Whoops. Well this is a few weeks late. Sorry guys, I just needed a little hiatus, got burned out a tad, but I'm back now, so don't worry!

Enjoy!

"Well it's a pretty risky move," Jaune said as he walked back to his table with a full tray of food, "and it needs a lot of practice to be effective, plus you need to be able to follow up."

"Yeah but it's so cool!" Nora shouted as the two sat back down, a full plate of pancakes on her tray, "You stomped Pyrrha's spear into the ground and knocked her down!"

"Okay, yes," Jaune said in mirth, looking over to his partner, who smiled warmly, "but I didn't beat her."

"Give yourself some credit Jaune, we called a draw." Pyrrha said, giggling as Jaune responded with, "Yeah after fifteen minutes…"

"Wait what?" Came the voice of a heiress from the other end of the table, where Team RWBY was seated.

"Yeah," Jaune shrugged, taking another bite of bread, "really had to work for it too. Your sword...err, spear thing…was really keeping me on my toes."

"You're nothing to scoff at yourself, Jaune," Pyrrha said, smiling, "even without aura, you're a great fighter."

"Thanks Pyrrha, I-" Jaune said warmly, before he was cut off.

"Hey!" Came the voice of Weiss from down the table, "Did you say fifteen minutes?" She shouted incredulously.

"Around there," Jaune responded, "why?"

"She's Pyrrha Nikos, THE Pyrrha Nikos," The heiress said, eyes wide, "how are you not more excited?"

"The Pyrrha Nikos?" The knight questioned, taking a long sip of water while his partner began to look rather suspicious.

"Yes!" Weiss shouted again, this time in some form of disbelief, "She's an international celebrity!"

"Really?" Jaune said, raising an eyebrow.

"Really!" Weiss responded, then proceeding to launch into anlong recap of her career, explaining how she was a world renowned tournament champion from Mistral, and an esteemed public figure, with the girl of subject looking more and more nervous with each listing.

"First place in the Argus Cup, the 14th Haven Invitational, the 6th, 7th and 8th Mistral Championships, the…" And it was at this point that Jaune started to think she was just making stuff up. However, when he looked over to Pyrrha, he saw that she had taken a sudden interest in the floor, and was insisting on keeping her eyes glued to it, avoiding any looks Jaune was giving her. For a second, Jaunes eyes glanced behind her, over he shoulder, at the far end of the mess hall.

Then he saw red.

Without saying a word, Weiss still listing tournaments, Jaune stood, eye narrowed and glowing bright, fire building around him, shoulders squared and fists clenched. Slowly, Weiss stopped talking, and looked at him, a little confused. Fire started dancing around his fists as he dropped his tray, molten plastic dripping from his hands as it clattered to the table.

He stomped past the table, everyone looking at him with bewilderment in their eyes, save for Yang, who seemed a little wary as he stalked past, waves of heat rolling off his limbs. He strode across the floor, crossing to the other side in moments, before reaching out with his right hand.

And grabbing Cardin by the ear, harshly jerking him away from a rabbit faunus. He yelped, both at the sharp pain and the sudden burning heat as Jaune wrenched him away from the girl, stopping him from yanking her ears.

"Ow! Lemme go!" Cardin yelled, as Jaune grit his teeth and twisted a bit, dropping the boy to his knees.

"Apologize." He said, voice cold as steel.

"Fuck you." Cardin spat, the determined look in his eyes rapidly fading as he watched Jaune reach behind his back.

"Apologize," The knight said again, a dagger now pressed against the other boys throat, "or I debone you like a trout."

"I'm sorry…" He grumbled, eyes locked on the blade at his neck, "I won't pull your ears again."

"Good." Jaune said, removing the dagger from his throat and giving him a harsh shove. Once he picked himself off the ground, he shot Jaune a withering glare, before scampering off with his cronies.

"Ugh, was the knife really necessary?" Roman asked, mostly to himself, "I mean, he had the kid by the ear, just give him a good twist."

