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supersaiyanjedi14 · 1 year

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RWBY COMBAT ANALYSIS: RAVEN BRANWEN

“I know more than you realize. Not just about you, and not just what I've been told, but things I've seen with my own eyes. I know the Grimm have a leader, I know people who can come back from the dead, I know that magic is real, and I can prove it.”

PHYSICAL

Raven Branwen is a human female, born and raised by the Branwen bandit tribe of Mistral alongside her twin brother Qrow. Given that she had almost certainly already graduated from Beacon Academy by the time she gave birth to her daughter Yang Xiao Long, 19 years old as of Volume 8, she is likely in her early to mid-forties, still prime years for a human Huntress. Due to their age and natural talent for combat, Raven and Qrow were sent to Beacon under the guise of becoming Huntsmen, though with the true goal of learning to fight and counter them. However, the twins’ mission would go awry when the eventual Team STRQ caught the eye of Headmaster Ozpin, recruiting the promising pupils into his secret campaign against Salem. Despite serving together for a number of years as Ozpin’s field agents, the old wizard’s influence caused the twins’ paths to diverge sharply. Where his conscience and the positive influence of his peers led Qrow to abandon the original plan and commit to Ozpin’s cause, Raven saw only apocalypse, viewing Salem as an unstoppable menace that was not worth getting killed over. As such, she abandoned her team and her newborn daughter to return to the Branwens, eventually assuming leadership of the tribe. She would spend the next eighteen years as a raider and bandit until being sought out approximately a year after the Fall of Beacon, forcibly dragging her back into the shadow war.

A conventional specimen, Raven stood at 6 feet tall and was noted for her striking resemblance to her daughter Yang, the only visible differences being her bushy black hair, red eyes, and pale skin. A veteran physical combatant, Raven maintained a toned, athletic build, demonstrating exceptional athletic ability developed by the rigors of bandit life and advanced training. Speed and strength were the stars of her physical component in battle, fighting as a blindingly fast bruiser. She has cleaved through massive boulders with her sword as though they were made of butter, maintained bladelocks with both Qrow and Cinder Fall, sent opponents flying with roundhouse kicks, and was even able to shatter Cinder’s magically conjured weapons with the force of her blows, albeit at the cost of her own blade. While Raven was by no means overpowering her adversaries in these encounters, being able to hold her ground against such notable heavy hitters is nothing to scoff at. Her agility was expressed through her use of flying acrobatics and running charges, covering ground with dynamic lunges and evading attacks with leaps and spins, comfortably keeping pace with Cinder at Haven both in midair and when their feet touched the ground. She had no difficulty moving through uneven terrain and reacting to high velocity projectiles, leapfrogging between the collapsing rubble during her fight with Cinder and dodging a shot from her brother Qrow’s shotgun while in bird form. Despite favoring simple hack and slash bladework, Raven’s manual dexterity was still polished, executing her attacks with focus and precision and quickly switching up her Dust blades even in the midst of a pitched melee. When combating Cinder, Raven was able to fence evenly despite the Fall Maiden’s multitude of weapons and quickly swapped out between various blades on the fly, even wielding a massive ice katana with a surprising degree of finesse.

In terms of endurance and durability, Raven’s background as a bandit in Mistral let her prepared for hard labor under harsh conditions, and she was typically composed when locked in battle. During her confrontation with Cinder Fall, Raven was slammed against the gate to the Relic Vault by Fall’s Shadow Hand, which slowly began to drain her Aura, yet she focused through the pain and attacked Cinder with an environmental hazard. Despite losing a sizable chunk of Aura, her performance remained consistent, continuing the fight without any noticeable toll on her stamina. The final stage of the battle saw both combatants fall from the ceiling of the chamber and be buried under hundreds of tons of rock, finally breaking their Auras after the extended slugging match. Although both were experiencing significant fatigue, Raven was far better off, regaining her feet and quickly rushing over to blindside Cinder after she was distracted by Vernal. However, despite her extensive combat experience, Raven was ultimately cowardly and fickle, her primary objective consistently being her immediate personal safety, especially from Salem. Though disciplined enough to maintain her composure in combat, her willingness to commit to risks was limited, abandoning allies and family alike if things turned south while claiming pragmatism. Appropriately, her most significant defeat was off the battlefield, when Yang confronted her mother following her battle with Salem. Called out for her fear, Raven was shamed into handing over the Relic of Knowledge rather than stand up to Salem, and fled the encounter with her tailfeathers between her legs.

As a guerrilla raider, Raven could regularly expect to be dropped into operations that required speed and ferocity to achieve, something her fighting style was clearly built for. Her choice of wardrobe reflected this, maintaining a balance between environmental protection and practical mobility. When she led the false flag operation at Haven, she wore a black and red tunic and skirt, covering her arms with plated gauntlets and her legs with thigh-high boots and leggings, accessorizing further with a collection of beaded necklaces and her distinctive Grimm mask. Though the mask appeared to be quite durable, given Raven’s own description of it as a “helmet”, Raven rarely wore it in battle, its primary purpose instead to conceal her identity as the Spring Maiden.

RANKING: Tier 2, Peak Human Fitness

Despite having no extreme anatomical traits or enhancements, Raven Branwen is still a devastatingly powerful physical threat, developed and honed through years of hard combat and dedicated training. Her speed, strength, and fortitude are all comfortably withing the Huntsman physical apex, giving her parity with the great masters of the era by leveraging her athleticism for maximum effect. While Raven’s cowardice is a major detriment to her ability to commit to the long game, it does ultimately make her a capable survivalist, at least on paper, and even then her body has never left her in trouble. A heavyweight combatant, she balances physical power with martial discipline, mastering her strength and committing herself to every single strike.

