Jaune's eyes widened when he saw the sight of three headed giant Beowulf standing freely on the second car, faced two of his teammates and black haired ninja girl. Unusual for a Grimm, the Beowulf seems to wait for them to make their moves. And that gut feeling told Jaune things will go for the worse.
"Be careful!"
But he had something else that he need to pay attention to.
Jaune raised his shield as black head of the King Tajitu launched itself at deadly velocity, Jaune's feet slid backward three meters before coming to a dead stop, leaving a thin, smoking trail of burnt rubber on his wake. "That's my favorite shoes!" He spat and sliced the bruised head of the Grimm with his sword, cleaved half-meter bleeding gash on it's side.
Jaune reminded himself he'll get combat-grade shoes as soon as he return, with his legs intact that is.
The white head recoiled in response of the black head's injury and made an even stronger charge, which thankfully dealt by Bane. The muscular man whipped a careful timed uppercut that threw the snake's aim away from everyone else, which made Jaune relieved as he jumped and then bash it's chin with his shield.
Ruby and Weiss skated across the length of it's body and wiped out the smaller Grimm trying to take the chance and surround them.
"Jeez why are there so many?!" Weiss complained as she swung her rapier, ten firebolts wiped the sky from a flocks of tiny Nevermores. Ruby sniped the alpha nevermore of the group, half-inch steel-cored lead blew through it's head into nothingness. More and more birdlike grimm appear from the horizon. Ruby's focus did not wane, however. "I don't know, just keep firing!" Ruby yelled.
Weiss grabbed Ruby's hood and immediately use her white Glyph to jump away when both heads of the snake Grimm lashed out to them from both sides.
Adam gleefully dashed forward and delivered a flurry of near-invisible slashes, Grimm caught within his reach scattered into hundreds of bleeding, evaporating pieces. King Tajitu struck Adam with blinding speed, but the unusually old and skilled first year simply blocked it's strike and let momentum carry him back to his group.
The snake retreat further as a group of juvenile Beowulves converged upon their position, individually weak, nonetheless their numbers made fighting in cramped spot like on top of a train car difficult if not impossible. One of them managed to grab Ruby but she managed to shake it off before she was hurt beyond a thin gash on her shoulder.
"Wedge formation!" Jaune called, and Adam once again took the point to meet the ambush head on. Weiss made a wall of Ice and then launched a barrage of ice bolt toward a wide Glyph overhead, scattered her attacks like a rain of blades. "God damn it!" Bane growled as one of the Beowulf smothered his masked face, trying to claw through his strong aura to no avail. Bane Snapped it's neck and began swinging his Chainsaw like mad. "There's no end to them!"
A couple of androids recovered from their temporary blackouts and began to give a support fire to the students with their arm Gatlings, allowed the humans to gain some breathing room. Ruby took a moment to analyze the situation, and her eyes widened when she saw what happened behind the defense group.
The three headed Beowulf began it's assault, Blake told the guard to 's no room for people with barely functional aura here.
Malachite Twins climbed it's arms like a bridge and began to deliver vicious assault on it's heads, however, the Beowulf skilfully responded with a quick grab instead of wide swing, and it managed to caught Melanie, if not for Miltia cutting it's finger with her aura-charged claws. Melanie freed herself by tearing through another finger with her heel and jumped away to safety.
The Beowulf did not give up even with it's injury. Instead, it stomped the car to destroy their footing and then kicked Miltia when she's not looking. Had it not for Blake throwing her elastic ribbon to save her, the red-themed Malachite would've fallen off the train. Blake shouted as she ran across it's back while slashing both her katana and cleaver-sheath, neither of which made much impression on it's armored spine. The wolf slapped the unsuspecting assailant to the hill.
And as if it has enough intelligence to gloat, it snickered. High pitched whine resounded on Adam's ears, which made him howled in rage, "YOU BASTARD!"
Ruby emptied her rifle against the Beowulf, but none of her bullets pierced deep enough to hurt it in meaningful way, for Grimm lacked fear and sense of pain. Ruby ejected her now empty magazine and refiled it with special gravity dust bullet, each threw her backward despite she braced strongly to the car with the blade of her Scythe.
Black dust exploded on the Grimm's skin, collapsed inward into an intense gravitational anomaly that cracked it's armor. Only then the Beowulf began to see Ruby as a real threat.
