Chapter 9 - The Results of Growth

Jaune groaned as his alarm rang and woke him up at 9am so he could have the cushion of at least an hour to get to his booked Bullhead. Stretching and warming up from the nice and restful sleep, Jaune began his basic calisthenics to work towards his current daily training quest. After hitting his 150 count push ups, sit ups, and squats he decides he'll do the rest of them today after combat class since it starts at 11:30 today. Giving him a chance to catch breakfast and meet up with his friends.

Dropping off his room key at the front desk he heads towards at a leisurely pace to give him some time to appreciate the city he and his friends are defending right now. He makes it to the bullhead landing pads with a good 30 minutes to spare. He sits down and finds a book online for improved sword techniques to use when using a sword and shield combination for combat. Reading through it he realized that he would need someone new to test his skills against soon and hoped that he was paired against someone new today instead of any of his friends, he wanted to show them he had grown stronger but not if he had to beat them up to do so.

Tapping his foot with only 5 minutes left until his transport time he pulled up the class schedule for match ups today and looked through until he found himself. With a shocked face he stares for a good minute at the screen until he has a single bead of sweat escape from his forehead and go down his face until it drops off his skin. In front of his eyes is a match up he wasn't expecting, but he was also dreading for.

Today's match up, Jaune Arc Versus Team CRDL.

Jaune gulps down his nerves as he breathed out and then thought about how they were so strong to him in the beginning of the year, but now? They ran from a single Ursa Major in the forever fall forest, while he has taken out Grimm of higher strength and even has his new class further empowering him.

As he thought about it further he then realized that he can play this off in a way that will help him show his friends that he is more in tune with himself and has grown stronger from the meet up with his 'sister'. He mentally talks to Iron, Hey Iron… You up for helping me make an amazing debut as my semblance?

Iron hums then looks to the opponents his master is gazing upon the screen, "I suppose I am but what have these fools done to you to deserve such treatment as some of your real power? I would put them at barely worthy of half your strength individually?"

Jaune nods to his friend before smirking to Iron, They used to bully me, and say that I would never amount to anything. And that I was better off being their squire or servant to learn how to be truly strong. Yet they keep pestering and bullying the Faunus students who are my friends and which goes against the code of honorable knights and huntsmen of old, which is still upheld today. And one of their favorite targets is someone who I like and is one of my intended individuals to date and see if we can have a family together in the future. So… What do you say? Are they worth some of our real power now?

Iron looks to the fools on the screen once again while Jaune gets up to catch the Bullhead. A feral grin promising pain on all four young men appears on Irons face from within Jaunes Shadow as he thinks back, "Yes my lord. I believe that more than suffices some of our real power. Let us show them what real knights should do and how they should prepare themselves for true combat!"

Jaune gets on the bullhead and buckles in while thinking back, Just make sure you don't break them too badly okay? They may be corrupt jerks, but they are still young and can learn from the errors of their ways… Hopefully. SO let's go for maiming them and making them recuperate and hopefully self reflect. If they don't even after the upcoming beat down… Well… Let's show them how scary the true world of hunting Grimm can be when you face an overwhelming threat with half assed training and a mentality of being bullies without proper foundation.

Iron chuckles and agrees wholeheartedly while Jaune grins to himself in anticipation for the upcoming match between himself and the whole team of bullies. "Is it weird that I am looking forward to showing them the error of their ways? Or is it… something else?"

He turns thoughtful before remembering something he did before for Velvet.

– Flashback –

Velvet was crying on the ground in a corner of the school while Cardin and his friends were laughing just down the hall form her. She sniffed as the porridge they poured on her new uniform was slowly drying while she felt miserable. The food was also sticking to and drying in her hair, soon it would get to the point where she needed to scrub it out in the shower while having to remove the stains with a good hour of hand washing her new uniform.

Her uniform was a gift from her mother as she made it to her second year at Beacon with flying colors in her grade book. And she was so happy to have her mothers full support in this job ever since she lost her dad to this life style.

But no sooner than she had worn it and went off to find her teammates to show it off to them than she had found Cardin and his cronies ready to make her miserable. The fact that they timed their cruel prank on her was just fate playing in their favor.

She sniffled more and was ready to get up and try to salvage her hair and uniform before she heard a soft but friendly voice call out, "Hi, do you need help with that?"

Velvet gasps and looks up to see a young blonde haired man with bright blue eyes staring at her with concern and a friendly smile. She saw he was human and was wary for a minute before she remembered where she saw him before, he hung out with Blake and her friends so he must be a good human who was fine with Faunus.

She sees his hand out stretched to her to help her up and she sees he still has his class uniform and has his backpack on him. She takes his hand and shakily gets up to her legs and Jaune sees the extent of the damage from the porridge prank. He glances down the hall to see where Cardin and his cronies were to avoid getting their ire further.

Seeing they were indeed gone he takes off his backpack and brings out an emergency cleanup kit and an emergency make up kit too. Velvet can't keep the confusion off her face at seeing how well prepared Jaune is so easily before he smirked at her knowingly and answers simply with two reasons, "Grew up with 7 sisters, and I am on a team with Nora, you would be surprised how often her messes and ruined make up go hand in hand."

Velvet gasps in a good natured way with some shock involved at the amount of siblings he has, then giggles as it fully processes in her mind as Jaune cracks a grin at her response. He leads her to a relaxation room for students to study and unwind that has a small sink for any needs. Jaune was using a wet comb to remove the porridge chunks out of Velvets hair carefully while her uniform was on a nearby desk with Jaunes cleaning spray coating it to help dig in and remove any porridge or other debris that had soaked into her clothing.