"Threats are the only language those people like him understand." Said Acererak from the other side of the room. He stomped past Roman and Morrigan, both of whom were watching Jaunes actions through a wraith.

Acererak stopped and raised his hand, brow wrinkling a bit, before a swirling black and luminous green vortex formed a few feet from his outstretched palm, a gash in the fabric of reality manifesting itself through sheer necromantic willpower ripping itself into existence.

From the swirling, glowing mass of energy and light, came the form of Zalthar, his black robes seeming to melt out of the portal as he stepped into the warehouse. Seeing Acererak before him, he bowed.

"My Lord," Zalthar said, swiftly raising his torso from the bow, "The constructions for the Remnant Webway have been completed, we are prepared to link all gates together."

"Good." The necromancer said, turning back around, "Assemble the ingredients for the rituals, alert me when you are ready."

"Understood my Lord," The vampire bowed once more, "Will that be all?"

Acererak looked around, his eyes stopping on the back of Adam Taurus, green eyes flickering to his horns for a split second, before his attention was turned back towards Zalthar.

"Prepare the guest rooms below the fourth keep," He said, "I want Castle Blackstone to be ready."

"Grraah!" Jaune growled as he slammed his fist into a tree, the wood cracking and splintering under his gauntlet, bark shrapnel falling to the forest floor, quickly disappearing amidst the red leaves of the forever fall forest.

"..." Pyrrha eyed Jaune, perfectly aware of what he was angry about. His interaction with Cardin had put him in a very sour mood, something he was currently displaying.

"Jaune," She sighed, looking over to Ren for some support, "Is something wrong?"

"No," He growled, his fist still in the tree, "I'm fine, everything's fine."

"Okay," She said, as her and Ren let out a sight of relief together, "If you want to talk about anything, we-"

"Except that Gnoll-brained bastard!" Jaune shouted, clearly referring to Cardin, then launching into yet another rant about the boy.

'Here we go again.' Pyrrha thought, exchanging a glance with Ren.

"Hey man, I've got the sap," Sky Lark, one of Cardins teammates said, a box with six jars of reddish syrup in his arms, "Russell's got the rapier wasps."

"Good," Cardin said, smirking as he narrowed his eyes, focusing in on Jaune, who was currently embroiled in a rather one sided rant with his team, "pass me a jar, let's see if I can hit the back of his stupid blonde head."

Russell laughed, before passing the red haired boy a jar, which he took in his hand. He smiled, feeling the weight of the glass jar. Once Jaune had been covered with the sap, Dove would release the wasps, and they'd make a beeline straight to the golden eyed knight below.

'This'll teach him not to mess with me.' Cardin thought to himself, as he reared his hand back, prepared to throw.

Then his arm disappeared into the mouth of a grimm.

"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!" Came the scream of terror. Everyone in earshot stopped froze, Jaune even pausing his rant to look to the sound. Just over the ridge was Cardin, his right arm up to the elbow in the mouth of an Alpha Beowolf. It flexed its neck, and lifted Cardin straight into the air, before flinging him to the side, sending the armored team leader straight into a tree.

"Idiot," Jaune hissed under his breath, as a full back of regular beowulf's crawled out of the forest, "Ren and Nora, deal with them, Pyrrha, tell Goodwitch CRDL's down."

Receiving a nod from his team, Jaune sprinted forward, reaching his right hand up to pull himself up the ridge where CRDL was. Once he was up, he picked his sprint back up, a running punch from his right hand crushing the skull of the beowulf between him and the alpha, which was currently stalking towards the members of CRDL still conscious, meaning everyone but Cardin himself.

Once he was close enough, he jumped, drawing his sword mid air and slashing as he came down and past the grimm, carving a gash along its back, cutting through a few of its spikes. The bipedal wolf howled and turned to Jaune, who had just unbacked his shield. The grimm howled and attacked, swinging its clawed paws wildly. Jaune ducked underneath the first strike, and blocked the second with his shield, stopping the limb dead. Then he swung, severing it a few inches before the wrist.