MARTIAL

As a Beacon student and later Branwen Tribe leader, Raven Branwen carried the Omen as her primary weapon. Functionally a hybridization of Weiss Schnee’s Myrtenaster and Adam Taurus’s Wilt and Blush, the primary feature of the weapon was its scabbard, which housed seven rotating cylinders of Dust, compressing the substance into single-edged sword blades. Appearing to be about three to four feet long, these blades attached to a black metallic hilt that featured a simple crossguard and a built-in trigger. Raven typically carried fire, ice, electric, water, wind, plant and gravity Dust within the chambers, and the scabbard also featured a triggering mechanism that could launch the sword as a projectile. Additionally, the hilt featured a quick release mechanism to detach a blade, allowing Raven to quickly switch blades in the middle of combat. Overall, a powerful weapon for a powerful warrior.

As they grew up outside the parameters of the four kingdoms, Raven and Qrow were forced to learn quickly to survive the rigors of bandit life. Displaying a promising talent for combat, the tribe’s leaders opted to send the twins to Beacon Academy under the guise of students, with the goal of learning how to fight and kill Huntsmen, the most consistent danger to their raids and operations. By Raven’s own account, the entrance exam was child’s play, and the twins found themselves partnered up with Summer Rose and Taiyang Xiao Long to form Team STRQ. As the team was slowly integrated into Ozpin’s shadow war with Salem, Raven found herself at the forefront of various battles against the witch’s forces. After going rouge and returning to the tribe, Raven eventually rose to leadership and led numerous raids across Mistrali settlements, contending with Grimm and rank-and-file Huntsmen alike. Experienced and honed, Raven stood as one of the most talented martial combatants of her day, expressly noted for her strength, ambition, and dedication to whatever cause she believed in (with all of the positive and negative baggage that entails). By Leonardo Lionheart’s assessment, she and her brother were evenly matched, and though this specific comment was made in ignorance of Raven’s status as the Spring Maiden, her skill was undeniable. As far as technique was concerned, Raven was a very aggressive and domineering swordswoman, leveraging her strength and speed for maximum effect to overwhelm her opponents. Her bladework consisted of bold sweeps, hacking cleaves, static blocks, and flourishing slashes, driving her strikes with full-bodied lunges and running charges. Despite this heavy offensive style, Raven maintained focus and control, efficiently chaining her strikes together to build maximum power while expending minimal energy. She alternated between grounded postures and flying gymnastics depending on the situation, using the former to leverage her dexterity and precision and the latter to evade attacks and unleash a more elaborate attack sequence. While she has been observed incorporating strong kicks when necessary and subdued Cinder by palm-striking her in the face, Raven did not appear to be a particularly dedicated hand-to-hand fighter, seen in her immediate response to take up a new Dust blade rather than leverage her hands. However, despite lacking a strong unarmed component, Raven made up for it with her heavy integration of her special talents, perfectly willing to lay into her opponents with both physical and ethereal combat.

In all things, Raven was a contradiction, something most clearly seen in her capabilities as a tactician and strategist. Portraying herself as a survivalist, all her actions had the ulterior motive of making sure she came out ahead, the rest of the world be damned. When dealing with individuals, Raven was a patronizing manipulator, using grandiose taunts and verbal barbs to brutally introduce the subject to her Darwinist worldview and goad them into impulsive reactions. A capable psychological warrior, Raven was skilled at planting doubt and confusion to manipulate her targets, undermining their resolve. In larger scale plans, she was more deceptive and subtle, best seen in her approach to the Spring Maiden. Judging the previous candidate to be too weak for the dangers of the world, Raven murdered her for the power before adopting the use of her decoy Vernal. A combination of a figurehead and meat shield, Vernal made a point of being very public in contrast to Raven’s more secluded nature, drawing attention and giving the impression that the displays of power were coming from her rather than Raven, concealing her identity and leaving her free to surprise others with her status. However, this degree of cunning was rarely seen on the battlefield, likely due to Raven‘s choice of targets providing little need for dedicated strategic thinking. Though she spent nearly two decades as a frontline raider for the tribe, much of her experience in this time was spent simply terrorizing the defenseless, known to have perpetrated the massacre at Shion before leaving the village open to a Grimm invasion. While the tribe did engage Huntsmen on occasion, few of them could even hold a candle to Raven, afflicting her with the arrogance of the undefeated. Raven’s manipulations were more callous than calculating, and when her target could not be goaded, she had no option but to obstinately argue. Despite putting on a show for her, Yang was unimpressed by her mother’s perfidious attempt to recruit her to her line of thinking, brushing off her comments about her father and uncle and simply insisting to be taken to Qrow via her Semblance. While Raven did get a rise out of her daughter when they talked privately, even surprising her with the reveal of her avian transformation, she failed to get anything more than an immediate reaction out of her. Furthermore, Raven’s capricious nature made her dangerously short-sighted, not realizing the foolishness of keeping the Relic on her person until Yang literally shouted it into her face.

