Chapter 6: The First Step

~Third POV~

At Beacon Cliff, overlooking a forest, where several students some old, some new, and some unseen are standing on silver tiles in front of a mug-holding Professor Ozpin and Glynda with her tablet.

Ozpin first begins to explain to his students what to expect as he explains to them expecting great things from them, "For years, you have trained to become warriors, and today, your abilities will be evaluated in the Emerald Forest."

Glynda the professor at Beacon Academy began to announce the teams the instructions for their teams, "Now, I'm sure many of you have heard rumors about the assignment of "teams." Well, allow us to put an end to your confusion. Each of you will be given teammates... today."

That was when Ozpin then begins to explain the rules to the students casually making some of them nervous for the trials ahead of them and the people they pair up with, "These teammates will be with you for the rest of your time here at Beacon. So, it is in your best interest to be paired with someone with whom you can work well. That being said, the first person you make eye contact with after landing will be your partner for the next four years. After you've partnered up, make your way to the northern end of the forest. You will meet opposition along the way. Do not hesitate to destroy everything in your path... or you will die."

Some of the students laugh nervously at this feeling of the pressure ahead of them. Jae on the other hand made sure to get ready into his position near Pyrrha as he thinks to himself seriously, 'Ok this is the first part of the plan. Getting rid of Jaune was easy now surviving till the rest of the parts is going to be the very troubling parts.'

Ozpin then begins to explain to the students what he expects from them as well gave them a safety net of the source to them about being monitored in a casual tone to them, "You will be monitored and graded through the duration of your initiation, but our instructors will not intervene. You will find an abandoned temple at the end of the path containing several relics. Each pair must choose one and return to the top of the cliff. We will regard that item, as well as your standing, and grade you appropriately. Are there any questions?"

No students taking on the Headmaster's options of questions made Ozpin smile taking a whiff of his mug of hot chocolate as he responds to everyone happily, "Good! Now, take your positions."

Everyone strikes a pose on their tile. Nora crouches low, Ren wields his weapons, Yang raises her fists, Ruby readies her body, and Jae takes his Berserker landing and launches stance at the ready.

Everyone was already taking their turns and it was finally Yang's turn, as she winks at her younger sister, puts on a pair of aviators, and flies off with then a second before Ruby joins her shortly after.

Jae for his part then gets launched from the launching pads as he looks around carefully using his <Aura Manipulation> Semblance to read the thoughts of the people through the air space as he smirks finding the right gal to partner up with…

With the cloud of students now making their way down into the forest below under the eyes of the teachers. Ozpin, for his part, simply takes a sip of his drink as he talks to himself justly, "Ah… now this is some good cocoa to go along doing my favorite part of the job."

…

…

The Emerald Forest serves as the location where the initiation of new Beacon Academy students takes place. It extends away from Beacon Cliff on top of which the academy is situated. Ozpin informs the students that those who enter the forest will meet 'opposition,' which is revealed to be the monsters known as Grimm. To monitor the forest and its hostile inhabitants, the school has installed cameras in several locations throughout the woods.

It is unknown exactly how many types of Grimm live in the forest, but it is shown that Beowolves, Ursai, King Taijitus, Nevermores, and Death Stalkers take residence there. Some of the Grimm live in caves in the forest and have done so for so long that the caves are decorated with old cave art depicting Humans fighting Grimm.

*Poof*

Emerald Forest, where a blackbird is flying slowly and magnificently, right up to the moment it gives a final shriek and Ruby crashes through it in a burst of feathers as she plummets downward, "Birdie, no!"

*Bang*

Ruby fires off a few rounds from Crescent Rose to slow her down, then turns the weapon into its scythe form to catch the branch of a tree in her blade and fall downward at a slower pace.

Weiss, armed with Myrtenaster, summons a white snowflake circle under her and leaps off of it to the forest below.

Ren descends with Nora Valkyrie briefly being seen next to him at a faster speed and spins in the air, eventually using StormFlower's blades to spiral around the trunk of a large tree and hit the ground, brushing off his clothes before looking up to see...

Yang, soaring right over the treetops, is using her gauntlets and their fiery force to push her through the air further and further north, spinning and laughing with each blast, even when she crashes through the leaves of a tree and leaps off two trunks to tumble to the ground nailing the landing, "Woo-hoo! Yeah! Alley-oop! Nailed it!

*Thud*

*Crack*

Pyrrha, her weapon in sword form and armed with a shield, crashes through several trees and rolls on a branch, immediately shifting her blade into a rifle and looking through the scope of her rifle…

Jae on the other hand was using his aura to propel himself around the air using his feet and then use aura to fly around as he viewed where Pyrrha was he smirked at the scene, "Ah… there you are, my future friend. I hope we get to be very used to each other."

