Chapter 13 - The First A Rank

– Sunday –

Jaune was relaxing after he slumped against his chair in the library with notes all around him. He looked like we was studying but he was really looking at his stats while holding his note sheets just past the stat screen. And he was happy with his stored points after todays training went well.

Level 85

Exp: 11%

HP: 67,200/ 67,200

AP: 29,750/ 29,750

Fatigue: 23/100%

Class: Master of Knights

Stats:

STR: 119 (+35) (+5 ally boost)

AGI: 114 (+3) (+5 ally boost)

VIT:114 (+25) (+5 ally boost)

INT: 124 (+5 ally boost)

SENSE: 114 (+5) (+5 ally boost)

Points available: 58

Physical dmg reduction: +27%

Current shop points: 29,943 points

Skills:

-???- : ?????

Inheritor: Access to system, over level 20 access to shop

Knight Master: +1 to all stats per ally under users command

Standing army: Gain ability to summon an army of knights under the users command, points available 3/123, basic unit lvl 6: 4 (2 sword, 2 bow) (5 pts per), commander units: 0 (30 pts per), heroic unit lvl 12: 1 (Iron) (100 pts per)

Heroic Unit Iron title holder: Iron the Shield of the Light

Arc Bloodline: +250 to AP per level

Expert sword arts lvl 2: 9.5 times dmg with swords

Unarmed Combat Expert lvl 2: times 9.5 dmg with unarmed blows

True Warriors Aura lvl 3: +40 to Str, Agi, and Vit for however long this aura is active, heals 900 HP per minute, cost: 500 for activation, additional 50 per minute used.

Knights Rallying call lvl 3: +18 to all stats of every person you recognize as an ally within 150ft of user, Lower the physical abilities of foes by 18 points within the area of effect. Costs 500 AP, lasts 5 minutes.

White Knight Body Armor:

+10 str

+10 vit

+7% physical dmg reduction

White Knight Gauntlets:

+5 str

+5% physical dmg reduction

White Knight Sabatons:

+5 vit

+5% physical dmg reduction

White Knight Basic Helm:

+5 sense

+3 agi

Rank A Crocea Mors (Seal level 5)

Bonuses: +160 to dmg

+20 str when equipped

+10 vit when equipped

+10% reduction to physical dmg when equipped

Jaune went over his stats and figured that he should try to equalize them in a way that allows him to still be balanced but also give him a chance to grow his skill standing army in a way that gave him more options.

So after doing math in his head for a good 5 minutes he decided that this would be the best use of the points.

Stats:

STR: 120 (+35) (+5 ally boost)

AGI: 120 (+3) (+5 ally boost)

VIT:120 (+25) (+5 ally boost)

INT: 160 (+5 ally boost)

SENSE: 120 (+5) (+5 ally boost)

Points available: 3

Jaune smiled to himself at how skewed his stats became in order to allow him to grow his troops out. He pulled up the army skill to see what he should summon.

Standing army: Gain ability to summon an army of knights under the users command, points available 40/160, basic unit lvl 6: 4 (2 sword, 2 bow) (5 pts per), commander units: 0 (30 pts per), heroic unit lvl 12: 1 (Iron) (100 pts per)

Heroic Unit Iron title holder: Iron the Shield of the Light

He decided that Quality was better than Quantity, he has more room to grow but the main thing is he needs to make sure he troops will be ready and properly supported if he is ever without his friends in the field. So he went for a commander and two more basic units.

Jaune was in for a shock as he summoned the basic units. They not only shared the levels of his previous basic units, but he gained a new type. One was the usual knight with shield and sword, but the other one was apparently a unit that was dressed in lighter armor similar to banded mail, with priest robes over it, it was a paladin unit. It was wielding a mace and kite shield while also having a holy book chained at its waist and he thought of what it could do. He saw its title in the skill labeled as healer, so Jaune cut his palm and ordered the healer to heal it. A quick wave of its hand and Jaunes hand glowed green before the wound seals up. He grins at the new powers and formations this makes available to him and his troops.

He then goes one to summon the commander after sending away the two new summons and gets a shock, while his usual knights are in basic full plate, with helmets, swords, and basic round warrior shields. He sees the unit is called a Great Knight commander, and this unit apparently has more dragon looking armor with thicker plates, and an extended kite shield looking like an upside down tear drop. His sword looks to be a claymore with a wicked edge and thickness to it to help chop through the thickest bodies. The Great Knight goes to one knee immediately and bows its head to Jaune being more aware and capable of thought compared to the average unit. Jaune checks by summoning his basic units and orders the Commander to rally the troops into a combat formation, the troops all listen to the commander and Jaune grins as he realizes that having Commanders in his army will help with keeping the units organized and ready.

Iron was too independent and unless Jaune assigned some units to him then Iron had no control over the basic units. They would essentially become unmanned NPC assistant fighting units. The kind that usually die in a few turns or actions from not using smarter movements. But this helps solve this problem. Now the next piece of info needed is how many units a single commander unit can control. Jaune shrugs and knows they will cross that bridge once they cross it.

He checks the skill to see what has changed after summoning his new units.

Standing army: Gain ability to summon an army of knights under the users command, points available 0/160, basic unit lvl 6: 6 (3 sword, 2 bow, 1 healer) (5 pts per), commander units lvl 1: 1 (1 Great knight) (30 pts per), heroic unit lvl 12: 1 (Iron) (100 pts per)

Commander Unit: Great Knight (Passive: +5% to all ally melee units dmg, stacks with other commander abilities)

Heroic Unit Iron title holder: Iron the Shield of the Light

Jaunes eyes bugged out at the news of what the commander does. He thought about when he would be able to summon more and what that would mean for his friends abilities as well since this description meant that they would be able to help his friends fight better as well.

Jaune grinned to himself and prepared to head out into Vale for his daily sweep of the city. He boarded the bullhead while calling Ozpin that he was heading to Vale for a sweep and for training. Ozpin looked serious as he called him though. Jaune immediately went into inner circle business mode and asked, "What's wrong Ozpin?"

