Chapter 3: A Hero's Burden

No matter how peaceful the forests of remnant seem at first glance, they -with precious few exceptions- bare more thorns than even the most radiant of roses.

«Ursa Major Lv57»

The thorn in question stood at roughly twice the height of a fully-grown man, covered in bone-like armor with vicious spikes paired blood red eyes that overflowed with hatred. It was a true testament to the beast's stature that it remained an imposing figure, despite the numerous injuries crisscrossing its entire body, and its lifeblood dripping steadily onto the ground. It's eyes darting around, the Grimm struggled to find it's illusive opponent in vain, for the next time it's foe made his presence known was in the form of yet another burning cut across it's back as a blade tore through the Grimm's armor with unnatural ease, pushing the beast ever closer towards oblivion. Spinning around to counter, the Grimm finds nothing but wind whispering death softly, slipping through the trees within the empty forest, both allies of its unseen adversary.

Roaring, the Ursa Major spun around rapidly, searching its surroundings desperately, unaware or uncaring that the action only caused its blood to depart its body more quickly, staining the fallen leaves black as it's tainted blood pooled beneath its feet. It's desperately heightened awareness proves worthless as yet another burning pain shoots through its body, pushing deeper into it's flesh until, suddenly, a limit is reached and with a stilted roar the beast's eyes grow dull and empty. The beast crumples to the floor, it's prodigious strength and endurance proving worthless against a foe it couldn't find let alone hit.

With its death, a change occurs within the clearing, the black blood scattered across it shifting, losing form and beginning dissipating into black smoke that fades into the wind, even as the body of the massive Grimm slowly started to crumble into formless darkness. As this unfolds a child barely ten years old watches from the center of the clearing, a few dozen feet away from the slain beast. To most, it would seem as though that child had appeared from nowhere without a sign, existing without seeming to have ever appeared, for all that he hadn't been present just moments earlier.

Tapping his fingers idly on the hilt of the sword sheathed at his hip, the boy bobs his head, affirming something to himself even as he watches the decaying Grimm in easy satisfaction. The boy's relaxed breathing and easy disposition stood completely contradictory with the fact that he had just spent the last 15 minutes steadily edging a D-rank Grimm to and over death's border, without his opponent so much as laying eyes on him even a single time.

"I can't believe you!" a distant distinctly feminine voice echoed across the forest from behind the boy "sending a child that young to fight something like that!? What the hell is wrong with you!"

"It's not like we have much of choice! CCT coverage here is down and it's not like the big shots up in mistral care all that much about some backwards village with no redeeming qualities! We can't contact hunters without CCT coverage and that thing isn't going to wait however many weeks it takes for those holier than thou city folks to fix the reception out here! The kid has unlocked aura and a decent weapon, he's got a better chance at killing that thing than we do!" A man's voice retorted "We shouldn't even be out here with that thing around"

"And we wouldn't be, if you hadn't seen fit to hire a little boy to kill a Grimm the size of a house!" the first voice continued, louder and closer than before, as its owner unwittingly approached the clearing. "You better hope he isn't dead or so help me I'm reporting you to the next huntsman I-"

"You shouldn't be shouting in the forests like that" the boy interjected, glancing backwards as the owners of the two voices entered the clearing "if there were any Grimm left around it would draw them to you like flies"

The owner of the first voice, a somewhat fierce looking woman in her late 20's turned to focus on him quickly, relief flooding her expression "Thank god" she breathed out "listen kid, I don't care what this idiot told you but you can't beat that thing. Come back to the village with us and-"

The boy snorted lightly, cutting the woman off before returning his gaze to the partially dissipated Grimm just outside of the woman's direct line of sight, causing the clearing's other two occupants to follow his gaze unwittingly.

The woman let out a short shriek, freezing in terror momentarily at the sight of the immense Grimm before her, nearly fleeing the clearing before noticing with a start "it's… dead?" her fear drained away as she peered more closely at the Grimm, her eyes tracing the numerous injuries across the monster's decaying body with a dumbstruck expression.

"Yup" the boy replied turning away from the Grimm and towards the clearing's third occupant, a partially bald man in his late 30's who just so happened to be boy's employer for this little outing "a deal is a deal, I fixed your Ursa problem so I hope you don't mind hurrying it up with your end of the bargain. I don't mean to be a jerk about this but I have to get going as quickly as possible."

"n-no way" The man murmured in shock "you actually killed it? I don't believe it."

The boy sighed before snapping his fingers, momentarily drawing the two adults' attention as he did so. "watch" he deadpanned pointing to a tree on the other end of the clearing for a second before moving. Blurring across the clearing Jaune swung Crocea Mors a single time, his blade slicing cleanly though a tree trunk at least 6 inches in diameter, leaving the top part of the tree to hit the ground with a crash. A bored expression on his face the boy looked back towards the two adults and raised an eyebrow.

To a hunter such a feat would be impressive for his age, to a civilian it was downright incomprehensible and it left his small audience staring at him with dumb expressions on their faces.

A moment passed before the boy prompted "So" he paused momentarily "my reward?"

The older man blinked once before nodded several times rapidly "r-right away!" he replied making to return to the village before the boy stop him again.

"Don't you want to take a photo of it? You know, to prove it's actually dead to the other villagers? It's not like you need CCT coverage for photos."

"R-right" the man fumbled, following the boy's advice after a moment.

Moments later, the boy let a light grin cross his face 'just another day in the life of deadliest 10-year-old on remnant' Jaune Arc joked to himself in idle amusement as he followed the still shelled-shocked adults back to their village.

Having loaded up his pack with supplies Jaune gave a light wave to the villagers before setting off once more. A few miles later, after transferring his supplies into his inventory space without fear of drawing attention to it, Jaune allowed his thoughts to return to his fight with the Ursa Major. While the fight had given some pretty good experience and even another level in Subversive arts, the biggest pay-off had been information.