Velvet was currently blushing as after entering the room Jaune gave her his bag to change into his workout clothes set of a t shirt and some sweat pants and she swooned a bit at the thoughtfulness of Jaunes methods. After putting them on she sat down on the chair while Jaune got to work on her hair and clothing. After a solid 10 minutes of the combing treatment Jaune then switched out to a hair brush with microfibers to help massage her hair and remove any residual oils or wetness from the porridge and water.

Velvet was beginning to melt at the treatment and began to ask Jaune some questions so she didn't doze off from how good this felt. "So Jaune right?" at a little "Mhm" from him while he was focusing she continued, "Thank you for this. I appreciate it. That uniform was a new one and a gift from my mom."

Jaune paused at his treatment of her hair and smiled to himself softly, "No problem, after all moms do a lot for you. You know? Carried you around for 9 months and then raised you for at least 10 years by making sure you grew healthy and strong. We owe them a lot more than we care to admit at times."

Velvet gives him a teasing wink as she turns slightly to glance at him, and states, "And given you have a mom who went through that at least 7 other times, I would imagine she made sure you remembered that factor? Hmm?"

With a chuckle at her statement Jaune sighs in nostalgia as he remembers a fun story, "Yeah especially when I told her I wanted to be a huntsman, when I was only 5 years old, she got me a play set with a shield and sword and told me I better train hard. I think she was just going along with her childs dream fantasy at the time because she didn't seem to take me seriously. Then when I was older and my dream hadn't changed she drilled into me that she carried me around all that time in her belly and wasn't about to have her only baby boy get eaten at the claws and fangs of a Grimm."

Velvet remains silent in contemplation as she absorbs this knowledge. Then looks to Jaune, "Then… since she didn't support your dream, is that why you were so bad at fighting in combat class when the year began? Because I remember sitting in on a few classes during my break periods and you were slowly getting it, but it looked like you had never held a blade before?"

Jaune sighs as he finishes the hair brush and goes to a small stiffer brush with tiny bristles and begins to automatically brush Velvets bunny ears as he answers, "Yeah I didn't get formal education, everything I knew until there was self taught and self trained until Pyrrha began to help me. Without her I doubt I would have won those few matches here and there. But I do want to continue to grow. You know?"

He waits for a response from Velvet before glancing down when he hears a small whine, but in a positive tone. He sees Velvet currently blushing and dozing in his grasp as he brushes her ears in just the right way and used his free hand to carefully massage the ears in a way that has Velvet only half awake. He chuckles quietly to himself as he finishes the treatment and then puts away the kit. Velvet snaps awake a few minutes after he is done and blushes at how she let herself get lost in his care and touch.

She turns to him and decides to answer his previous question, "Yeah growing more is good, and a lot of students don't realize that they have a lot of growing still to do. Sure we are hunters, but we are still in training. Hence why were a not only called students but also why we are called, Hunters-in-training. If we think we are good as is then we don't realize how much there is to still learn and our growth and potential is stunted."

Jaune couldn't help but stare at Velvet in a friendly way filled with awe at how she captured his thoughts perfectly. He chuckles with a smile on his face as he gathers up her now clean uniform after wiping off the now dirty foam leaving a clean and pristine uniform underneath and hands it to Velvet, "You know I think you captured my thought process perfectly there. Want to be friends Velvet?"

Velvet nods, "I would be more than happy to be your friend, thanks Jaune." And picks up her uniform from Jaune carefully while smiling at him, she borrows the make up kits mascara and foundation, applies a bit over the sink as she asks him, "By the way out of curiosity. What did your mom do to make you become so untrained? I doubt she simply banned you from training, since even those who self train can find videos or books on hunting techniques and training regimes."

Jaune looks to the side embarrassed and mumbles his answer too low for even Velvets ears to pick up. She finishes her make up reapplication and looks back at him with a confused look on her face.

Jaune sighs in an exasperated way and says, "She signed me up for all kinds of extracurricular classes. Dancing, cooking, baking, yoga, study hall, baby sitting, child care techniques, health and fitness lessons, home care, wood working, and swimming. Things that aren't related to hunting training and they were backed up by my sisters forcing me to practice them in my off time to the point I was lucky to have even 30 minutes to myself to practice with a wooden sword I had to carve myself thanks to the wood working classes my mom forced me through."

Velvet thinks over the list of skills and realizes that he was practically trained by his mother to be a household husband instead of a hunter. The fact that he was equipping himself for hunting was a great plus as he was practically equipped for welcoming home his huntress wife at this point.

And of course at this thought, Velvets traitorous mind decided to conjure up Jaune in a waist apron while cooking a meal for when she came home from a mission. Only to come up to her and hug her close, he mind then gave Jaune a more mature version of his voice as this version was older and he asked, "Well honey, you're early, dinner isn't ready yet, so did you want a bath before dinner? A nice massage while it cooks? Or maybe..." The mind Jaune suddenly has her against the wall and is kissing up her neck to whisper in a husky and mind melting seducing tone of voice, "Me? As your appetizer?"

Velvet back in reality was now blushing beet red and stammering while Jaune was concerned for his new friend. He approaches her and reaches out for her shoulder but by now her mind had relegated any touching from Jaune to be in a more sexual manner thanks to the fantasy plaguing her (Read: pleasing her) going through her mind.

