RWBY: Remnant's Blond Bard

Chapter 9

Jaune glanced at the redhead as she stared back at him in confusion. He got the feeling he'd said something wrong – Charisma couldn't stop him putting his foot in his mouth, apparently. Chances were he just looked slightly better wearing his own soles as dentures. Though he hadn't bothered for a while, he decided to check out her "status". Or what he'd been calling that. His Semblance quickly provided.

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Pyrrha Nikos

Lvl: 30

Title: Rising Star

Exceptionally skilled and beloved by many, Pyrrha Nikos is fast becoming a household name in her hometown of Argus. Though the attention is beginning to get to her, she still feels proud of her accomplishments. Pyrrha is highly competitive and often can't help but want to win at things, even when she's doing her best to go easy on someone.

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Whoah. She was level thirty!? That... He didn't know if that was amazing or depressing. She didn't look any older than him and yet she was five times his level. What was she doing that he wasn't? Movies? Maybe that made sense. If his viral video had given him this much growth, then starring in some hit movies would probably be even more.

Other people didn't have his Semblance, of course, so it might also just have been his Semblance putting arbitrary numbers on people to suit him. Even so, Raven Branwen had been level sixty-four and Pyrrha was only a little under half her level.

The shocking part was that assuming an even stat distribution – aka, not throwing everything in Charisma – this girl was probably stronger, fitter, quicker and smarter than him even if he'd thrown every stat of his level-ups into one attribute.

Even if I put all my free points into Strength, I'd only have around thirty-five or so...

The redhead tilted her head. "You're... not from around here. Are you?"

"Nope. I arrived today with my sister and her girlfriend. They're getting married and starting a life here. I'm just tagging along before I move on. I'm travelling. Argus is just my starting point. I'm from a little village in Vale."

"That would explain it." Pyrrha giggled. "You'd have heard of me otherwise. I'm Pyrrha. Pyrrha Nikos. And sorry, but I'm not a movie star. Though it'd be fun to star in one."

"Really? But I saw your movie poster."

"Movie...?"

Pyrrha followed his hand when he pointed, then snorted a little at the poster on the inside of the shop window. "Oh, that. I guess it does kind of look like a movie poster. I'm actually a competition fighter, though."

The words "pit fighter" came to Jaune's mind but he quickly dismissed that. "Like a huntress?"

"That's the long-term plan, yes. The competitions are for amateur huntsmen and huntresses. It's just a bit of fun. Do you really not have anything like this in Vale...?"

"I'm sure we do but not where I lived," he said, feeling a little awkward. It made him realise he was going to come across as a backwards country yokel to a whole lot of people. And he'd thought himself quite clever, too. "My dad is a huntsman, but he doesn't want any of us following in his footsteps, so I guess we never saw stuff like that. Not even on TV. And we live in a tiny village so there's definitely no tournaments or fights. That's why I'm here!"

"For the fights...?"

"To see more of the world and learn stuff, to attend big stuff like that and also experience things that I wouldn't be able to back home. I'm a travelling minstrel."