It was common knowledge that Grimm were drawn by negative emotions but few knew the sensitivity of a Grimm towards this varied drastically. All species of Grimm would be able to detect a large spike in negativity from a large population, but on a smaller individualized scale sensitivity varies greatly. Grimm species tend to align with traits possessed by their animal counterparts to some extent, including their sensory capabilities. Beowolves, like regular wolves, have very keen eyesight and hearing which they tend to rely on over their ability to sense negative emotions. Ursa, like regular bears, only have eyesight about as good as the average non-aura using human and while they have strong hearing they don't always have a reliable way of knowing if a sound is from a human or something else. Studies have concluded that, because of this, Ursas have one of the highest ability in regards to negative emotion sensing out of all other lower and mid-level breeds of Grimm, seeing as they use and develop this trait more consistently than other types of Grimm.

It was to the extent that Ursa could use the most minor of negative emotions to keep track of humans close to them. It was to the extent that it was considered nearly impossible to effectively hide from an Ursa within a hundred feet of it. Nearly impossible for anyone without extreme emotional control, or a fairly cheatsy ability that let them null anything short of a major panic attack instantly if they felt like it. Last one ring any bells? While Jaune hadn't been certain prior to now, since he'd attracted Grimm via his emotions the night he'd ran away, he could now confidently say that nothing short of major emotional breakdown would slip passed his Gamer's mind skill and attract the attention of Grimm.

This was particularly important seeing as his Subversive arts skill had no influence on this aspect of stealth and he didn't want to get detected by a Grimm stronger than he could fight because he was going through a spot of depression, for some reason or another.

Forcibility pushing the memory of the events that had unfolded in a certain portside town into a dark cold corner of his mind once more, Jaune glanced down at his newly acquired scroll to ensure he was on the correct route. While the CCT reception had apparently been faulty in this area for the last few weeks, hunter grade scrolls didn't need connection to the dust net for the built-in GPS to function properly. Seeing as hunters sometimes went beyond the range of the CCTs and hunter's scrolls could be powered solely by Aura, the scrolls were eventually fitted with a function allowing the scroll to detect the user's movement real time, meaning that it could indicate its owner's location based on their movement in regards to the last registered spot without requiring continuous exterior input.

Jaune had pointedly not questioned in regards to where, exactly, his short-term employer had acquired a recently released hunter grade scroll, just as his employer had refrained from asking how a 10-year-old knew how to effectively hack and reprogram said scroll to ensure it couldn't be tracked or connected to him. Discovering the fact that Subversive arts apparently applied to hacking had been a very pleasant surprise, although it was strange knowing how to do something he'd never even attempted before. While Jaune felt a bit guilty about carrying a scroll registered to someone who didn't exist under a service plan that had never actually been paid for (now didn't that just scream illegal) Jaune knew he couldn't expect to save Vale without ever getting his hands dirty, and that a little thing like this would probably seem inconsequential to what he'd likely end up doing once he began interacting with the criminal underworld.

While Jaune refused to harm innocent people in any significant way, he simply could not afford to give criminals the same leeway, especially when it might mean the difference between Vale being destroyed or not. That meant stealing from, attacking, blackmailing, torturing and even killing those on the wrong side of the law if he had too. Whether Jaune currently held enough resolve to carry out the aforementioned acts (regardless of the reasons behind them) wasn't clear, something that Jaune himself recognized. It was one thing to think of a course of action and entirely different one to carry it out.

With a subversive arts skill nearing level 50, Jaune was confident in his ability to get away with less than legal actions, just so long as kept his targets to criminals and stayed away from influential individuals. Part of his confidence stemmed from the kingdoms rather harsh treatment of criminals and lowlifes, most of the time the death of a thug or thief wouldn't even be investigated properly before it was simply deemed a case of gang violence or simply an unsolvable crime. The fact that, according to Jaune's father, there was an unspoken agreement to effectively ignore the actions of hunters and hunters-in-training in regards to criminals was another factor. If a huntsman unnecessarily killed a dozen criminals through excessive force, then so what? A huntsman was more valuable than any number of criminals, and it simply wouldn't do to damage public opinion of hunters by convicting them as murderers. A pretty brutal thing to tell a 7-year-old, in retrospect, but Jaune's father didn't want his children running around with rose tinted goggles in a profession out to kill them.

Basically, if Jaune killed some random low-life then just so long as he didn't leave blatant evidence as to the culprit then it would be quickly written off as a huntsman thing and then promptly whatever'd by the local law enforcement. It was a harsh reality, but Remnant wasn't a nice enough place to allow much mercy to those on the wrong side of the law.

Of course, Jaune didn't plan on killing people willy-nilly, if he could avoid killing someone then he would, even if they were a criminal.

"Keh" Jaune scoffed as he slipped through the treetops "What has the world come to?" he asked himself tiredly "me, that Jaune Arc, who just months ago was considered the least talented Arc in generations, who couldn't hurt a fly, am seriously contemplating the pros and cons of murder for future use." A few hollow laughs escape him before he falls silent.

Any semblance of a good mood having been wiped aside by his rather dark train of thought, Jaune continued tirelessly towards his next destination, the reminder of just what it would take, just what it would cost him, to save everything he held dear casting a shadow on his heart.

"What has the world come to?" Jaune whispered once more, wishing for an answer he knew wouldn't come. A solution that no one else could give him.

Amidst the silence, another question floated to the forefront of his mind.

'Even if I survive to see the end of this, will I still be me? Will I still be Jaune Arc, youngest child of a family of 10 with social skills worse than the average Schnee? Or… on the path I am taking, in learning of my enemy in order to destroy it… Will I end up becoming it? In searching and scouring through the darkness of humanity, will I eventually drown in it?'

Regardless of how much time passed, Jaune found no answer.