She panics and runs off while shouting, "THANKS FOR THE HELP JAUNE I'LL SEE YOU AROUND LATER!"

Jaune stands there confused out the wazoo and simply chuckles to himself at this point, "Man even with 7 sisters women still confuse me."

– Flashback end –

Jaune chuckles at the memory and then remembers that this isn't just a way for him for get back at his personal bullies, but also as a way to get back at the idiots who torture other students. Especially when it comes to his friends who mean more to him than anything in this world. He would show them not to approach velvet again unless they wanted to end up with more than just broken bones from a harsh battle spar.

He looked out the window as Beacon Academy came into view excited to show Cardin and his crew that when you mess with his friends you will feel the consequences.

– In Combat Class –

After a quick but filling breakfast including some waffles and eggs and a hot cocoa. Jaune was gearing up in the locker room for the combat class. While Ren, Fox, and Yatsu were in other areas at their lockers Jaune was putting on his armor pieces.

After he had gotten his entire upper body equipped he had sat down to put on his sabatons and soon noticed 4 energies coming towards him thanks to his sense stat. Looking up Jaune saw his opponents for todays class all glaring down at him and eyeing his new equipment.

Jaune sighed as he finishes his final straps on his lower armor pieces and simply asks, "What do you guys want?"

Cardin sneered and waited for Jaune to finish before snapping his fingers and Dove and Russel both come up and grab and arm each of Jaune and hold him up to the lockers. Jaune goes along with it despite his higher strength and waits to see what the neanderthals have to say. Cardin eyes up Jaunes armor again and decided to be 'courteous' to the future coma patient in his eyes. Never mind that Jaune had grown to be eye level with him, or that his physique had grown to be that of a professional MMA fighters, or even the fact that Jaune was looking at him square in the eyes without a shred of nerves or fear on his face.

Cardin grins and simply says, "Well Jauney boy I wanted to make a little bet with you!"

Jaune decides to subtly knock his hip against the lockers activating his recording device in his scroll in just the right way to catch this part of the conversation, "What kind of bet Cardin?"

With a sneer thinking Jaune had gone crazy to not be afraid he decided to instill as much fear as possible, "How about this? If my friends and I win you give us the numbers to the girls you're friends with? Or even better? Since you're a team leader why not order them to come to our room so we can have some… 'fun' with them? Sound fair?"

Jaune twitches in anger but quickly reigns it in, his momentary twitch still made Dove and Russel both gasp and arrange their grip on his arms to make sure he was secured. Cardin in all of his infinite wisdom thought Jaune tried to go for a punch and smirked thinking his friends had held Jaune back successfully. He decides to go on, "Aw! What's wrong? Did I hit a nerve? After all you are surrounded by the hottest girls in our year and I am feeling more than a bit pent up from how hard we have been training! Pretty sure my fellows here could use the relaxation! So what do you say Jauney boy? Is it a deal?"

Jaune glares at Cardin before deciding to put the final nail in the coffin for Cardin, "Question… What do I get if I win?"

Cardin smirks and looks at Jaune with nothing but confidence and arrogance in his eyes. Sizing Jaune up he seems to notice for th efirst time Jaunes new build and how they are eye to eye, losing a bit of steam at noticing this for the first time he glances at his friends before remembering that it will be a 4 on 1 match up. He grins regaining the confidence from earlier, "If… and ONLY if you manage to beat all 4 of us in the match… You'll receive an apology from us in front of the school for how we bullied you. How does that sound?"

Jaune smirks as he now knows how to dig their hole deeper, "How about an amendment to that? After all I will lose my friends respect and trust if this happens and I order them to do this so lets up the stakes."

Cardin leans in intrigued as Jaune continues on, "So how about this Cardin, you all win? I'll be your gopher again, but this time, I'll also be your homework gopher, supply gopher, and your inside man into how to get in the good graces of the girls on my team? That way you earn their trust and affection honestly… making it more genuine than a simple fling. And if I win this fight… You apologize in front of the entire school to not just me… But to every person, including faunus! Who you have bullied over the year here! How about it now?"

Cardin thinks of the pros and cons of this deal, down side he doesn't get to have his sex with the hottest girls in Beacon right away, but to earn their trust and love honestly making them long term fuck buddies? Well that was too good for him at this point! Plus its Jaune! He might have grown and gained muscle, but that easily can be from working out and lacking the skills to back up his growth. The poor simpleton.

Cardin grins and nods his head, "Deal Jauney boy! See you in the arena!"

Cardin turns and signals Russel and Dove to let Jaune go while sky follows him out. Jaune smirks as he waits for them to leave fully before pulling out his scroll and stops the recording he had been making all this time catching their entire conversation. He saved it and prepped it for sending to Professor Goodwitch later as he smirked to himself. Ren, Fox, and Yatsu all came over to check on Jaune after seeing Cardin and his group leave the area Jaune was getting ready in. He assured them that he was fine and decided to have a back up plan with his friends.

Sharing with them the recording and the deal with Cardin, making them all very angry, Jaune told them what he had planned for the bullies.

– Combat arena area –

A cheer erupted from the watching students as Yang and Yatsu were sparring to test both of their growths. Yangs for the new techniques and styles she has been learning from her father over the phone, and Yatsu to get used to swifter and more elusive opponents. Yang had landed a very powerful thrust kick into Yatsu's waiting palm as he then grabbed her foot and attempted to throw her. Yang went off the floor and was mid air soon, but she grinned all the way using her shot gun function on her gauntlets to flip and then shoot herself out of the throw into Yatsu's guard head on. Soon she was crashing right into him and Yatsu puffed out a huge exhale of air form the blow right to his sternum.

