This is a message to all of the people who supported me on this rewrite. I cannot express how surprised I was when I got a ton of reviews conveying your support. I also took some ideas into account, which were very helpful.
However, I cannot promise a regular schedule like some people wanted. I've got enough stuff going on as it is.
And for all of the people who are new to this fic and don't know that this is a rewrite, enjoy reading!
Jaune knew his skill with a blade, or any weapon rather, were less than exceptional. He just chose to repress that fact until now, because at this moment he was wandering through a forest scared out of his mind with a girl who held herself with such confidence that he was afraid of what would happen if he pissed her off. She had speared him out of the air for crying out loud! That kind of thing doesn't just happen with sheer luck.
Coming from a family of war heroes, one would think that the coming heir would have been cleaving away at Grimm and criminals alike before they even had their birth age reach double digits. Jaune, however, was an unfortunate exception.
During his childhood, his father would attempt to train him with a different weapon every year, and with each year a test was held. The results were not promising.
He had tried to use a spear, and ended up holding it too low and impaling the ground and performing a pseudo pole vault. He was hospitalized for two weeks.
He had tried archery, and by some instance of horrible luck, the arrow defied physics by ricocheting off of multiple objects. The arrow finally landed near Jaune's head, who had fallen to the ground due to the slight recoil of the bow.
He tried using a two-handed axe, and ended up spinning with the swing and somehow getting motion sickness. The elder Arc sighed as that persistent hereditary trait seemed to remain in his own child.
He couldn't even lift up a mace for more than a minute without dropping it on his own foot.
It had gotten so bad that his father had nearly given up, but there was one last thing that he could try, and the elder arc nearly smacked himself since he had forgotten such an important weapon.
He had forgotten about his own weapon combination, the sword and shield. The kind of weapon that he had great experience with and could bestow some of it to his son. This probably should've been the first thing to try and teach Jaune to use, but too late now. This was the last resort. If he couldn't get his own son and heir to wield even a sword and shield, the very weapon he is uses on a regular basis, he'd never hear the end of it from his drinking buddies!
For one last, desperate year, the elder arc tried his best to get his son to wield a standard sword and shield with at least some finesse and skill. He made his son go through various drills and exercises in a vain attempt to instill some last minute proficiency into his child before having to apply him for a combat school before he becomes too old. Surprisingly, the sword and shield was the first weapon that Jaune hadn't managed to hurt himself with. That still wasn't a huge improvement, but it was something.
After sending the applications, the elder Arc began seeing a sudden influx on acceptance letters. However, all of these letters requested that they see the Arc boy in action, which was something that the elder Arc knew wouldn't end well.
Even knowing this sort of thing wouldn't end well, the elder Arc filled himself and his son with false hope each time they entered a new acceptance test, and each test ended the same. Some of the administrators even had to repress laughter with how bad Jaune had performed.
Seeing his father even more crestfallen than himself drove Jaune to take extreme measures, which he was sure would bite him in the ass later. It took a lot of self-arguing, but he eventually brought himself to go to a darker side of his town. He needed information before he could make his move. He would make his father and ancestors proud.
After several weeks on nightly visits to his town's ghetto area, he was able to decipher the location of someone who was eligibly good at forging transcripts as well as other things. Using nearly all of his own savings, Jaune hired the man to make him transcripts that would get him into the best somewhat local academy, Beacon Academy. It sickened him to do so, but his goal would be achieved, one way or another.
Spending one last night with his family, all of whom were none the wiser, Jaune waited until his family was asleep before he quietly tip toed over to the case that held Crocea Mors. Jaune had only seen the ancestral blade and scabbard a few times before, mainly because his father had never sparred with him with a non-training weapon. As he gripped the blue handle of the sheathed blade he felt the weight of his guilt even before he officially committed the act of theft against his own family, but he pushed on, and soon he was aboard a ship heading to vale with nothing but the clothes and armor he wore and the weapon clipped to his waist.