"It doesn't really even matter, does it?" Jaune asked himself "Even if, in facing it, the Jaune Arc of today ceases to exist, the only thing I'll find in running away and trying to save myself is a fate worse than death."

In that lonely forest, unwatched and unseen, such a tragedy took place. A boy barely 10 years old, who mere months ago was almost entirely innocent, acknowledging his willingness to taint and stain himself down to his very soul, if he could only save the people he loved. A boy whose childhood ended that day, or perhaps even before then, at the very moment he had set himself on this path. A boy who, in that instant, realized that he'd rather become an unstoppable monster…

...than a hero that failed.

-1 month later-

Kuroyuri was a rather large settlement situated alongside a mountain around 2 weeks away from Mistral by foot (for civilians at least). While it was less than an hour's trip by air to Mistral, the mountain range was considered far too steep to traverse (challenge accepted) something that forced travelers to take an extremely roundabout route, greatly extending non-aerial travel time.

Jaune's first impression (after slipping unnoticed into the town) was that whoever designed the place had done a very good job. From what he recognized as Sakura trees scattered throughout the town to the rectangular miniature ponds with scattered flowers floating on the surface to the welcoming architecture of the settlement's buildings Kuroyuri was simply a very comfortable place, even for someone visiting for the first time.

His second impression was that it was a very good spot for a settlement, considering it was surrounded by some level of mountainous and generally obstructive terrain on 3 sides. The fact that many of the Grimm that would normally have been attracted to the settlement would instead be at least partially drawn towards the more established and more populous city of Mistral only added to the location's defensibility. With the support of one of 4 kingdoms Kuroyuri would be a firmly established settlement by the end of the decade. Yes, with the support of one of the 4 kingdoms, an asterisk that led into Jaune's 3rd impression of the fully independent settlement.

Kuroyuri probably wouldn't last a decade.

Judging by his (admittedly limited) aura sensing ability there was maybe a bit more than 5 dozen aura users, most of which had aura reserves less than a fifth of his own, present in the settlement. Only a single person had aura reserves exceeding Jaune's and even then, their aura seemed stilted in a way, like it wasn't flowing properly somehow.

Jaune had made enough progress since his arrival on the Mistralean continent that he (sitting easy at level 62) had exceeded E-rank combat prowess and managed to reach lowest percentile of D-rank combat strength. That meant he, generously, had the combat ability of a rookie huntsmen who had just graduated well below average from a hunter school of equally lacking performance. In other words, he was probably a bit stronger than his older sister Jane, who should be a first year at Beacon by this point.

He could confidently say that almost every single individual guarding Kuroyuri was much weaker than he was, apart from the person with the weird feeling aura, who Jaune remained uncertain about.

Thinking about it for a moment, it wasn't all that surprising. The people who had founded Kuroyuri had done so to escape the current culture and societal pressures present in Mistral. They were the ones who were discriminated against and generally treated like garbage in some way or another, or had otherwise simply made enemies with the wrong people. Unpopular groups rarely got the chance to become hunters in Mistral, considering how heavily traditionalist it was, and those first-generation hunters not from majority groups that did somehow manage were typically given the short straw at every possible instance, the most dangerous missions with the lowest pay, bottom of the list priority with the establish hunter level blacksmiths and suppliers, you name it the list goes on. With a finishing blow in the form of severe restrictions regarding civilians having unlocked aura and most unpopular groups found themselves almost wholly unable to amass any form of power.

Inversely, strong hunters with known backgrounds were treated like celebrities, a result of the Mistralean government's various programs to restore hunter numbers after a specific member of a certain famous Valean family (awkward shuffle) dropped the number of Mistralean hunters to an all-time low.

The final result was that those who desired to leave didn't possess the strength to do so, and those with the strength to leave didn't possess the desire to do so.

Kuroyuri was a risk. A desperate gamble on a brighter future, but was it really worth it? Most villages were small enough to remain largely unnoticed and could survive with only E-rank combatants but Kuroyuri, while much smaller than the capitals of the 4 kingdoms, was much too large to escape notice. Sooner or later, the Grimm would come.

Jaune lightly crossed over a short wooden bridge over one of the small ponds finding himself drawn from his brooding by the bright voice of a child.

"I found a flower on the water!" a boy around 10 years old exclaimed, giving an answer to a question Jaune had missed as the boy smiled at a woman that appeared to be his mother.

"oh, I see" the woman replied with a gentle smile.

Running up to his mother the child pleaded "Can we take it home and plant it in the garden?"

The woman leaned down with a slightly sad expression "no sweetheart, that flower lives here"

"aww"

As the boy deflated his mother smiled and ruffled his hair "but I'll tell you what you can do" she began "take this lien and go find something nice for your father's return, he's been hunting for quite some time. I bet the journeys been very tiring, don't you?" the woman asked

"yes"

"do you think you'll know what he wants?" the woman asked with a small smile.

A mischievous expression crossed the boy's face for a moment "I think he wants a water flower in the garden" the boy replied cheekily.

As the boy's mother laughed lightly and moved to admonish the boy, Jaune fled the scene quickly. His heart aching Jaune found a secluded alleyway and leaned up against a wall, pushing tears back as he took a shuddering breath. The interaction between the child and his mother had been another bitter reminder of what he had lost, of what he had given up and could never truly get back. Sure, Jaune might eventually be able to return to his family but by then it simply wouldn't be the same. Even in the best-case scenario, the years he had spent on his own, the trials he would face, and the battles he would have to endure would change him.

Jaune straightened up and, willing his gamer's mind to wrangle his jumbled emotions into order, found a small knot of emotions within him that surprised him slightly. Jealousy. Anger. Hatred. Smoldering like something foul within his very being, resisting for a moment before being quelled by his skill. Wiping his eyes Jaune let out a bitter snort, tinged with a hint of self-disgust.

Jealously. For he knew he had already been chastised and scolded gently by his own Mother for the last time. His childhood was over.