However he quickly regained his bearings and grabbed Yang around the waist while she was stopped after her flight into his torso. Yang gasped as she was lifted and then pile drived into the floor. Knocking her out from the sudden weight of her own body with Yatsu's strength behind it.

The buzzer rang out signaling the end of the spar with yang knocked out and only at 28% aura left while Yatsu was sitting just above that at 37% aura left.

With a deep exhale of relief and a swipe of his arm to get the sweat off his forehead he picked Yang up in the princess carry and got her up to her friends as she was knocked out, but no bruises or concussions were found by a medical scan bot kept on hand for such situations.

After a 5 minute recess to clean up the arena (Courtesy of Goodwitch) And a resetting of the meters for the next students Jaune got to his entrance area after being wished good luck by his friends. He looked up and saw all his friends giving him thumbs up, waving, or smiles of encouragement. He closed his eyes to concentrate then opened them with a new steely resolve in them then he glanced at his friends and nodded with a determined glint to his eyes. His friends all pause at seeing such a mature and focused look on Jaunes face but then all smile in relief seeing how much he has grown. Pyrrha, Weiss, Velvet, and the now awake Yang all fan themselves at the blushes that appear on their faces from the mature look on Jaunes face after that.

Ren and Nora hold hands while watching their new brother walk into the ring with his aura now razor focused. Ren grins to himself for teaching his brother so many tips and tricks for that over the last few months, and was happy he had finally coalesced the lessons into the point he was trying to drive across to Jaune. Grinning to Nora he lets her in on the plan and she grins manically with an evil giggle. Causing all those not part of their teams to go at least 2 seats further from her.

Jaune goes to the center of the arena and syncs up his scroll to the screen to show his full green bar at 100%. CRDL comes in swaggering into the place as if they had already won and all sync up their scrolls to the screen showing greens across the board.

Cardin grins to Jaune before making the thumb across the throat movement promising a painful fight for him. Jaune merely rolls his eyes and looks to Glynda for the pre fight talk and rules.

Glynda starts her pre fight speech, "Alright you are all here for a team versus 1 match up. This was arranged by Professor Ozpin himself so I don't want any complaints about how it is arranged, or ho wit will go down. Understood?" Seeing nods all around she continues, "SO this will be an elimination match, the single fighter will be eliminated once his Aura goes to single digits, while the team members will be eliminated once their aura drops to below 30s. And further more..."

A raised hand from Jaune prompts her to stop as she nods her head at him to go ahead, "Ms. Goodwitch excuse me but is it possible to change the rules so that everyone is on equal ground for the sake of fairness? Make it so that everyone is only eliminated once they are in the single digits? That way there isn't an unfair advantage in my end?"

Everyone looks at Jaune like he has grown a second head especially Cardin and his team. Glyndas glasses slide down her face for a brief moment before she pushes them back up and asks, "Are you sure Mr. Arc? That may come back to bite you in the end. Are you sure?"

With a firm nod and glance to CRDL Jaune confirms it. Glynda sighs and makes the necessary changes as the rules now show that everyone in the combat will be eliminated once their aura goes to single digits. She continues on to explain the out of bounds, the broken weapon rules, and so on until all rules are laid out for all fighters. And with a firm confirmation that the opposing side who maims or nearly kills the other will be disqualified and subjected to a meeting between the offenders and herself with Ozpin presiding over the meeting. With one more firm confirmation she walks to the side off the ring and prepares to start the match.

The counter counts down from 10 as Jaune and CRDL draw their respective weapons, Jaune decides to be sportsman like for a bit, "May the best side win." Cardin sneers and answers with, "Thanks! The we will! Then you better make good on your end of the deal Arc!"

With a shrug and the buzzer going off Jaune prepares himself as CRDL charges him in a mad dash with Russel in front with his daggers drawn and ready to slash. Dove has his sword ready behind him and ready to cut into Jaune when he dodges. Sky has his halberd ready to intercept any counters or long range dodges. And Cardin brings up the rear mace ready and prepped smash down into Jaune the moment he is either tired from dodging or trying to counter them.

Jaune readies himself as Russel charges in first with his daggers flashing brightly with fire coating their edges and raises his shield. With loud clang Jaunes shield shudders and Russel finds himself on the shield with his daggers having not shown any effectiveness. Not even the flames left scorch marks. With a gulp and a small "Eep!" He is thrown off the shield to the side and Jaune prepares for Doves slash.

Dove comes down with his sword in a helm splitter slash, Jaune rolls his eyes at the telegraphed move and simply angles his shield. Dove expecting to clang on Jaunes shield and push him to his knees wasn't prepared for suddenly continuing his movement and sliding past Jaune as he is then kicked away by Jaunes foot into his ribs, leaving a sneaker shaped dent in his bronze colored breast plate.

Sky charges in next with a yell his halberd coming in with a thrusting maneuver ready to try and skewer Jaune on its dagger tip and axe blade tip. However Jaune simply pivots to th eside after kicking Dove away and rotates more building up speed and lands a devastating roundhouse kick to Skys back where the entire class hears a creak of metal as the new Sabaton Jaune is wearing finds no contest against the basic iron alloy of Skys armor. The armor actually has a crack going up the back of the breast plate and Sky is sent flying into Russel who had just stood back up after his trip towards the edge of the arena.