Nothing truly eventful had happened after that, unless you count throwing up on a girl's shoe, watching a girl explode, hitting on an heiress and a celebrity at the same time, getting speared to a locker by said celebrity, and getting launched into a forest full of creatures of darkness.
Yeah, not very eventful.
Which led him to where he was now. Thankfully, and surprisingly, he was basically rescued from his free fall by the same spear that had already punctured a hole in the hood of his hoodie. The spear managed to snag him by that same hole that it made from the locker room and pinned him to a tree. Either this girl was really lucky, or really accurate. Jaune didn't know which was scarier.
As Jaune hung high above the ground, his feeling of inadequacy crept back up. This moment of peace finally gave him a chance to think about the choice he had made, and the people he had probably hurt in the process. He was surprised that the weight of his own guilt and sorrow didn't bring him back to the ground.
He repressed these feelings when he saw the heiress from earlier arrive from out of the bushes nearby. They exchanged eye contact, and she scoffed and quickly went back in the direction she had appeared from. He sighed dishearteningly as he watched her disappear in the thick foliage. Jaune had attempted to wrench the spear out from the tree so he could get back to the ground, but the head of the spear was embedded so deep his feeble strength wasn't enough to escape.
So he just remained there, hanging, until he heard another large bush shuffle about. Jaune eyed the bush curiously, and to his surprise the celebrity Pyrrha Nikos emerged from the dense shrubbery. She only had her shield with her for obvious reasons, and she didn't even have it drawn. She had just traversed the dangerous forest without her weapon just for him.
Jaune didn't bother to question it… yet, as she had saved him from a possibly grisly fate. Death by lack of landing strategy didn't sound too good in his opinion.
After exchanging some friendly banter, Pyrrha retrieved her weapon and Jaune was back on his feet. This led him to where he was now, jumping at every noise whilst his partner remained cool as a cucumber. Jaune was so focused on the sounds he was hearing that he hadn't even been focusing on his surroundings, mainly to what was directly in front of him.
Before he knew it, he was on the ground, courtesy of Pyrrha and a branch she pushed herself past.
"I'm sorry!" Pyrrha exclaimed apologetically, presenting her hand to him in an effort to help him up.
"No worries." Jaune replied easily, waving off her apology. It was mostly his fault after all. Jaune winced as he felt a stinging sensation on his cheek. Knowing exactly what the feeling was, Jaune followed up with, "It's just a scratch." Jaune grasped her offered hand and hoisted himself up.
Letting go of his gloved hand, Pyrrha looked at his cut strangely, and just when Jaune was about to voice his discomfort Pyrrha spoke.
"Why hasn't your aura healed you yet?" Pyrrha asked, stepping a foot closer.
"My what?" Jaune asked dumbly.
"Your aura." Pyrrha stated this time.
"Gesundheit." Jaune replied cheekily. He honestly had no idea what she was referring to.
"Jaune, do you… know what aura is?" Pyrrha asked patiently and calmly.
Jaune snorted in fake disbelief, "Of course I do. Uh… do you know what aura is?" Jaune asked, hoping she'd take the childish bait to help educate him without looking like an idiot. Although Jaune wanted to smack himself for even thinking that such a thing would work, he kept his somewhat confident façade up. No sense in backing down now right?
Pyrrha, of course, saw right through this for multiple reasons. The biggest one is that aura automatically activates and Jaune's terrible poker face, but she decided to go along with it and educate her partner a little. She had expected something like this to happen with him after all, "Aura is the manifestation of our soul. It bears our burdens and shields our hearts. Have you ever felt like you were being watched without knowing that someone was there?" Pyrrha asked in a teacher-like tone.
Jaune had to actually think about this one for a moment, "Uh… yeah." Jaune answered. This was actually true. He had felt this whenever he had been training to the point of near exhaustion. It was like a motivating force of sorts. He felt like he wanted to impress the person or whatever watching him. Now it actually made sense.
Pyrrha started to slowly walk around him, her emerald eyes still remained on Jaune's own deep blue ones, "With practice, our aura can become our shield. Everyone has it, even animals."