Anger. At the world for forcing the burden he bore onto him, for cutting his childhood short so cruelly and without care. He was alone.

Hatred. To the people of this town who so carelessly brought things of true value into danger for something so worthless as wealth, status, or power by choice. A choice he never had.

It was odd for Jaune, feeling hatred, true hatred, however small it may be in magnitude. He honestly wasn't sure if he had ever truly hated something or someone before now. Dislike, annoyance towards, aversion, they were all things he'd felt before but hatred? It was new. Yet another display of how greatly less than 6 months away from home had tainted him. Hatred, he realized, was a horrible feeling, like something foul smelling and disgusting tinting his senses and thoughts. Yet for all he disliked it, the feeling remained, present the moment he stopped suppressing it with gamer's mind.

To a child that had given up the comfort of family, who had willingly deprived himself of something he valued so greatly merely so it might persist, even without him, what the people of Kuroyuri were doing infuriated him. For all that they may have been oppressed in Mistral, all the opportunities they couldn't reach and the things they could never have, they – for the most part- still had their families. To a child who had quickly come to view material wealth and power as naught but a means to an end, people putting those they cared about at risk for a gamble where the only return was power, in whatever form, was untenable.

For Jaune Arc, who would rather live his life in the lowest of poverty and amongst the worst of oppression just so long as the people he cared about still lived than lose one and live his life in the lap of luxury people, risking their own supposed loved ones for such a worthless reward inspired true hatred in his heart for the first time.

Returning his thoughts to order and finally quelling his dark emotions Jaune left the alley, unaware of what had truly transpired there. Unaware of the infinitesimal taint that had now stained his heart, a black stain, small to the point of being unnoticeable, the first warning of what Jaune would become. The first step, so long in the making, of the path Jaune Arc had unknowingly become trapped upon.

The path and the curse of one, who, for all his triumphs in the eyes of the masses, remained at his core a tragic hero. Whose happily ever after would remain marred with the scars of the past for far too long.

In a comfortable room within one Kuroyuri's many inns Jaune Arc sat cross legged upon the wooden floor, his eyes closed and his breathing even. For most it would seem like simple meditation of some sort, to a hunter with any level of aura sensing ability on the other hand, it would look like a child playing around with the equivalent of a few hundred pounds of dynamite, even if there wasn't any actual risk of an explosion. To Jaune Arc, it was simply training. Feeling and manipulating his vast stores of aura, more befitting of a hunter more than 3 times his level than a 10-year-old, Jaune struggled to learn how to move it like another limb to more effectively turn it upon his enemies.

Aura mastery, for all that it irreplaceable in battle, was one of the few abilities Jaune possessed that fell under the category of being a non-combat skill. While Jaune couldn't say for certain, he felt the reason behind this was because degrading Aura mastery to the level of a mere combat skill wasn't fair or accurate. It would be like saying the ability to walk is a skill learned solely for combat, sure not being capable of walking would typically be a death sentence in a battle, but no one is going to consider a toddler learning how to walk combat training.

While Jaune would indeed make faster progress by using his aura during battle, it was the most important skill he could practice outside of battle at anything resembling a decent rate. The fact that he had recently reached level 19 aura mastery and was a singular level away from ranking the skill up only added to the significance of aura training. Ranking up the skill to the advance tier would make all his attribute's affective values shoot up by a massive 25%, pushing him from bottom of the barrel D-rank to slightly below the middle of pack for his rank. While it would also simply increase his ability to control his aura his complete lack of active aura expending skills made this all but pointless at the moment.

While a higher mastery level would also slow down his aging once he was 18, this held no real significance to Jaune, seeing as his current predicament would be over (one way or another) long before he was 18 years old.

Returning to the topic of active skills momentarily, Jaune had resigned himself to acquiring some (one way or another) once he arrived in Mistral. While he had attempted to learn how to use aura channeling (otherwise referred to as aura infusion) by pouring his aura into Crocea Mors, his attempts had so far been unsuccessful. Even though Crocea Mors apparently had S rank aura channeling efficiency, all his attempts, both during and outside of combat, had proved fruitless. While it had been easy enough to pour aura into the weapon (to the extent that his aura almost felt like it was being drawn into the blade by itself) the aura didn't result in any of the proper effects of aura channeling. Instead of the blade growing sharper and sturdier (the latter of which being admittedly pointless for an indestructible weapon) the aura just seemed to flow off to… somewhere, vanishing without a trace the moment it entered either half of Crocea Mors.

Of course, even with his continued lack of success Jaune had continued his attempts to use aura infusion with Crocea Mors, as much because he had little else to do with his aura as it was because he hoped to acquire the skill. Seeing as aura's passive attribute enhancement cost so little aura as to be unnoticeable the only expenditure of aura he had to deal with was in regards to his aura shield which would probably go through an absolute maximum of half of his aura before he was killed from the damage that seeped through by exceeding his current 350 aura-per-second limit. While 350 points a second might look like a lot first glance, a second was becoming an increasingly long amount of time as Jaune grew stronger. In a manner that was perhaps befitting for someone whose nature forced them to seek out death's company to grow, Jaune's offensive ability far outstripped his defensive strength.

While he had never tried it, he was quite confident he was capable of piercing his own aura shield with a single solid hit with Crocea Mors which, when compounded with the fact that he was more than fast enough to attack several times in the span of a second, meant he could probably cut his own health down zero in, at most, 5 seconds, expending less than 2000 points of aura in the process. While this was a bit of an extreme case, considering his aura shield wasn't even to level 10 and he had a weapon with attack power scaling that increased faster than a Schnee's pride during puberty (extremely fast, in other words) it still meant that against an opponent of roughly equal strength a lot of damage would bleed through into health and eventually physical damage.