As far as her tactics in live combat were concerned, Taiyang Xiao Long described his ex-wife as believing that “the easiest way to tackle an obstacle is through it. That strength is all that matters in a fight”, an assessment that was largely true. Whenever she was dropped into a fight cold, Raven’s first response was to confront the opponent directly and overwhelm them with heavy offense, wielding her refined technique as a blunt instrument. Despite this, Raven was by no means crude, leveraging her mobility to traverse the battlefield and keep up the pressure. Against Neopolitan, Raven caught the henchwoman by surprise with a sudden offensive opening, prompting Neo to cut and run rather than risk a slugging match. She was also skilled at blindsiding and distracting her adversaries both by taking opportunistic backstabs and using the environment as an additional attack vector, though these were often limited to needs-of-the-moment opportunities rather than active tactical considerations. When the Battle of Haven began, Raven crossed blades with her brother and, befitting Lionheart’s description, stood evenly matched with him, putting him on the back foot and landing an abdominal kick. However, the fight was left inconclusive when Cinder Fall impaled Weiss Schnee to create an opening to reach the Relic Vault. Raven’s larger strategy was to backstab Cinder just before Vernal pretended to open the vault, concealing her identity and making off with the Relic as a contingency bargaining chip. However, Cinder sussed out Raven’s plan and froze her in ice, leaving her helpless to save her subordinate as she was brutally gored by the Fall Maiden. Fortunately, Cinder’s sadism and surprise gave Raven the opportunity to break free and declare herself as the true Spring Maiden, openly challenging Fall. The resulting confrontation was a slugging match, both combatants laying into each other with enough force and intensity to regularly break each other’s weapons. Raven’s experience afforded her a critical edge, for as Cinder become more and more unhinged and volatile, Raven persevered under fire, taking advantage of the collapsing rubble to subvert Cinder. After their Auras broke after a protracted engagement, Raven managed to distract Cinder with taunts in order to give the mortally wounded Vernal an opportunity to attack, allowing Raven to unleash her power score a narrow victory. However, immediately after this, Raven was confronted by her daughter, but instead of drawing her weapon, Yang tore her down through words, pointing out the glaring oversight of taking Salem’s prized relic when she hoped to remain under the radar. Unable to defend her cowardice, Raven submitted and fled, leaving Yang to claim the relic for herself.

RANKING: Tier 3, Standard Mastery

Raven Branwen’s powerful weapon and technique identify her as one of the greats of her era, but her advanced skill is counterbalanced by her narrow strategic focus. Despite Lionheart’s assessment of the Branwen twins being evenly matched, I see this as only in terms of their developed skill as raw martial artists. Once tactics and conduct are added to the mix, Raven comes up short in her blunt, straightforward application of her skills. Where Qrow can adapt and subvert the enemy, Raven can only overwhelm, doubling down and escalating the conflict. Even her more creative attacks and blindsides, such as when she froze Cinder’s feet, were merely taking advantage of circumstantial factors, and her use of the terrain mostly amounted to finding the best angle to overpower the opponent directly. That being said, these weaknesses would only come up against an opponent at or around her own level and should not undercut the threat she poses. Raven is still a highly skilled, flexible, and dangerous swordswoman, and she can be quite cunning if she puts her mind to it.

SPECIAL

Raven Branwen’s Semblance was the Kindred Link, a power that allowed her to create portals to individuals she had formed a strong bond to, an irony that did not escape her. When activated, the portals took the appearance of a swirling dark red void, which created an instantaneous passage to the subject. The sustainability of these passages has never been properly established, but they could be maintained for a significant period of time, with Raven maintaining a conversation with Yang and Weiss while the portal was active, and were large enough for multiple individuals to cross over at once, seen when Cinder brought her entire attack force through at the Cattle of Haven. As of Volume 8, Raven has four confirmed individuals she can travel to: her brother Qrow, her ex-husband Taiyang, her daughter Yang, and her late subordinate Vernal. As this power was generally restricted to both specific individuals and for travel purposes only, Raven could not effectively leverage it in combat, forcing her to overwhelmingly rely on martial arts when actually fighting. That said, she has capitalized on the Link for situational opportunities, such as when she deftly ambushed Neopolitan at Mountain Glenn, narrowly saving Yang, and opened a portal that Cinder Fall was able to use to sucker-punch Ruby Rose with a fireball, though these examples were extremely circumstantial.

While her Semblance failed to provide leverageable advantages in combat, the magical powers of the Spring Maiden provided her with more than enough bang for the buck. Independent of Aura and thus constantly available, the maiden powers provided their bearers with tremendous control over elemental forces, summoning everything from weather storms to arcane energies capable of massive destruction. In the case of Spring, the powers initially belonged to a young renegade who abandoned her training and found her way into the Branwen camp. Despite the bond they forged being strong enough for Raven to be in her last thoughts, thereby transferring the power over to her, Raven did not hesitate to murder her charge, taking the power as a safety net despite the target it placed on her back. With nearly a decade as a Maiden, Raven trained and became quite proficient with the various forces of elemental magic at her disposal, her displays being both visually spectacular and overwhelmingly powerful. Qrow correctly deduced that the Maiden powers were a critical factor in the devastation of Shion, though he remained ignorant of his sister’s true identity. Among the powers at her disposal, Raven appeared to favor the use of ice, summoning freezing crystal to form extra weapons and influencing her environment for tactical support. During her battle with Cinder Fall, she made avid use of conjured ice slides and platforms to propel herself off of and along and summoning a massive ice sword to counter Cinder’s rock blade. When Cinder pinned her to the wall and began siphoning her Aura, Raven used her ice powers to freeze Cinder to the ground in the way of collapsing boulders, forcing her to release Raven to evade. Like Fall, Raven could manipulate wind currents to facilitate flight, traversing the battlefield with unlimited mobility and improving her acrobatic propulsions. Easily Raven’s most insidious use of her abilities came at the end of her duel with Cinder, flying over to a distracted Fall before slamming her in the face with a burst of power that sent her over the ledge before freezing her in ice, leaving her for dead.

