Servants in Remnant

A New Shield Forged

Brighthaven was a decent sized settlement near the Eastern edge of Vale. With the forests to the west, and very close to the cliffs to the east, it made for a more defensible spot against the Grimm. Currently the sun was setting, creating a beautiful contrast between the green of the trees and the red sky. A small ways from town was a clearing in the forest, with a person looking intently at their scroll.

Jaune looked through the manual on his scroll once more, trying to make note of each position. Then, he took up his sword and shield and started swinging, grunting after each move that had been drawn in the pamphlet.

"Ok" he thought as he repeated the moves, "I just need to get this down." grunt "After I get into Beacon, I'll just act confidant, keep my eyes out" grunt "And I'll pick up tips and tricks from the other students!"

He still felt guilty about having to forge an application in order to get into Beacon... But it wasn't his fault! He just knew that if he had been through training when he was younger that he would be an epic fighter!

His dad had always told him how important it was to protect his family, but when Jaune had expressed the urge to become a Huntsman a couple years prior, his dad was almost furious at the thought! He shivered. Now he just refused to train him. Not that he's going to let that stop him! He was going to prove to his dad that he could be a hero!

He had grown up hearing the stories of his great-great-grandfather, and about how he had been a hero in the Great War. His own father was an extremely strong hunter as well! And then when you add in the majority of his sisters? Surely some of that strength came through the family genes, and since he was family, that meant that he could be just as strong, if not stronger!

"Ok, sure", he told himself. "You haven't exactly done a great job in the past with fighting, what with the bullying... And that one time your dad did try to teach you to use a sword, and you accidently dropped it and it landed on your foot... But that's all in the past, and IF he had pushed for it, then he surely would be a top tier fighter!"

Thus reassured, he threw himself into his training.

A couple hours into his training and Jaune finally stopped and put down the sword and shield, doing a few quick stretches for his aching muscles.

That should be enough for now. he thought as he did various stretches. I'll just do that every day I can, and then when the time to enter Beacon comes I should be able to sl-aaAAHHHH!" His thoughts came jumbling to a halt and turned into a vocal scream. As he was stretching his back he had looked behind himself, and saw that he was being watched.

"Nononononononono! If he tells my dad, my sisters, or worse, my MOM, they'll be soooo pissed off at me! I've gotta distract him!" He thought frantically, and his mind latched onto the first brilliant excuse he could think of. "I just have to keep calm, not say anything stupid, and I'll be good. Be confident!"

"Oh, hi there! Umm, lovely weather we're having tonight, a-am I right?" He said with sheepish smile, mentally facepalming. "Aaand objective: don't say anything stupid is a failure... K, just don't look it, and it'll be alright" It was only when the stranger started laughing that he became focused enough to look at him.

He was surprisingly young. If Jaune had to guess, he would say maybe five years older than himself at most? He had silver hair, part of which covered one of his eyes, and he wore a full set of armor, which surprised Jaune quite a bit. I mean, he had been planning on buying some armor for himself, but this guy went WAY over the top with it. How much did it weigh?!

Oh, and he had a shield. Did he forget to mention that? A HUGE FREAKING SHIELD! The largest shield that he had seen up until that point was part of Crocea Mors, and this thing absolutely dwarfed it in size. It looked like a large stylized wooden cross with a circular piece in the center of it, and it was almost the same height of the armored guy. Jaune twitched as he thought about how heavy the thing might be put together with the armor.