Of course, him dodging and blocking meant that he probably wouldn't end up taking multiple hits which likely meant a fair bit more than 2000 points of his aura would be expended before he was kill, the fact remained that a good portion of it would go to waste. This meant that even if he burned around half of his reserves every hour trying something in hopes it might work, he still wasn't harming his combat ability in any significant manner.

Letting out one last breath, Jaune opened his eyes and made to stand, wrapping one hand around Crocea Mors (which had been resting on his lap) as he did so, returning the sword to it his hip even as he stood. While he typically would have stashed it in his inventory while in a city he simply couldn't bring himself to trust the town's security. He'd learned an important lesson when an incident surrounding an attempt to bathe in a river while he was traveling had revealed the fact that his inventory was inaccessible during combat (leaving him running away from a pack of Beowolves half-naked) and he generally tried to refrain from stowing away Crocea Mors at any time he felt he might be in danger.

Drawing his blade, Jaune observed it momentarily, as if hoping the pristine metal would hold some answer to his inability to learn aura infusion. The flawless metal glinted even in the slightly dim room Jaune had rented for the night, almost seeming to gleam slightly with a faint splendor that it had lacked all those months ago, before he'd left home. Considering his opinion of his weapon prior to using observe on it, it probably wasn't surprising he had such a dull memory of it.

Taking hold of a small fraction of his aura, Jaune began slowly channeling into the blade bit by bit. While the blade seemed to shine faintly brighter (probably an effect of his aura) no other effect surfaced even as Jaune began pouring the equivalent of a hundred points of aura a second into the blade. After a few moments, having expended around a quarter of his aura, Jaune felt a surge of irritation and, after a moment, proceeded to dump as much aura as possible into Crocea Mors in as short a time period as he could manage. As if the weapon had been caught off guard, the blade momentarily glowed with intense light as Jaune's aura flowed through the weapon before, just as suddenly, the light dimmed and died as close to half Jaune's maximum aura reserves (around 8,000 points) simply disappeared.

With a groan of irritation Jaune cut off the flow of his aura, unwilling to drop himself below a quarter his full reserves in a location he considered unsafe, regardless of the fact that his reserves would be replenished in less than an hour even once fully depleted. Sheathing his sword Jaune glared at it momentarily before letting out a sigh "You really are a piece of work partner" he complained idly, somehow unable to get too aggravated with his weapon. Despite the nagging suspicion that his issue with aura channeling had something to do with the blade it had still served him extremely well and probably outmatched most other swords by several orders of magnitude even without aura channeling.

Sighing again Jaune set his blade against the wall alongside of his bed before turning off the small light illuminating his room. With a final sigh, Jaune slipped into the bed falling asleep in minutes within the quiet room.

Had Jaune remained awake even a few more minutes he might have noticed something odd. For a short moment, despite the complete lack of a light source with in the room, Crocea Mors glowed softly, so softly as to be practically unnoticeable even within the dark room. For but a moment, within the blade -or perhaps throughout it-, something ancient stirred softly for the first time in decades.

'partner'

When Jaune's instincts tore him from his slumber and the smoldering ember within his soul surged sharply into a raging bonfire Jaune was as unsurprised as he was solemn. Quickly readying himself Jaune grabbed Crocea Mors and slipped out the window, his eyes already darting around the settlement rapidly. When several haunting howls pierced the night, Jaune was one of only 2 who remained unsurprised, even as the residents of Kuroyuri awoke in shock and panic.

"Beowolves" Jaune murmured, recognizing the howls easily before turning in a specific direction and shooting off across the rooftops towards what appeared to be the densest collection of Grimm. Regardless of Jaune's opinions regarding the mindsets of the settlement's founders, it simply wasn't in his nature to let people be harmed and die in front of him. This in mind, Jaune moved as quickly as he could as the sound of combat broke out from ahead of him.

Reaching a house overlooking one Kuroyuri's entrances, Jaune found it already half overrun by what must have been more than hundred Beowolves, even as a scarce dozen ill trained guardsmen struggled ineffectually against them. Beowolves, as Grimm with strong pack instincts, worked quite well in conjunction with others of their kind meaning that although the guards (weak as they were) could probably kill 2 or 3 at time quiet easily the immense quantity of the beasts arrayed against them made it all but impossible for them to fell more than one or two collectively. The sheer numbers of Grimm present at the gate alone (to say nothing of the other packs Jaune could hear converging on the town from numerous other directions) was enough that even Jaune found it dangerous.

But that was it.

Dangerous. Against a force of Grimm that was appeared no different to an invincible horde to the guardsmen of Kuroyuri was merely a threat to Jaune. A threat no different than those that he had faced, deliberately, at every possible instant since he had left on this insane quest of his. Even as he leapt from the rooftops, landing and kicking off towards the battle with a force that shattered the stone beneath his feet, Jaune Arc's mind was perfectly at ease. Without giving the Beowolves time to even notice his presence Jaune tore into them with methodical efficiency, moving to annihilate them as quickly and as cleanly as possible. Even as his mind remained centered and focused Jaune found none of the usual thrill of combat, despite the genuine threat he was facing. Such a thing was for a fight where he alone stood at risk of death, in a fight such as this, where hundreds of lives were at stake, nothing short of the quickest and most efficient methods were permissible.

Crocea Mors tore through flesh and faux-bone armor again and again, it's phenomenal sharpness and natural affinity at killing the creatures of the dark backed with Jaune's own strength and speed letting the blade shear through the Grimm like wax paper, delivering one hit kill after one hit kill on the Grimm as the horde was cut down and reduced in size by the second. Recognizing the new threat the Beowolves futilely attempted to converge on Jaune, only quicken the rate at which he tore through them.

As if realizing lesser Grimm weren't enough a fierce roar pieced the battlefield and the Beowolves retreated slightly even as something else moved to challenge Jaune.