Ozpin seemed to mull over what was bugging him for a minute before he said, "We have a situation down town, remember that B rank gate your friends helped you fight in before? Well another powerful gate was found. We have police sealing off the area but the fact is that the gate is at least 10 meters wide and is in the middle of the park. I sent Qrow to keep an eye on the situation while Glynda is trying to get the council off their collective asses to do something about the potential disaster waiting for us if they keep all their personal hunter squads close to their homes to protect themselves instead of the people. I know that I shouldn't ask a student to clean up the adults messes but the fact is we are still gathering allies, so can you help Qrow take care of this? You will be paid appropriately of course. And I will let your friends know so they can hopefully come and aid in the perimeter guard."

Jaune nods and agrees quickly, "That sounds good and don't worry about me, I signed up for this knowing I would be risking my life to protect others. It's an occupational hazard. So leave this to me and my army. Got it? Should I fall make sure my friends know what happened and reach out to my family about the temple so that the next inheritor can be chosen from my sisters okay?"

Ozpin sighed in resignation and goes, "Understood, I pray it won't go that badly but I shall keep my end of this deal. Now good luck and may the monarchs bless your mission and your skills."

Jaunes eyes glow with the white wisps as he answers, "They already do."

He tells the pilot their new landing spot and he agrees as long as he doesn't expect to land in the city and instead rappels. Jaune agrees and gets the gear ready as the pilot goes over the park area. Jaune nods to him and looks down at the gate. He feels a huge wave of dark pressure oozing out of the gate and realizes this gate is stronger than even a B rank gate.

He gulps down his nerves as he forgoes the rappel rope and dives right out of the bullhead. Much to the shock of the pilot. He dives right into the gate with a perfect dive.

The system makes sure to warn Jaune and confirm his concerns about the gate once he lands on the other side in a crimson colored ruined city.

He looks around and immediately summons his troops making sure that Iron is assigned to be his wing man while the Commander is assigned all basic troops and has them in turtle shell formation to protect their archers and healer.

He sees the alert for an emergency quest pop up.

~Warning you have entered your first A rank gate! As such you will be unable to leave until all enemies are defeated! There will be 3 waves of 200 each~

Jaunes eyes go wide at the largest number of enemies he has ever fought in any one gate. He gulps and presses on the alert for the next part of the quest and hopes to the Monarchs and the Brothers that he has a chance here.

~Emergency Quest! Rank A survival! Survive all three waves and earn…

Full recovery, +10 levels, +20 Stats, +50,000 shop points, one A rank upgrade for any gear set.

Good luck player Jaune all I could do as the system was make it into a wave event. Otherwise it would have been all 600 at once with them trying to overwhelm you. Show Salem that this isn't enough to beat us down. Okay?~

Jaune nods with a look of determination on his face as he sees the sky darken with the promise of a hard fight awaiting him. He readies his blade and shield as Iron comes up beside him and readies his shield and weapon. Iron tells Jaune, "Worry not Jaune your allies are here, your army is here, and we will stand with you to the end!"

Jaune nods and has Iron join the turtle shell formation as Jaune takes up a position between two knights in the circle that way they have a nice 6 shield covered circle while their archers are ready.

They wait as a countdown for the waves hits and suddenly it reaches zero. A loud crack of something shattering sounds out and then the sound of many running limbs are heard fast approaching. The snarling and growling of many Grimm are heard and Jaune and his knights ready their weapons and shields.

Their first wave seem to be made up of all alpha Beowolves and Ursa Majors. They ready their formation as the 200 D and C rank Grimm come running up and crash into their shields.

The shields shudder and buckle but the line holds, the paladin surprises Jaune once more as the healer unit casts a buff skill over the group. Jaune grins as he casts his rallying skill as well to aid the boost. The line suddenly stops buckling and is as solid as a mountain. Then the weapons fly out and begin to behead the alphas. Even the archers begin to head shot Grimm after Grimm. After the first 3 minutes of nonstop combat Jaune sees that each of his knights have managed to level up by 6-11 levels each depending on how they are contributing to the raid.

He checks the counter and finds the number of Grimm has dropped to 50 and is quickly still dropping even lower. He grins as he unleashes a wave cut from his sword using his aura charge that he used against team CRDL. It shears through at least 20 of the approaching alphas bisecting them before they could even reach his troops.

Juane simply goes, "Huh… Maybe I should lead with a few of those next wave what do you think?"

He turns to Iron as he casually divides an Ursa from head to toe as he glances at his hero unit. Iron glances at his master and the damage he did with one of his wave slashes as he crushes a pair of Beowulves who thought they would be safe attacking and holding down his shield. He looks back at Jaune and simply goes, "Would make things easier for us."

They both shrug and shelve the thought for the next wave as they pick off the stragglers.

Once the count goes to 0, Jaune pants slightly as he glances around to make sure they were done. He then sees the next wave will be there in 3 minutes. He glances at his troops and his skill to see how they are doing.

Standing army: Gain ability to summon an army of knights under the users command, points available 0/160, basic unit lvl 15: 6 (3 sword, 2 bow, 1 healer) (5 pts per), commander units lvl 13: 1 (1 Great knight) (30 pts per), heroic unit lvl 21: 1 (Iron) (100 pts per)

Commander Unit: Great Knight (Passive: +5% to all ally melee units dmg, stacks with other commander abilities)

Heroic Unit Iron title holder: Iron the Shield of the Light

Jaune smirks at the growth his troops have gone through and Iron was pretty close to his stats when including his items and passive ally boosting skill to his stats. He grins at the thought of outfitting Iron with accessories or even some new gear he gave him to equip himself. Then he snaps back and checks the counter for the next wave and sees the counter is coming close to only 30 seconds remaining before they get swarmed again.

He orders his troops into formation again right before he notices that the counter has finished and he hears screeches from Nevermores and Gargoyles coming from around the city.

He sighs as he says out loud, "Great… Flying round, be ready! Eyes on the skies! And stand firm together!"

