Big Sister would hate ya!" She taunted as she ducked yet under another swing. "Big, stupid, ugly…" She sliced Cardin's chestplate, then backflipped away from danger. "…And Yer hair looks like a shit took a piss!"
"Oh, you will bark back these words!" Cardin run after her, determined to kick the girl's teeth in for embarrassing him like that.
"Cardin…help." Russel wailed weakly after his teamleader, as Dale and Daniel held his arms, Gary pinned Sky to the truck's roof with his gun leg, while Daryl pulled out his thumb, now soaking with saliva, out of his mouth.
"Alright ma guy, which of ya ears is your least favorite?" Faunus asked and Russel gulped.
Cardin barely registered a pained scream further back, entirely focused on his smaller opponent as he pushed her further and further back, until she stood on the White Fang's leading juggernaut.
"You can't jump away this time." He said with a cruel smirk while girl looked around for a an escape. "That's what you get for insulting Cardin Winchester critter!" But instead of being afraid, Nikki looked past him and smiled in response.
"And that's what you will get for messing with the Chalk Clan! Get him boys!" She replied and Cardin turned back, to see three goat faunus charging directly at him, shouting incoherent insults and war cries.
"Auchtahelweit!"
"Gie you sich a kickin!"
"Like in Yedinburgh!"
Although Cardin was stronger than an individual Goat Brother, he was quickly overwhelmed by three of them attacking him all at once. Nikki sat down and started to clap with joy as Dale, Daryl and Daniel fought Winchester, and it was not a honorable fight at all, full of kicking, pushing and spitting into Winchester's face.
Paul the Driver giggled along the truck's crew as he watched one of the brothers kicking Winchester between his legs, then Gary joined the fight, completely pushing Cardin into a defense, Nikki picked up a small flute she carved from a willow tree and sung the clan's song, and the rest of the Fang started to clap to the rhythm.
"Crivens!"
"Make Kelda proud!"
"Scunner hunter!"
Convoy Two enjoyed the spectacle for some time, keeping guard over tied Unconscious Dove, sad Sky and traumatized Russel, until head of Paul emerged from the truck.
"Nik, Roman called, He orders us to get to the harbor as fast as possible." Nikki stopped playing her flute as Gary headbutted Cardin's face while Dale and Daniel pushed him to the truck roof, and Daryl stepped on Cardin's throat, stretching Winchester's aura.
"Hey Brothers, we must get going, are ya done with the Arse-Face?"
"Sure thing Little Kelda!" Gary said as Daryl, Dale and Daniel dogpiled Cardin, keeping him in place.
"Good, Keep him for a little longer." She raised up on and on a dancing feet she approached Cardin.
"Damn you animals, when I get up…" Cardin tried to taunt, but Nikki booped his nose and giggled.
"Let it be a lesson for a Losechester - don't mess with the Chalk Clan!" With that said brothers grabbed Cardin by his limbs and picked him up.
"And Yan, and tan, and TETHRA!" They threw Cardin off the Highway, he wiggled his arms during a flight and landed directly into a large dumpster.
"GOAAALLL!" Brothers cheered and headbutted each other while other Fangs picked up the rest of team Cardinal and threw them away from the convoy.
As Cardin picked himself up, he removed a banana from his face, then, upon hearing a mocking laughter coming from the White Fang, slammed his fist against the dumpster, cracking it and making local possums run away in fear.
"It was all your fault!" He shouted to his teammates.
"What?" Russel replied, making Cardin seethe in rage even harder, all the while the tv-drones filmed from the above…
Authors commentary.
Was this story's purpose to humiliate Cardin, show up his flaws and showcase my poor understanding of Scottish? Guilty and Charged!
Bullying isn't funny when you are on the receiving end, is it? Maybe CRDL will learn their lesson.