«Alpha Beowolf LV 92»

Covered from head to toe in sturdy spiked Armor the Alpha was considerably larger than any other Beowolf Jaune had seen, with a level that pushed the limit of Jaune's now level 32 Observe skill, at a level 30 above Jaune's own, the beast was probably the highest-level Grimm Jaune had ever met. Facing such an opponent Jaune, as if it was only natural, charged towards it without hesitation or fear.

Slipping to the side of the Grimm and dodging its bite even as he deflected one of its claws with his shield, Jaune swung Crocea Mors into its side carving out a divot of its armor as he did so. Smoothly blocking the Beowolf's counters with his shield, Jaune darted back slightly luring the Beowolf into following him before suddenly shooting forward, shield bashing the Grimm in its face and then swinging Crocea Mors unerringly, managing to carve out one of the beast's eyes before slipping back to dodge its furious counter. Retreating towards one of the buildings Jaune leapt into the air and onto one of the lower roofs as the Grimm followed him, furiously leaping upwards to pursue him even as Jaune counters, meeting it as it attempts to land with a full tilt charge and a shield bash to the face, flinging off the roof at a slightly upward angle.

Returning his shield to sheathe form and replacing it at his hip in an instant, Jaune moved, blurring across the rooftop to a different angle and leaping after the disoriented Grimm. Colliding with the Grimm, Jaune grabbed one of the spikes on its back using it and a foot firmly plant on the beast's back to forcibly rotated the Grimm mid-air all while angling Crocea Mors towards the ground. Stabbing downwards just as they impacted on the ground Jaune put his entire momentum from the fall along with all his strength into his attack. The extreme impact allowed the sword to Pierce the Beowolf's armor and sink several inches into its torso, just to the left of its spine. Without hesitating Jaune removed his blade from the Grimm and stabbed downwards in the same spot, fiercely digging deeper into it's flesh before withdrawing the blade and leaping back, dodging the Beowolf as forces itself up while clawing viciously at him.

Reconnecting with the ground, his shield once again firmly in hand, Jaune shot back towards his weakened opponent, relentlessly attacking from direction of its ruined eye. Crocea Mors connects again as Jaune succeeds in leaving yet another gash on the side of the alpha's face, prompting a reckless counter from the Grimm as it surges forward to tear his throat out, only to be met with yet another vicious shield bash. Slipping around the Grimm Jaune again impales it on its wounded back, tearing the blade to the right as he removes it, towards its spine, widening the injury even as he recovered, before following the Beowolf's back as it attempts to whirl towards him, suppressing his presence as he does so.

A single moment.

The Alpha Beowolf, caught unaware by the sudden disappearance of its opponent, freezes for but a single moment. Even as Jaune surges forward once more, his shield once more in sheathe form and both hands on Crocea Mors, it attempts to turn around, having seen through Jaune's trick after but a single split second and yet… too little to late. Crocea Mors again pierced through the Grimm slipping into the gap in its armor and, unwittingly aided by the beast's own rotation, reaches and then pierces through the Beowolf's spine.

Withdrawing his blade as the now paralyzed Grimm falls, Jaune immediately moved to finish off his weakened foe, all but ignoring its last futile struggles and finishing it off smoothly. Without celebrating his victory Jaune quickly returned to shredding apart lesser Beowolves with peak efficiency.

While the Beowolf had been much higher level than Jaune, it's combat strength had been only slightly greater than the Ursa Major Jaune had killed a month ago. Despite a 30-level gap, Beowolves were simply a weak species of Grimm, to the extent that Jaune's own physical strength slightly surpassed the Beowolf. In fact, just about the only reason he'd fought the Grimm in such a flashy manner was because it would take too long to kill it conventionally.

Jaune's analysis of the Alpha Beowolf combat ability occurred in an instant with the corner of his mind even as he mowed down most of the remaining Beowolves before shooting off onto the rooftops to where the fighting was more intense, leaving the remaining guards to deal with the stragglers as best they could.

Even as Jaune flitted across the settlement, moving from battle to battle and struggling to save as many as he could, a horrible thought began to take hold in his mind, centered around something only he, from a perspective removed from the direct threat of death -or rather from one largely unfazed by it- likely noticed.

The Grimm were far to organized.

Oh sure, the Grimm within Kuroyuri didn't fight like an army or anything, in fact they fought no differently than normal in regards to personal combat. At first glance it would seem like any other random Grimm attack, albeit on a larger scale, but it was the way the Grimm had arrived that was abnormal. Even a quick peak over the wall of the settlement had revealed no more Grimm approaching the city, something that most would find relieving yet to Jaune was only horrifying, if only due to its implications. If no more Grimm were being drawn to the city, despite the massive spike of negative emotions surging with in it, then it simply meant there were no Grimm left to be drawn in. Rather than a small Grimm attack escalating as the negative emotions of the settlements residents drew in more Grimm, it was like every single Grimm within several tens of miles of the settlement had spontaneously gathered together, waiting for more distant Grimm to arrive, before proceeding to attack the settlement from every direction simultaneously.

It drew attention to something else Jaune had overlooked until then, a certain minor yet world shattering detail he had completely ignored hidden within his Oracle. The Grimm hadn't attacked Vale directly after the explosion, despite the fact that stragglers should have been drawn to the city in literal minutes by the massive influx of negativity. For nearly 3 whole hours not a single Grimm had shown up before they proceeded to completely flood the city all at once. On that note, there was no damn reason Grimm strong enough to overwhelm a family of hunters, 2 of which were A-rank, should have been drawn to a hamlet of a settlement with barely 100 residents. Yet instead of being drawn to the mass of negativity that was the city of Vale, literal dozens of A and B-rank Grimm had descended on his home, like they somehow knew it would require that much force to wipe the settlement out or were otherwise actually targeting his family.

