Jaune absently wondered if he was a masochist right before Yang's fist burst through his defense to slam into his armored chest, sending him flying across the clearing with a cry. He rolled as he landed before his back hit a tree with a thud that made his bones rattle. Groaning he shook his head, looking up to find that Yang hadn't followed up on her attack because Ren was buzzing around the brawler, evading her strikes and slashing with Stormflower as she swung at him.

Getting back to his feet Jaune decided against going back up against Yang and instead heading over to support Nora, who was having trouble dealing with Weiss.

The heiress knew better than to engage in a melee fight against the orangette, instead staying back and applying her wide array of dust towards taking her out from afar. Jaune briefly lamented the fact that the two teams were so close, because if Weiss had used lightning dust in her barrage that particular fight would be going better for the hammer maiden. Unfortunately the white haired girl knew better and was very pointedly not feeding JNPR's Thunder Goddess her preferred element.

Jaune rushed passed Nora, who was in the process of smashing aside some shards of ice with Magnhild, with his shield up and eyes locked on the Ice Queen. He saw her jerk in surprise at his charge and turn to attack him after a brief moment of hesitation, something Jaune noted but set aside. He could see her leading him, preparing herself to launch her attack at where he'd be, and when a ball of flame flew towards him he let a small smile appear on his face.

With an application of will and aura a white light briefly flashed from the back of his armor, launching him forward at high speed and passed the incoming attack before it could reach him. Weiss was caught by surprise by his sudden burst of acceleration but was still able to reflexively bring Myrtenaster up to block Crocea Mors when he reached her. From there they engaged in a quick clash of swordsmanship, Jaune displaying the fruits of his training with Pyrrha as he managed to hold off the better trained huntress. He was only aiming to delay her, after all.

Soon enough what he'd waited for arrived and Nora joined him in double teaming Weiss with a mighty swing of her hammer, which Weiss only barely avoided. Hurriedly using a blast of wind dust Weiss launched herself beck to make some space before quickly creating a jagged wall of ice in an attempt to hold her attackers at bay. She then immediately started making more distance in the direction of Yang and Ren's fight.

By this time RWBY's busty brawler had almost incapacitated JNPR's ninja. She hadn't landed a hit yet, but it was only a matter of time as Ren tired, his low endurance a problem as always. For the thousandth time he told himself to work on stamina, but for the moment he knew he was about to be taken out. He only hoped he'd bought his team enough time.

He was about to dodge again when a cold feeling seized him and he looked down to find his feet encased in ice. Sighing in exasperation he looked back up in time to see the fist rocketing at his face before everything went black.

Yang huffed, relieved to have finally taken out the most agile member of JNPR. Evasive fighters tended to be her weakness, as the fight with the girl on the train during the Breach incident amply illustrated. Thankfully Weiss was able to help pin him down. She turned to her teammate with a smile only for her eyes to widen as she saw the incredulous sight of Jaune balanced on the head of Nora's hammer, the orangette grinning madly.

Weiss, who had been rushing for Yang so they could fight together, turned when she saw her teammate's reaction only for her own eyes to bug out when Nora Fastball Specialed Jaune, who was launched straight at the heiress. She started bringing Myrtenaster up to protect herself but her shock prevented her from reacting in time, and Jaune bashed her head with his shield hard enough to knock her out as he flew by.

Jaune was pleased that his plan had worked, but was much less pleased when Yang moved in front of him, eyes crimson and fist reared back. Reacting in a panic there was another quick flash from the back of his armor that pulled him up enough to sail over Yang's fist as she launched it forward, before they both cried out as their heads met with great force and they fell to the ground, both of them clutching at their faces.

"What the hell, Vomit Boy!?" Yang cried out as she clutched at her nose, checking to see if it was broken even as she tried to focus through the unexpected pain.

"S-sorry!" He yelled as he grabbed his head, groaning. "That… didn't go as planned…" Then he yelped and rolled away as Yang leapt to her feet before pouncing on him fist first, determined to knock her fellow blonde out.