Cardin in his bull charge fails to stop in time and instead turns his running momentum towards Jaune who is now a few feet to the left of his initial position. Cardin grins as Jaune comes into his sights again and readies his flare crystal on his mace and his semblance of the exploding shock wave strike to deal with Jaune and end the match here and now. But much to his shock and the audiences, Jaune actually decides to catch the mace and the explosion and the semblance attack on his shield. An explosion rocking the field as Jaune is encased in flames for a few moments. Everyone gasps thinking that Jaune must have lost a lot of Aura from that move and Cardin glances at the screen in glee thinking that he has this match in the bag.

Everyones mouths imitate a gasping fish as even Cardin turns pale from seeing his Aura from using his Semblance at full power has gone down to 90%, while Jaune is still in the 98% area.

He looks back to where the mace and the shield are locked and finds the flames have already gone out. Jaune moves his shield to the side and is showing Cardin a glare of annoyance but also casual consideration. He looks at their locked weapons and simply asks, "Is that all you had? Cause if it is… I think it's time I showed you my new semblance."

Cardin and his friends all surround Jaune while looking at each other scared before he growls out and yells, "Quick boxed Semblance blast now!"

Following the order each boy unleashes his semblance at Jaune. Cardin uses his shock wave attack again causing a trail of explosions to travel across the floor and go towards Jaune. Russel leaps up into the air spinning like a buzz saw and flings a stream of flame powered wind blades at Jaune. Dove points his sword forward into rifle mode and shoots out a high speed bullet with his semblance enhancing its speed and durability to penetrate Jaunes armor. And Sky swings his halberd at Jaune and brings it down to cause 5 rock pillars topped with spikes to shoot out at him.

Jaunes friends all call out to him to dodge but instead Jaune simply grins and shines with his aura like a cloak around him while his shadow seems to grow in shape. A large explosion covers Jaune as the attacks meet with him in the center causing everyone to close and cover their eyes and faces respectively to avoid being blinded by the combination.

Cardin lowers his arm to see how hurt Jaune is and glances at the screen then gapes as his aura meter has only gone from 98% down to 93%.

Cardins mind races as the smoke begins to clear, That screen has to be broken! That was our strongest move! He can't have only taken 6% of auric damage from that combo! It has to be broken! Or his semblance countered some of the attacks!

For once Cardin was right about something. As the smoke cleared everyone was left stunned as there was a large 8ft tall armored man that seemed to be wearing heavy blue silver metallic armor with a huge tower shield and a large war hammer beside him. The tower shield was smoking from blocking the flame blades, the hammer had a scorch mark from blocking the bullet, and his body armor had some pebbles falling off of it from taking the brunt of the rock spike attack. Jaune was standing there with only some smoke coming off his shield and legs from where he endured Cardins attack. Lowering his shield everyone was shocked to see Jaunes eyes with auric wisps of energy floating out of them as he looked around the field at the former bullies turned punching bags.

Team CRDL was stunned speechless while everyone in the stands was shocked until his friends began to cheer and clap for him. It became contagious as suddenly every student watching began to clap and cheer along with them. Leaving a very confused Glynda to ask the important question… with the appropriate tone and word choice, "MR. ARC! WHAT. THE. HELL. IS THAT?!"

Jaune blushed as he realized he never did update his info this morning about having 'discovered' his semblance and simply looked back at Iron you looked at Jaune over his shoulder with a nod and a thumbs up before looking back at the teacher and saying, "My Semblance."

Glynda sputters and then asks, "Well! Good to know! What is it supposed to be? A summoning semblance?!"

Jaune looked at his summon then back at the flabbergasted Teacher and simply nodded then readied himself for the rest of the lesson. Glynda sighed and massaged her temples at the amount of paper work she'll have to deal with after this but reactivated the match timer to resume the battle.

Jaune looks to his friends and saw all of them giving him the 'you'll explain in detail later' look. He sighs with a smile on his face and nods to them right before blocking an attempted sneak attack from Cardin with his sword. Giving Cardin an almost contemplative glance he sighs and seems to remember about the match, "Oh we're starting again? Then let's continue! Iron!"

Iron snaps his gaze to his master as he readies his shield and hammer. Jaune gave one order, "Show them the power of a true Knight!"

Iron roars out and charges towards the 3 now very terrified boys as they scramble to get out of the way of the tank on legs. Jaune refocuses his attention on Cardin and smirks at him while glowing with his self boosting skill active. "Shall we dance Cardin?" While an ethereal echo enters his voice, making Cardin grow ten shades paler than he normally is.

– With Iron Vs. RDL –

Dove, Russel, and Sky were wondering where they went wrong in their life choices. They, in their own opinions, were good students, decent people, didn't cause unnecessary trouble, and kept the animals known as Faunus in line.

But some how despite all their 'good deeds' (HAH!) they were suddenly face to face with a summon semblance made by Jaune Arc who they used to bully around… They felt fear seizing their bodies as they all stared in terror at this towering 8ft tall behemoth of a walking tank.

Iron looked between them and per Jaunes orders to avoid unnecessary attention remained silent and stalwart as if waiting for something. Suddenly he heard from Jaune, out loud so the class heard it, "Iron! Beat back the three enemies in front of you! No killing!"