On that note, even the composition of Grimm attacking Kuroyuri seemed far too effective to be a coincidence. Masses of E-rank Grimm with the occasional D-rank scattered around, Grimm weak enough that being spotted or reported before now wouldn't have provoked any real level of response or investigation from hunters or the kingdoms other military branches and yet was more than enough to crush Kuroyuri. It had been barely 25 minutes since the first Grimm had appeared and Kuroyuri was already on its last legs, even with Jaune's best efforts. Most of the surviving residents had converged near the center of the settlement and were just barely holding on.

Having centralized his own efforts around the survivors Jaune halted for a single moment as a horde of Grimm gathered and surged towards the weary survivors, seeking to crush the hastily put together formation of guards and armed civilians. Without giving it a second glance Jaune continued eliminating Grimm approaching the survivors as quickly as he could, disregarding the horde entirely. A moment later the entire horde was dead, cut down by an untraceable blur in a fraction of a second. The blur returned into the center of the ragged formation as quickly as it had appeared. While Jaune didn't bother looking, busy as he was, he knew what he would find if he looked at the spot the blur had stopped.

He would find a man who appeared to be in his mid-60's, clutching his chest in pain and shaking in exhaustion. The man in question had been the irregular aura signature Jaune had detected when he first arrived in the settlement. While the man possessed Aura reserves nearly twice Jaune's own and a level beyond the detection of Jaune's observe skill the man was, despite only fighting in what have been shorts bursts that summed up to maybe a minute's worth of time, exhausted and clearly in pain. Even without seeing the man's status sheet Jaune had managed to put two and two together and realized that for some reason the man's aura wasn't flowing properly to certain parts of his body. While it flowed correctly to his limbs, head, and lower torso, the flow of Aura within an area centered around the man's heart was in horrible shape, even to an amateur's eyes.

Considering his speed when he did move, Jaune figured he probably use to be at least a greatly above average B-rank hunter if not an A-rank one. Regardless of his former prowess, his actual value in this fight was probably lower than Jaune's. Even if most of his body was as strong as an A-rank hunter's his heart was incapable of keeping up with the demands of the rest his body, and even a few seconds of motion at higher speeds was almost more than his heart could handle. Against an endless horde of weaker Grimm, the man had to save whatever strength he could for moments when the Grimm were crunched close enough together than he could cut down a large amount in an extremely efficient manner.

Jaune on the other hand could operate at fully capacity non-stop for long period of time between his fairly high endurance score and the simple fact that effectively being a video game character tended to fudge some conventional restrictions. While his stamina wasn't necessarily unlimited, things like cramps, oxygen deficiency and muscle tears were translated into miniscule amounts Health damage, meaning that so long as he had the willpower to keep moving (*cough* gamer's mind) he could continue to do so at a minimal cost. So, even though Jaune was panting like a dog and down a few hundred points of health, he was still fully capable of going all out for quite a bit longer. That said, it felt weird how his muscles kept shifting from increasingly high levels of soreness and pain to being perfectly fine once they passed a specific threshold, were counted as damage, and were promptly negated in exchange for a bit of health.

Unexpected functions of his semblance aside, Jaune was growing increasingly worried. Returning to the subject of a potential culprit behind this attack, Jaune had begun worrying that if his guess was correct, a portion of that plan might pertain to dealing with largely crippled former hunter. While the never-ending mobs of cannon fodder may have been sufficient in bringing him down eventually, the numbers of Grimm were finally (blessedly) beginning to wane. While Jaune's presence could be considered an unexpected factor, it seemed a little flimsy for someone who otherwise set the stage so carefully (if Jaune was correct and this wasn't just a random attack) that some random D-rank aura user would be able to prevent complete annihilation. While it was possible that a potential culprit would be satisfied with severe damage and mass casualties he somehow felt, considering the occurrences of his oracle, that a person somehow ruling over Grimm would accept nothing less than complete annihilation.

Perhaps it was simply his nature as a Gamer speaking, but as the number of Grimm fell, first below one hundred, then down to a few dozen, then to none, as he himself impaled the last Ursa and the surviving civilians began cheering in relief, a single phrase began to increasingly dominate his mind. A universal concept of fighting games with few exceptions and the reason he remained on full alert even as the battle apparently ended.

When a horrible cry, somehow more intimidating than that of the hundreds of Grimm that had descended upon Kuroyuri tore through the streets, cutting down the civilian's cheers in their throats even as they scrambled to reacquire their makeshift weapons, fear returning to their faces, and Jaune turned to face what he'd already known was coming, that phrase echoed again in his mind once more.

'Boss battle'

«Nuckelavee lv ?»

Fear. Despite the somewhat childish way Jaune had referred to the Grimm now approaching him, letting out heart rending screeches of rage and promises of death, Jaune felt genuine fear. For the first time, he stood staring death in the face knowing he would not, could not, win. Unlike his previous battles, where there was at least some small opportunity, some miniscule weakness he could exploit or opening he could find, his opponent was simply too strong. There was simply nothing he could do; he was going to die. Even as he used Gamer's mind to suppress his fear and despair, working upon pure logic he came to the same conclusion. There was nothing in his skill set that would let him walk out of this fight alive. Panic returning, he retreated, trying to distance himself from the Grimm so he could do something, anything, despite knowing it was all but futile.

He didn't make it more than half a dozen feet before an unbelievable force bore into him from behind, tearing Crocea Mors from his hand and launching him through one side of a building out the other, bouncing several times on the cobblestone ground before impacting another wall and finally coming to a stop as the taste of blood filled his mouth. Ignoring the pain in his body Jaune spat out the blood in his mouth before freezing in shock. The implications of tasting blood hitting Jaune like a hammer a mere moment before a dull, gender neutral voice confirmed his fears.

"Health has been reduced to zero, Gamer's body has been temporarily disabled" the voice droned.

