MISSION 5: Of Grimm and Swords

"So, there's talking swords in this episode?" Ruby asked excitedly. Abe nodded.

"Yep. You'll be seeing them shortly." He moved the remote cursor to episode 5, entitled "Of Grimm and Swords," and pushed play.

The episode started out with a Jaune entering a large, square room on the other side of the door he had opened last episode. A large water fountain sat in the center of them room, with a strange silvery gem hovering in the middle, right above a small obelisk in the center of the fountain. As Jaune approached the water fountain, an inscription on the obelisk caught his attention.

"The way to go forwards is backwards. The Silver Dust is the key," he read. Jaune jumped up onto the edge of the water fountain, then reached out and took the Silver Dust in hand. As soon as he pocketed the strange mineral, peals of hysteric laughter echoed throughout the room.

"That's so creepy!" shuttered Pyrrha.

"Yeah, and isn't that voice Jester's?" Blake pondered.

"Thanks for picking the lock for me, boyo," Jester's high-pitched voice rang down from above. "And welcome to hell!" The water in the fountain drained out, and a foul, black liquid began to pour in instead. "Please, accept my gift. Don't be humble, just take it. After all, we're buddies, aren't we? Hahahahahaha!" Jester's creepy laughter faded away, as five bizarre creatures emerged from the evaporating black liquid. They were human-sized, raptor like beasts with narrow, fanged mouths, barbed tails, and large, red wings.

"Teryx," Weiss seethed.

"I've never seen those types of Grimm before," Yang commented.

"Those creeps are common back in Solitas," Weiss informed her teammate. "They don't have feathers to throw like Nevermore do, but they make up for that with their speed and claws." She looked at the screen. "They're usually much bigger than this."

"I've fought Teryx before, and had no problem," Qrow input. "Glynda has too. They're not too hard to handle if you can use their aggressiveness against them."

Jaune stood his ground as the Teryx took to the sky, letting out saurian-like roars as they circled around the ceiling. Finally, one broke away from the others and zoomed towards Jaune, mouth open to show a set of razor-sharp teeth. Jaune simply ducked under the Grimm and kicked it away, causing it to slam against a wall. As it slowly slid to the ground, the other four Grimm dive-bombed him. Jaune grinned as he drew his Claymore. He sliced one Teryx in half, before blocking a pair of claw swipes and decapitating another. He spun away from a third, before grabbing it by the tail and slamming it into the ground. He then drove his sword through its back, killing it. The fourth Teryx came up from behind, but Jaune quickly whipped out Cerberus and quickly struck it several times in rapid succession, before using the tripartite nunchaku's Dust-infusion to Drive an icicle through the Grimm's brain. By that time, the Teryx that had instigated the attack had recovered, and took to the air. It dived towards a Jaune a second time, but the Huntsman simply whipped out Ebony and Ivory, and tore the Grimm to pieces with several bullets.

"Well, wasn't that nice of him," Jaune remarked, watching the bodies of the Grimm evaporate, before twirling his pistols and holstering them. "To be honest, I'm expecting something a little better than this."

"Dang," Coco gasped, adjusting her sunglasses to look at the screen without them. "He killed them all in less than twenty seconds."

"His skill with weaponry is amazing, for sure," Glynda agreed. "But weapons can only get you so far," she added, looking at Ruby, who laughed awkwardly.

"A good point," Ren admitted. Then he allowed a small smile to appear on his face. "But you should have seen Jaune shatter an Apathy's head just by punching it."

"He did WHAT?!" Velvet demanded, her eyes wide and mouth agape.

As the last of the Teryx dissolved into steam, Jaune looked around the room. A spiral staircase could be seen in a doorway left of where Jaune entered. Smirking, Jaune headed for the staircase.

"Onward and upward," Nora said, repeating Jaune's dialogue from the last episode.

"Wait a minute," Blake said out loud. "Didn't That obelisk say to go backwards to move forwards? So shouldn't he return from where he first came from?"

"An astute observation, Ms. Belladonna," Ozpin congratulated her. "Unfortunately, it appears Mr. Arc has not made the same conclusion."

"That idiot!" Weiss groaned. "He's going to get himself killed!" Yang smiled at her teammates irritation.

"Didn't think you cared for him so much, Ice Queen," she teased. Weiss glared at her.

"Shut your face, Xiao Long!"

Jaune whistled a merry tune as he approached the open staircase entrance. However, instead of entering, Jaune pulled out his Claymore and lightly tapped the first step. The entire staircase fell away, dropping down into a deep pit, where a collection of jagged spikes lined the bottom.