Yang followed Jaune around as he tried to get away from her, rolling and scrambling away from her strikes. "Stay still, would you!?" She yelled before her eyes widened and she jumped back to avoid Nora's hammer strike, which almost caught her in the head.

"Poop." Nora said at her miss with a manic grin before beginning to fight her fellow powerhouse.

Jaune sighed and went limp for a moment as he caught his breath before getting to his feet while Yang was distracted. Stretching he eyed the fast paced fight between the two girls before deciding not to intervene on his own. He'd just get his bell rung, he was sure. Instead he made his way towards where Pyrrha was holding off Ruby and Blake.

The redhead was tense and focused as she held off the young reaper, the blizzard of attacks the younger girl launched at her showing how talented she was as she didn't give Pyrrha a moment to breathe, knowing better than to give the taller girl a moment to build up her momentum would be a costly mistake. It helped that a certain teenage faunus ninja catgirl was performing hit and run attacks whenever she saw an opening, which meant that Pyrrha had to be wary of surprise attacks while she held the scythe wielder off.

One of those attacks came as Pyrrha was dodging the swirling vortex of death that was Ruby's twirling of her scythe at high speed. Blake quickly sped in to attack, Gambol Shroud in both hands as she rushed at Pyrrha's back, about to take a double swing at her. As she approached her target, however, she caught sight of a bolt of energy approaching her from the corner of her eye and quickly leapt back, leaving a clone behind to take the energy arrow in her place, the attack dispelling it immediately.

Pyrrha smiled as Jaune began to fire on Blake, the agile faunus evading every single arrow, forced to give Pyrrha space.

Blake's eyes narrowed and she began to shoot her pistol back at Jaune, trying to get him to stop firing enough for her to approach and take him out. Jaune, however, appeared to be in only a partially cooperative mood, ignoring her attacks as they pinged off his armor and aura but stopping his rapid fire attacks to focus on his next arrow, which quickly grew in size as he focused.

Blake had begun running towards him, still firing her pistol to deal as much damage as she could and hopefully disrupt his next action, but when she saw his oversized arrow her instincts screamed at her and she prepared to escape.

In spite of her wariness she was still caught by surprise when, upon launching his attack, Jaune's arrow turned into a mass of smaller ones rather than a single large one, forming what was practically a wall of energy that rocketed towards her.

Quickly forming another clone Blake rushed away from her position in order to avoid the onrushing tide of energy coming for her. Unfortunately she still got clipped by one of the arrows, but the damage was minimal.

Of greater concern was the fact that the wall of arrows was heading straight for where Pyrrha and Ruby were still fighting. The reaper hadn't noticed the approaching doom, her back being to Jaune and her being so focused on her opponent that it didn't catch her attention. Pyrrha, on the other hand, saw it quite clearly. As Ruby swung her scythe at Pyrrha again the redhead caught it with her semblance, stopping it in place, much to Ruby's surprise. She didn't react in time to avoid taking Pyrrha's knee to her gut, making her bend over, wheezing as the champion quickly leapt away. The poor reaper had only just caught her breath when Jaune's attack impacted. She fell with a cry as her aura broke, shifting weakly before slumping, knowing she was out of the fight.

That left Blake facing Jaune and Pyrrha on her own. Knowing very well that her chances against just Pyrrha alone were low, she quickly turned and jumped into the trees, using them as cover as she quickly made her way to her partner, her opponents quickly following after her.

The clearing around Yang and Nora's fight was decimated from the two's clash, but the inevitable winner was showing herself as Yang kept getting stronger the longer the fight went on while Nora, despite her usual hyperactivity, was beginning to run out of energy without getting any boosts of electricity. So when Blake launched Gambol Shroud as a kusarigama and wrapped the ribbon around Nora, trapping her in place for a few precious moments, she wasn't able to dodge.