"Adam, Blake will be okay, please help the Malachites!" Ruby begged, "They're no match for... it... whatever it was."
Adam growled, and with a deafening scream, he ran across the train cars. And in his place was rose petals, wilting rose petals, fluttered across his path, almost reminiscent of Ruby's own semblance. Adam screamed as he appeared above the Beowulf and unleashed a powerful red wave from his blade. The Wolf dodged at the last fraction of seconds an instead of cleaving through it's head, the red aura blade sliced through it's armored elbow.
However, the Beowulf took the chance and slammed Adam into the surface when he was still in the air, leaving a paw-shaped dent and coughing, bleeding Faunus. When The giant Grimm tried to crush Adam with it's foot, Bane raised both hands to hold against it in desperation.
"ADAM NO!" Weiss shrieked, moments before a man-sized Nevermore ambushed her and crushed her through an inch-thick metal crate. Melanie descend down and kicked the alpha Grimm away, and Melanie clawed a massive gash on it's back. The alpha Grimm died when Ruby's Scythe cleaved it in half.
Bane growled as his leg began to gave up, but he will not let this soulless dog hurt his friend even more. Thankfully Adam recovered, though unhinged, and rolled aside with all his strength. Bane jumped back and the wolf's feet smashed the floor of the car, breaking one of the train's suspension.
Jaune watched in horror, Bane was strong enough to hold against a King Tajitu on his own, but this three-headed beowulf can overpower him?!
"We're losing!" Jaune shouted as he raised his shield to hold against white head of the King Tajitu, and then stab through it's lower jaw with his sword. Unfortunately he missed it's vital parts, and the black head took it's sweet chance to bite Jaune when he pulled his sword back a little too late. Jaune screamed when several hundred kilograms of fang and muscles ravaged his body.
I'm going to die! He thought. Desperately stabbed through the snake head to no avail, he began to lose consciousness. Only for Blake to rescued him at the last second by cutting through it's chin, weaken the jaw enough that Jaune could set himself free with his strength.
"Thank you." Jaune wheezed, "Ruby! What do you think?!"
"...I don't think we can win here." Ruby's eyes sharpened as she fired more gravity dust to knock out the giant snake from the train. And yet, more and more Grimm seems to appear, climbing the slowly moving train. And she realized she ran out of special ammunition. "The train was too slow, and most Grimm can catch with us at this rate. We won't be able to fend them all."
Jaune bit his lips. "Any ideas?"
"Abandon the cargo." Adam told them as he wielded his sword again, despite blood drenched shirt he wear. "The train should go faster that way."
Ruby and Adam disappear in the wind as they charged toward the three-headed wolf and sliced it's heels. Though neither of them managed to cut completely through it's bone, the Wolf howled in rage. The Wolf's voice turned from mighty roar to that of terrified whine as it struggled to stand and fell from the train, down to the blood shaded forest of Forever Fall and never seen again.
"Did we kill it?" Ruby asked.
"Doubt it." Adam shrugged, his hunch told him "Blake, you alright?!"
"I'm fine."
Blake watched as the S.D.C. heiress sliced the connection between the second car and third one. The train began to accelerate slightly, faster than most Grimm pursuing them. Weiss clenched her sleeves. All these hard earned dust and cargo, gone. It pained Weiss to see it, after all the pain and suffering the workers undergo... the Grimm managed to take it all from them.
"Adam, you're injured." Weiss covered her mouth in horror when she finally regained her senses, "I'm sorry! If only I was there-"
Adam smiled curtly as he fixed the position of his broken shades, "You can't even deal with small pest, I'm really disappointed."
"Don't joke around you jerk!" Weiss punched him and then desperately wiped the tears off her face. Bane came with the rest of Team Jam, with injured Miltia sat on his shoulders and unusually limp Melanie clutched his left arm. Though he himself wasn't injured, he was as shocked as everyone else. "What the hell with that Grimm? Leader, know something we don't?"
Blake, Adam, and Bane. Three of them had spent so much time in the wilderness. And yet, none of them was familiar with this... monster they just fought. On it's own, the three headed Grimm managed to hurt Adam, of all people, who could give full fledged hunters meaningful challenge.