Jaune froze, dumbly concluding that he'd received a verbal announcement because he'd disable popups during combat, before shaking himself and forcing himself to focus rather than attempting to escape reality. While he taken a bit of damage fighting the other Grimm he had had at least 7000 health points left. Had, before he had taken a single attack that dropped that to zero and still injured him enough that it hurt to stand. As screams and the sound of battle broke out from behind him Jaune made to return before freezing. While he still had plenty of aura he was still injured and tired, the burden on his body no longer mitigated by health points, and on top of that Crocea Mors had been knocked away when he'd been hit by the Grim-

At that moment, as if to refute him, Crocea Mors landed blade first in the ground 3 feet away from him, having apparently been knocked into a high parabola by the Grimm's attack and only just returned to the ground. Recovering and sheathing his traitorously loyal sword with a slight grimace, Jaune glanced back towards the sounds of the battle, all the Nuckelavee's screeches growing steadily softer as the beast rampaged unmatched.

No matter how much he hated himself for it, he couldn't help. He had to run. If he died here no one would be able to stop the tragedy in Vale from occurring, no one would be able to save his family from being killed. He had tried and done all he could but he couldn't die until he'd saved his home.

Even as Jaune made that shaky resolution a made to flee a voice, heard above the roar combat against all odds, forced its way into Jaune's eardrums "Mom!" a voice Jaune somehow recognized as belonging to the boy he'd seen just yesterday "Please no!" he cried desperately as Jaune froze stock still.

'I can't do anything' Jaune insisted to himself 'I can't…'

"Mom!" the boy screamed again, his voice drowned in desperation.

'If I go there won't be anyone to save Vale' Jaune reminded himself desperately.

'If you don't, who will be there to save them?'

"Damn it" Jaune mumbled, tightening his grip on Crocea Mors

'If you run now, who's to say you won't do so again, when Vale is a stake?'

"Damn it! Damn it! Damn IT!" he roared helplessly even as he spun around, drawing Crocea Mors.

Ignoring his injuries Jaune sprinted back towards the battle just in time to see the crippled huntsmen eviscerate one of the monstrous Grimm's legs causing the horse that made up its lower half to fall to its knees. Hope momentarily filled Jaune before the hunter stumbled, coughing up blood and falling to his knees, clutching his chest in visible agony. Roaring with rage the Nuckelavee batted the huntsman with its arm sending him flying into a wall where he collapsed unmoving.

'what do I do?' Jaune panicked, his eyes darting around, desperately seeking an answer he believed no one would give him.

'Trust me' a voice that made no sound assured him, resonating within his very soul and filling him with warmth.

Jaune exhaled a single time as his fear and doubt inexplicably fled. Gripping the blade of Crocea Mors with both hands Jaune charged towards the Nuckelavee with a certainty betraying the fact that he was moving on mere impulse and 2 simple words from something he shouldn't trust and yet couldn't bring himself not to.

Locking eyes with the still kneeling Grimm in front of him Jaune Arc drew on every drop of aura remaining in his body and without hesitating for a moment pours nearly all of it into his blade, leaving only enough aura to maintain its passive effects, forgoing even his aura shield for just a little more power. This time, instead of vanishing inexplicably into the sword, his aura clings to the blade brightly as what feels like every drop of aura Jaune had ever attempted to infuse into the sword bursts to the surface at once, covering the blade in a furious white and golden light. Confined within the sword, the light of his soul rages, unwilling to be constrained or restricted. Yet even as Jaune struggled to maintain hold on the burning aura, something supersedes him, gently pushing him aside and taking over, as the aura within the blade stops raging and stinging in his hands, solidifying and become momentarily stable. One attack, Jaune suddenly knows. One attack is all he has to make this count.

The Nuckelavee screeches again as Jaune nears it, all too aware of the tremendous power seeping from Crocea Mors. Its arms shoot out at Jaune even as he charges it, seeking to kill the that which threatens it. 'One attack', the not-voice reminds him softly, he cannot counter and without his shield he cannot block, dodging completely is impossible. Jaune moves without hesitation, tilting his body sideways and slipping through the beasts extending arms, Jaune ignores the feeling of flesh being torn as one of the monster's claws tear a divot of flesh out of his back, focusing fully on his still immobilized opponent. Leaping into the air Jaune let out a wordless roar as he swung Crocea Mors towards the twisted visage of the Nuckelavee even as it let out another blood curdling screech.

When Crocea Mors impacted point first with the monster's face night momentarily turned to day as an unbelievable amount of power was released in a single moment directly into the Nuckelavee face, tearing apart the monster's head like it was shale and continuing on to obliterate the majority of its lower body as an immense shockwave tore through the ruined city.

Still carried by the momentum of his charge Jaune bounces once and then twice on the ground before finally skidding to a stop, all strength leaving him save enough to keep a grip on his blade. As his eyes drift shut and darkness overcomes him Jaune just barely felt the sound of words reverberating in his soul, spoken in a 'voice' that sounded just as exhausted and expended as Jaune felt and yet still radiated a feeling of approval that set Jaune at ease

'Not bad partner, not bad at all'

To those last words, Jaune managed a slight grin even as his conscious faltered and then faded into black.

Chapter 3: A Hero's Burden: End.

Going to keep author's note fairly short this time to make it more likely that people will actually bother to read it XD.

First, please trust me when I say I'm not going to make Jaune completely OP, compared to the opponents he'll eventually be facing in his little quest at least. The Nuckelavee was a mid to high C-rank Grimm that Jaune only beat (at the cost of grievous injury at that) because of a literally perfect opening and opportunity, it's normally the type of thing that could kill him from full health with literally 2 solid hits at this point.

Secondly, Crocea Mors is indeed sentient, something I lightly hinted through it's apparent refusal to be wielded by those not of the Arc line. The exact nature of its sentience and currently dormant abilities will come to light later, but I will say most of them (including supercharged aura infusion) will be inaccessible more often than not even once Jaune reaches A-rank level or above.

Finally, interaction with Ren and Nora will occur next chapter, so don't worry about them not making an appearance.