Story two: Expectations vs Reality
"Double time Brothers and Sisters!" Large bear faunus covered from the head to toe in brown fur bellowed to the rest of the Fang, all tall and bulked up bear and bull faunus. "Hunters can arrive at any point…"
"Quicker than you think!" Fangers heard, and from out of the beam of sunlight, a Hunter team made a perfect superhero landing onto the convoy, their weapons reflecting the beams of light, forcing the fangs to cover their eyes.
"Sylwester…" Pyrrha tried to politely interrupt…
The horde of heavily armed bear and boar faunus, at first taken aback by the Hunter team, regrouped and with angry roars charged at the fearless heroes, hoping to overwhelm them through sheer numbers and strength, however…
Beatrice's elbow struck her team leader right in the stomach.
"OW! What was that for!?"
"To quit your yapping Sylw." Brunette explained while three remaining teammates nodded their heads in agreement, then she gave Pyrrha an apologetic look. "Sorry for that Pyrrha, Sylw just loves overexaggerate things."
"You meant ' He loves to pull out fanfics out of his ass'." Robert added with a smirk.
"Well, I want to spice things up, not bore Pyrrha with how they whopped our asses!" Loret argued.
"I didn't come here to poke fun at you!" Pyrrha raised her hands in defensive gesture. "I want to help you, but to do that, I need to know what really happened.
Feeling the pressure from his teammates, Sylwester left a heavy sigh.
"Alright, alright. These fangs were not boar and bear faunus, they were nothing out of ordinary. Most didn't even have a proper weapon."
"Aaand?" Angelina pressed her team leader.
"And we failed the superhero landing."
'
"Hang on Rob!" Angie grabbed Robert's hand as he dangled from the side of the truck, Eleanor defended them both against the attacking Fangs with her glaive while Beatrice and Sylwester desperately tried to break through the White Fang and help their teammates.
Loret and Walka jumped too early, Angelina and Ela little too late, and Rober tripped during the jump, nearly falling under the truck's heavy tires.
Luckily for them, White fang still didn't fully realize what was going on and didn't mobilize entirely, but with each passing minute more and more fangs joined the fight
"Got ya!" She finally pulled her teammate while Ela swoop one fang from his feet, whacked another in the head but one fang managed to slip through her guard and kicked her stomach.
"For Adam Taurus!" Fangs charged from every possible direction, and although the team of Huntsmen in training held their own, fangs sheer numbers and ferocity started to overwhelm them.
Beatrice shattered Fang's sword with her axe, then fired a buckshot at the white fanger with a gun, Sylwester protected her back, dueling two fangs at once, his twin blades simultaneously parrying a wrench and a crowbar, while Robert, Angela and Ela tried to break to them, but suddenly, series of hatches opened around them.
"Get them boys!" mole and beaver faunus emerged and attacked their ankles. Ela tried to strike one with her glaive, but the fanger quickly closed the hatch, another tried to stab huntress with a knife, but was whacked in a head by Robert's Espada Ropera, only for two more moles to attack from different direction.
As they were locked in this whack-a-mole, Angelina tried to push towards Beatrice and Sylwester, pushing one fang with her flaming sword away, then the second.
"Aurabreaker!" She heard some fanger yell to warn his comrades, and she barely had time to react before petard exploded beside her, hundreds of metal pieces striking her aura, sending her tumbling over the truck's roof.
"Angie!" Sylwester yelled in a panic, furiously pushed past the fangs trying to surround him and jumped, catching his teammate before she fell from onto the road.
"Got you!" He managed to pull Angie back, her aura shimmering. "You okay?"
"Could be better." She said with a pained grunt as the rest of the team formed a defensive circle round the two, and the fangs surrounded them.
"Any ideas?" Robert questioned his team leader as Loret helped Angie get back up.
"Other than beating the crap out of as many as possible before we go down?" He chuckled dryly. "Still in the making."
"That's just great!" Beatrice rolled her eyes as she blocked fang's spear.
"It was a stupid idea from the get go!" Ela shouted angrily, spinning her glaive high, forcing fangs back, while D'artganin split fang's mace in two, and Sylwester couldn't help but chuckle as more and more fangs rushed towards them. They bit too much for them to chew.