Outside of the Maiden magic, Raven also possessed the ability to transform into a bird, gifted to her by Ozpin, as well as the wide variety of Dust incorporated into her weapon. Common ravens are anywhere from 21" to 26" long with a 45–51" wingspan and a weight of 1.5 to 4.4 lbs., with average flight speeds around 28 mph. While considerably larger and slower than her brother’s crow form, the basic advantages were much the same; a small, stealthy ability that made her a superb spy and infiltrator. In her later years, Raven used this form for stealth purposes, spying around Beacon prior to the Fall and infiltrating Haven Academy in the leadup to the battle. However, Where Qrow used his transformation to facilitate ambush tactics, Raven opted to use her transformation as a psychological weapon, showing it to Yang and Weiss as part of her attempts to undermine their trust in Ozpin. Her Dust was easily her most readily used special trait, infusing it into her sword blades to add elemental effects to her swordplay. Though she typically favored fire, she made use of the other six colors readily during her battles with Cinder, pulling out a new trick at every turn. However, as potent as Raven’s abilities were, they had their share of limitations. Raven obviously cannot fight as a bird, and her application of her Dust, was very singular and direct, the properties of her dust blades typically reduced to just another coat of paint for her consistent fighting method.

RANKING: Tier 1, Dominating Combat

Raven is arguably the most diverse and varied special combatant in the setting right now, with only Ozpin, Salem, and maybe Winter Maiden Winter Schnee having any chance of surpassing her in terms of raw power and variety. Despite her Semblance having next to no combative applications, she has utilized it as a strategic tool to great effect in the past. Her status as the Spring Maiden grants her god-like power that places her well above any conventional Huntsman, and her experience with the power provides her with a layer of tactical viability that her confirmed contemporaries Cinder and Penny noticeably lack. With her transformation and Dust, Raven rounds out these skills with unparalleled skill in infiltration and elemental fury fully integrated into her fighting style. together, Raven’s special abilities provide her with the tools to dominate just about any adversary and control the fight. However, much like her martial arts, Raven’s use of her special abilities rarely shows actively considered tactical application, instead leaning on their unique properties and raw power to crush anything in their path. While quite talented and skillful, Raven’s applications are focused on overpowering the target directly rather than subverting them, severely limiting her effectiveness if unable to do so. Though given how powerful she is, that is an extremely high bar to reach.

OVERALL RANKING: TIER 1, SUPER HUNTRESS

Raven Branwen’s final placement is determined by the magnitude of her Special Abilities, comfortably qualifying her as a Super Huntress. As the Spring Maiden, Raven boasts a tremendous amount of raw elemental power, power she can express both through direct active magic and integrated into physical combat. Unlike Cinder Fall, Raven’s years of training and study with the powers has allowed her to develop and make far better use of them that her Fall counterpart, allowing her to retain proper Tier 1 effectiveness. However, Raven’s tactical outlook leaves something to be desired. On the one hand, Raven is an uncompromising aggressor who makes full and ruthless use of her body, her weapon, and her power to overcome virtually any obstacle, but her applications are still very straightforward and blunt, reducing her wide palette of unique abilities to a collection of clubs in her hands. Instead of undermining and subverting her adversaries with her varied powers and abilities, Raven simply comes crashing into the opponent with brute force and repeats as many times as need be, conducting herself like a sledgehammer. While we do see creative applications of her abilities from time to time, they are almost always the result of aggression, circumstance, or, far more prominently, desperation. It is worth noting that Raven was only barely able to overcome Cinder in their slugging match, where Cinder’s own overcommitment was her own worst enemy. Raven is unable to overpower her opponent directly, there is very little she can do.

Despite standing as one of the greatest personal threats in the RWBY setting, Raven Branwen is shackled by a slew of limitations that boil down to her own hypocrisy and fear. Rather than thinking things through and having a proper game plan, Raven simply horded knowledge and power to make sure she would never be threatened. Clearly shown in her behavior in Volume 5 was a first response to simply flaunt her strength to deter threats, and she can’t see a way around her obstacles that would require proper risk on her part. If Raven never became the Spring Maiden, she would have been a basic, albeit proper, Tier 3 analogous to James Ironwood, her only recourse being the direct application of her own power. And behind all that power was a woman so fearful that she would gladly cut and run while leaving her own family to the wolves, and all the power in the world cannot properly substitute courage and loyalty. As Yang correctly pointed out, Raven may be powerful, but it did not make her strong.

*originally posted on RoosterTeeth Community page on 02-27-21*

*all images taken from RWBY Wiki*

RWBY Combat Analysis

#rwby #rwby combat analysis #raven branwen #rwby raven #team strq #beacon academy #branwen tribe #peak human fitness #standard mastery #dominating combat

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rocknroll7575 · 1 year

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Sunshine Pt.2

Chapter 1: Branwen

After this post, the links to the story will be posted (Because the wors are mostly around 7 thousand!)

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In a small Village in south Anima, Jaune Arc was buying supplies from a local shop after a long trip on a boat from Vale's docks to Anima's only open docks, which happened to be down south.

"That's one tent, a sleeping bag, a 12 pack of MREs, and a small survival kit," said the clerk, "All that will be 110 Lien,"

Jaune looked in his wallet and found the cash he needed and handed it to the clerk, the clerk took it and saw that there was some changed and handed it to Jaune and he took it. Jaune thanked the clerk and took what he bought outside and began packing it all up.

Thankfully his backpack wasn't full and he could fit the MREs and the survival kit inside. As for the tent and the sleeping bag, he was able to strap the sleeping bag to the front of the backpack and hook the tent to the bottom. With all that done, he got everything he had and prepared to make his way to Shion.

Jaune planned to get some supplies here in the village, make his way to Shion and pick up some more supplies, and travel along the road and get some experience, both in survival as well as fighting Grimm, his first major destination was Mistral, and then eventually making his way to Argus to visit his sister and her family for a bit. Once the visit was over he'd travel to Mantle and see about taking a trip to Atlas Academy, see if he could train there for a bit, and then after that, he'd make his way to Vacuo, a place he hadn't been but he had heard a lot about it and the people that live there.

He didn't know how long he would stay in each kingdom, but he would do his best to stay in each country, gain experience from his time there, and enjoy the culture there.

However, he wasn't going to leave the village just yet and managed to find a motel where he was going to rest for the night and then leave right in the morning.