"I never seen a three headed wolf before, two maybe, but not three." Jaune's face darkened with rage as Ruby helped him to stand. "And none of them as strong nor as clever as this bastard."
"Blake?" Ruby asked as the black haired ninja stood on the edge of the train car.
"It begins." Blake muttered as faint sounds of gunfire and small explosion began to fill the forest roughly a kilometer away form their current position. Dozens of Bullhead VTOL scrambled from the direction of Vale to assist the hunter and dealt with flying Grimm. The eight teenagers sat in increasingly depressed mood as the sight of battle become further and further away.
They had a mission, to ensure the train crews survived, and nothing else is matter beyond that. Still, the fact that they stand here helplessly when everyone else hold against unending tides of black... it pained them.
Ruby was the first one to recover and spread her hands happily, "My friends and Weiss of team Jam and team Rabbit-"
"Hey!" Weiss protested.
"I shall declare our mission as great success!" Ruby pointed the sky, her red cape fluttered with the wind. Everyone looked at her with ambivalent mood, and Jaune was the first one to break into relieved smile. "You're right. You absolutely right. It might be a costly victory, but a victory nonetheless."
Weiss and Blake can't really agree with Jaune's sentiment, but regardless, they managed to save human lives, and they glad that they can at least accomplish that much, so they just glanced at each other and nodded. Bane and Adam simply scoffed and kept silent, and Malachite sisters leaned on each other and groaned, not wanting to deal with Ruby's nonsense.
They will need all the rest. All of them.
JWMM - The Story of Love, War, and Redemption
By ZeroXSEED
Disclaimer:
RWBY created by Monty Oum and owned by Rooster Teeth
Chapter 04: Awful interlude
Yang Xiao long furrowed her eyebrow when she saw a smoking trail passed over half a kilometer from her position. It was a flaming train-no, locomotive. Supposedly, that was the one Ruby and other team were rescuing. She hoped they succeed, but more than that, her sister to be safe.
She expanded her scroll and made a call. "Sup Rubes, everything is alright?"
"[Yeah. We rescued the crew.]" Ruby answered firmly, "[All of them.]"
"Good job on that." Yang could feel the spirited voice of her beloved sister fill her own fist with newfound strength, "We'll begin cleanup operation shortly."
"[Be careful.]" Ruby's voice hushed, "[If you see a three headed wolf, do not attempt to solo it. And if you must fight, do it in a clearing. You will need speed to win.]"
"Three headed wolf, clearing, gotcha." Yang closed the call, "Yo Cardin, still alive?"
"Fuck you." Said young man was hanging from a tree upside down.
"Slow down baby, couldn't you at least impress me on a date first?" She playfully poked his nose, and THEN snapped the vines tying his leg. Cardin landed smoothly with soft "Thud." on the ground.
"Got some new info from the other team." Yang told team CRDL as soon as they gathered, "If you see three headed wolf, don't solo it."
"That's just your sister being a sissy." Cardin cockily exclaimed, and his teammates just laughed merely.
"Normally I would castrate you for shit talking Ruby like that, but we need all the manpower we can get." Yang closed her eyes, "Ren, situation?"
A blur of green appear beside her, a pale white man with almond-shaped eyes stood with both hand wielding a pair of bladed hand-cannon. "As predicted a small group of Grimm still pursuing the Train." He patted the dust and leaves away from his clothes.
"We're going to intercept. Let's fight them under the rail bridge." Yang expanded her scroll again, "Pyrrha, Nora?"
"[The bait was set.]"
"[YAHOOO!]"
"Careful with three headed wolf..." Yang sighed, "Let's go."
Yang Xiao Long fully recognized that she does not have the tactical aptitude of other leaders, maybe Cardin but he's just a loser anyway. What she have, were nothing but bravado and brute force. And so she had decided to lead by example.
Spearheading the attack against the horde, Yang opened fire with a single, fully charged explosive shot from her gauntlet, scattering the flocks of tiny nevermores. Russel, the lanky CRDL member with green mohawk supported her with a boost from his dust revolver blade, augmenting her explosive force with red dust field.
When an alpha nevermore show up, a single Javelin pierced it's organ and killed it instantly. The Javelin zipped back to it's thrower, a tall, muscular red haired young woman dressed in what could only be described as armored miniskirt and corset. The woman switched the Javelin into rifle form, each shot tore through Beowulf head and she wiped out a whole group before she even need to reload.
