Chapter 48

"I remember that, yes. This should be a good opportunity for you though."

"Now hold on." Pyrrha stepped forward, placing a hand on my shoulder. "We're in different groups at the moment, Jaune isn't on your team to order right now."

"Ah that's right, I'd nearly forgotten. That makes sense." I gave a brief nod at her words. "Alright then. Jaune, PLEASE go kill that thing."

"Huh?! But-" Pyrrha was interrupted as Jaune nodded, nervously drawing his sword, and getting ready to fight the grimm. "Jaune, you don't have to fight that thing."

"It's alright." Jaune nervously gulped, grabbing his sword. "I trust Aero. If he's asking me to do this, then he probably has something in mind." Steeling himself. Jaune ran towards the Ursa with a battle cry. Bringing down his sword, his weapon met a claw strike from the grimm, the force causing him to skid back a few feet.

Pyrrha turned towards me, displeasure written on her face. "You know, that wasn't very nice Aero..."

"Whatever can you mean?" I asked, feigning innocence with a smile. "It wasn't an order, I'm still allowed to ASK your teammate to do something right?"

She didn't respond, merely shaking her head with a sigh.

The Ursa roared, lunging towards Jaune with a monstrous bite.

"Ugh!" Jaune blocked the bite with his sword, the large grimm's jaws locked onto it. Suddenly swinging one of its claws while he was still holding off its teeth, the beast's attack caught Jaune in the chest, knocking the air out of him and sending the student slamming into a tree. The tree shook from the violent impact, crimson leaves raining down. Jaune's sword had been knocked out of his hand, laying a dozen feet away behind the grimm.

"C'mon Jaune!" I yelled, cupping my hands like a megaphone. "You don't have your shield to babysit you anymore! Find a way to play to your strengths."

Jaune picked himself up, frowning, as a leaf landed on his nose. Suddenly his eyes lit up, immediately looking around for something buried under the leaves.

The Ursa Major dropped down on all fours, immediately charging at him. "C'mon, C'MON! AH!" He seemed to have found what he was looking for, pulling his jar of sap from under the pile of leaves. Reeling back his arm, Jaune threw the jar, nailing the beast in the face with the sap. The grimm roared, now angrily increasing its speed towards him. Quickly diving out of the way the Ursa smashed into a tree, breaking it down. Leaves raining down and sticking to the sap on the Ursa's face, blinding it.

"Yes!" As the beast blindly swung its claws, hitting only empty air, Jaune managed to circle around it, grabbing his weapon. The Ursa attempted to wipe the sticky leaves off of its face, however, in that time Jaune had closed the gap, delivering a clean slash to the beast's chest. Growling angrily, the grimm used its arm as a club swinging at him, intending to knock the human back once more.

Instead of trying to dodge this time however, Jaune planted his feet, pointing the tip of his sword directly at the grimm's oncoming paw.

"GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" A loud roar of pain from the beast echoed through the surroundings. Jaune grunted from the strength of the Ursa Major, his arms shaking from the brute strength of the beast. However, it was worth it, his blade completely pierced through the grimm's paw.

"Hoo, using the Ursa's own strength against it. Not bad, not bad Jaune..."

Now furious, the grimm's other paw came from the other side, slamming into Jaune and throwing him onto his back.

Hmm, there's still too great a difference in power. It takes everything Jaune has to stop one of the Ursa's paws, but the grimm still has the other one to hit him with while he's blocking it.

Bringing its massive limbs down, Jaune barely rolled out of the way in time. The force from the grimm's attack caving the ground in. Leaping to his feet Jaune was just in time to see the Ursa opened its large jaws trying to snap his head off. Gripping his sword with both hands, Jaune ducked just in time. Putting power into his legs, He shouted fiercely, leaping up from his crouched stance like a frog with all of his might, the blade angled upward. His sword piercing under the Ursa's jaw and coming out of the top of his head.

"W-whoa..." Pyrrha and I stared dumbly at the sight as the huge grimm suddenly froze up, before finally falling over. Its large body hitting the floor with a thud causing the ground to shake.

"Huff...huff...How's...that?" Jaune weakly grinned, allowing himself to fall back onto the ground.

I shook myself out of my trance before walking towards him "Brilliant, good job Jaune. There were a lot of close calls, but really, you did a lot better than I expected." I grinned, crouching down near him. "Killed a grimm all by yourself, how's it feel?" I asked, extending a fist.

Still panting for air, Jaune chuckled. "Honestly?" Reaching up, he tapped his fist against mine. " Not bad..."

"Uh, guys...?" Pyrrha tone was that of a warning, she was on high alert, immediately drawing her weapon and looking deeper into the trees.

"What is it?" Following her line of sight, my breath caught in my throat. Seeing a huge black mass coming towards us. Low growls came from the trees as, eleven other Ursa lumbered out of the forest, their red eyes focused on our group. Other beastly roars could be heard behind the Ursa deeper in the forest, where sounds of battles rang out from the other students.

"W-why are there...why are there so many?!" I couldn't help but take a step back, overwhelmed by it all. 'Dammit! This didn't happen in the show at all!'