Jaune's body followed the direction Pyrrha was walking in. "What about monsters?" Jaune quickly asked. He didn't want to think about Grimm having weird shields. That was just a scary thought.
"No, the monsters we fight lack a soul. They are creatures of Grimm. The manifestation of hatred. They are the darkness and we are the light." Pyrrha said, finally turning away from him.
"Right, that's why we fight them." Jaune confirmed.
"It's not about why, it's about knowing. Understanding both dark and light helps us manifest our aura. Everyone has some of both. By bearing your soul outwards as a force. All of our tools and equipment are conduits for aura. You project your soul and yourself when fighting." Pyrrha verified.
Jaune took a moment to take all of this information in, before blurting out the first thing that came to his mind, "It's like a force field!" Jaune exclaimed excitedly.
Pyrrha turned to face him once more, her smile full of humor, "Yes, if you want to look at it that way."
Pyrrha strode up to Jaune, once again uncomfortably close to him. "Now, close your eyes and concentrate." She requested as she brought a hand to his head, gently caressing it.
"Um… okay." Jaune said uneasily as he complied with her wishes.
"For it is in passing that we achieve immortality…" Pyrrha began calmly, starting the incantation. Jaune started to feel a little bit of a tug from somewhere in his chest. It wasn't uncomfortable, it was actually kind of comforting.
Suddenly, Jaune wasn't in the forest. He wasn't sure how he knew due to his closed eyes, but something felt different. He refused to open his eyes or break his wavering concentration. He could faintly hear Pyrrha's voice, but it calmed him somewhat even though the words were currently unintelligible. If it wasn't for her distant voice, he would've broken her concentration already.
He really hoped that Pyrrha would finish whatever she was doing soon, because he was starting to feel a burning feeling in his right hand. He still refused to open his eyes, but the burning wouldn't go away. In fact, it was really hurting him right now! It was like someone was stabbing his hand with a hot branding iron. He swore he could feel his skin start to reform as quickly as it burned, which made the pain feel consistently like fresh skin was being burnt instead of just remaining burnt.
Finally, sweet relief was found when he stopped hearing Pyrrha's voice. Feeling that he could finally open his eyes, he opened his eyes to see that he was back in the forest with Pyrrha hunched over in front of him. Her breathing was labored and her face was slightly pale.
Despite feeling the lingering hot feeling on his hand, his concern was solely on Pyrrha. "Pyrrha, are you okay?" Jaune asked, standing close in case she needed to be caught. She looked like she was about to pass out from overexertion.
Pyrrha took one last breath before standing straight, smiling brightly. "I used my aura to unlock yours. Now the energy that protects you is your own." Pyrrha watched as the cut faded away from Jaune's face in a matter of seconds, "You have a lot of it." She complimented.
Jaune stared at his own hands in awe of this new revelation. His hands seemed to have a faint white glow to them. If he had to describe it with one word, it would be angelic.
Much to Jaune's disappointment, the glow faded away and unbeknownst to him so did the pain in his hand. He hadn't even thought to inspect his recently burning appendage.
"How do I make it come back out? That was cool!" Jaune asked eagerly, wanting to see the glow once again. The glow gave him a feeling that he hadn't felt in a while.
Hope.
With its healing property, shielding property, offensive property, and with Pyrrha of all people saying he had a lot of it made him think that he may actually have a chance as a hunter. Just a chance was all he wanted, and it was better than what he had before coming to Beacon.
Pyrrha chuckled at his enthusiasm, "Unfortunately you would need training in order to use your aura for anything besides an automatic shield and healing factor. It takes some people several years to even start to make progress with aura." Pyrrha stated, unknowingly crushing some of Jaune's hopes.
"Oh." Jaune simply said, his voice dripping with hints of sadness.
Pyrrha quickly picked up on this, "B-but maybe that won't be the case for you. Most of the people who have a difficult time training with aura just have small amount so they can't get an effective amount of training time in before they exhaust themselves. You, however, have an astounding amount. It should only take a few weeks for someone like you to reach an acceptable level of aura prowess." Pyrrha said encouragingly.