Iron smirked beneath his helm as he had his face shield fully closed but made his eyes shine brighter from beneath the shield to make it seem like he was 'activated' to the trio of targets he was given. Roaring out like a beast he raises his tower shield and hammer and comes barreling towards the two heavier armored ones to see what they do to fight back. Dove and Sky both panic and raise their respective weapons, however they found less than success with that strategy.

Dove tried to slash the shield while diving to the side to at least get a hit in and try chipping away at Iron but instead the shield, which was held closer to Iron to cover more of his body, shoots out and slams him bodily away a good 15ft and has him slamming and skidding into the ground and past Russel who is sweating profusely from that move. Sky tries to bring down his halberd against Irons hammer but instead he panics and misjudged the angle and distance and clanged their weapons shafts against each other. In response to that Iron raises his hammer higher and locks the halberds axe head onto his hammer shaft and raises Sky off the ground making the boy yelp in fear before Iron raises him to his face and growls at him. Sky gulps heavily in fear and widens his eyes once Iron swings him around making him spin on his weapon like a sound maker toy from 4th of July and flings him off his weapon and past Russel on the other side. Only this time he skips across the arena instead of skids across it.

Russel stands between both paths of pain his friends took with shaking legs as he stands their with his daggers barely raised in defense as he lets out an undignified "EEP!"

Iron sighs to himself as he thinks back to his living days, These boys are embarrassments to the knight uniform and Hunter schools. If I don't force them to try harder I'll have to beat them into the ground so they rethink their taken for granted training up until this point… Oh well nothing much has changed from when I helped train the recruits in the Army of Light before. So let's shake the cobwebs off.

Iron begins to jog, then run, and finally sprint as he picks up speed against Russel as he charges right at him with his shield raised. Russel swears he hears a train horn blow as he screams out and in his fear fails to move out of the way. He gets wind shielded like a bug against the shield making him drop his twin daggers so fast they hang in midair for a moment before they both drop to the ground with a clang.

After all three boys land on their backs in deep pain side by side Iron uses his semblance to blink 30ft away from them and ready his weapons for a fresh bout after kicking Russels daggers back to him. All three boys stand shakily after the partial beat down they just received and look towards the towering knight with faces full of fear as Iron roars out and prepares to charge at them once again.

– Jaune vs. Cardin –

As Iron began to dismantle Cardins teammates Jaune was staring at him with his shield and sword raised in his usual stance. The class was shocked but also cheering at seeing Jaunes Semblance on full display. This drew their attention away from him and Cardin as he stared down his former bully.

Cardin glances at the Spirit Jaune summoned and brought his eyes back quickly to Jaune only to see Jaune had closed the 20ft distance between them in that time. Cardin cursed out loud as he brought his mace up at a backhand movement angle trying to whack Jaune aside. But to his immense shock Jaune brought his shield down and blocked him with only a slight shudder of effort from his body as he stopped the mace dead in its tracks.

Cardin grits his teeth as he roars out and adds his second hand to the mace handle to heave up and try to forcefully dislodge Jaune from his mace while launching a gout of fire form his mace head and flare crystal. It seems to work as Jaune flips back from the toss with flames coming off of his body and Cardin readies his mace to charge him only to gape in shock as Jaune brings his shield below his feet, as the flames finish flaking off of him, and with a burst of aura, kicks off it nearly at the speed of a bullet. Cardin brings his mace up to block the sword blade coming at his chest, he manages to successfully block the initial slash at his body. But after the initial hit is over Jaune surprises him and his classmates as their attention was brought back to their fight from Cardins roar.

Jaune seems to be pulling off a Weiss maneuver as he grips the floor with the bottoms of his shoes thanks to the quick use and sudden release of Aura. Making him stick, pivot, then shoot at Cardin over and over.

Cardin tries to block the hits one by one as they come at him, and while he manages to block the first 4, the fifth hit actually nicks his arm past his mace handle guard, then the sixth actually lands a cutting blow on his thigh, then every hit after that hits him dead on and lands one painful attack after painful attack. Each hit dealing more pain to Cardin than to his Aura reserves as his bar on the arena screen is slowly decreasing while Cardins body is slowly covered in cuts and gashes.

Once Jaune hits his full 25 hit combo he lands and skids a short distance away making him resume their initial 20ft separation distance at the start of their battle. But the new difference is that Jaune is panting slightly and now at 82% aura while Cardin is down on a knee covered in cuts and his aura is now down to 40% and barely managing to heal him of all those cuts as he pants hard from trying to keep up with Jaune.

Cardins mind began to race at a mile a minute as he tried to plan a way out of this situation, God Dammit! How did he get so strong after only a month of training? He was recovering with rehab for the first two weeks wasn't he? Is it because of his new semblance? Does that knight some how boost him? It can't be! He is just the weak noodle of the first years! I will win! I am a Winchester! I am one of the chosen elite born into a good family! And with skills and talent to match! I will show him!

As Cardin internally panicked Jaune was calmly keeping him in his sights while looking at his friends, his eyes locked with Weiss's stare as she gave him a questioning look about his newest move. He shrugged before giving her a wink and a blown kiss in her direction before refocusing on Cardin as he shakily rises up to his feet and squares his shoulders showing his energy to fight wasn't done yet.

Of course as Cardin and Jaune refocus, Jaune missed the blush that flashed onto Weiss's face and the resulting teasing and ribbing their friends were giving her over that and the conversation from earlier.

– Right before Jaune summoned Iron –

RWBY, CVFY, and NPR were all watching with wide smiles as Jaune was showing his growth against CRDL. He was dodging, countering, and reacting appropriately to their attacks with well thought out moves and good control of his abilities that he has practiced and learned up until this match.