Yang quickly took advantage of her opponent's bound state and started hammering a barrage of powered up strikes into the orangette, battering her over and over till her aura finally broke, signalling her as out of the fight.

Jaune and Pyrrha arrived in time to see their teammate be taken out. Glancing at each other Jaune motioned briefly with his head toward Blake, waiting for Pyrrha's nod before he began to rush the faunus. Yang moved to intercept, but Pyrrha launched her shield like a discus at the blonde before beginning to fire her rifle. Yang was forced to abort her movement in order to punch the shield aside and engage the redhead.

Blake was pulling her weapon back to herself by the ribbon when Jaune put out another burst of speed with his armor and grabbed it. Quickly pulling on it he unbalanced Blake slightly, but she knew better than to keep hold of it and let it go, still holding the cleaver portion of Gambol Shroud at the ready. When Jaune tossed her weapon aside and drew Crocea Mors she leapt at him, beginning a quick battle against his greater defense in order to get the rest of her weapon back, since she was at a disadvantage against him without it. Unfortunately for her Jaune had improved a lot, and he knew better than to let her get close to it, constantly pushing back against her and driving her further from it.

Getting irritated, Blake quickly made a clone to take Jaune's next hit and launched herself at the katana portion of Gambol Shroud. Jaune was briefly caught off guard, but he knew better than to stay still, quickly turning and heading after her. He reached her just as she'd picked it up and performed a shield bash which she blocked, unable to dodge in time. She buckled slightly from the force of the strike, but she was now in a much better situation than she'd been in before, even if her aura reserves were running low.

Spotting the changing tide of Jaune's fight with Blake despite her current preoccupation with Yang, Pyrrha dodged under one of the brawler's punches, using her semblance to launch her shield at Blake before spinning Milo's javelin form in order to ward Yang off.

Blake didn't notice the spinning shield approach her, unable to react when it hit the back of her knees, making them buckle and sending her to her knees. Jaune was quick to capitalize and swept her defense aside with his sword before shield bashing her face with immense force. Blake had focused all her remaining aura to protect her head, but it still wasn't enough and the shield broke, leaving her unconscious.

This left Yang alone against both Jaune and Pyrrha. All three were tired, and all three knew the fight wasn't going to last much longer. The last member of RWBY standing narrowed her crimson eyes, determined to not make it easy on her opponents. Setting her feet Yang focused her attention on Pyrrha and cocked a fist back, watching as the redhead lifted her now recovered shield, preparing herself, before suddenly pivoting and leaping at Jaune with a roar, making the knight yelp and bring his shield up, a deep gonging sound ringing out her first impacted with the metal. She didn't let up, however, quickly dropping to her knees and jabbing forward, aiming for his stomach. Unfortunately in his instinctive attempt to get away from her, Jaune threw her aim off.

A high pitched cry of pain rang out in the forest, and soon enough Jaune was curled up on the ground, clutching at his family jewels as tears and whimpers of pain escaped him. Aura or no aura, that was still more than enough to knock any man out of the fight.

Yang backpedalled, waving her hands in a panic, her eyes back to their familiar violet. "Oh shit! Jaune, I'm sorry! Are you alright?" Having forgotten all about the fight she was caught by surprise when Pyrrha's shield impacted against the back of her head, dazing her despite the voluminous hair cushioning the blow. Turning woozily to see a definitively quite pissed Pyrrha, she could only curse her luck and bring her arms up to defend herself as the champion began her barrage.

"Are you sure you're alright, Jaune?" Pyrrha asked once everybody had recovered and Jaune had an ice pack between his legs from the medical supplies the teens had brought along in case of any incidents during the day's training.

"I'll recover." He said with a wincing smile, trying to reassure her and Ruby, who also looked worried. "I already feel better thanks to my aura. I'm definitely wearing a cup from now on, though. Not that that would have helped against one of Yang's punches."