Suddenly, a bellowing roar sent the fangs into a state of utter panic.
"Oh shit, he is coming!"
"Hide!"
"Scurry away!"
And just like that fangs left the flabbergasted huntsmen alone, but soon team SABER learnt the reason way as the heavy steps echoed across the street.
"HA HA! Foolish huntsmen decided to board my convoy!?" Hunters assumed a defensive position as the convoy leader approached.
He was nine feet tall gorilla faunus with green, spiteful eyes, covered in a thick, steel carapace, revving a double barreled minigun.
"Face the wrath of the White Fang OW!" Sylwester stopped his story as Beatrice elbow struck his stomach. "Not again!"
Pyrrha giggled for a bit, then quickly recomposed herself and cleared her throat. "Sorry, but it didn't happen like that, did it?"
Team Saber shared an unsure looks with one another, then left a group sigh.
"No." Loret admitted with a disappointed face.
"First, he was like, four feet tall." Ela said first
'
Gorilla faunus shrink in size.
'
Second, he wasn't even a gorilla, more like, a jackal faunus?" Robert added after brief moment of thought.
'
Terrifying gorilla turned into a grinning hyena faunus.
'
"And he didn't have an armor, or a minigun." Angie remarked. "Instead he wore a long brown trenchcoat."
"Plus his voice wasn't bellowing, nor imposing at all." Beatrice commented. "It was kinda funny to be honest."
'
"Ha ha! Stupid huntsmen decided to board my convoy!?" Convoy leader said with his high-pitched voice, and team Saber prepared to charge him right away. "Face the wrath of the white fang!" And Faunus opened his trenchcoat, revealing…
"Oh…" Pyrrha turned away her head to hide her embarrassment. "Was he…?"
"Good news, he wasn't naked!" Sylwester said, much to Pyrrha's relief.
"Bad news, he had grenades." Beatrice commented.
"A shit ton of grenades." Robert added to the previous statement.
"Some weren't even explosive at all." Ela said with a shudder. "They were filled with…"
"Please, no…" Traumatized Angie covered her mouth, not able to forget the smell.
"And, as you probably have guessed, we lost that fight badly." Sylwester concluded and lowered his head. "Pretty embarrassing huh?"
"I'm sure you did your best." Pyrrha tried cheer them.
"But best is not enough." Angie remarked with sour.
"We are still first year students…" Ela tried to join the discussion.
"Cut it El." Robert interrupted. "What if we won't be able to finish the school?"
"Who knows, maybe Beacon will blow up and we will have to go on a run!?" Sylwester angrily smack his knee.
"Highly unluckily." Beatrice said.
"Stop." Pyrrha spoke, getting Saber's attention back onto herself. "Self-pitying won't help. I can help in your training, give advice, but it's up to you learn how to work as a team." They looked at each other. "What matters now is what will you learn from today."
Sylwester stood up, took a deep breath and bowed his head.
"On behalf of my team, please, help us improve."
Robert rolled his eyes, trying to not show that he asks for help, but Beatrice, Angelina and Eleanor gave the Mistral's Champion a pleading eyes, and much to their joy, Pyrrha nodded her head in agreement.
"We start from tomorrow."
'
White Fangers sat in a circle around Laszlo on board of Queen Marika as he recounted his fight against the Huntsmen.
"They were a fifth year students, with countless Grimm slain by their hands! Legendary huntsmen, capable of turning the tides of whole battles with mere presence alone!" Laszlo gesticulated wildly to his audience while they listened in awe. "With each swipe of their weapons they threw dozens of my brothers and sisters into the air, laughing manically as they did so! But was I scared!? NO!" His face came up to another fanger, and she gasped in surprise. "I faced them down like I face you now as they charged at me, and before I could blink, one with her infernal sword struck me down…"
"You died?" One of two opossum faunus asked while his brother gnawed his nails.
"Sadly, yes." Laszlo admitted with great sadness. "BUT I LIVED!"