Once Jaune made his way to his room and unlocked the door with a key he was given, turned on the light and he walked in, it was a one-bedroom room with a shower and a Tv, which wasn't bad. He smiled and entered the room and quickly set his backpack to the side and closed the door and locked it behind him, and then he unbuckled his belt that held Crocea Mors and set it on a small table, and he let out a heavy sigh and sat on the bed, and he wondered what the others at Beacon were doing.

"it's gotta be night by now, right?" Jaune asked himself, "I wonder if Ruby's staying up late and reading comics again, or if Ren is meditating, or maybe Nora's bugging him so much he can't focus," Jaune began with a smile, "I... I wonder if Pyrrha's on the roof?" He said

That thought made him feel terrible. Pyrrha had offered to train him and he promised he would do whatever it took to earn his spot at Beacon, but now... now in a way he failed. He got kicked out. He was no doubt branded a cheater and faker. He was a terrible person in the eyes of his friends now. He was-

"No, no, no, stop thinking like that," Jaune said, shaking his head and cutting off his thoughts, "I should just get some rest,"

With a heavy sigh, Jaune took off his armor and then his shoes and went to turn off the light and lay back down, looked up at the ceiling, and relaxed, and after a while, he drifted off to sleep.

XXX

The next day, Jaune set forth on his way to Shion, which he estimated would take him five to six days, and once he was there he would need some money to take a Bullhead to Mistral, which means that he was going to have to also stay in Shion for a few days or maybe more to earn some Lien and be able to afford a ticket. He hoped that Shion had some work for him to do, even if wasn't Huntsmen-related work, Lien was Lien after all.

As Jaune continued to walk along the road, which already felt like hours even though he was sure it was more like 20-30 minutes. However, as he continued to travel along the road, he couldn't help but feel he was being watched, he had made it a good distance away from the Village by now, and as far as he could see every time he turned around, there was no one tailing him, but that didn't stop him from feeling watched.

'Maybe I'm just being a little paranoid' Jaune thought 'It's been a while since I've been alone, the last time I was by myself and traveling is when I ran from home,' Jaune thought with a small smile.

Thinking about his time before going to Beacon he smiled, He remembered how he first came to Vale City and how he thought it was so different then Argus, he remembered the Motel he stayed at for a bit as well as his first job at the book store in Vale.

As he remembered the happy memories of his time before and during Beacon, Jaune continued walking for hours. Eventually, he came across a fork in the road, but thankfully, there was a road sign that pointed in the direction of certain towns, Jaune looked to see two signs. One that was pointing to the road on the left said "Kaion" and the other one that was pointing to the right said "Shion", which made Jaune smile, knowing he was going on the right path, however before he could take the path on the right, a gunshot rang out and acting quickly, he ducked.

"Son of a Bitch!" came a strange voice from behind Jaune

Jaune quickly got up and looked behind him only to see two figures emerging out of the woods, one guy who appeared to be in his early 20s and a teenage girl that seemed to be around his age.

The teen girl had tan-colored skin, short brown hair in a pixie cut, and icy blue eyes, and Jaune noticed that she had a tattoo of a bird rising from flowers on her left arm. She wore a light brown vest with dark brown panels on the top and a dark brown buckled strap on the back, over a torn white shirt that was partially unbuttoned revealing what appeared to be a black bra, alongside a collar that appears to be slightly turned up behind her neck. She wore maroon-colored jeans with the right side rolled up to her thigh revealing the dark pink lining alongside a brown belt with a pouch attached to the right side. She also wore dark brown calf guards with one having a garter-styled strap that went under her rolled-up pant leg, and she wore a pair of beige and dark brown lace-up boots with folded over sides, showing over the white lining accompanied by a pair of maroon socks that partially covered her calf guards. On her hands, she wore a pair of dark brown fingerless gloves, and lastly, she wore a narrow dark brown choker strap around her neck. He also noticed she had two Pistols holstered to her sides

Jaune then turned to look at the man, who had a gun in his hand and who Jaune figured was the one who shot at him, he was a skinny man with long dirty blond hair and gray eyes, and he has stubble around his mouth. He wore a dark blue and gray jacket with torn sleeves over a long-sleeved shirt, a red bandana around his neck, and a shoulder pad on his right shoulder, and wore a pair of brown pants with brown boots, and he also wore a pair of brown leather fingerless gloves.

The teen girl looked over at the man with a smug smirk, "Nice shot Shay," she said

The man, now known as Shay, glared at the teen girl, "Shut it Vernal! He just got lucky!" cried Shay

The teen girl, now known as Vernal, kept smirking and just ignored Shay and turned to him. "What's your name?" She asked

Jaune swallowed his nerves and looked at Vernal, "Jaune Arc," Jaune told her, "And you?" He asked

"I'm Vernal Branwen," Vernal told him, "The shitty shot over there is Shay D. Mann," she told Jaune with a gesture of her thumb

'That girl is a Branwen!?' Jaune thought to himself, he knew that name, anyone who visited or lived on Anima knew the name Branwen, it was the name of a notorious bandit tribe. "So you guys are Bandits," Jaune told them,

Shay smiled, "Yeah," Shay began, "So you can guess what we want," Shay said

Jaune looked at Shay and he felt a familiar feeling radiating off of the man, it wasn't the feeling of Jaune somehow knowing the man, it was more like... he reminded him of someone. The more Jaune thought about it, he finally pieced it together, Shay reminded him of Cardin, but there was a difference between the two. Both were cocky and no doubt thought highly of themselves in a sense, however, the difference was that Cardin had the power to back it up while Shay... well it was easy to tell that without that gun, he wouldn't act so tough.