Jaune looked back up and stared at Pyrrha for a moment, before recomposing himself.
"Thanks Pyrrha. I'm glad you were the one who pinned me to a tree." Jaune said good-naturedly. Pyrrha smiled and nodded in agreement.
"I certainly don't regret my decision." Pyrrha replied easily, wiping any remaining sweat from her brow.
'You probably will later.' Jaune thought with self-doubt. For his credit he didn't allow these feelings to show.
"We should probably get moving. Initiation isn't exactly going to stop for us." Pyrrha suggested, to which Jaune was instantly on board with. He was already eager to just finish this initiation one way or another.
Jaune didn't know what was worse, screaming like a girl in front of his partner, or panicking whilst hanging from the tail of a large Grimm which was also happening in front of his partner.
No wait, he found something worse. Getting thrown by a flick of the Grimm's tail, while screaming like a girl and in front of his partner.
He had hoped to impress her by making torches to explore a dark, damp, scary looking cave. Even though Pyrrha commented on how this cave seemed dangerous, his mind was made up. He had to show some worth to his partner, no matter how miniscule.
Well, some impression he had made. He was sure this whole ordeal now gave him negative points in Pyrrha's book of partners. He would have to remember to try and score some brownie points to get back at her good side. That is, if he even survived this fall.
As some miraculous luck would have it, he was heading in a straight line towards some cushiony looking trees, but any time Jaune gets good luck he also gets bad luck.
For some reason beyond his understanding, he had managed to slam right into the side of someone. While this did slow him down a little bit, the collision still hurt. Only a few seconds later did Jaune find himself with his foot caught in between two large branches. He was sure the momentum from his launch would've torn his foot off, but he only felt a sharp pain for a couple of seconds. Was this what aura can really do.
From his dangling position, he saw what appeared to be two girls standing by the ruins that he was supposed to find, a dead ursa, a guy in green panting by the dead ursa, and a orange haired girl that was singing or something. It's hard to tell with the ringing in his ear.
He also saw Ruby, not more than two feet away from him. That must've been what he had hit in midair.
Jaune deliberately coughed to get her attention, and once he had it he followed up with, "Hey Ruby."
Before Ruby could respond, Pyrrha burst in through the tree line on the opposite side of the field from where Jaune. Following close behind her was the oversized scorpion-like Grimm. He was glad she was still alive, but he also felt bad that he couldn't help her.
"Jaune!" Pyrrha called out, focusing more on his well-being than her own at the moment.
"Pyrrha!" Jaune called back, swinging his body slightly to get a better look at the situation.
"Whoa!" Ruby exclaimed with a faint amount of excitement brewing in her voice. Without looking back at Jaune, she took off to join the fray.
"Ruby!" Jaune called out helplessly, holding out his hands in a desperate attempt to get her attention for just a moment. She could just him down it like five seconds!
Jaune, thinking of a quick means of freedom, swung himself so he could grab onto the two branches for leverage. Using what muscular strength he possessed, he pushed against the clamp that they had on his foot. After a few wiggles and somewhat strong pushes, his foot was released from the clutches of nature.
Dropping down to the think branch Ruby had previously been perched on, Jaune took a moment to catch his breath. Within that moment, he lost it again.
He saw Weiss, his now first crush, falling from the sky.
He could compare such a scene to an angel descending from heaven itself, to a graceful snowflake floating to the ground. Like a…
Oh crap she's falling.
Thinking fast and eager to talk to his crush again, Jaune leapt from the tree with his arms outstretched. Weiss softly landed within his secure grasp. Remembering the book that Jaune had borrowed from is dad, the blonde decided that now was a perfect time to pull out a one liner from How-To Pick Up Huntresses.
"Just dropping in?" Jaune asked with as much masculinity as he could muster while sporting his most confident smile. That smile faded almost instantly once he realized what he had actually just done.
Jaune descended unnaturally fast and plummeted to the ground within seconds. He landed face-down and without Weiss in his arms. Two negatives did now equal a positive in this case.