His troops all get into a tighter formation as the counter goes back to 200/200 Wave 2, and he hears the wings beating. He sees the Nevermores, Gargoyles, but also sees the skittering of adult Deathstalkers.

Cursing to himself that this wave is full of C-B rank enemies Jaune charges himself up with his rally and aura skills as the Paladin blesses the group. Jaune charges his blade up and launches his aura wave out around 5 times to deal as much damage as possible to as many enemies as he can. His two ground based waves cut through at least 30 Deathstalkers by themselves. However thanks to the air waves losing power as they travel they only deal with about 45 flies despite there being 3 cutting waves. Jaune grunts as he yells out, "I only whittled them down by 75! Get ready!"

His troops all raise their shields as the first feathers and wing blades come flying at them and rattle their shields despite their buffs. Jaune grits his teeth as he stands as firm as possible once the fliers complete their pass and the archers are picking off as many as they can as they fly overhead. As the remaining flying enemies bank around for another pass the archers continue to try and pick them off while the Deathstalkers are currently trying to pick their way through the shield line by chipping away at the health and armor of the knights.

Jaune is cutting through the scorpion Grimms armor with little issue, but his knights aren't as strong and besides the Great Knight commander and Iron each needing only one cut or smash to kill a scorpion, each knight needs 3-4 hits to kill a Deathstalker. And the damage is slowly accumulating. In a desperate move to finish off the ground forces Jaune unleashes a flurry of cutting waves. Each eave cuts through 5-10 Deathstalkers and eventually finishes them off. But Jaune is now down to 40% aura and it keeps dropping as his knights need time to finish healing from the claws and stingers of the insectoid Grimm they just survived against. Even with the paladin helping their regeneration is slowly but surely draining Jaune.

He looks up at the fliers and sees the archers have been busy whittling their numbers down as well and that the counter shows only 60 left. He grits his teeth and shoots out orbs of aura from his sword to add one more ranged fighter to their line to hopefully take out the fliers before they drain their army too much.

Jaune and the archers eventually take down the last flier but it took two more passes of the enemy fliers before they finally got the final gargoyle. Jaune slumps down and checks his stats.

Level 95

Exp: 1%

HP: 60,750/ 79,750

AP: 12,110/ 33,250

Fatigue: 45/100%

Class: Master of Knights

Stats:

STR: 130 (+35) (+8 ally boost)

AGI: 130 (+3) (+8 ally boost)

VIT:130 (+25) (+8 ally boost)

INT: 170 (+8 ally boost)

SENSE: 130 (+5) (+8 ally boost)

Points available: 3

Standing army: Gain ability to summon an army of knights under the users command, points available 10/170, basic unit lvl 26: 6 (3 sword, 2 bow, 1 healer) (5 pts per), commander units lvl 28: 1 (1 Great knight) (30 pts per), heroic unit lvl 33: 1 (Iron) (100 pts per)

Commander Unit: Great Knight (Passive: +5% to all ally melee units dmg, stacks with other commander abilities)

Heroic Unit Iron title holder: Iron the Shield of the Light

Jaune noticed his stats were looking better and his health had taken a beating during the few times he had to jump in the way of a wayward stinger that reached past their line towards one of their archers or their healer and nodded himself. He needed another of each to give them a better chance. He summoned another archer and healer to equal out their group and balance them out to make sure they survive the next wave.

Stats:

STR: 130 (+35) (+10 ally boost)

AGI: 130 (+3) (+10 ally boost)

VIT:130 (+25) (+10 ally boost)

INT: 170 (+10 ally boost)

SENSE: 130 (+5) (+10 ally boost)

Points available: 3

Standing army: Gain ability to summon an army of knights under the users command, points available 0/170, basic unit lvl 26: 8 (3 sword, 3 bow, 2 healer) (5 pts per), commander units lvl 28: 1 (1 Great knight) (30 pts per), heroic unit lvl 33: 1 (Iron) (100 pts per)

Commander Unit: Great Knight (Passive: +5% to all ally melee units dmg, stacks with other commander abilities)

Heroic Unit Iron title holder: Iron the Shield of the Light

Jaune grits his teeth in frustration as he sees the lacking numbers compared to how the final wave will be. Based on the pattern they will soon see the upcoming B to A rankers only in the next wave. Jaune readies his gear and buys a quick potion from the shop to restore his fatigue, one for HP and one for AP, it drains him down to only a few thousand left but it was needed to make sure he would return to his friends.

Jaune grits his teeth as he suddenly felt the world shake and his troops all look around in worry as they feel the air get heavier. Jaune feels the eyes of Salem similar to the time in the Deathstalker nest and while the power of the upcoming Grimm and the Gate doesn't change, what does change is that the final wave suddenly becomes 300 instead of the 200 it was originally.

Jaune panics as he feels the rumble of hundreds of large Grimm coming towards them. He leads his troops to a nearby ruined building that would give them choke points to utilize for the incoming enemies. He sees the upcoming Grimm are mostly B ranked Beringals, the large 7ft tall ape based Grimm, and thankfully they seem to make up 80-90% of the enemy forces. However the problem are the A ranked Wendigos among them. Hulking brutes similar to the Beringals only with large claws, 6 limbs tipped with 4ft bone blades on their back similar to spider legs, and they are 11 ft tall on average. Their bone mask and armored ribs protecting their key organs make them a formidable foe and based on the math, Jaune counts at least 40 of them. (To get a clear picture look up the Team dark Ashes trailer on youtube. SilverfangDancer98 reacted to it recently and helped me rank their strength.)

Jaune grits his teeth as he activates every skill that will give him a chance at the same time. His healers join the boost party and aid in preparing their units. The first Beringal enter the buildings ruined doors and Jaune and his knights rush out to greet them and keep them away from the archers, who, with their bows, are raining down arrows left and right onto the oncoming wave of darkness.