Yang sniffs in pride at Jaune tanking Cardins semblance and goes, "See that girls? He learned the proper way to counter that from my lessons and is now intimidating them! No doubt he will be learning a semblance similar to mine soon!"

The others all dead pan at Yangs claim and all pray that the tanking method was a one time thing and not a new strategy he learned from Yang. Then he was trapped in the semblance box strategy and all his friends were biting down on their lips in worry right before the explosion of the attacks blinded them briefly.

Soon they all looked down in worry hoping that Jaune didn't lose too much Aura from that move only to all be shocked silent at seeing Jaune looking only slightly scorched while he had a new shield on his back. Or rather a shield attached to a large person on his back. His explanation of this knight being his semblance had everyone looking shocked before all their friends turned their heads slowly to Weiss.

She was so focused on the summoning semblance that Jaune had apparently manifested that it took her a good minute to notice her friends stares. With a nervous glance at them all she asked, "What?"

Ruby was most vocal first, "'What?', are you kidding us? That is like your semblance! Only instead of snow he is using light! And his eyes! His skills! He basically has a semblance similar to yours! And all you can say is 'what'? C'mon Weiss! Spill! Did you do anything to help him unlock his ability?"

Their attention is drawn briefly watching Iron begin to beat down RDL into the ground. Weiss shivered at the brutality before answering, "Because I didn't do anything Ruby! I simply explained to him how my semblance worked! How I use the ice particles in the air that I freeze myself to create constructs! I didn't do anything else!"

Yang also noticed how Jaunes aura seemed to decrease and he seemed to be growing stronger, "You know..."

Yang piping up brought all attention to her next, "He also seems to have piece similar to mine… As his Aura decreases he seems to be gaining strength… But that might just be him having less room to play around in as his stamina runs out."

Ruby then sees Jaunes sudden step into Cardins space and gasps at the speed. Pointing to what Jaune just did she yells out, "That was like my speed semblance on short bursts!"

Then they saw how he used his aura to shoot off his shield as if it was a solid wall much like how Pyrrha was able to shoot off of her shield with her semblance working to repulse things instead of attract them.

Nora Notices similar to her semblance with lightning Jaune seems to gain strength using fire. Everyone begins to draw parallels to their semblances to Jaunes abilities as Weiss hyper focuses on Jaune as he uses her favorite multi hit sliding charge combo.

After he stops and catches her gaze, she sends him a raised eyebrow in questioning about his semblance hoping to get some sort of clue. His shrug shows he doesn't understand the question. With an eye roll she sends him a smile of support showing she is rooting for him. Only to suddenly see him wink and send a blown kiss in her direction. Her faces burns crimson as Cardin and Jaune charge each other once again.

Her friends chats all seemed to have died down and focused on her while she was trying to tamper down the blush that appeared on her face. She glances at them all defensively, while asking, "WHAT?!"

Everyone smiles knowingly at her and refocus on the match. Weiss realizing she was just the butt of a non verbal tease simply huffs while crossing her arms and resumes watching her crush tear these bullies apart.

– In the arena –

Cardin rolls on his side as he is kicked away from a blade lock he found himself in with Jaune after their charge and gets up shakily as his Aura was now barely holding on at 35%. He growls right before his teammates all comes slamming into the ground around him as he sees Iron coming to stand beside Jaune. A quick glance at the battle screen shows his teammates are all holding around 25-30% aura left on average. He growls as he notices they might just lose this thanks to Jaunes semblance reveal.

He decides to play a last ditch card hoping to turn the crowd against Jaune by using their deal as leverage. Only to suddenly be silenced as Jaune and Iron cross their weapons together and seem to be gathering Aura at the apex of their weapons crossing area.

An orb of pure Aura gathers and turns white gold in front of the entire class as Jaune uncrosses his blade from Irons hammer and has Iron hold the orb on his hammer head for a minute.

Jaune addresses CRDL as they are slowly getting up to try and win this battle only to all stop in fear as Jaunes voice reverberates throughout the arena class room. "Just so you know CRDL. This battle has been an eye opener for many people. You strut yourselves around as if you are big shots but you are barely better than the average first year student from the beginning of the year. And now? You are now in the lower levels of combat class. I have pushed myself to grow faster. To grow stronger than most others who are still trying to figure themselves out. If it wasn't for my friends and their help I would be flailing in this battle. But I have them. I have their support. And best of all?"

He sticks his blade into the orb of aura and it gathers into the sword coating the entire blade while Jaunes voice takes an ethereal edge to it as his eyes glow brighter, "I have their very powers to draw upon! My Semblance is a copy semblance which allows me to use the combined force of Yangs, Cardins, Russels, Doves, and Weiss's powers and mix them into something new! So prepare yourselves!"

He forms a large 10ft blade around his already 5ft long sword and makes all of CRDLs faces go pale in fear as he raises it up in a two handed grip before bringing it down. Shooting down a large crescent energy wave at the four boys who all try to bring up a guard but are all absorbed into its mass and light with screams of pain.

AS everyone was blinded by the powerful display Jaune makes a show of exhausting while they are recovering making Iron return, making his sword arms shake and making his breathes come out in large pants, while making sure his Aura is reading at just over 38% left.

Everyone eventually regain their sight and see a beaten and bruised CRDL on the ground outside the rena with their aura readouts being at 5% left for every member. They all look and see Jaunes aura decreased by more than 40% from that move and then begin to clap.