"Just as I thought," Jaune smiled. "The way forwards is backwards, so I guess I'm heading back to where I came from." Sheathing his Claymore, he turned around and headed for the door he had entered the room from.

"Oh, so he knew all along?" Ruby asked. "Then why did he head towards the spiral staircase first?"

"Just to check, most likely," Blake answered. "It's a common trope in adventure novels for the hero to test each path presented before them to see which one is correct. Notice how he pressed his sword on the staircase, instead of stepping on it himself."

Jaune made his way out of the room, back across the exterior walkway, and back into the bottom floor of the tower. Once inside, he felt the Silver Dust inside his pocket tingling. He pulled the mineral out of his pocket.

"You're supposed to to be some kind of key," he mused. "Well, let's find your lock." She searched around the wall near the doorway, until he spotted a small indent in one of the stones. Taking the sharp, pointed end of the Dust, he inserted it into the crevice and turned it. A series of small, flat stone slabs slid out of the wall, and made their way up towards the ceiling, where a small hatch opened.

Nora turned to Abe.

"Now onwards and upwards?" she asked. Abe nodded. "Yes!" she cheered, then turned to Ren. "I was right, Ren! Did you see?"

"Good job, Nora," he offered.

Jaune made his way up the makeshift staircase, before entering the new floor. The stone slab slid shut behind him, leaving him in a small room with several small plants and trees, leading to a red door with the insignia of two swords. Taking a deep breath, Jaune enjoyed a few moments of respite before heading into the door.

"I think I know what's coming up," Pyrrha smiled, throwing a knowing glance towards Abe, who winked at her.

Jaune found himself in a large circular chamber, which was dimly lit by a series of torches. On the opposite end of the room was a pair of large, metal doors, along with a pair of stone statues with bald heads, their arms in front of their necks. Each statue was a different color, red on the left, and blue on the right. Clutched in their hands was a downwards facing scimitar. As Jaune took a step forward, the blue statue's eyes opened.

"Whoa!" Coco shouted, temporarily caught off guard, "I wasn't expecting that!"

"Look, brother," it called to the red statue, who opened his eyes as well. "It's been ages, but we finally have company."

"I see that," the red statue confirmed.

"We must entertain our guest," the blue statue assessed.

"You're right, we have to be gracious hosts," the red statue agreed. Jaune tensed up, preparing himself for an attack.

"I don't like the looks of those two," Velvet whimpered.

"And listen to their dialogue," Blake pointed. "They're clearly about to attack Jaune."

There was a moment's pause.

"So... what should we do?" asked the blue statue.

"How should I know?! We have to come up with something!" the red statue shouted incredulously.

Nora burst out laughing, while the rest of the audience sweat dropped.

"Here we thought they were going to be threatening, and they're just a pair of dolts!" Weiss groaned.

"I suppose you would be awkward for conversation after being alone for a couple thousand years," Ozpin offered.

"These two are hilarious!" Nora snickered.

Jaune sighed and shuffled his feet, exasperated at the statues' antics.

"Brother, our guest is sighing," the blue statue noticed.

"Sigh? What is sign?" asked the red statue.

"Oh my gosh, these guys are so stupid!" Yang grumbled, covering her head with her hands. Ruby shrugged.

"They're still better than your puns," she commented, causing Yang to look up at her with surprise.

"Well, is sigh is when..." before the blue statue could explain, a Jaune interrupted.

"Look, I don't mean to be rude," Jaune cut in, "but I'm kind of in a rush. So if you don't mind, may I please enter this door? Somebody is expecting me." The statues began to rumble.

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"Our apologies, but our job is to guard this door," the blue statue informed Jaune.

"That's right! We can't let you pass!" the red statue added. The two moved from their standing positions, revealing their heads to be mounted on the pommels of their scimitars, instead of their shoulders.

"I believe we've found our talking swords," Qrow grinned.

Jaune smiled begrudgingly as he drew his Claymore.

"I guess I should've seen this coming," he sighed to himself. Then the headless statues were upon him. Jaune quickly leapt to the defensive, blocking every single slice and slash, attacking and parrying whenever he could. Finally, both of the statues attacked at the same time, forcing him to lift his Claymore to intercept them. Despite it being two-to-one, Jaune was able to keep the blades away from him, before forcing the statues back. Just then, the red statue twirled its scimitar, and the blade burst into flames.

"A Dust-infused sword? That's awesome!" Ruby squealed. "I wonder what the other one is!"

"Seeing as how the other statue's blue in color, I would guess ice?" Pyrrha assessed.

The red statue attacked Jaune as the blue statue held back. Jaune still managed to defend himself, but the fire flickering in front of his eyes at all time made it harder.