He then looked over to Vernal and felt a different feeling from her, she also had a pair of pistols holstered to the side, but they looked much different than normal ones, letting him know that they might be Mecha-shift weapons and that Vernal might be trained.

"And If I don't hand over my things?" Jaune asked, in a serious yet nervous tone.

"Well then I got a question," Shay began, as he smirked and raised his gun at Jaune, "You feelin' lucky punk?" Shay said

Jaune thought about how he could escape the situation, however, he had a feeling he couldn't, if he tried to run, they would shoot and while his aura could protect him, they would ruin his gear, and he simply couldn't hand over his things as he was sure they'd still try to kill him.

Jaune sighed and he began to unhook his backpack from his shoulders.

"Heh!" Shay said, as he lowered his pistol and turned to Vernal, "Look's like this one's gonna be easy!" Shay declared.

However, Shay didn't know that this was part of Jaune's plan, as once Jaune set his backpack on the ground, he quickly pulled Crocea Mors out of its sheath and activated his shield, and ran at the male bandit.

Shay didn't even notice until he felt the weight of Jaune's force and his shield ramming into him and sending him back and landing on his back and knocking him out. Vernal was surprised by the sudden attack, but acted quickly and went for her pistols, however, Jaune knew this was going to happen and quickly turned around and still held his shield in front of him, just as Vernal aimed her pistols at Jaune and fired at the blonde knight.

As the Bullets hit Jaune's shield, he stood his ground before he charged at Vernal, and seeing him running at her, she quickly stopped firing and stepped out of the way, dodging his charge. once he was missed, Vernal didn't miss a beat, as she quickly aimed her gun at Jaune, and shot him in the shoulder, but while he staggered, his Aura protected him. Jaune shook off the shot and looked at Vernal and took a fighting stance as did Vernal, her pistols still pointed at him.

Vernal looked at him with a glare, 'He's got Aura, and has some training, could he be a huntsman-in-training? But what the hell is one doing out here?' Vernal asked

Jaune examined Vernal with a glare as he still held up his shield, 'She's quick on the draw, way more than Ren, not only that, her reactions are sharp, she's got training,' Jaune thought 'I better be careful, one slip up and she'll wear me out and break my aura,'

Both stood tall, wondering who was going to be the first to attack, both waiting to either act or react. Vernal then decided to be the first to act and quickly fire her weapons. Jaune quickly blocked the shots with his shield and backed up, Vernal kept firing until she was out, which quickly spelled bad news for her as she backed up and dropped the magazines from her pistols, and tried to quickly reload, but Jaune knew no more shots were being fired and quickly charged at her, ready to bash and send her to the ground.

Vernal saw him charging in once again and due to feeling rushed, she only managed to load one of her pistols and fired a single shot at him. The bullet hit Jaune right in his lower left side, and he felt the force of the shot and felt slight pain, but he ignored it and still charged in. Vernal growled and waited for him to close in, and once he did and pushed his shield forward, trying to bash her, but she side-stepped the attack and delivered a side kick to the back of his leg, causing him to fall to one knee and Vernal quickly aimed her gun right at his head.

Vernal smiled as she looked down at Jaune, "Got ya," She said, "You give up Arc?" Vernal asked

Jaune looked to his side to see the barrel of Vernal's gun, but he didn't seem to look scared, and taking a huge gamble and also thinking on his feet, he quickly raised his sword, and with the pommel of Crocea Mors, he struck the bottom of Vernal's wrist, causing her to wince and drop her gun, she backed up only to be kicked out from under her feet and she fell backward and onto her ass. Vernal growled and looked up only to see the point of Jaune's blade in front of her and sort of smirked.

Vernal growled and glared at him.

"Look, I don't wanna hurt you," Jaune said, "I just wanna make my way to Shion in peace, so if you're willing, we can just go our separate-"

However, Jaune didn't get to finish his sentence as a figure burst from the trees and delivered an extremely powerful kick to Jaune's stomach, and the young knight was sent flying back and tumbling across the ground like a small rock.

Seeing who it was Vernal was surprised but also embarrassed, as it was her leader who had just saved her. The infamous Raven Branwen, wearing her signature Grimm mask stood in front of her and looked at the young blonde teen who was slowly getting up, before turning around and looking down at Vernal.

"Are you alright, Vernal?" Raven asked, her tone neutral, no ounce of concern was to be found in her voice.

Vernal looked down in shame, "I-I'm fine..." Vernal said

"Then stand up," Raven said

Vernal was slightly angry and ashamed of herself, knowing she had seemingly disappointed her leader and the person she looked up to the most, she stood up and looked at Raven, who was looking back at her. Vernal was a little confused as to why Raven was here, but ignored it and looked over Raven's shoulder and saw the young man stand up and look in their direction.

When Jaune stood up, he groaned in slight pain from the kick he received. He looked back over to Vernal, he saw the new figure that was responsible for kicking him in the gut.

She was a woman who was a bit taller than Vernal. Jaune couldn't see her face or eyes due to the Grimm mask, but she had long black hair that was just as long as Yang's hair. She wore a v-neck black and red wrap style top with a black pleated skirt that has black shorts underneath. A series of beaded necklaces were around her neck, a red obi sash around her waist alongside a red tasset wrapped around her waist that carried her weapon's sheath, and attached to it was a long black object that was either fur or feathers, with a red and white bandana material like hanging from behind her. On her forearms, were a pair of bear red armored gauntlets that protrude outwards and black fingerless gloves, and she wore a pair of black mid-thigh high boots, that had armor plating with red splatter patterns and black heels.

Jaune looked at the woman only for the woman to look back at him, and he felt an overwhelming sense of danger, and in an instant, Jaune saw her appear right in front of her and stab him in the neck!

Jaune's eyes widened, but when he looked in front of him and to his surprise and utter shock... The woman wasn't there. There was no blade in his neck, and to make sure, Jaune touched his neck and felt nothing.