The woman smiled, "You're late, Partner."
The young woman was none other than the infamous Pyrrha Nikos. The all-around combat genius and four times Champion of Mistral tournament.
Cardin howled as he charged against an Ursa Major, his lightweight titanium mace overhead. Normally, he would have thought this as suicide, but he was not alone.
Explosion resounded in the forest as his dust-enhanced mace made contact with the Ursa major and stunned it with rock-breaking concussive force, while a massive sledgehammer finished it by grounding it's head to a smoking pulp.
"I guess I don't need to break your leg after all." The petite, ginger haired girl smiled at Cardin, which made him horrified. The girl was none other than the YPVL's Nora Valkyrie.
A shriek from the direction of the forest disturbed them, as a Deathstalker jumped from the forest and immediately attacked the group, Yang, however, bravely faced it one by one.
"Yang-" Pyrrha called, but Yang simply grinned as the spread his hand in anticipation, and stopped the horse-sized Scorpion's charge with her hands. "Pyrrha!" Yang called. Brandished her shield, Pyrrha deflected the golden stinger aimed at Yang, allowed Yang to casually push the scorpion back with her inhuman strength.
"Compared to the one we fought at exam this one sound like a joke."
"That's because we got your back blondie!" Dove and Sky from CRDL protested, as they and Ren had to deal with smaller grimm surrounding the place. Sky's long rifle/halberd was the center of the fireteam, with it's high velocity, medium caliber rounds piercing though most grimm with ease, and the rapidity of Ren's hand cannons and Dove's revolver rifle sword allow them to swat the tiny-sized nevermores from the air.
"Whoops, sorry!" Yang's eyes turned red and she rip both of the Deathstalker's pincer and then fired a point blank salvo from her gauntlets. "Cardin!"
Cardin howled and smacked the Deathstalker with the full power of his mace. The explosion cracked open it's shell like an egg and the Grimm spilled it's innards, began to evaporate as soon as it died.
"You're so useless." Cardin spat and smacked the ground and let the force of the explosion travel forward and blasted every Grimm caught within it's area of effect.
Nora looked around and see a three headed wolf limping away in the direction of the forest. Though yang said she need to be careful, Nora thought maybe that would be the case if not for the fact that the wolf was heavily injured, with one arm nonexistent and both heels sporting massive gashes down to the bone.
"Nora No!" Yang called out as soon as she realize what her hyperactive team member plan to do.
"NORA, YES!" Nora fired the grenade inside her hammer to boost her speed and then she swung it. However, much to her chagrin, the wolf grabbed her. Nora struggled to keep it's fingers from crushing her, and indeed, the wolf decided to simply slam her body to the ground repeatedly, and throw her to nearby support pillar of the railway bridge, caused a section of said bridge collapse on top of her limp body.
"Nora!" Ren called and, disregard of his own safety, began to zip around between the hordes of smaller Grimm. He frantically clawed his way on the piles of concrete and steel burying his longtime friend. He managed to found her arm and he pulled it with all his strength, freeing the ginger bruiser from the debris. "...she's unconscious. Lightning dust, damn, I forgot to bring one!" Ren cursed inwardly, "Who else bring Lightning dust?!"
"COVER FIRE! COVER FIRE!" Yang shouted, Dove, Sky and Pyrrha brandished their weapon and fired a barrage to cover Cardin and Yang's approach. Yang punched an Ursa Minor who tried to hurl itself toward Ren.
"YOU BASTARD!" Yang howled as she charged against the three headed wolf, her fist reinforced by so much heat it's practically on fire. She stepped left and right before throwing an uppercut, which the wolf dodged with ease. Yang swung her fist once again mid air, and the Wolf did the same. As their fist made contact, the wolf's arm exploded into boiling pieces, the force of which threw Yang away coughing.
"DAMN!" Yang slumped for a moment as she just recovered from using her last resort attack. Yang could feel frustration crept all over her common sense, but she decided to stay and not to pursue the wolf on her own.
"LIGHTNING DUST!" Ren screamed. Russel licked his lips and with incredibly accuracy, threw his revolver blade an inch next to Ren and unconscious Nora. Ren rotated the cylinder and then activate the yellow dust, and then jam the blunt end on Nora's stomach.