Or maybe they did, for Wiess at least. She landed right onto his back, smiling slightly when she heard his pained groan.
"My hero." Weiss sarcastically said, looking at her nails apathetically.
"My back." Jaune gurgled out. He was sure there was at least SOME internal bleeding. Good thing he had aura! He had to be running out of it at this point though, right?
Even after Weiss removed herself from her seat, Jaune remained still and waited for the pain to go away. The sharp flare of pain dulled down to an extreme discomfort in only a few seconds but it wasn't enough to move just yet. Which was unfortunate because he saw Ruby, pinned by her hood by an oversized feather and right in front of an angry Deathstalker.
"Ruby!" Jaune called out, attempting to push himself up, but the pain came back. He watched in horror as the Deathstalker raised its massive stinger with the intent to impale the small girl. Yang ran towards her sister, but was blocked off by a volley of feathers, courtesy of another Grimm.
"Dammit!" Jaune yelled through gritted teeth, now he was finally on his feet, albeit barely, but it wasn't nearly enough. He'd need super speed in order to even get over there. Even if he had such a thing, what could he even do? He doubted blocking with his shield would deflect the whole attack, and he couldn't possibly deflect it with his sword.
Rescue came in the form of an unexpected wall of ice, and a slightly more expected Weiss Schnee.
Jaune couldn't tell what they were saying, but they didn't have a ton of time. The wall of ice only had the Deathstalker's tail frozen, but not the rest of its body. Eventually it will hack away at the ice with its claws.
Finally able to move normally due to the healing properties of his aura, Jaune ran over to the rest of the young fighters. He was thankful that no real harm had come to any of them.
Yang rushed past Jaune, her mind only on her sister. Jaune continued to run until he was face to face with his partner once more. His breathing was only slightly labored from the long stretch of a run over.
"You okay?" Juane asked worriedly. She had been alone with a Deathstalker after all.
"I'm fine Jaune, but what able you? You did get thrown into the air." Pyrrha asked, scanning him up and down to see if there were any obvious injuries.
"Don't worry, turns out this aura stuff really does heal injuries!" Jaune said with a wide smile. Pyrrha couldn't help but reciprocate the smile, although it was more easily restrained.
After everyone regrouped, they had collectively decided to choose the 'run and live' option, which Juane was completely fine with. Once they each grabbed a relic, they ran towards the direction of Beacon, but almost instantly ran into a problem.
The Nevermore, an avian Grimm, had wings. Feeble humans did not.
The Nevermore soared past the running teenagers and perched itself atop a large stone spire. Everyone took cover behind a series of pillars that were lined up quite a ways from the avian Grimm. Jaune drew his blade and expanded his shield to prep himself for the fight that he was no doubt about to take place in.
That was when things got weird for Jaune. Jaune felt a pulse in his right hand, and a familiar burning feeling came back. The feeling was not nearly as strong as the first time, but it was still undeniably there.
Only a millisecond after this occurred, he felt a flood of information force itself into Jaune's brain. It wasn't unpleasant, in fact it was quite the opposite. It felt… really good. Like injecting some sort of stimulant or listening to a crowd of people cheer for you or taking the first bite of Fruity Juice Gum!
Yeah, kinda like that.
Bottom line is, Juane felt like he was on cloud nine, but he didn't have time to ponder this feeling or the information that he was being given all of the sudden because the Deathstalker that they had left behind was quickly advancing on them.
"Oh man, run!" Jaune called out, collapsing his shield and clipping it to his side while also sheathing his sword. All of this happened in one fluid motion, unlike other times he's done this.
As soon as his hand left the handle of his sword, every one of the new anomalies stopped. He paused for the briefest of moments, but snapped back into reality when He remembered what he was supposed to be doing.
Jaune ran alongside a few of the others, while Nora, Ren, Blake and Wiess remained behind. Jaune was worried, but this didn't last long as they were forced to retreat. Jaune heard his Pyrrha shout out, "Go, go!" and shift her sword/spear weapon into a rifle and fire at the Deathstalker. Jaune wanted to go against such an order, seeing as how they were headed for a bridge that was being propped up by thin pillars over a seemingly endless pit, but the Deathstalker was closing in. It would close off their escape within seconds.
