A Twist of Fate
Chapter 8
Jaune stepped out of his hiding spot, slowly moving closer to the group of bandits and their new target. So far none of them noticed him, but he could only assume the archer had taken notice as he saw her shift slightly in his direction. He didn't really know what he was doing, but he knew he couldn't let a fight break out. As it was he knew if there were any more Grimm in the area they would be showing up any minute now. Though, he didn't know if there were any Grimm left so close.
He may have killed some, but he knew there were nowhere as many as he'd seen last time he'd been in the woods. Well, it felt that way, but he wasn't sure. But it didn't matter right now, he just needed to act quickly to defuse the situation before him. If he could just get to the tree line without making it look like he was going to attack. He really didn't want to get shot because of a misunderstanding.
"Well look what we have here." One of the bandits said, dropping his rifle onto his shoulder while several other men moved to his side as they ogled the archer. One of the men gave a long whistle as he came up beside the first one.
"What a pretty little thing. I wonder what she'd be worth." The hidden onlooker felt sick at the man's words as he tightened his grip on his sword. He no longer cared about stopping a fight from breaking out. All he wanted now was to knock those idiot's teeth out. But he held himself back. He would need to get closer, so he could draw the bandits attention. "Gotta say though, she needs more up top."
The man who spoke mimed holding breast in front of his chest. The bandits around him laughed save for one woman who scoffed at him.
"Stop being stupid, having a big pair of breast or being flat as a bored doesn't matter if…" The woman was cut short as a blue lightning bolt crash into her face, sending her flying away. Jaune had to pause to process what he saw. He wasn't the only one as the bandits froze. It took a second, but they slowly turned to the archer who stood, bow at the ready, a strange coiled arrow set on the string. She held a fierce glare at the poor bandits.
"Nothing up top, flat as a bored…" The archer repeated mocking the bandit's voices before gritting her teeth and growling. "I am going to make you eat those words!"
Before the bandits could react to the threat, the archer let loose her weird arrow which turned into a lightning bolt, striking home in the center of one of the men's chest. Jaune couldn't help himself from letting out a small laugh at the poor fool's misfortune before he remembered that he'd planned to stop a fight from breaking out.
He thought about staying put and watching as the archer took out the rest of the bandits, happy to see her jump into the air before firing several bolts of lightning as more bandits fell and landed in the center of the group. She spun on her heels knocking one girl's rifle into the air before driving an arrow she drew from her quiver into her gut. The girl folded over the attack and was sent flying into a tree where she dropped like a sack of potatoes.
Jaune winced for the now unconscious girl, knowing she probably wasn't going to wake up for a while. He turned back to see the archer had vanished before reappearing behind one of the bandits and blasting him with two bolts of lightning. It was nice to see the idiots getting their do, he felt the more rational part of his mind tell him to stop the fight. He sighed before coming into the clearing. It took him a second but once he made it into the open he tackled the last bandit standing, saving him from a lightning bolt to the face. The two crashed to the ground, the man under Jaune gasping in surprise before Jaune flipped him over and put him in an arm lock to hold him down. The man screamed in pain and tried to escape Jaune's hold only to receive more pressure.
Jaune turned back to see the archer had her bow drawn back, glaring at him. He flinched and threw his free arm up in the air.
"Hey, don't aim at me!" He shouted in surprise while the archer continued to hold her glare on him. "I'm not here to pick a fight with you!"
The archer cocked a brow at his claim before flicking a glance down at the bandit under him.
"Who are you? Why were you watching these bandits?" He knew she saw him leave his hiding spot from behind the tree line earlier, he just didn't think about what that might mean for him. He was stupid for not realizing the consequences for hiding and jumping out like he did. He gulped but nodded to the archer.
"My name's Jaune Arc. I was watching the bandits because I heard the gun fire. I thought someone was in trouble, so I came to help, but when I saw it was bandits I was going to leave." Jaune sounded nervous as he explained himself to the woman. She pulled her bow string back, which told him he made a mistake by doing that. "But then you showed up. I planned to intervein and stop a fight from breaking out. Which I failed to do, mostly because it seemed more amusing for them to receive some punishment after what they said about you."
The archer looked in mild curiosity at his words before lowering her bow to the bandit struggling under Jaune. He shifted to drive his knee into the man's, causing him to stop.
"If you thought they should be beaten, why did you save that man?" He'd been waiting for that question as he bent the mans arm making him yelp in pain.
"Simple, I want to know why he's near Eden, the village just beyond the woods here." He nodded in the direction of the village. "I know what it means when bandits are so close to a village, but I want to hear exactly what these guys are going to do. I saved him from you so he could at least talk."
Jaune pulled hard on the mans arm, causing him groan in pain as he tried not to scream. The teenager didn't look back to the archer, but judging from her silence he could tell she was thinking over his words. She let out a huff before walking up beside him and stomped her foot right next to the bandit's head. He yelped and squirmed as he looked up at her while she glared down at him.
"Well, you heard the boy. Tell him why you're so close to his village." She held one of her arrows in an ice pick grip, directly over the man's head. His eyes widened in shock and Jaune couldn't help feeling worried. He needed the man to talk and letting him get stabbed in the head didn't seem too helpful. Still, he remained silent and let the archer lower the arrow slowly. The man began to shake before finally giving in.