Glynda rushes over to make sure CRDL are fine before motioning the medics to come collect the boys to bring them to the nurses infirmary for treatment. She is about to reprimand Jaune for his use of his semblance without proper control before realizing that he used control to have all the boys end at exactly 5% aura and not varying numbers. She sighs in exhaustion at the paper work she has to do now to update mr. Arcs papers and student file now that he has discovered his semblance but she smiles with pride in her students growth as well.

AS she thought this the students had gone from clapping to cheering, whooping, and stomping their feet in excitement for seeing such a match outside of the Vytal tournament.

Jaune appears to collapse as his exhaustion form bouncing between all those semblances seems to get to him and his friend Ren comes down to help escort him to the locker room to change. Goodwitch tells him as he passes by, "Good job Mr.Arc. But we will be talking about you pushing yourself so much on only your second week back to full Combat Class. To the point of exhaustion like this. Am I understood?"

She fixes him with a glare daring him to talk back or argue, Jaune simply sweat drops and nods with a good natured smile. "Understood ma'am. I'll try not to go to far in the future."

She humphs and nods before going back to fix the arena to repair it for the next two matches remaining in the day.

Jaune got to the locker room with Rens help before he begins to remove his armor and then glances around. He nods to Ren to put their plan into action while the idiot bullies weren't there to try and throw a wrench into their friends bond and he goes off to send Glynda the recording.

After Jaune is back in his uniform he comes out to the anxious waiting faces of his friends as they all look at him with gazes of curiosity and worry from seeing him borderline collapse form exhaustion.

Jaune nervously chuckles as he realizes he will need to explain his new 'Semblance' to them all and show them that he has grown stronger from all of their efforts without worrying them or causing them to ask too many questions.

Jaune sighs as he goes, "Let's head to a Library study hall room where we can have privacy. I have a lot to tell you guys about my semblance and how I came to discover it. I hope you'll all give me the chance to fully explain without too many interruptions. Okay?"

All his friends take a moment to think before they all nod one by one, and Ren comes back right as Coco and Ruby are working together on their scrolls to reserve a large study room. Jaune glances at Ren who nods to him that Goodwitch is on the war path for CRDLs heads and amount of detention they will be serving for this recent affront to their friends honor and virtue.

Jaune notices that Pyrrha, Velvet, Yang, and Weiss are all checking him over for injuries, Yang and Weiss with their eyes, Velvet and Pyrrha with their hands. And he is just standing there while remembering how his sisters used to do the same thing to him every time he trained too hard in secret at home and passed it off as a workout injury.

He thinks to himself, Times may change but the way people act don't always follow that change. But who is checking on me is a nice change compared to the past. I can enjoy this attention without irritation versus when my sisters would all but smother me with their worry. This is a nice change compared to that attitude.

After Coco and Ruby come over and let them know about the reserved room they all head off with Yang clasping herself to Jaunes right arm enjoying his slight blush and his firm lean muscles under his uniform. While Velvet is hugging his left arm and simply enjoying being this close to Jaune. Weiss and Pyrrha both shake their heads with smile son their faces at Jaunes slow acceptance to their antics and their feelings towards him. Showing that they all have a chance to date him a group as he gets used to this. While Nora copies them and all but glomps Rens right arm and giggles while enjoying having her boyfriend trapped in her clutches.

Ren sighs with a smile and keeps walking while interlocking fingers with Nora as they walk shocking the ginger as she looks to him in surprise at his open return of her feelings. Ren notices and then looks to make sure no one sees them and kisses her nose with a quick peck and smile at seeing her blush like a tomato before he boops her nose to continue teasing her. Nora couldn't take it and faints into Rens arms, thoroughly swooned and over loaded at her boyfriends open affections with her as they are walking in public towards the library. With a happy sigh and a little effort he sweeps her of her feet into a princess carry.

Once the group enters the library the Librarian raises an eye brow at how Jaune has four girls walking close to him as they enter but thinks nothing of it. Then her eye brows raise together as she sees CVFY is with RWBY and JNPR renting a study room together. But the eye opener that makes her nearly pop her eyes out of her sockets is seeing the non expressive Li Ren actually smiling, while carrying a borderline comatose Nora, who for the first time in her career, is so happy, she is tomato red while having a dopey smile in her sleep. The librarian decides then and there that she needs a vacation soon as she couldn't have seen all those uncommon events in a row while well rested. So she must be exhausted and thus hallucinating from mental fatigue.

In the library study room the teams are all seated, Jaune at the head of the table while his friends are all in their seats and Nora has managed to regain consciousness during the placement of her body into a chair and is smiling while humming happily next to a gently smiling Ren. Everyone is quietly chatting together asking each other questions and Jaune waits a minute while gathering his thoughts before he stands and addresses them all.

"Alright everyone. We are here. And I have no doubt that you have a lot of questions for me. So how do you want to start? I will do what I can to answer every question honestly and to my best ability."

They all glance to each other before a hand raises and the first question is prepared, by Pyrrha, "Jaune I need to ask… when did you get so strong? And how? A month isn't nearly long enough to grow that much. Please tell us honestly. We won't judge."

Jaune debates on how much he should reveal to his friends. He trusts them so much, but would they look at him the same way again? Would their world shatter? Or would they adapt? He breathes in a calming breath before sitting down and gazes at them all with a serious expression of determination on his face. "I'll start from the temple I suppose, you see..."