"Remind me again why you picked him as a leader?" Neo gestured to Roman as they looked down at the scene, and Roman chuckled.
"While you look at him Neo, you see an absolute maniac with violent tendencies and questionable smell, but what I see is…"
"….And then I threw a piss grenade directly at huntress's head!" Laszlo laughed, making Roman stop talking for a moment. 'You should have seen their faces!"
Neo raised her eyebrow, and Roman left a heavy sigh.
"…is an absolute lunatic who would cause tons of collateral damage if not given any responsibility."
Authors note
Well, like I said, it was a rather 'short' one, and worry not - Fully fledged chapter is on it's way, but it takes time, time I currently does not have in spades. But expect the second part of the director's cut to be sooner than later.
Little spoiler - It will feature our Fallen Maia.
But I want to use this chapters to ask you, the readers - Do you prefer long chapters, or shorter ones?
I can comfortably do both, and some chapters will be long no matter what, but if you are comfortable with shorter chapters, I could post stories like this and the next one in the near future to focus on things that happen in relation to the main storyline, or to showcase scenes that I had to scrap.
From my point of view, posting shorter chapters alongisde 'Sauron Encounters' would be beneficial in context of this story's 'visibilty' - I would remain on top of the FF-net page for longer. But on the other hand, I kinda have this feeling that posting short chapters while you expect a long one would be unfair.
That's why for example, I didn't throw 'Sauron encounters' between Chapter 13 and 14, but I intend to do so after chapter 15.
Feedback really appreciated.
Now, to answer your reviews:
In response to Dhestrya:
ICNE
In response to vastoisshin:
"There is a lot for me to contemplate after chapter 13 and 14 first wow everything escalated so quickly." - They certainly did, but luckily for everyone involved, there were only minor...There were consequnces.
"It's nice to see Annatar trying finding reason to care now that he has a person/machine friend." - That's something really interesting for a being like him, right? In canon, during three entire Eras he never had someone like this. In this story it is little more complex, but Penny is a special case regardless.
"A wonderful development with the robot I think noticed that it went to Penny trying to reach her will it develop a personality, or will it be a Nier automaton that mimics emotions and personalities based on algorithm those are the thoughts going through my head right now." - As a kid I watched the beautiful movie called Wall-E, and this robot is a lowkey refrence to that. And this robot is also a little special case - It was the first robot Annatar have ever made, and he made it with Penny without any desire to manipulate her.
Will it develop a personality? Time will tell, but you gave me much to think off.
"It's interesting how people are rallying to Annatar even his goons who have reasons to fear and run away from him after that last encounter is it his presence that is affecting their minds or is this genuine." - The goons might be scared of him, but because of Sauron's outburst, they realized something really quick - they screwed up.
Annatar gave them job that they genuienly enjoyed up to this point, always greeted them, made them cool 'trinkets' and even remembered their names. And what they did? They run off. Everyone in their right mind would be pissed, and they felt ashamed. So when the White Fang arrived, they wanted to atone for their mistake rather quick.
"Jaune is going to be more known now that he is using the power of the ring, isn't he? At least that is what I imagine. What abilities does Jaune have now that he is wearing the ring will it be like Shadow of Mordor now that the ring is being used or something different but close to." - Like I said ealier, I am a staunch believer in the 'Show don't tell' approach in a storytelling, so I won't answer that question right away, but it will be answered.
Thanks for your review!" Take care!
In response to naedinefebruary2.0
No, I am not looking to comission anything.
Goodbye,
P.S. Let's see how many bots will come after this chapter. After "The Road to Hell" there were three, so I bet three.
In response to RedHood001
"Desperate times call for desperate measures. I'm not surprised Jaune chose to wear the ring when he was severely outclassed and Pyrrha needed help. The intoxicating feeling of power coursing through him would get into his head, especially after all the taunts and mockery he'd gotten. Despite the obvious darkness, Jaune still has his noble goals and good nature... up until a certain point." - I could not describe it better friend.