Nora's eyes opened and then flashed as her lips stretched wide. "I'M BACK!"
"Should've warned you earlier." Yang gritted her teeth, "You're okay?"
"Yep, my boss." Nora twirled her sledgehammer as if it's a lightweight baton, much to Cardin's horror. "I'll listen next time, promises."
Yang checked her scroll to see the projected map and position of their enemies. "Okay, we still have two grimm horde to deal with, Cardin do you think we should split or not?" Yang asked, as earnest as she could. Cardin looked at her suspiciously, but then replied. "No, it's better to stay in current group and intercept them one by one."
"Let's do just that. Air support should come in few minutes." Yang might've made a mistake, but she determined to fix it this time around. "This is Apple leader to CAS 313, please reply."
"[This is CAS 313, I can see your group with my infrared cam, ETA 38 second]"
"Good." Yang smiled. "You have room for eight student?"
A quartet of dart-shaped objects soared across the sky, changed it's direction upward and hit a large nevermore several kilometers away. "[Now we have.]"
...
Adam rested his battered body on the bed of Beacon infirmary, half naked and covered in bandages. On the plus side, all of his bones were relative intact and nary a scratch left on his body that hasn't been closed. On the other hand, so many dislocation that he will need to be observed for at least twelve hours ahead, chances that once he ran out of aura, his entire body will be swollen for a day.
And that made him irritated.
It was true, among the students, he delivered the most damage against the mysterious, possibly ancient Grimm. On the other hand, Adam had the chance to end it once and for all. Had it not for his eyes blinded by his rage and madness, he would be delivering his strike from the ground, instead from the air where Adam was vulnerable.
He might have the raw skill, but patience and control, he did not.
He should have known better, Blake had suffered worse. And yet he couldn't just help himself. He's worried about her, and that's it. No ifs and buts.
Shared the same room was Miltia Malachite, who suffered similar injuries. And unlike him, she hadn't the luxury of wearing her original clothes on the bed, instead, she was dressed in the light blue hospital gown.
All in all, it seems that the three headed wolf packed more punch than any other Grimm of similar size. The fact that the wolf can overpower Bane is a testament to that.
Miltia was cleaning and sharpening her weapons, the folding ornamental claws shine as it reflected the bright white lighting of the room. She clenched the gauntlet part of it and shuddered.
She was really, really mad.
"Careful with that edge, you may cut yourself." Adam commented.
"That's rich coming from you." Miltia retorted, only for the claw to slice the skin of her finger, "Literally." Adam said with no nonsense, to which Miltia replied with simple "Oh..." before continued her work, as soon as her wound closed in three seconds flat when she activated her aura for a brief moment.
"You look unusually down, what gives?" Miltia asked curiously.
"You're trying to hit on me or something? I'm sorry but you're too young for my standard."
"Save that confidence for latter occasion, Mr. Horned jackass." Miltia hissed, "Also, I'm sixteen."
"Yes, too young."
Miltia threw her pillow to his face and stood up. Adam chuckled, being an asshole to a girl always work to shut them up indeed. Adam decided to shut up and lean back on his bed after throwing back Miltia's pillow to it's place. His peace did not last long when the electronic door whined and Ozpin came with Glynda on tow.
As usual Glynda stared on him like a hawk on it's prey, and unlike with every other women in his school life, this is the one he don't want to mess around with.
"Good evening, Mister Tauros." Ozpin greeted and raised his usual caffeinated black sludge as a form of personal signature. "I take it you made yourself comfortable in the infirmary."
"Indeed I am, the faster I heal the quicker I get out of this drug-scented room." Adam answered.
"I see." Ozpin took a seat aside of his bed, "I've heard the reports, it seems that you encountered a new variant of a Grimm, one that hasn't been encountered by most if not all student, is that right?"
"Indeed." Adam nodded, "But to be honest, it's less the shape that's I'm more concerned with."
"Their behavior?"
"Yes." Adam decided to sit on the bedside, faced both Ozpin and Glynda. "While Grimm attacking human-operated machines aren't uncommon, the sheer numbers and the pattern of their attack just mindboggling. They managed to wipe out every single Atlasian Knight guarding the train. By the time we arrived to help, the damage was done. And the way they just... stop when we cut off the cargo, isn't that a little strange?"
"Where are you going with this?"