Jaune grits his teeth as he endures another Beringals fist against his shield before charging his blade with aura and bisecting the Grimm from head to toe. He sees that the counter is slowly counting down, and has barely decreased to 262/300 remaining enemies. He has been fighting the Grimm flood for the last few minutes, and his fatigue gauge is quickly filling thanks to how hard it is to battle Beringals 4 at a time. Iron and Great Knight are also pulling their weights in the front lines holding off 2-3 at a time as well. But the basic knight units can only hold one Beringal at a time. The archers are doing their duty while the healers are helping as best they can to keep the troops from needing too much regeneration needs or being too weak thanks to their bless skills.

Jaune then noticed that they were beginning to be flanked as a Wendigo had crushed a wall section behind their lines and let in a small platoon of Beringals. Jaune managed to boost himself once more with his aura skill to refresh it and cut through all 4 Beringals he was fighting. As they disappeared he charged over to in invading enemies and began to fight them off with every trick he had. He kicked, shield bashed, slashed, cut, energy waved, and even shone brightly with his aura as a full body barrier. But eventually he lost too much ground and found himself at the back of his own troops still doing their best to hold their positions.

However soon Jaune noticed things turned wrong. More walls came crashing down letting in more waves of enemies. His archers had to switch to dagger mode to hold off the encroaching enemies and the paladins had to go with their shields and maces to aid the line. Jaune was slammed into Irons back from a lucky hit. Irons head was slashed off from a Wendigo back claw. And their Great knight and supporting Knights were being forced to regenerate over and over again as their limbs were either being smashed or cut off.

Jaune kills his 30th Beringal in a row while trying to get to his allies only to suddenly be slammed onto his back as a Wendigo is standing over him. Jaune gasps and raises his shield up to parry 5 of the 6 back blades on the wendigo. Its claw sweeps across and smacks Jaunes shield out of the way pinning it in the same movement to Jaunes left. He tries to raise his sword next only for the Wendigo to pin that arm as well.

He looks up and gets ready to use his skills to break free when suddenly the Wendigo smirks at him and black pupils appear in its once lifeless crimson eyes. Jaune puases seeing this as he hears a wicked, seductive, and terrifying voice come out of the Wendigo. It chuckles in that feminine voice, "Hehehehe… Well well well. I wasn't expecting to see the next inheritor that has been giving my Grimm Gates so much trouble to be a young boy barely in his late teens. But I am glad for that as well. After all. It gives me so much leeway on how to destroy you and any allies you have. Or maybe I can lie in wait a bit and let the paranoia sink in first? Maybe destroy you all in one fell swoop during a special event coming up? Ah decisions~ But for now I will settle with killing you wielder of light!"

Jaune grits his teeth as he sees Iron is trying to get to him but is being held back by a squad of Beringals and 2 Wendigos. His Great knight is being kept in check by a Wendigo and 3 Beringals. And each of his basic units are struggling to regenerate from wounds suffered by other Wendigos. He glances at his enemy counter and sees they barely took down a third of Salems wave.

Enemy count: 203/300 remain.

He tears up slightly but swallows it down as Salem grins at him from behind her Grimms face. He then has an epiphany that would give him time to pull a certain move he has only done once before in practice with his friends. He desummons his soldiers causing the grimm to tackle into each other from trying to overwhelm the troops, which leaves quite a few of them scratching their heads in confusion at this. Jaune refocuses on Salem as she snickers at him for his soldiers suddenly dying all around him, "Aw what is the matter young guardian of the light? Hehehe… run out of mana to keep your soldiers alive? Then allow me to put you out of your misery!"

She raises a claw to behead Jaune only to pause once she hears him chuckling. Her eyes narrow from behind the mask she is using as she asks, "What is so funny?"

Jaune smiles at her as he eyes narrow in determination and concentration, "I'm just laughing at one thing you overlooked about humanity!"

"Their stubbornness? Their useless struggle for even a few more seconds of life? Their vermin like ability to repopulate no matter how many times I destroy every settlement they make anew? I can go on."

Jaune begins to glow, Salem gasps at this and looks at the source straight in the eyes, "None of the above, the ones who carry Humanity through the veil of your darkness, have become those with a will to never give up and who can adapt to any situation! So prepare yourself for my new efforts in stopping you!"

Jaune activates his summoning ability anew and suddenly a dozen blades, arrows, maces, and a hammer erupt from around Jaune all stabbing or smashing into the Wendigo Grimm Salem has taken over. She screams in pain as she breaks her connection to the now dead Grimm and Jaune stands up ready to fight once more. He looks at his dwindling aura reserves, his health, and his fatigue with a frown on his face and harsh pants escaping his lungs.

HP: 36,510/ 79,750

AP: 2,920/ 33,250

Fatigue: 64/100%

Jaune shakes his head as Iron asks, "What are your orders young master?"

Jaune looks at the count being down to 202/300 remaining and sighs while glancing at his remaining points in his stats. "We fight with everything we have left. If we don't then those on the other side won't stand a chance. We fight as many as we can and as fast as we can! Soldiers! Fight until we can't fight anymore!"

With a roar his soldiers prepare themselves fro another round against the Grimm Horde, while the beasts of darkness surround their turtle formation and prepare their own charge. They begin to rush to final stand for Jaune and his troops right up until they see a glyph around their feet. Jaune looks down confused before seeing it suddenly triple layer as it turns white with a ring of smaller white glyphs all around the larger one.

Right as the first line of Grimm cross the outer ring they suddenly erupt into dark particles as the white glyphs shoot up with large pillars of icicles stabbing into and killing at least 30 Beringals all at once. Jaune gasps at the carnage and at what the glyph below them is doing, as the glyph at their feet reaches out to the ice pillars and reconstruct them into an actual wall of ice with a walkway for defenders to the now 10ft tall wall of ice that is holding off the Grimm for a few precious minutes.

Jaune looks around before he is tapped on the shoulder and Iron points up once Jaune looks back at him. Jaune gasps as he sees his friends all falling down to their location. They land not 10ft from Jaune and his troops and he sees more than his original friends have come to aid them. Team CFVY, Team RWBY, the remaining members of Team JNPR, Team SLVR, and a platoon of 20 Atlesian knights. Jaune couldn't believe it as suddenly he is glomped by his 4 girlfriends who all look like they are about to cry after seeing how he is covered in bruises and a few small cuts.

