19 The Emerald Forest Part 1

After spending a night at Beacon, everyone was gathered at the edge of the cliff facing the Emerald Forest. As Jaune had launed from the Stellar Web, there were a lot more students present then in the show he saw. As he recalled in the show, there were 17, which was an awkward number considering they formed into teams of four each.

Now that he was here in person, Jaune could confirm that there were 24 people here, which was nearly a third more then what was shown in the show as long as you counted the people that were pure black back in volume one.

Now, though, there were 24 very distinct individuals lining up to hear what Ozpin had to say.

"For years, you have trained to become warriors, and today, your abilities will be evaluated in the Emerald Forest." Ozpin declared

Glynda nodded her head "Now, I'm sure many of you have heard rumors about the assignment of teams. Well, allow us to put an end to your confusion. Each of you will be given teammates...Today."

"These teammates will be with you for the rest of your time here at Beacon" Ozpin told them all "So it is in your best interest to be paired with someone with whom you can work well. That being said, the first person you make eye contact with after landing will be your partner for the next 4 years. You will meet opposition along the way. You will be monitored and graded for the duration of your initiation, but our instructors will not intervene. You will find an abandoned temple at the end of the path containing several relics. Are their any questions?"

Jaune grinned. He was not the same useless guy he recalled from volume one of the show, so he had no questions.

"Good, now take your positions." Ozpin instructed.

And the process started of people being thrown off the mountainside.

------

Raven was out for a flight, thinking over the conversation she had with Summer back in Mistral. She wanted her to meet this boy called Jaune, but since he was taking the Beacon initiation today, she thought she might get a bit of a sneak peak and check him out before she met him properly.

As she looked towards the ground, though, Raven was confused. It had been a while and she hadn't spotted any students yet. Her mistake, though, was assuming that they started the examination at the same time they did when she attended Beacon, rather then an hour later.

While she was still baffled, a red and black projectile caught her be surprise and slammed into her. She heard 'Birdie, No!" coming from that projectile as she was sent falling towards the forest. Raven was glad that she had aura, as that hit would have killed a normal bird, but instead Raven managed to adjust herself mid air and landed safely in a tree, still somewhat shaken up by what had just happened.

'This is Qrow's fault. I don't know how, but I'm sure his hand is in this somewhere.' Raven thought to herself with annoyance.

------

Jaune had watched carefully where Pyrrha was thrown, and when he was also thrown he used wood release and turned couple branches he'd been carrying into a pair of large wings to control his decent and land near Pyrrha.

"Is that your semblance? It's quite impressive" Pyrrha noted to Jaune politely.

"No, not a semblance, something a bit different" Jaune told Pyrrha and chuckled "I heard from Cinder that you and her hit it off nicely. I'm glad to hear that. The name is Jaune Arc."

"Oh, it's a pleasure to meet you, Jaune. My name is Pyrrha." she introduced herself.

Jaune nodded to Pyrrha and extended his hand out to her "Pyrrha, I look forward to working together from now on."

"I couldn't agree any more" Pyrrha was impressed with Jaune. Firstly, he seemed to be friends with Cinder, who she liked a lot, and he also wasn't treating her differently because she was famous.

Pyrrha accepted Jaune's hand and shook it, and when their hands parted, Pyrrha saw a strange piece of paper in it "what is this?"

"You should have a form of energy inside of you, seperate from your aura. If you can isolate that energy and use it on that paper, it'll help us to train together later. We don't need to focus on that now, though. We have a relic to collect."

------

While Jaune was talking to Pyrrha, Cinder rose up out of the ground next to Mercury "Okay, I helped Neo and Emerald to meet up" she told Mercury upon rejoining him again, then headed North to collect a relic and meet up with Neo and Emerald.

After more then a year in the field, they were systematic in getting the job done. The four soon arrived at the relics and each pair took a white bishop chess piece before heading back to the cliffs, killing Creatures of Grimm along the way.

------

Jaune knew that Nexus would have no trouble meeting up with Rinoa, and Ruby was going to find Weiss pretty fast, so Jaune first tried to sense out Blake and Yang, and found that Blake was already heading in Yang's direction. All seemed to be going well.

With the exception of Pyrrha, all the other future members of JNPR, RWBY, and FAMS had carried the mark of his Flying Thunder God Jutsu, so even if he could not see them, he could roughly estimate their relative positions and he was making use of that to analyze the situation.

Everyone knew who they were supposed to partner up with and dodged everyone else.

------

Combining her semblance with her swift release, Ruby flew around the forest overhead until she spotted the white-haired girl, Weiss. Ruby had watched where Weiss had landed and had a general idea of where to look. While she was moving at insane speeds she looked like red rose petals radiating lightning.

Weiss was a bit caught off guard when Ruby came slamming down to the ground in front of her, but relaxed once Ruby had taken her original form "Weiiiiss!" Ruby jumped on Weiss and hugged her.

"Well, Jaune did say I was supposed to find you and partner with you." Weiss admitted "You're right, Ruby Rose. I am Weiss Schnee. It's a pleasure to meet you. Buuuut we're in the middle of a grimm-infested forest, so lets maybe not let our guard down?"

Ruby nodded "I was just really excited."

"I'm excited too, Ruby, but we just have to restrain ourselves until we're in a more appropriate place" Weiss agreed as Ruby let go of her.

Nearby, they heard the roar of a large Grimm, and when they saw it, a beringal grimm appeared, seemingly chased by a young woman in a red dress.

"Lave Release : Scorching Armored Fist." The woman in the red dress had a massiive fist of lava form near her that mimicked her own movements, and when she through a punch, the fist of Lava connected with the large beringal a cooked it in an instant, and it started disappearing into smoke as a boy and two other girls quickly joined her.

The boy, Mercury, caught Cinder as she started to fall from exhaustion. The Beringal was just too dangerous to let it escape, so Cinder calculated that the fastest and easiest way to kill it was that attack, but it took nearly all of her chakra. Mercury knew this and was ready to catch her right after she used it.

"That was...amazing..." Ruby said with slight surprise.

"Is she alright?" Weiss asked while approaching the other group.

"Just asleep." Mercury told Weiss while putting Cinder into a bridal carry "That attack takes a lot out of her."

Cinder could have easily beaten it without falling asleep if she used her maiden powers, but she was advised by Jaune to try not to rely on those powers if she could help it, because they did not want Salem finding out that there were two maidens in Vale just yet.

"We already have our relics" Emerald told Weiss and Ruby "That way. she pointed towards the shrine."

"We are most grateful. Thank you." Weiss told Emerald "Stay safe on your way back."

"You too." Mercury said before repositioning the sleeping Cinder into a bridal carry position and then heading off towards the Cliffs, and Emerald and Neo went after him.

Weiss and Ruby spared a moment to look at the molten magma that was left on the ground following Cinder's attack and they both made a point to stay well away from it as they started off in the direction Emerald had pointed them in.

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