"Yeah, last time something like this happened back at Signal she broke the cup." Ruby said with a sigh at the memory.

Blake glanced at her partner as Ren surreptitiously inched away from the blonde girl. "You do this often?"

"It only happened once before!" Yang protested, crossing her arms and looking away, cheeks red in embarrassment.

"Twice." Ruby corrected, holding up two fingers and earning a betrayed look from her sister.

"Unfortunate injuries aside..." Weiss cut in. "I believe that we should be up to fighting in the tournament now if our recent fights are anything to go by. We seem to be back in proper shape."

"Yeah!" Nora exclaimed, jumping up and pumping a fist. "Team JNPR is going straight to the top!"

"Excuse me?" Weiss said archly. "I think you mean Team RWBY will."

"Who won today's mock battle, again?" The grenadier asked with a grin.

Weiss sputtered. "That was a fluke due to bad luck! We'll be much better prepared to face you in the tournament proper."

Jaune looked up at the sky. "It's getting late. We should get back to Beacon so we can get a filling meal in." He removed the ice pack and stood up with a wince.

Ruby nodded in agreement, pretending not to notice as her stomach rumbled. "Sounds like a good idea. We've been at it for a while."

As everybody got ready to leave Jaune rested a hand on Weiss' shoulder. "Could you stay behind a moment, Weiss? I want to talk to you."

Weiss blinked but nodded somewhat hesitantly. As everybody else began making their way back to Beacon the heiress held herself as she waited for Jaune to speak, eyes looking down and obviously uncomfortable.

"What's going on, Weiss?" Jaune asked gently.

"What do you mean?" She asked, not looking at him.

"This!" Jaune said, gesturing to her. "Most of the time you're good at acting normal, but sometimes you cringe away from me, or act really weird, or hesitate to attack me in a fight. That's not you. What did I do wrong, Weiss?"

"It's not you." Weiss said, shaking her head. "It's just… It was my fault that you ended up in the Deathlands, Jaune. I just… I don't get how you're not angry at me for that. After the way I treated you before, you almost lost your life saving mine."

Jaune's eyes softened and he sighed. To Weiss' surprise he pulled her into a hug, making her tense up briefly before she slowly relaxed. "Weiss, I never blamed you. I was just happy you and Ruby hadn't ended up in there instead of me. Yes, you were harsh to me before, but I can now see how I was pushing things with you. You should just be glad everything turned out alright." He gave her a gentle squeeze. "I don't want you to cringe and hesitate around me. I just want you to be my friend."

Weiss hesitated once more before laying her head against Jaune's shoulder, closing her eyes as a couple of tears escaped. "...Done."

Jaune smiled, rubbing her back soothingly like he had his sisters before. "Good. That's much better." After a few moments he let her go, smiling at her. "Now come on. I don't know about you, but I'm hungry."

Weiss slowly smiled back and nodded, turning to head back to Beacon, her heart feeling much lighter.

I feel like I've said this before, but I'm not good at action scenes.

They take so much more time and effort than other scenes do for me. This chapter took far too long because of it.

The story that was originally set to be updated this month was Through the Filth and the Flames, since that's what won the patron vote. But I had a block on it that led to its current status. Since this came in second, this is what got updated. But the fact that I spent so long on Filth and Flames this month is why it took me so long to put something out this month. Well, that and the current situation making things harder than necessary on me.

In any case, we can see in this chapter how RWBY and JNPR prepare themselves for the tournament after their time grieving/surviving. They weren't just going to remain combat ready no matter what happened, after all.

Also, a resolution on Weiss' angst over everything that happened. She might relapse here and there, but things should improve for her now.

In any case, I can't think of anything else to talk about, so as always I'll just remind you all that you can have a say in what I write each month when you donate to my Pat A Ron. Each dollar you donate equals one vote in my monthly poll for what to update. That's at Pat A Ron dotcom /athanmortis.

Thank you all for reading, please review, and stay safe. Till next time!