"I love how you're depicting the corruption that's happening. It's not that Jaune has suddenly turned evil as soon as he wore the ring, but that his noble intentions and good nature would immediately be steered towards darker paths. The road to hell indeed, especially with how the ring's influence would only grow over time. It's like how Gandalf would use the One Ring to do good, but the evil thing would twist that intent towards evil ends." That's how the true evil works - it creeps, whispers and twists your goals, mind, vision, even your own spirit into something abhorrid, slowly pushing you towards an edge, and when you 'wake up' you realize that you turned into the very same thing you swore to destroy.
"With how this is the first time Jaune has worn the ring and used its power, I wasn't that surprised when he stopped himself from delivering that lethal blow." - Slight correction here - It was a first he willingly used the ring. The first one was a total accident, but gave him an idea what will happen if he puts on this thing, which in turn made him more than willing to use it to help Pyrrha.
Remember how Gollum tripped and fell into the fire? It's heavily implied that Eru Iluvatar influnced the chance for that to happen. But he is not the only one who can do that - Valars and Maiars can do that too. Gandalf used that quite a lot during the Trilogy.
"It's like how the One Ring works in LOTR. Only this one seems to be under the influence of... either it's Morgoth or a part of Sauron." - Oh, I just CAN'T wait when I reveal it! I am shaking in anticipation... But I have to stay cool.
"It could also be something else that's specifically tied to Remnant because Ruby has proven that there are traces of Arda within this world Sauron has been sent to." - I can already tell you that the ring isn't influnced by the Bane...
Konsilio: Hold it!
"You make a great point about how Sauron isn't that close to the Brother Gods in terms of power. He can't create a world the way they did. The Brothers would be more like the Valar in that sense, very true, even though they seem to need no permission from Eru to create life or destroy them and whatnot." - Morgoth didn't get a permission to do what he did either, even when he turned Eru's firstborn into orcs out of spite and malice. But Aule also didn't get permission to create dwarves.
Eru does not interfere in his creations free-will.
"I was not expecting the Warhammer reference but that was such a fun surprise." - Just innocently poking fun at poorly explained retcon. "I'm only starting to delve into the lore, mostly thanks to Space Marines 2." - I started with Total War Warhammer and let me tell you - you are in for quite a ride!
As for Rings of Power - The only good thing coming out of it are them memes. My favourite is the one that RoP is what the One Ring transmitted directly into Smeagol's brain for 500 years and that's why he went insane.
Stay safe and healthy!
In response to Valen Skata:
Don't worry, my rant was there more as an information for the future. Because I recognized that when people see "You push OCs into the story", most folks on this site get the same reaction as cat about to take a bath.
"story is keeping up the pace (or at least I think that it does, who knows, maybe next three chapters will be filler)" HEY! Just because I intend to give Sauron, team RWBY and JNPR time to catch their breaths doesn't mean the next few chapters will not be interesting. Not to mention the Aftermatch is still in the making.
"So this "shadow" really is Morgoth huh? It's good to see that he is still active, but now I wonder, what is his endgame?" I can't agree or deny this. But for a minute let's assume it is indeed Morgoth.
Why would he do such a thing? He just struck a deal with Sauron, and now he would go behind his back like that? It is illogical.
If you ask for Morgoth's endgame, even after the thousands of years, his goal is still the same - to rend everything to ash and built back into his image. That didn't change.
"Can't wait for next upload, and cheers for an anniversary!" - Cheers for you to mate! And sorry that the next update isn't what you have expected.
In response to Berkmine:
I never played that game, but it sounds quite fun.
Thanks for your review!
In response to Of the Worst 3:
Sauron has a way with words, doesn't he?
And your rhyme - it was nice to read!
Konsilio: I like the parallel you made - In Mordor Shadow laid, and in the land of Remnant it rises.
In response to GoodguysRoverated:
I think your question will be answered in the future, after the Chapter called, you guessed it, "Aftermatch"
Konsilio: Or maybe it will be an Arc (pun intended)
That's all from me for today!
Stay safe and happy!
DJ And Konsilio.