Adam knocked the side of his head with his finger, "Intelligence."
"Most excellent." Ozpin smiled, "Grimm attacking us in an extremely coordinated approach, that's a brilliance in the making."
"Are you being sarcastic?" Adam raised his eyebrow.
"Most assuredly yes." Ozpin's smile disappear as he picked his cane and stood up, "Our hunters reported strange Grimm activity, particularly the concentration of Grimm in the buffer zones."
Buffer zone, an area where Grimm are present but in controlled numbers. In case of Kingdom of vale, said buffer zone, or rather, zones, would be Emerald Forest, of which Forever Fall would be part of. Emerald Forest itself extend hundreds of kilometer to the east, all the way to supermountain range that separated Vale from the main continent.
"We received multiple reports of Grimm incursion in our mining facility." Glynda read the content of her report, finally spoke at last. "Thankfully, casualties were minimum and none of them were unarmed civilians. However, reports of material damage is... unacceptably high, to say at the least. Most of which pertaining our local dust acquisition."
"The effect from today's simultaneous attack will present until months to come. This will surely cause unrest within the Kingdom, and with people panicking, that's a recipe for more appearances of Grimm in Vale proper." Ozpin finalized, "While the number of the Grimm themselves aren't necessarily beyond parameter, the fact that they seems to concentrate their numbers and launch a pronged assault against human territory seems... odd, to say at the least."
Adam could tell that Ozpin dislike the whole thing. Ozpin isn't the type to rush ahead without strong source of information and a degree of certainty when it comes to the success rate of an operation.
For Grimm to display such degree of strategic approach is... unthinkable, at least to the uninformed civilians. The hunters, would likely to connect it with the strange Grimm ability to work together whenever large number of alphas gathered in one place. Something that definitely nonexistent in previous decade.
"The government was contemplating of raising our status to Orange." Ozpin muttered in contempt, "However, I believe this should be kept from public at the moment."
Indeed, while the movement of the Grimm was suspicious, it's not really worth fretting over. "What about the settlement?"
"The government mobilized our militia force as we speak, multiple Hunters also sent to reinforce our borders. Overall, in the event of another attack, quick evacuation of villages and other facilities should be possible."
"Wouldn't that weaken Vale's defense then?" Miltia came out of the bathroom, "Considering how completely inept the police force is."
"Ahh, Miss Malachite?" Ozpin smiled wisely, "I'm listening."
"I'm very familiar with darker side of Vale, yes." Miltia sat on her bed and hummed, "The large part of Vale's police force were either corrupt of too complacent. The few that devoted to their duty also too powerless to change the status quo. In times like this, the undersiders are more than happy to take advantage of power vacuum and act however they wish."
"I see." Ozpin nodded and grinned again "I've heard from Glynda, certainly you and your sister have interesting background." As if he wasn't surprised, as opposed to Glynda whose eyes almost popped out of their sockets.
The blond woman muttered darkly, "Nevermind, you two should take a proper rest. Hopefully you can be released before the class began."
When the two adult left the infirmary, Miltia could hear Adam sighed in relief. It was pretty clear that the red headed bull-man cautious, if not downright scared, by the two upper echelon of Beacon. Behind his cracked sunglasses, Adam stared as Glynda's fluttering cape disappeared behind the infirmary's door.
"You can't just help but appreciate the curves huh." Miltia hummed.
"I never guessed you swing that way." Adam snorted.
Adam earned yet another pillow shot to the face.
...
Jaune screamed as Blake cleaved his back without impunity before he could even react to her absurd move speed. His shield dropped to the ground and clattered, retracted back to it's sheath form.
Blake jumped five meters away. "Sorry I'm a little rough."
"It's alright, please don't go easy on me." Jaune took the sheath again, except this time he doesn't expand it to shield mode, instead, he held it like he's holding a heavy sword. He widened his stance in anticipation of Blake's incoming attack.
The black haired girl charged with her Katana and Cleaver-sheath, Jaune responded with his own sword and it's sheath. Metal versus metal, her shout echoed across the arena as Blake thrown backward when she got pushed by his strength. However, with soundless step she left a substitute clone behind as she flanked Jaune from his right side. He rolled aside to dodge and then countered with a diagonal strike. Blake made another clone to take the hit and jump.