He goes to hug them back but suddenly is held at arms length from them all and then receives 4 slaps from them, one for each girl. He looks at them stunned and sees their scared and happy expressions before he realizes why they are looking at him like that. He smiles at them and says, "Sorry for worrying you all, and thanks for coming to help. Sorry I didn't have time to tell you about it, but I needed to hold off the gate as best as I could."

They all cry a little and sniffle some while holding him close, Yang starts by saying, "You idiot! We are a guild! And we are your girlfriends! You could have told us so we could come help! We made a promise to be there by each others side without losing each other right?!"

Weiss follows up, "Exactly you dork! Let us help so we don't risk losing you after we finally have you in our lives!"

Velvet chimes in with a sobbing voice, "Pl-please! Le-let us help form the st-start ne-next time! I don-don't want to lose y-you like when I lo-lost my father!"

Pyrrha says nothing but simply puts her hand over his heart and her other hand over hers, letting him know that he means that much to her.

He smiles apologetically at them before hearing the ice wall crack, he sees Simin goes over to repair it while Weiss is collecting herself. Coco and Ruby are both commanding the knight bots to the walls to begin anti siege protocols to take care of the Grimm. The others are preparing themselves as well by climbing up to the tops of the walls for ranged combat while Jaunes archers go to help them with the healers climbing to the walls to aid in support and more effective healing needs.

Jaune sees the walls crack again with the tips of the bone blades of a Wendigo poking through this time before he looks at his friends and knights and smiles, "Let's take them down!"

They all yell together and gather in the center while Jaune tells Weiss to join the wall guards after she makes a gate opening in the wall for them to filter the Grimm through into their blades. She agrees and with a quick peck on the lips to Jaune she goes to the wall and creates a door. A beringal stumbles through as it was about to try and break the wall again only for its head to go flying from Yatsus blade slashing through its neck joint. He stands beside Jaune and Iron while the knights, the melee bots (5 of them), Yang, Nora, Pyrrha, Lycan, Simin, and Velvet with her own version of Jaunes weapons all make a semi-circle around the new gate making the Grimm run head first into their blades and shields.

It worked for at least 50 Grimm to be killing in the cemi-circle from watching each others backs. And yet another 50 die to the defenders on the wall. Jaune smiles with triumph as the counter is decreasing rapidly from the earlier 202 down to 61. He slashes another Beringal in half before he remembers the A ranked Wendigos right as they crash through the gate charging right for their line.

Yatsu and Iron each tackle one with the Great Knight helping Yatsu and Yang helping Iron. Nora charges one with Velvet as back up, while the three knights team up with the 5 bots to form a subjugation squad against a Wendigo.

Pyrrha, Lycan, and Simin all form a crowd control group by stationing themselves at the bottom of the stairs leading to the wall defenders as some Beringals that remain break off from the gate battle to take out their supporters.

The trio do their best and fight off the apes while the ranged units on the walls turn their weapons to the inside and begin to fire off suppressive fire on the Wendigos that have yet to find opponents.

Jaune manages to do a flurry of slashes on one of the A ranked Grimm. Then turns to deal with another one right before its head is chomped by Ragoras familiar semblance eating the head whole. He salutes the floating dragon head and turns to deal with another Grimm who is mid claw sweep at him before Jaune feels his boost disappear. He reactivates it just as the claws reach him. They tear into his side making him yell in pain as a solid 5k of his HP goes down, thanks to him redirecting his aura into the boost aura he accidentally thinned out his passive protection so his body took most of the hit instead of his shielding aura.

Still bleeding form the gash Jaune raises his blade high and shoots out a wave of aura cutting through three Wendigos at once. His aura nearing the 1% mark and his fatigue finally going past 80% he stumbles as the exhaustion penalty hits him hard. He looks up as a Wendigo is about to spear into him but thanks to her accessory Jaune gave her Pyrrha is suddenly in front of him blasting away the Wendigos claw and jumping up to its neck and beheading the creature with her aura fully glowing around her sword. He thanks Pyrrha with a tired smile as she brings him over to one of the paladin units for healing. She remains near them as the combat is slowly dying down.

Yang and Nora tag team the last Wendigo who lets out an undignified whimper as its body and head are punched in and smashed into a pancake… in that order. The final A ranked threat dissipates and they all look around before seeing the gate begins to crumble. A cheer erupts as they direct all the bots to leave the area and make sure to not leave anything important behind. Every member of their subjugation squad is sporting bruises, a few gashes, and some low auras from the combat but they all feel satisfied from their efforts. They all leave while helping to make sure anyone badly injured is aided by a comrade as they all exit the gate. Jaune hears many notifications in his head but puts them in his inbox to look at later and process everything they just went through together.

Jaune was helping out by carrying a busted Atlesian knight on his back while he had desummoned his soldiers so that no one would know about his ability too soon. And it was a good call on his part. As soon as they all exit the Grimm Gate and go out into the sunlight of the afternoon sun, every hunter student suddenly flinch at hearing a cheer erupt from around Vale as they see 4 news camera crews at managed to get close enough to get clear shots of the gate. But since they came out and the gate was fading they realized that they gave hope to everyone in Vale.

Some swat team members come over to escort them to a bulk loading bullhead meant for full emergency team deployments, every hunter student piles in while the police hold off the reporters to avoid any PR nightmares for the students and to avoid making them even more exhausted.

As they all piled in Jaune took the moment to drop off the busted mech on his back with the police unknowingly coming close to a reporter for Vale news. She got up to him while the officer was distracted and Jaune was stretching his back. She got in his face and asked while the camera was literally right off her shoulder, "Sir Huntsman! I am Lisa Lavender with the Vale News Network! Would you place let us know what happened in there? And why were you the first to go in based on initial reports? And who are all of the heroes that joined you in there? And how dangerous was the gate to force the city of Vale to deploy not one, not two, but 4 full teams of students to fight it off? A C Rank? A B- Rank? A B Rank?!"