"You guys are certainly more challenging than that Centinel I fought earlier," he admitted.

"As we should be," the red statue replied. "Those blasted Grimm don't belong in this tower!" Jaune managed to kick him away, but the statue slammed its sword down on the ground, and a line of fire rushed towards Jaune, who just barely managed to dodge. Then the blue statue rushed at him, his sword surrounded by screaming wind.

"Wind Dust?" Ozpin question. "That's an interesting combination."

Jaune traded blows with blue statue, who's wind scimitar made his attacks swing a lot faster.

"Nobody looks at wind, and believes it strong," it commented. "But wind is responsible for some of the worst disasters known to man!" It proved its point by stepping back, then spinning in a circle. A huge tornado surrounded the statue, forcing Jaune to move away to avoid getting sucked into it.

"It's over!" the red statue shouted, leaping into the air, it brought its scimitar down towards Jaune, who only had enough time to block. The sword discharged a blast of fire. Jaune's Aura flared as the flames swept past his body.

"I just noticed something," Qrow realized. "This kid hasn't taken too many hits yet. His Aura must still be near max capacity." Everybody was a bit less nervous at that revelation.

"Come on, Fearless Leader! Don't lose to those stupid scimitars!" Nora called.

"It's not over yet!" Jaune growled. He moved his sword, causing the red statue to fall in front of him. "Blast off!" he roared, swinging his sword heavily upwards. He struck the red statue in the chest, launching it into the back wall, where it shattered to pieces.

"Way to go, Vomit Boy!" Yang cheered. "You're halfway there!"

The blue statue quickly held out its hand, and the red scimitar flew to him.

"Now you must deal with me!" it told Jaune, before attacking. As it attacked, wind and fire covered the scimitars, increasing both its speed and power. "We are the Firestorm! Let us show you why!" It backed away from Jaune, and spun again. A fiery cyclone surrounded it, increasing its vacuum strength. Jane felt himself being pulled forward, but he just inhaled deeply.

"Let's finish this!" he charged forward, leaping into the cyclone. However, by swinging his sword in a circular motion in front of him, he was able to safely bypass the vortex. With one overhead swing, he cleaved the blue statue in two.

"He did it!" Velvet cheered.

"Just as we all expected he would," Ren smiled.

"Well done, Mr. Arc," Glynda congratulated the onscreen version of her student. "Perhaps their is hope for him yet," she thought to herself.

The red and blue scimitars flew through the air, before jamming into the ground by their blades. Jaune walked past the two of them, intent on heading into the next room.

"Wait!" the blue scimitar called to him. Jaune stopped, and turned around.

"Yes, wait! We have been waiting for a long time!" the red scimitar informed the Huntsman.

"Yes, a very long time," the blue sword agreed.

"For someone stronger than us," the red scimitar clarified.

"Someone who can control us," the blue scimitar agreed.

"My name is Agni," the red scimitar introduced itself.

"And my name is Rudra. You shall take us with you," the blue scimitar ordered Jaune.

"We could be of great help to you!" the twin swords said in unison.

"Do it, Jaune!" Ruby demanded. "Think of all the cool abilities you'd have at your disposal!"

Jaune looked at the two scimitars, thinking it over. Then he nodded.

"Okay," he conceded, then held up a finger. "But on one condition."

"What is it?" Agni asked.

"Name it!" Rudra told him. Jaune pointed to the two of them.

"Please don't talk, it's very distracting." The two scimitars thought it over.

"Fair enough!" Agni agreed.

"As you wish," Rudra accepted. Smiling, Jaune grabbed the two swords by their handles, then leapt into a large kata. He swung the scimitars one at a time, and then together, placing the pommels together so that the swords spun like a helicopter blade. Fire and wind surrounded the scimitars as Jaune began to move his body in a clockwise circle, tongues of flame and gusts of air leaping from the blades. Finally, a Jaune knelt and swung both swords downward in an X formation, a large blast of fire and wind exploding from the attack. "Impressive," Rudra commented. Jaune flinched, then banged the two swords heads together.

"What did I just say?!" he asked the two. The scimitars didn't say anything, showing they got the message loud and clear. "Good," Jaune thanked them. The episode ended.

"I honestly really want to see Agni and Rudra in action," Blake admitted.

"As do I," Weiss agreed. "Jaune is quickly building an arsenal of weapons, and it's rather exciting to see how he wields them against enemies."

"Well, you'll get a chance next episode," Abe told them, before Nora grabbed him by the shirt.

"What are you waiting for!" she demanded. "Put it on!"

"Nora, I don't think he can while you're holding him like that," Ren assessed.