The grimm screamed in pain as it back up, black liquid and smoke pouring from the grievous wound. It turned to him, savage, crimson eyes glowing with unending hate as it eyed up its new foe.

"I can't believe I'm saving Cardin." Jaune muttered to himself as the wolf lunged, swinging its remaining arm.

He backed up, afterwards using his shield to block two consecutive strikes before thrusting, putting his blade through the upper left thigh of the grimm, then punching with his shield, the black metal heater shield slamming into its bony chest, knocking it back and onto the ground.

"Not that bad," Jaune sighed in a small amount of relief, as the grimm shakily got to its feet, "I was worried you'd be as tough as that Ursa Major from initiation."

"But I guess-"

"SHHHLLCK!"

Jaune was cut off as a grey, metal blade erupted from the Alphas mouth, punching through the back of its skull and out from behind its jaws. The red glow died in its eyes as the blade slowly pulled itself out of its head, and the grimm stood stock still for a second, before falling straight on its face.

Jaune looked up, as the jagged, angular shadow of the being before him came into view, the sound of metal blades scraping together permeating the air, a deep, rumbling, metallic hiss drifting from the mass in front of him, as the afternoon sun glinted off of grey metal.

"Ahh…" Jaune said, eyes widening, "That's not good."

Jaunes next move was to leap back over the ridge, as over a dozen foot long knife blades embedded themselves into the ground where he stood. As he turned and ran, he heard a roar behind him, a deafeningly horrific sound, like two thousands knives being sharpened at once, as the metal grinding became louder.

"My Lord," came the voice of a skeleton, one who was manning the brand new communications systems shown to them by the people of Remnant, "We have found our quarry."

"Where is it?" The necromancer asked, striding over to look at the monitor.

"It is currently traveling through the Forever Fall Forest, current movement shows it intersecting a group of people here." The technician pointed to a highlighted circle on screen, a bony digit clicking against the plastic.

"That's where Jaune is," Morrigan said, concern building in her voice, "what is it?"

"I shall enhance the image for you, Lady Morrigan." The skeleton offered, before tapping a few keys, zooming in, putting the image of their dimensional hitchhiker on the monitor.

"Oh…" Morrigan said, eyes opening, "That's not good."

Acererak was already reaching for his scroll.

"Hey Jaune!" Nora shouted, waving to her team leader, who was frantically sprinting in their direction, "Took care of the Alpha pretty quick I guess!"

"Jaune, what's up?" Pyrrha said, pushing past Nora. She had never seen Jaune this frantic or worried, there was a wild, almost fearful look in his eyes, and he was looking around, constantly scanning the woods around him.

"We need to get out of here," He said urgently, quickly looking over his shoulder, "now!"

"Jaune," Pyrrha said, now very confused, "what are you talking about?"

"He's coming, and we need to-" He stopped, the faint, but a rapidly approaching sound of something whistling through the air suddenly became louder and louder.

"Get down!" Jaune yelled as he tackled Pyrrha to the ground. A fairly high number of distinct thunks sounded, and Pyrrha looked to where she stood, and saw a trail of footlong knife blades, embedded in the ground where she stood, about two dozen of them, trailed the ground and covering the trunk of the three she was standing in front of.

Jaune leapt to his feet and drew his weapons, as a sharp, metallic hiss sounded, before fading into a deep rumbling groan. Every noise it made sounded synthesized, like someone communicating through scrapes.

"Rrrrrrr…" It growled audibly, its form shifting and cutting gashes into the ground and trees it gripped as it snaked through the forest. When it spoke, its voice was like a dozen knives scraping together at different speeds, the distinct pitches forming a kind of demented voice, a harsh mockery of human speech.

And then it spoke.

"Arc."