No wound.

No blood.

No blade had pierced his throat.

'W-What was that...?' Jaune asked as a few beards of nervous sweat fell down his forehead, 'I-I could've sworn she had stabbed me...' Jaune thought, gulping in fear.

"Boy," The woman called out to him, "What is your name?" she asked

The woman's voice held authority and power, and yet... every nerve and every bone in Jaune's body told him that this woman was immensely dangerous. Jaune gulped once again and looked at the woman. "Jaune Arc," Jaune told her

"An Arc... how curious," Raven muttered to herself, "Your father... is he Nicholas Arc?"

Jaune was shocked to know that this woman knew his father, "He is..." Jaune said with a questioning look, "How do you know that?" Jaune asked her

Raven however didn't respond to the boy's question but stayed quiet for a little while, confusing both Jaune and Vernal. Raven's sheath spun for a little before it stopped, and once it did, the Bandit leader then unsheathed her red sword, known as Omen, and then pointed it at Jaune. When the blade was pointed at the young blond teen, he felt the urge to run away from the fight that was no doubt about to take place, however, he tried to steel his nerves as best as he could, he was not gonna run and be stabbed in the back.

"Will you surrender and be robbed? Or will you fight and die young Arc?" Raven asked

Jaune gulped thrice, and took a fighting stance, thus, giving Raven her answer.

"Very good," Raven said, a hint of amusement in her voice

Without even missing a beat, Raven appeared right in front of Jaune, shocking the young knight. Raven pulled back her blade, intending on stabbing him, and seeing this, Jaune had a flashback to earlier when he thought Raven had stabbed him through the throat, so he quickly raised his shield to block the attack, and Raven had struck his shield, and the force was so great that the young Arc staggered back, which is all Raven needed and quickly swung her sword in an upward horizontal angle, slashing jaunce across the chest, but still only hitting his Aura. However, the result of such an attack put Jaune on his back.

Once again, Raven didn't even miss a beat as she turned Omen around and tried to stab Jaune while he was down, however, Jaune acted quickly and used his blade to redirect the hit, but to his surprise, her blade became engulfed in flame, and instead of stabbing him in the gut, the blade managed to bypass his aura and was able to stab his leg!

Feeling the pain, Jaune's eyes widened with shock, as he cried in pain. The pain was intense, more intense than any other wound he had before, as there was a burning sensation to the pain. However, Jaune pushed Aura through it to relieve as much pain as he could and tried to slash at Raven, but she jumped back and sheathed her blade, her sheath rotating once again before stopping and Raven's blade was no longer red, but blue.

Jaune stood back up as best as he could, but excruciating pain shot through his leg the moment he put weight on it. He took a few deep breaths to ease the pain and calm himself down, he looked over to Raven, examining her weapon and trying to figure out how it was able to bypass his Aura so easily.

'Her red blade lit on fire and once it stabbed my leg, it burned up, just like a fire dust crystal... meaning all of her blades are made of dust, and now her new blade is Yellow, meaning she might be using lightning dust,' Jaune thought to himself, 'But how was she able to bypass my aura? Weiss uses dust but I've never seen it bypass Aura, hell, even dust ammunition doesn't bypass aura, it just hits and we can still feel the force of it, which lets us feel the pain, but not get hit by it... so how the hell can this woman bypass my Aura? Could it be her semblance?' Jaune thought, trying to find an answer as to how Raven was able to stab him.

Raven knew that Jaune was trying to figure out how she was able to stab him, as his father had done the same when they had met once after her Beacon years.

'If he's anything like his father, he might not be able to figure it out at first, but he'll wise up sooner or later,' Raven thought, 'However... he doesn't have any of the same skill as his father did, he's good, but he's still got a long way to go,'

"I forgot to ask you something," Jaune began, "You know my name, but I have no idea who you are," Jaune said

Jaune hoped that a small conversation would buy him some time to figure out her weapon and figure out a way to counter it.

"I am Raven Branwen," Raven told Jaune, "I am the leader of the Branwen tribe,"

Hearing this, Jaune's eye's widened, realizing what he had just gotten himself into. Fear began to spread through his body, everyone in Anima knew Raven Branwen, she was a legend, known for her fights with other Huntsmen, fights that she had won over and over again.

Raven saw his reaction and could see the slight shaking of his blade, letting her know that fear was beginning to set in, and yet... he was smiling, a nervous one, but still a smile. Something Raven hadn't seen for a long time.

"W-Well ain't this just my luck," Jaune said still with that nervous smile.

"Are you going to give up?" Raven asked

Jaune was thinking and a part of him, a large part of him, was heavily considering dropping Crocea Mors and giving up. He was out-skilled, if he continued with the fight, he was going to die, that was the fact that Jaune was sure of.

Yet... He wasn't going to.

A small part of him, told him that he shouldn't run, that if he gave up, he was going to die and he was never gonna fulfill his dream, he was never going to be back at Beacon... He was never going to see his friends again.

That small part told him that he was a Huntsmen in training, he was an Arc! He wasn't going to let himself just be captured or killed! If he was going to die today, he was going to go out with a fight.

Jaune took in a deep breath, and then his nervous smile, went to one full of life, and his sword stopped shaking. This sudden change of behavior surprised Raven as well as Vernal, who was watching everything from the side.

"No, I'm not going to give up," Jaune told her,

"Then are you willing to die today?" Raven asked

Jaune shook his head, "I won't be dying," He replied, "See... I-I have to do something and I have people I want to see again, so until I do, I won't die," Jaune said, still with a smile.

'Is he that idiotic?' Vernal thought to herself, 'Or is this his arrogance showing?'

