School life 1

Jaune Arc, the Hero of Kvatch, the Saviour of Bruma, woke up from his sleep just in time. The soft mattress their team provided was enough to give him an easier time to fall asleep and relax compared to the ground or floors of numerous locations he traveled to. 

"Morning, Ren," Jaune greeted the shorter guy of their team as he removed the blanket off his form, revealing his shirtless physique littered with countless scars. Standing up and stretching lightly, the Divine Crusader opened his wardrobe.

"Morning, Jaune," Lie greeted as he sat up. Pink eyes went wide at the numerous scars on the back of his team leader. The most prominent was a diamond-shaped scar on his back over his heart. 

"I'm heading for a run," Jaune replied as he slipped into a hoodie matching the jogging pants he wore to sleep.

"Stay safe," Lie looked at the image of his leader's back in his mind and his mouth turned to a thin line. What happened to his team Leader? 

-=-=-

The cool morning air of Beacon Academy felt refreshing on the face of the Second Divine Crusader as he finished his tenth lap around Beacon and it has just been thirty minutes since he started. 

'It's almost 5 in the Morning,' The Knight thought to himself. Hearing a slight ruffling of leaves and the loss of sounds from the insects, the second Divine Crusader's instincts went haywire as Magicka flowed around his body. 

'I don't have any of my weapons with me,' The Blonde thought as he imagined a weapon, a mace, and a small purple orb appeared in his palm. 'Are you an assassin or a spy?' Jaune thought to himself as currents of Magicka flowed into his eyes, enhancing his vision. 

Fire, he smelled fire. 

"You can come out now," Jaune said as he turned around and looked at one of the trees surrounding the area he was on. 

A shadow landed on the ground as a feminine figure dressed in all black looked at him. 

"You're not with the Tong, are you?" Jaune asked as he looked at his assassin or spy. 

"You're a dangerous opponent," The figure whispered. "And what if I am a part of this... 'Tong'?"

"No, if you were, then you would have tried to kill me by now," Jaune said as he looked at the woman. 

'Why would I kill him?' The woman thought as she looked at Jaune. 

"No, I'm just observing my classmates," 

"Ah, Lucia," Jaune replied, causing the woman to flinch. 

Knowing that she was compromised, Lucia removed her mask, freeing her fire-like red-orange hair. 

"Will you stop observing Team JNPR?" The Divine Crusader asked, looking at the redhead. "It's quite annoying," 

"It depends," Lucia said with a smile as she looked at Jaune. "How about a spar? I need to work up some sweat," 

"I don't see why not," Jaune said and watched as Lucia threw a wooden sword at him. A wooden two-hander. Watching the young woman around his age shed off the black coat she wore, revealing a white button-up, the Divine Crusader dropped into a stance and held the grip of his wooden weapon. "First blood?" 

-=-=-=--

"First blood?" Lucia Ragnvindr felt an overwhelming pressure from the Blonde. She was a proud knight of House Ragnvindr, one of the ancient houses of Vale. Trained by a huntsman order called the Knights of Favonius, she increased her pace at a rapid pace, a prodigy in her own right, and granted an officer position even during her tenure as a student. Sure, she fought Grimm before and some bandits but the man in front of her. 

His sword skill was above hers and Jean's. And that excited her, rarely could she meet someone so skilled that was the same age as hers. 

"No, until our Aura dims," Lucia said as she entered a stance of her own, the temperature around her rising with each moment. 

"Okay then," Jaune replied and the entire temperature around them dropped. 

At that moment, Lucia felt like she was standing in front of a heavily fortified fort complete with soldiers all aiming their weapons at her. Swallowing her fear, Lucia pulled inside of her soul, to her semblance, Searing Onslaught. A simple fire-element semblance that allows her to manipulate and create flames with varying strength or intensity and increases in power the more she attacks her opponents. 

'The static electricity in the air is stronger than- electricity?!' Lucia's eyes widened as she felt her hair stand up. 'Is that his semblance?' Warily, the young woman raised her blade and moved. 

Aura flowed in her body, enhancing her physical abilities, and she swung her blade.

The sound of wood meeting wood echoed through the area as Lucia found her blade parried away by the Blonde. Undeterred, the redhead continued her assault, each blow becoming stronger and stronger as she used the boosting portion of her semblance. 

Thwack 

Woosh

Thwack. 

In the middle of her fourth attack, the Blonde moved and smacked her hands holding the blade's handle before following it up by grabbing his wooden blade and smacking the handle of the wooden guard on her jaw, stunning her.

Lucia felt her aura take a huge drop at the direct blow before her eyes widened as she felt a blow to her stomach and a punch to the cheek that made her aura dim and with enough force to send her flying to the ground and carve a few centimeters of a dirt trail on the ground where she skidded.

She lost...

Lucia Ragnvindr, one of the best of her generation, lost without even having a chance to fight back. A spar where she used a greatsword, her personal choice of weapon. She lost badly. 

"Not bad," Looking at the victor of the spar, the Blonde smiled at her as he offered her a hand covered in scars. "Sorry, I hit you too hard." 

"It's fine," Lucia said as she took his hand and pulled herself up. She lost badly and yet here she was, standing in front of the guy that defeated her so effortlessly. "You hit harder than you look," 

"Yeah, I prefer ending battles as quickly as possible," The divine Crusader said with a smile. "Can you let go of my hand, please?" True to his words, Lucia held his hand in a firm yet gentle grip. 