Jaune's mind was moving a mile a minute. So there was a flying bird throwing feathers at them, a massive scorpion blocking off their way back to solid ground, and now they were on a narrow, crumbling bridge fleeing for their lives. How could this get worse?
As if to answer Jaune's question, the Nevermore flew straight into the bridge, completely obliterating the middle of it. Jaune was narrowly about to dive out of the way and land on one side of the bridge along with a few others.
Jaune looked to his right to count just how many people were on his side of the bridge, and added up five including himself. That means that the other three were hopefully on the other side unharmed.
Jaune stood up and looked to the other segmented part of the bridge, and thankfully the remaining three were on that side in one piece. Though Jaune could see that they were struggling with the Deathstalker.
"We gotta get over there!" Jaune said, hoping someone on his end could hear him.
"Let's do this!" Came the response of an Nora, grenade launcher in hand and an unnaturally serious expression on her face.
Jaune looked down to the black hole that lay beneath the broken bridge and swallowed nervously.
"Uh, I can't make that jump." Jaune admitted, taking a hesitant step back.
Nora stepped forward, now smiling manically, and struck Jaune in the chest. The blow sent him back a few feet, and Jaune didn't have enough time to stop her from what she was doing. Jaune could only watch in fear as Nora transformed her grenade launcher into a mighty war hammer and strike the edge of the bridge.
The force behind the hammer strike made the bridge act as a catapult for Jaune. Jaune was launched helplessly over the void below and was quickly followed by Nora, who launched herself with a well-placed explosive.
Jaune landed roughly, but recovered as quickly as possible. Jaune panicked for a brief moment when Nora tried to damage the Deathstalker using the momentum from her launch as a larger driving force. The hammer landed on the face plate of the Deathstalker, and in retaliation, the Deathstalker tried to stab Nora with its stinger. Nora used another explosive to push herself away quickly, but didn't take her surroundings into account and sent Blake over the bridge. The tail drove itself deep into the bridge, and the remnants of the bridge began to waver.
Before Jaune could call out her name, even though he didn't know it at the time, Blake recovered. Using her gun-blade as a grappling hook, she swung her way over to the Nevermore to assist the other fighters trying to shoot it out of the sky.
Jaune turned to face his new foe and equipped his weapons once more, and just like last time he felt the burning in his hands. Although now the burning had reduced itself to an almost nonexistent throb of pain. This was immediately followed by the rush of information, just like last time. Although he had no time to bask in the enraptured feeling due to the bridge finally collapsing from the Deathstalker retracting its tail. The last bit of stability that the bridge had retained had shattered, along with the fragile support beams that held the bridge up.
Jaune knew that they only had seconds to get back to solid ground before they were sent plummeting.
"We gotta move!" Jaune commanded with all of the confidence of a nervous commander. Though the other teens didn't need to know what to be told given the situation. They all rushed towards the Deathstalker, ready to use force to push past the gargantuan Grimm.
The first attack came from the Deathstalker in the form of its right claw. Pyrrha parried the blow easily with her shield and followed up with a swipe with her sword, knocking the claw off course. The second claw went to attack Pyrrha, but this time Jaune was the one blocking. Jaune, with some amazing stroke of luck or adrenaline, angled his shield in such a way that the claw began to slide across the top. Jaune didn't know how he knew that his next move was a good idea, but as the claw was directly over the center of his shield Jaune pushed upwards with strength he didn't know he possessed.
Once again, either luck or adrenaline.
This claw was also knocked off course, leaving the Deathstalker wide open. Well, except for the tail.
The Deathstalker saw that two more foes were approaching it and once again it attempted to stab them with its tail. Its target became the person in front, which was Ren.
Using his superior dexterity, Ren sidestepped just far enough to avoid getting impaled. Before the Deathstalker could retract its tail, Ren grabbed onto it and started to severe off the stinger with the small caliber rounds of his weapon.