*Thud*

A large landing sound was heard as she saw motioned her eyes toward the person in question Jae waves his hand towards Pyrrha as he happily smiled at her, "Yo Pyrrha! Looks like we are partners right?"

Pyrrha jumps off from her position to the ground level as she smiles at Jae as well as admires his semblance, "Hello there Jae! I guess this means were partners I suppose but was that your semblance to fly?"

Jae merely nodded as the two began to go towards Jae's direction he motions Pyrrha to follow along as he points north in their direction, "From where I saw in the sky the temple should be there in that direction of the North of here. Better to get there early so let's get going right?"

With that, the two began to move ahead to their destination as other students fare better than their partners.

…

…

*Thud*

*Swoosh*

In the middle of the forest, Ruby lands in a crouch, then dart off with a single mantra in her mind with her thinking as well internally, now seeing herself partnered with various people and she shakes her head of daydreams in a worried tone, 'Oh, this is bad, this is really bad... What if I can't find her? What if someone finds her first? Well, there's always Jae. He's nice. He's funny! ...probably do well in a fight. Ooh! What about Blake?! So mysterious, so calm... Plus she likes books! Then again, I'm not sure I'd be able to hold a conversation with her... Ugh! Okay... Who else do I know in this school? There's Yang, Jae, Blake, aaaand...'

Just as Ruby was finding her partner time seems to slow down as Ruby skidded to a halt in front of Weiss as she is turning to face her. She stops just in time for their eyes to meet and a pregnant pause follows. This ends when Weiss turns on her heel and walks the other way.

Ruby following her slightly stops and kicks the ground dejectedly at her teammate, "Wait! Where are you going?! We're supposed to be teammates..."

Weiss is struggling through the forest, giving an occasional grunt or ow as she pushes plants out of her way. She brushes herself off and sighs in relief when she hears another voice ahead of her in the process.

"From where I saw in the sky the temple should be there in that direction of the North of here. Better to get there early so let's get going right?"

Weiss sees Jae and Pyrrha going ahead at the scene before Jae stops to see Weiss's eyes and then Ruby soon comes after as he lightly gives them the hint of their team-up, "Whoa Weiss I see that you managed to find a partner on time. Looks like Ruby your partner ain't that right Pyrrha?"

Pyrrha looks at the scene of the two as Ruby happily waves in Jae's direction with sympathy and joy in her voice of seeing a friend, "Oh! Jae, I thought I wouldn't get to see a familiar face in the Emerald Forest, and also… Pyrrha right? The name is Ruby Rose."

Pyrrha seeing the friendly approach agreed as she introduced herself to Pyrrha Weiss was twitching her eyes seeing the smug expression on Jae's face. However, before Weiss could say anything Jae sighs out loud as he gets the girl's attention with his words, "Sigh… figured it would be too much for some quiet. Damn Grimm and their stupid interruptions at coinvent times."

"Grr…"

As if on cue multiple pairs of red eyes stare at the group from the bushes and a deep growl is heard. They all turn around until they spot a large, jagged group of Beowolf emerging from a bush and approaching them.

The Beowolf roars caught the group's attention as Jae sighs in his head as he readies his aura beginning to flare up, 'Damn Grimm always messing with me when it's convenient. Time to use <Aura Amp> to see how much of a boost it gave me.'

*Swoosh*

Without missing a beat Jae turned to his Berserker as the rest of the girls took out their weapons he rushed towards them with a feral grin shown as he rushed towards the hoard of Grimm too fast for them to react thanks to Jaune former semblance <Aura Amp>.

A glowing green light emanated from his body with one quick swoop from his weapon Berserk attacked the Grimm Beowolves as they were all hit. The boost of the <Aura Amp> course through his body as aura gives the user a natural increase in body strength.

Jae aura used his aura to channel all of it to his Berserker weapon as it glowed brightly turning into a weapon purely of energy something, he yells in his head in anime fashion, 'Let's see how useful this technique is against groups <Demon Hunter>.'

*Crunch*

*Thud*

Like that, a whole group of Beowolves has been decapitated by Jae Berserker as the three girls' eyes widen at this along with a group of trees being destroyed in the process as the three looked surprised by this.

Returning his aura to his body he smugly grins at the girl's open gape mouths as he responds to them happily, "Well then ladies… how about we get going already. Those artifacts aren't waiting for come on."

The girls only nodded their heads as new thoughts of their friend/ally scene of attacking and destroying a whole field of Grimm and trees in his way with one attack.

---

A/N: Here's the next chapter and read well to see how the MC changes the plot of the story as well as how he interacts with the characters.