Raven knew better, shat Jaune was showing wasn't idiocy or arrogance, or even pride for that matter. It was conviction. Conviction to fight and live and not back down from death. Something that Raven respected in others.

"Very well then," Raven said.

She then appeared above Jaune and swung down at him, but Jaune blocked it with Crocea Mors, however, this was part of Raven's plan and she activated the dust blade and sent a shock through Jaune's body. Jaune cried in pain, as the shock spread through his body and he could feel his whole body tense up and frozen in place, and not letting the opportunity pass, Raven quickly took out another dust blade, this one a cyan color, and she thrust Omen through Jaune's side!

The shock was over, but Jaune grunted in pain, his eyes widened with fear, he dropped his shield, and he slowly looked down to see Raven's blade embedded in his side. Jaune then coughed up blood as he realized just how bad of a situation he was in, one part of him was in shock and was crying that he was screwed, the other part in disbelief.

His vision began to go in and out.

Jaune looked at Raven, he felt a mix of anger and sadness but glared at the Bandit leader. Still not wanting to go out without a fight, Jaune put all the strength he had into his sword arm and swung as best as he could at Raven, shocking the rouge Huntress, and causing her to back up, not realizing she had let go of Omen.

'Incredible!' Vernal thought, stunned by Jaune's last effort

Jaune growled and groan in pain, he looked to see Omen still embedded into his side, and knowing what had to be done, he grabbed the blade and pulled it out, pushing past the pain as tears ran down his face.

"AHHH!" Jaune cried as he pulled Omen out of his side and threw it to the floor.

Blood leaked out of his side and Jaune tried his best to push his aura into the wound to heal it as best as he could, but his vision blurred again and he felt dazed. but he refused to fall and did his best to stand up. But he knew that this was the end, he was going to black out and Raven or Vernal were going to finish him off.

Tears fell from his eyes, but a glare graced his features. "I... I can't die!" Jaune cried his tone a mix of anger and sorrow. "I still have to... see them!" Jaune cried once more

He gripped Crocea Mors and he stepped forward, walking towards Raven, much to her and Verna's shock, and they watched as Jaune took two more steps before he fell to one knee, seething in pain. He tried to get back up but the pain intensified and he cried one more.

'Get up! Get up, you idiot!' Jaune yelled at himself, tears falling from his eyes and the blood fell from his mouth and out of his wound. 'For once in your life don't fail! Get back up and fight! You can't die now! You made a promise to go back! You gotta get back up for them! I'm gonna see them again!' Jaune thought

He still tried to get up, but the pain shot through him, and he pushed past it.

'For Ruby!' Jaune thought

He slowly got on two feet.

'For Nora!'

He began to rise and put weight on both feet, even as the pain tripled.

'For Ren!'

He finally stood up fully and stood in front of Raven with a glare as blood leaked from his mouth and his face was full of rage.

'FOR PYRRHA!' Jaune cried to himself

Raven was stunned by just how strong the young knight had to be, pushing past such pain to still try and fight. However, Jaune didn't stand tall for long as all of his energy was used to push through the pain, and his eyes rolled into the back of his head and fell backward.

Seeing the opportunity, Vernal grabbed her gun and quickly went over to Jaune and aimed it down at the unconscious teen. But her hand was grabbed and she was stunned, but she looked to her left only to see that it was Raven who stopping her from finishing off the blonde boy, confusing her right hand.

"Don't" Raven said in a stern voice.

"But Raven-!" Vernal cried

"But nothing," Raven replied, "The boy has shown fearlessness, bravery, and his strength as well as his conviction... I think he'll be of use to us," Raven said

Vernal was shocked by what her leader had said, "What!?" Vernal cried "You can't be serious! You want him to be a part of the tribe! He nearly killed me!"

"He wasn't going to, he's still too soft to kill, but he proved his strength against you, he won, which is something not many in the tribe can say," Raven said, "Perhaps this is a wake-up call for you to resume your training, I know you've been slacking off as of late,"

Vernal wanted to protest but she knew raven was right, and that made her more angry and ashamed. He balled her unarmed hand and reluctantly moved her pistol away from Jaune's direction and holstered it.

"Good," Raven said, "Now, while I stop the bleeding, wake up Shay, and tell the fool that he'll be carrying Jaune here back home as his punishment for being so easily defeated," Vernal said

Vernal didn't respond but did as she was told. Rage, embarrassment, and shame filled her entire body, as she looked back to see Raven patching up Jaune, the very same boy the nearly killed her.

Vernal glared and gritted her teeth, 'What makes him so special that Raven wants him alive!? What use could someone like him have for the tribe!?' Vernal thought angrily to herself, 'One of these days' Arc... You're gonna regret pissing me off!'

XXX

Oh man... this doesn't look good for Jaune, what could happen when Jaune wakes up and finds himself being held by a bunch of Bandits? It also seems that Jaune is on Vernal's bad side, this ain't gonna end well...

How was Jaune able to beat Vernal? Well, again, Vernal's well trained but as Raven stated, she was slacking, so she's a little rusty and doesn't have her signature pistols as she does in volume 5 as well doesn't have her Aura or Semblance unlocked yet. Speaking of Vernal's weapons, I might change them up a little, I mean I know RWBY makes up some interesting weapons, but Vernal's weapons baffle the hell out of me. This is weird because most of the time, I don't question the weapons of RWBY but there's just something with Vernal's that just seems odd to me.

Also, the updates/new chapters will be slow as this story is going to be deep and I want to explore its themes, characters, and relationships, closely.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed today's chapter!

#rwby fanfiction #rwby jaune #jaune arc #rwby #rwby raven #raven branwen #vernal rwby #rwby vernal #rwby oscar #oscar pine #jaune x vernal #rwby jaune x vernal #rwby shay d mann #rwby branwen tribe #rooster teeth #rwby oscar aunt

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