"Well, since you did mercilessly beat me up," A small smirk appeared on her face. "How about you escort me to the mess hall and treat me to breakfast?" 

"Sure, I don't mind," Jaune replied with a smile. "You know, you have a beautiful smile. You should smile more often," 

"Okay, sweet talker, buy me breakfast first before you flirt with me," 

"Wait, I'm not flirting with you! Not that you're not pretty or anything," 

-=-=-=-

"Well done, Mr. Arc," Hearing his name, the Blonde raised his head and looked at the professor of their survival class, Oregano Silva. They were suddenly tasked with butchering a wild animal, a rabbit, and he was the first to finish. 

The Rabbit on his table was neatly butchered and the pelt was in great condition while his rubber gloves barely had any blood in them. Noticing the uneasy looks given to him by his classmates, the Blonde raised a brow. 

Taking the second rabbit from the cage, the Blonde quickly and effortlessly snapped the Rabbit's neck, killing it before stripping the pelt from the flesh and disposing of the innards. His knife glided effortlessly and separated the flesh from the fur. Not the grossest thing he has done. During his research to take care of undead creatures, the Blonde has been forced to learn how to make and destroy Flesh Atronachs and golems. 

Killing and Butchering a rabbit was a whole lot easier. 

"That's gross, this travesty will not go unpunished," His current partner, the E of Team JAER, Eula Lawrence, said as she butchered the rabbit in her hand. "Vengeance will be mine," 

Jaune found her adorable... well, her verbal tick of 'Vengeance will be mine,' honestly, it was way more endearing than some of the Dunmer he fought. Repeatedly shouting N'wah like not saying them will make them die or something. Finishing his current task, the Blonde prepared the innards and started cleaning them, not intent on wasting anything that could be used. 

'I wonder if house Dres or Telvanni members would enslave Cat and reptile Faunus' The blonde thought as he nonchalantly stripped the flesh off one of the Rabbits he was working with. Memories instilled in him during his undercover work as an aspiring Worm Cult member allowed the Blonde to do so with terrifying ease and speed. The last thing he needed to remove was the brain. 

"What's wrong, Ruby?" Jaune asked his first friend from Beacon after he noticed how pale she looked. 

"Jaune, you're not a serial killer, are you?" Ruby asked as she looked at the perfectly meatless rabbit skeleton on the tray Jaune was using. Everything was stripped away and neatly pilled into a corner separated from organs to meat. Even the brain was stored away neatly.

"What?! Of course not!" Jaune asked, looking at his first friend. Wait, he was! But they did not need to know that. "I'm just used to hunting on my own and I learned how to carve everything out," 

The Divine Crusader looked around, Amber looked more terrified than most, well she used a bandana to look like rabbit ears. Even the Professor was unsettled. Finishing his preparation, the Blonde started to clean his station and even used some chemicals to get rid of the Bloodstains. 

=-=-=-=

"Great Akatosh, Dragon god of time," The voice of one Jaune Arc echoed in one of the empty rooms of the chapel in Beacon Academy dedicated to the Brother Gods. Jean Gunnhildr, a devout follower of the Brother, paused as she heard the voice of her fellow team leader. It has only been a day since the term started and she wanted to pray to the brothers, a hobby she shared with her younger sister.

Following the unfamiliar prayer, the young woman saw Jaune praying in front of several altars, a solemn look on his face as the nine altars in a U-shape surrounded him. She felt several presences around the room smiling at the Blonde. For a second, she swore she saw a priest behind the altar smiling at the Blonde with a fond look on his face. 

A beautiful woman smiled as she noticed her while a man, a warrior from the looks of it quietly pressed a finger to his lips, a motion for her to keep quiet as the nine looked at her fellow Blonde. Deciding things were already enough as it is, Jean turned around to leave. It was a private moment and she did not want to eavesdrop anymore. 

-=-=-=-=-=-

Amber Favonius smiled brightly as found herself in the nearby woods around Beacon Academy. It was already about 5 in the afternoon and the sky was beginning to darken. Just like Jean and Lucia, she was also from the same area and a member of the Knights of Favonius. She was the lone outrider of the order, a group created by her grandfather that was similar to the scouts of the order but they focused more on territories inside the areas they were in. Sadly, after her grandfather left to return to Mistral, the Outriders declined and merged with the Scouts with permission from her father. Despite this, she kept the title of Outrider, and while it was a group in her grandfather's generation and her father's, the name Outrider became her title and proof of her hard work.

One of her favorite activities as a Scout and outrider was running through the terrain, enjoying new sights, feeling the air around her, and more! She has seen a great amount of beautiful and strange things. 

Well, things that were not as strange as this. Jaune Arc, the same person who killed and butchered a rabbit from their shared class earlier with frightening ease and skill, sat under a tree with several wolves around him. The Wolves were a breed of Valean gray wolves found in Vale. They were quite territorial and dangerous for non-huntsmen or individuals without aura.

The rabbit butcher nonchalantly sat under the tree with no discomfort as the wolves surrounded him. For the wolves, Amber noted how they showed no aggression to her classmate. They appreciated his presence well enough that the leader of the pack rested by his side a a raven nested on his head. His eyes were closed and the way his chest rose and fell showed that he was asleep. 

'Sleeping in a dangerous place like this,' Amber thought with a small smile. Knowing that the wild animals wouldn't hurt him, the outrider smiled and took her scroll out. 

-0-0-0-0-