Jaune sharpened his eyes and swung his sheath in the opposite direction, and finally managed to strike her waist proper, caused her eyes to bulge in pain. Her body hit the floor hard enough to leave cracks behind.
Blake gritted her teeth and recovered with a single jump, her heeled boots meet Jaune's face in retaliation, sent him flying backward. Jaune managed to stay upright with a perfect somersault, but by that point, his Aura had reached critical.
"Damn it." Jaune dropped on his bottom in frustration, "I can barely touch you at all."
"Don't be too disappointed. You hit like an Ursa." Blake jokingly said as they looked at her aura meter, cut in half from four.. no, five direct hit from Jaune. Even accounting for the fact that her vitality and aura level is rather average, his offensive power really nothing to laugh at. Blake offered her hand and Jaune grabbed it. "Yeah, thanks for that spar."
Ruby landed nearby them knee first.
"That was harsh." She panted and wobbled as she tried to stand to no avail, Blake lend her shoulder while Jaune grabbed her Scythe and carry it on his back. "I can't even touch Pyrrha, I guess I'm still too weak."
"God, Ruby, you carry this everyday? This weight about twice, no, almost thrice that of Crocea Mors." Jaune balked, referring to his sword and shield combo. "No wonder you exhaust yourself easily."
"Most of the time, the weapons' weight carry Ruby along. It's really hard to see the flow and pattern of her attacks, it was kind of cool really." Pyrrha came and greeted at them, "Jaune, you studied Old Atlasian style swordmanship don't you?"
"Oh yeah I am." Jaune nodded, "Though I'm not really good at it."
"You can't say that." Pyrrha kindly told him, "The fact that you entered beacon through practical exam is a testament that you belong here, and you'll improve, all of us will."
The incident today left a mark in everyone's psyche, and Jaune's no exception. Until he came to beacon, Solarie always been there to help him. Solarie always been a good father figure, know when to praise or punish Jaune whenever it's appropriate. Sure, they're not related by blood, but the five years they spent together was worth more than the twelve years he had in Atlas.
"I can't let you down, father Solarie, sisters..." Jaune muttered inwardly as he followed everyone to the locker room.
Though there's no reported deaths among the first year student, they have to accept a hard fought victory that cost them their dignity as the so-called talented individuals. The world outside is harsh and unforgiving, and they're not ready to face it head on. Many of them drown themselves in sorrow, but many more driven to improve themselves beyond their set limit.
Team Rabbit and Team Jam is not exception. Two of eight need to be treated in the infirmary, served as grim reminder of their weakness and complacency.
In the Gym section of the training area, Bane worked his muscles. Six sets of weight disc, grand total of three hundreds kilogram, clamped on the reinforced top class lift bar he carried as he done a series of squatting exercises.
"Not enough." He grunted, "This is not enough!"
The damn three headed wolf managed to beat him in a contest of strength. And he couldn't accept that, not in the slightest. He need more, more muscle, denser muscle. He'll be strong, stronger than everyone in Beacon. "Just you watch you scatterbrained dog, I'll break your back on my knees!"
"What's not enough?"
Bane looked aside to find a ginger-haired girl looking at him curiously. Wide grin plastered on her face. He recognized that face, and seen her several times whenever they shared a class.
What's her name again, Valky-Valka?
She's not tall, in fact, she's probably the shortest student in the entire Beacon. Stood at under five feet, the girl was absolutely, positively tiny. Her long legs and small head was a little bit deceptive, however.
And then she deadlifted two hundred kilogram worth of weight disc on the barbell nearby.
"WHAT THE HELL?" Bane shrieked, she neither tall nor muscular, maybe forty five kilos at most, he guessed. And yet she seems to carry five times her own weight with little effort. Pissed, he took two more weight disc and slam it on the barbell he's using, added a hundred more in terms of overall load. He couldn't possibly lose to this little girl, not in this game. How the hell someone who probably weight a third of Bane can lift that much?! "SCREW YOU UNIVERSE!" Bane howled as he began squatting again.
"Ooh a contest, me likey!" Nora raised the barbell as high as she could, and then rest the bar on her neck, a little sweat show on her but her muscle doesn't visibly look strained. "Let's do it big guy."
That day, Bane set himself a new record for squat lifting exercise, but still sore about it.
Freaking Nora, lol.