Jaune looks around and notices the officer is turning around a bit noticing the growing volume of Lisas questions and decides to do what he does best, think on his feet, while also making sure he group gets recognition.

Jaune looks right at the camera and says quickly, "We had gotten an emergency mission from Headmaster Ozpin himself that a dangerous ranked B+ Grimm pool had appeared in central Vale park. I was deployed first as the scout for my guild to catch up and help me subdue the Grimm in the pool that were all Ursas majors, Beringals, Deathstalkers, and a Wendigo leading them. It was dangerous but we managed against the horde of over 150 Grimm. Now pardon me my guild and I need to head back and report a completed successful mission to Headmaster Ozpin."

He turns only to smirk as he hears Lisa yell out, "Wait! Final question! What is your guild? I thought the guild system was abolished back around 20-30 years ago due to it not being cost effective?"

Jaune decides to drive the knife into the council while also upping the standing of his group and Beacon in the eyes of the public, "Well it was abolished due to cost concerns for the councils pockets, and also their standing among the public. After all can't have the guilds holding more power than the council, right? So Ozpin decided to allow for one guild to form in Beacon and I am a member of it. We are called the Hunters Guild. And we will be here to defend Vale with everything we have. You can thank Ozpin and Beacon academy for their swift response to this threat. See you on the news."

Jaune walks away as Lisa does her wrap up report to the camera. Jaune enters the bullhead while sighing hard, suddenly he feels someone grab his left and right hands from either side of him. Looking at each person he sees Velvet tiredly holding his left hand and dozing a bit from all the hard fighting she did on the front lines today. His right hand has a bashful looking Yang holding it as she blushes and looks away while gripping his hand tightly. Jaune simply smiles at both of them and dozes a bit himself as his high fatigue is hitting him now along with his slowly recovering injuries.

He wakes up after a 10 minutes power nap and sees everyone is a bit more awake after resting during the flight in this loader bullhead. It is slower but still gets the task of transporting a large amount of reserves and troops around where needed. He looks around at his friends who are chatting now and sees that they only have 5 minutes left in their journey. He checks the other members of their group and sees team SLVR interacting pretty well with his friends and sees Simin glance at him. He looks back at the leader and nods to him.

Simin shakes his head in silence before cracking a smirk and saying, "No problem Jaune we were happy to help out. After all we may not be friends right now, but we are all in the same fight, and we are all here to defend the light of peoples lives. If we ran or hid from this then do we deserve to call ourselves hunters?"

Jaune thinks about it before saying out loud, "Nah we wouldn't but still thank you for coming and aiding us in this fight, we needed the back up."

Simin waves his hand and then gets to the point, "No worries, but two questions actually for you, if you don't mind me being blunt."

Jaune motions for him to go ahead and he clears his throat, "Well first off, this guild you are in, can we join? We want to help other people more often and it sounds like this guild will be handling a lot of emergencies from now on. What do you say?"

Jaune looks to his friends who all smile, gives thumbs up, or simply nod in Blakes and Fox's cases. Jaune looks back at Simin and his team who are all looking hopeful and simply smiles back at them, "Welcome aboard, we'll let Ozpin know to add you guys to our team roster. Sound good?"

Simin smiles with joy and his team all exchange high fives while Lycan whoops and calls dibs on his rematch first with Jaune and a fight against Yang and Nora in any order. Simiin shakes his head in exasperation but with a knowing smile as well, then schools his face back to a smirk as he asks, "Thanks looking forward to working with you all, but my second question is this." He motions to Jaune, Velvet, and Yang all holding hands and asks, "Are you three in a relationship?"

Jaune goes to answer while Velvet and Yang both blush at realizing what they instinctively did to ensure that they really did save Jaune and that they didn't lose him in the gate. Weiss comes to their rescue, by being blunt, "Yes and Pyrrha and myself are both included in a poly-amorous relationship. We are all supportive of each other and care for each other equally. So don't worry, no one is cheating and there is no open relationship besides with each other."

Team SLVR all looked at them with wide eyes then look to the Mistrali champion herself and balk a bit when she nods with a shy but happy smile and a large blush. Simin and Lycan both whistle at Jaune in appreciation for nabbing such beautiful girls as girlfriends. And then they begin to ask him for tips on how to get some girlfriends for themselves. Vivian and Ragora both smack them on their heads for their words and with huffs turn away from their male teammates.

Everyone laughs at the interaction before they get the notification that they are landing shortly. They all buckle in properly to make sure no one gets jostled during landing and they check around to make sure they have all their gear and get off the Bullhead loader.

They get a collective message from Ozpin that they may rest tomorrow from classes for their efforts today and for them all to come to his office to discuss the interview Jaune gave and the growth of their guild with the new team members they gained as while everyone was talking Ruby sent the request to Ozpin.

Everyone gave a collective sigh and all head back to their dorm rooms with Jaune goes back to his dorm room with Yang, Weiss and Pyrrha constantly checking on him. But before all the teams separate Jaune kisses Velvet on her head between her ears and causes her to blush at the action. He grins at her and promises that they will see each other tomorrow during the day since they will be meeting up for daily training and the meeting with Ozpin as well. She nods and glances down at her ankle where her anklet is glistening in the afternoon sunlight and she blushes before hugging Jaune close and kisses him passionately on the lips. He is shocked at first for the sudden move then reciprocates the kiss with her, their tongues soon joining the dance as they make out for a good minute before separating.

SLVR are blushing at the public display while everyone else has light blushes being more used to this. Meanwhile Yang, Weiss and Pyrrha are planning to make sure they all get their turn with Jaune next. Everyone soon returns to their dorm rooms with all his friends constantly checking on Jaune as he still has some lingering bruises and scabbed over cuts on his body.