Nora tried to assist her friend by firing multiple rounds at the face of the Deathstalker. Hoping to save its eyes, the Deathstalker brought its claws to shield itself, inadvertently attacking Jaune and Pyrrha. The Deathstalker also flicked its tail behind itself, sending Ren crashing into a stone pillar close by.
Both fighters brought up their shields, and were knocked back from the force. Much to Jaune's constant stream of surprise he was able to remain on his feet. He was even able to recover very quickly and was rushing at the Deathstalker once more. Jaune didn't register the red javelin flying past his head, but he definitely noticed the eye that the javelin had impaled. If his knowledge of basic bug anatomy was correct, then the spear should be lined right up at the Deathstalkers…
Deciding to take the risk, Jaune pushed himself to run faster. He needed more momentum if he wanted this to work. Jaune took advantage of the Deathstalker's pain induced flailing. It was leaving itself wide open for him.
Once he was within three feet of his target, Jaune pulled back his shield arm and twisted his hips. Like a tightly pulled string snapping, Jaune twisted back and threw out his shield bearing arm at the exposed end of Pyrrha's spear. The shield connected with resounding force, and drove the spear far deeper into the head of the Deathstalker. Jaune became annoyed when the Deathstalker didn't actually die like how he'd planned. The Deathstalker shrieked in agony and completely lost interest in its targets, all it was focusing on was the pain. Only a little bit of the handle was sticking out of the eye. Jaune hoped that Pyrrha would be able to get it back, but he was focusing a bit more on staying alive.
"Pyrrha, the tail!" Jaune called out, jumping back to avoid another claw swipe.
"Done," she called out as she threw her shield. The shield flew like a high-speed Frisbee and severed the remaining strands of meat from the stinger. The stinger landed right onto the Deathstalker's head, and impaled it slightly. While not enough to damage it, the stinger was still lodged in place for the time being.
Jaune crouched down low and raised his shield over his head, "Nora, nail it!" Jaune shouted, hoping she understood what he wanted.
Luckily she did, and after quickly warning Jaune of her approach, Jaune pushed Nora up with all of the force he could gather.
The grenade that she fired to push herself up as well as the power behind Jaune's push sent her into the air. Once she reached the maximum height she could obtain, she blew up another explosive to fire herself back down to the earth like a meteor. She used her built up momentum and own massive strength to smash her hammer into the stinger like a nail through a piece of wood.
The results worked too well, the Deathstalker died on immediate impact and the force behind the attack made the bridge act as a catapult again. This launched the remaining three hunters/huntresses-in-training over the Deathstalker and back onto the grassy field. The force also forced most of Pyrrha's spear out of the Deathstalker, and with a subtle usage of her semblance, she retrived her weapon while in midair.
Jaune, with a little bit of self-proclaimed luck, rolled and stabbed his shield and sword into the ground in order to stop his momentum. Nora landed on her rear, and Pyrrha rolled into a crouched position. All of this happened as the bridge collapsed, as did the mighty Grimm. It all seemed picturesque, until Ren came stumbling in with labored breath. After a few seconds of silence, he fell over exhausted.
Remembering the three hadn't seen the Nevermore or the people fighting it for a while, they stood up and scanned the sky. Well Nora and Pyrrha did, Jaune however backed up until he was out of their eyesight and quickly threw his shield off of his arm. Once he did so he yanked his right handed glove off to inspect the pain he was feeling. He hoped that it was just him imagining things.
Jaune's gasped at what he saw on the back of his hand.
There appeared to be symbols. He had no idea what the symbols could even mean, but he knew that they definitely weren't there before.
'What the hell is happening!' Jaune cried mentally in his head.
I apologize if there are spelling mistakes or anything like that. I've been trying to get this out forever, and I finally had some inspiration.
Please let me know how I did. I think this take on the story will be a bit better and make more sense as chapters progress. Instead of learning about his semblance through convenient means, Jaune will be afraid of this right away, not knowing exactly what it is until later. He still doesn't even know what a semblance is.