After they reach their dorms Blake, Ren, Nora, and Ruby all enter their rooms first to relax and change. But Jaune is stopped from entering his dorm room by Yang and Weiss pulling on his armor straps. He stopped mis step and turned to regard his two girlfriends. Weiss was being shy as she was clearly blushing, Yang was actually being bashful for once instead of her usual crass self. He guess what they needed and he smiled at them, they both glance at him as they catch his smile. He wraps up Weiss in a hug and pulls her into a kiss with only lips involved. Weiss panicked at first until the kiss registered in her mind then she calmed down and hugged Jaune back. She hummed in content into the kiss as they held it for a minute and even added a few pecks to each others cheeks and foreheads for a cute little light make out session. Jaune put her down after kissing her for a good minute and then gave her a lingering gaze with a happy smile at her. She smiled back before she glanced at Yang with a smile of content and joy and retreated into their shared dorm room.

Yang looked to Pyrrha and she smiled at Yang with a knowing smirk and then went into her own dorm room after giving Jaune a passing peck on the cheek knowing he would return the affection later.

Yang had a lock of her hair between her fingers twirling it as she glanced between the hair and Jaune and then back to the hair. Jaune chuckled quietly at her behavior before Yang shyly walked up to him then wrapped her arms around his body, he looked at her as instead of a kiss she laid her head against his chest and seemed to be listening to his heartbeat. She then explained what was going through her mind after standing like that for a good 20 seconds, "I was so worried we had lost you when we got the call that you entered a Grimm Gate by yourself. I was worried we would lose you like Ruby and I lost our mom Summer. I am so happy to see you alive and well now, but please don't ever go into those high level gates alone again, at least not without us to help. Please! It would help me and Ruby to know we won't lose such an important person in our lives. Can you do that for me?"

She looks up to him from his chest with tears building in the corner of her eyes, Jaune smiles at her gently in a comforting way before he brings her close as they both close their eyes and kiss for a solid moment. Once Jaune pulls away he says, "I promise, on my families honor, and you know that an Arc's word is never broken."

Yang smiles through her tears at him and happily chuckles a watery laugh making Jaune wipe away her tears as he laughter breaks through. He then kisses her again, making Yang close her eyes once more and enjoy the sensation of his strong lean arms around her as his warmth and comforting arms seep into her body. She hums in eagerness as she decides to lick his lips and ask for the to go further. Jaune accepts by opening his mouth to allow her tongue into his mouth. They are soon rubbing their tongues against each other with a heat and fervor they didn't realize they had to show each other. Yang wraps a leg around his hip as he brings one arm down to her thigh and helps her hold it there as her booted foot digs into the back of his leg. Her hands begin to hold onto his head and brush through his hair in a sweet romantic way. While Jaunes other hand threads itself up into her hair and gently holds her against himself as well. Soon Yang begins to moan and grind a bit against Jaune causing her to gasp a bit and gain a heavy blush as Jaune begins to feel it too. Yang does a certain angle in their grinding make out before she gasps loudly as she feels a certain weapon concealed in Jaunes pants poke her in her sweet spot. She looks down with a full face blush at the large bulge in his pants looking at her.

She looks to Jaune and shyly kisses him one more time lips only before she climbs off of his body, both are panting post make out as their bodies are slowly calming down. Yang wipes her mouth of excess saliva as she regains her breath, she looks at Jaune once more, panting, sweating lightly and bushing slightly while looking at her with a slight hunger in his eyes before she winks at him, "I'm holding you too your promise handsome."

Jaune grins at her as she goes to her room and just as Yang and Jaune are about to enter their rooms she says, "I look forward to when we are both ready for that step of the relationship. I hope you are too."

She goes into her room with a giggle as Jaune looks at her retreating back before shaking his head and willing his… excitement to die down a bit before he enters the room. He goes in and sees the bathroom is currently occupied but both Ren and Nora are heard from inside. Pyrrha is seen in her shorts and tank top for her pajamas. Jaune looks to her then the bathroom door then back to her with an unsaid question. Pyrrha giggles then nods as she shows him a book that she found under Noras bed. Jaune held in a loud laugh as he reads the title being, 'The Art of Kissing your loved one until they can't live without you'.

He sees a bookmark that is pink for Nora then a bronze bookmark not far behind it showing Pyrrha has been reading it too. She gives Jaune a 'come hither' look and begging single finger making Jaune seem to warp out of his armor and outside clothes and suddenly appear in his pajama shorts and tight workout T-shirt.

He brings Pyrrha closer and they begin to kiss gently on the lips. But instead of going for a french kiss like last time Pyrrha seems to be teasing Jaune as she pinches his top lip between the muscles of both of her lips. She pulls gently until his lip slips from hers and she gives him a seductive look as she bites her bottom lip gently and pulls her teeth over it to cause it to plump up in excitement. Jaune gulps loudly as she dives for his neck and licks his skin there and bites gently while also suckling it. She leaves a bright red mark there before trailing kisses up his neck to his jaw then locks lips with him again and then allows for a french kiss as Jaune tries to take back control. He uses his tongue to tease Pyrrhas by rubbing their tongue tips against each other and then sliding his all the way against hers before she was ready making her body shudder under his techniques. She pulls back with a hungry look in her eyes that Jaune mirrors and they crash lips again and fall onto Pyrrhas bed with her under him. As they make out further Pyrrha can't help but grind against Jaune while wrapping her legs around his waist and locking her heels as Jaune hotly kisses her and rubs his hands down her sides and grips her waist and hips against him. Soon her toes are curling as Jaune grinds against her core and his weapon rubs pleasingly as he is rock hard, but their precious tools and areas are both covered by shorts.

They pull away for breath and notice how excited they were getting. They see each others blushes and then notice their position and then blush harder. They begin to laugh at each other and get ready to pull away while Pyrrha looks at Jaune in a loving way, "I enjoyed that and I look forward to when we can go further."

Jaune goes to answer her but stops when they both hear the bathroom door open. Ren comes out slumped over and atomic red while Nora hops out after him with her lips plump and red from usage with the widest smile they have seen on her yet. Both couples see each other and the atomic blushes spread to everyone involved. Jaune looks to Pyrrha their positions and they both suddenly sit up straight and try to look nonchalant. Ren and Nora try to splash water on their lips to cool the slight swelling and Ren tries to adjust his color to hide the hickeys that are forming.

Both couples look to each other again and then go to their beds while going, "Good night all."

And while in their beds the tension of awkwardness build sup as no one can find the urge to sleep. Realizing this Jaune decides to break the tension by saying out loud, "At least we are all doing well in our relationships."

His friends all giggle at that with a small snort form Nora and a hiccup from giggling from Pyrrha. Ren simply chuckles as the awkward tension is broken. They all finally begin to sleep and Jaune decides to check on the notifications he got after the gate was cleared out.

~Cleared emergency quest Survive the A Rank Gate!

Rewards given: Full recovery, +10 levels, +20 Stats, +50,000 shop points, one A rank upgrade for any gear set.

Leveled up X12! Bonus points for taking down your first wave survival quest! Bonus points given for defeating your first A rank!

+15 stat points for so many first achievements!

Level 117

Exp: 19%

HP: 110,880/110,880

AP: 40,950/ 40,950

Fatigue: 0/100%

Class: Master of Knights

Stats:

STR: 152 (+50) (+10 ally boost)

AGI: 152 (+25) (+10 ally boost)

VIT:152 (+40) (+10 ally boost)

INT: 192 (+10 ally boost)

SENSE: 152 (+15) (+10 ally boost)

Points available: 38

Current shop points: 130,251 points

Physical dmg resistance: +47%

Skills:

-???- : ?????

Inheritor: Access to system, over level 20 access to shop

Knight Master: +1 to all stats per ally under users command

Standing army: Gain ability to summon an army of knights under the users command, points available 22/192, basic unit lvl 42: 8 (3 sword, 3 bow, 2 healer) (5 pts per), commander units lvl 45: 1 (1 Great knight) (30 pts per), heroic unit lvl 57: 1 (Iron) (100 pts per)

Commander Unit: Great Knight (Passive: +5% to all ally melee units dmg, stacks with other commander abilities)

Heroic Unit Iron title holder: Iron the Shield of the Light

Arc Bloodline: +250 to AP per level

Expert sword arts lvl 3: 10 times dmg with swords

Unarmed Combat Expert lvl 3: times 10 dmg with unarmed blows

True Warriors Aura lvl 5: +50 to Str, Agi, and Vit for however long this aura is active, heals 1300 HP per minute, cost: 1000 for activation, additional 100 per minute used.

Knights Rallying call lvl 5: +26 to all stats of every person you recognize as an ally within 200ft of user, Lower the physical abilities of foes by 26 points within the area of effect. Costs 1000 AP, lasts 5 minutes.

Armor upgraded!

White Knight Body Armor Rank A:

+15 str

+15 vit

+11% physical dmg reduction

White Knight Gauntlets Rank A:

+10 str

+5 sense

+8% physical dmg reduction

White Knight Sabatons Rank A:

+10 vit

+5 agi

+8% physical dmg reduction

White Knight Basic Helm Rank A:

+10 sense

+10 agi

+5% physical dmg reduction

Level 100 broken! Next rank of weapon unlocked!

Rank S Crocea Mors (Seal level 4)

Bonuses: +320 to dmg

+25 str when equipped

+15 vit when equipped

+10 agi when equipped

+15% reduction to physical dmg when equipped

Jaune sighed in happiness at how much stronger he had grown. But then frowned as he realized just how much further he still had to grow if he wanted to become the strongest. He thought back to the S rank key he gained and thought instead to the shop. He needed to make sure he could actually defeat an A rank gate with his troops before he could invite his friends to go with him into an S rank dungeon. Plus his friends were fresh for that final wave that had been whittled down a bit already. He knew they needed to grow more. And as tempting as it was to passively help them grown through the lower rank gates he knew he needed to buy as many B and A rank keys as he could in the shop and help his friends level grind in them as much as possible. He closed his tabs to wait until the next day before assigning points to his stats so that he can rest up properly.

As Jaune rests up soundly three entities were watching over him and his friends.

Great Knight was watching his master with pride in his eyes as Jaune slept soundly for not only being their master and having such skill, but also for having such great allies who would be ready to aid him in his times of need.

Iron puffed his chest as he noticed Great Knights thoughts and said to him, "Don't worry my friend, with us being there with him and his lovers, his allies, and his brothers in arms, we will be victorious over the witch this time. Trust me."

The system was being quiet and thoughtful as Iron said this and smiled while thinking of Jaunes future potential but also concerned at how fast he was gaining Salems attention.

Iron noticed this and went quiet while waiting for the system to share its thoughts.

With a sigh the system finally caved in, ~I agree he has great potential to be the one to defeat her my friends. But I am worried at how fast Salem has taken interest in our host. It might not be enough to give him the usual 1 year tutorial at this point and then grow him from there like with his grandfather. We saw what happened there.~

Iron is about to speak up against it but then realized that they did take too long to help Jaunes Grandfather Auriville grow in strength to allow him time to gather an army to prepare for the war with Salem. At the rate she was gaining power, forces, and notice of Jaune and his allies, they maybe had another 7-8 months at most before she began to send her personal champions blessed with the Monarchs power to silence him. So Iron says the one thing they all can agree on, "Then we help all of them grow. If Jaune himself can't grow fast enough, we make sure his friends can all grow alongside him. Our mistake was keeping the benefits of training with friends and allies to only the host. If we convince Jaune to take his friends with him more often like today. And help his friends gain the 20% boost to their skill and power growth. It will aid in our struggle. And just maybe. Tip the scales of this millennia old war. What do you both say?"

Great Knight nods with great enthusiasm and even though he can't speak, he does unsheathe his sword and bow his head to it to show his loyalty to his master. The system looks to his host and nods to himself, ~Agreed. We shall make sure they have all the support they can to make sure they all gain an edge in this oncoming war. And with more allies my shop system is about to see a lot more use. After all we gotta outfit the army properly don't we?~

With grins on all their faces they disperse back into Jaunes aura pool ready to help him grow further tomorrow with his friends by his side.