"Alright! Alright! We were scouting the village to raid! We needed Dust and some medical equipment! Our boss told us to look for gaps in the villages defenses! We were here to set up for the raid later tonight!" Jaune's grip loosened ever so slightly giving the man the chance he'd been waiting for. He grunted and pushed the younger male back to get away from the archer as he come up on top of Jaune. He reeled his arm back only for the arrow to pierce it and throw him to the side.
Meanwhile Jaune could only think about the man's words and how he said the raid was going to happen tonight. The thought alone horrified him before he realized what this meant. He slowly pushed himself back to his feet as the bandit screamed while holding his arm as the archer kept her bow at the ready. Jaune walked past her and grabbed the bandit by his collar.
"Where are you attacking?" The man froze at the strange calm nature of the boy questioning him. He didn't answer though, so Jaune did the only thing he could. He reached out and grabbed the mans bloody arm and began to squeeze it. "Where?"
He asked again, this time the bandit answered.
"On the road just south of here, past the large house just at the edge of the villages boarder!"
'That's my house!' Jaune thought in shock before gritting his teeth and dropping the man. After dropping him he drove his knee into the man's face, knocking him unconscious. He felt his body shake as he remembered his father's words. 'Bandits will kill anyone if they know they can. Never forget that Jaune, bandits are worse than the Grimm because they know what they're doing.'
Jaune's stomach churned as he remembered his father's blood covered face and hands. He wanted to throw up at the memory but stopped himself, knowing full well now wasn't the time for that. He turned back to the archer who huffed seemingly satisfied with the Bandits new-found silence.
"I have to go. The house he mentioned is mine and the path leads straight to the village. If they were preparing to attack that means they'll go after my family first, so they can't warn the village!" Jaune turned to run back home only for the archer to appear in front of him stopping him.
"And what are you going to do? Run there and hope everything's alright?" She questioned him while crossing her arms. "If you go, what would you accomplish alone? Either way, I can't simply let you leave. Not without my aid anyways." Jaune was caught off guard as the woman smiled at him. "I. Arjuna, the Awarded Hero, shall aid you in the defense of your village."
She reached a hand out grabbing hold of Jaune's collar of his and jumping high into the sky. Jaune thought about screaming in surprise but found it difficult to do with his shock. All he could think about was how strange the situation had turned out.
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Jaune grunted as Arjuna tossed him to the side as they landed before his house. The jump wasn't to long of a flight, only taking them about 3 minutes to get to Jaune's home. He did have to point out the right direction for Arjuna to go but that didn't do much to delay anything. He collected himself as he stood up and ran to the front door, throwing the door open with a crash. He skittered to a stop in front of the living room to see his father staring wide eyed at him as he sat on the sofa eating a bag of chips.
"Jaune?" He was surprised at his son's sudden arrival as he tried hiding the chips. "You're back! I thought you'd be gone longer."
Jeremiah smiled as Jaune ran up and grabbed him by his shoulders.
"Enough with the pleasantries! I saw Bandits!" His father's smile fell instantly as his eyes seemed to harden.
"Where?" He explained everything to him while his father ran to his room to grab his gear. While in the frenzy Jaune couldn't help noticing that his father was the only one home. When the man returned in his armor and spear in hand he explained the situation. "Your mother went with everyone into town. She said it wouldn't do them any good to just wait for you to return. This is good though, I can message your mother to keep everyone in town. Especially Gilgamesh and the others. I'd rather have them there to protect your mother and sisters than here."
Jaune nodded at his father as he messaged his family only for Arjuna to clear her throat behind them. The two turned as Arjuna stared out the window on the second story hallway.
"It would seem that man lied about the time of the attack." The two men came up to see a huge group of bandits surrounding the house, each armed and angry. Jaune couldn't help gulping at the sight. He didn't like their odds. Jeremiah cursed before looking to Arjuna.
"Get on the roof, support me with your bow." Arjuna looked ready to argue only for Jeremiah to turn to his son with a somber look on his face. "I'm sorry Jaune, but I'll need you to fight with me."
Jaune flinched at his father's request before nodding in agreement.
"Alright, but dad I don't think I can kill anyone." His hands felt sweaty at the thought of taking a life.
"Don't worry, you won't have to. Just keep busy as best you can. I'll take care of the rest." Jeremiah paused as he moved to the stairs. "I'm sorry you have to go through this again."
Jaune felt his stomach knot up at the horrible memory. Arjuna looked to him questionably as he gulped.
"What does he mean by that?" Jaune chose to ignore her and simply stepped past her with a frown.
"When I was a 10 I followed my dad to the edge of town once and saw him kill a group of bandits who were causing problems in town." Jaune's voice was flat as he followed his father. Arjuna didn't say anything, simply hummed to herself in thought while they stepped outside. When they exited the domicile several of the bandits seemed to take this as their chance and shouldered their rifles while others readied their blades. Before a fight could break out one of the bandits raised their hand and called them all to stop.
"HOLD! We don't need to fight." A man at the center of the bandits shouted. He was obviously the leader as he pushed his way to the front of the group. He was a pretty mean looking man with a single emerald eye with a rag wrapped around the other like an eye patch. His hair was a mess of black with several long braids hanging over his shoulder. He had a scar running along his right cheek which was hidden at the top by his eye patch and dressed in the same bandit get up as the rest save for a long green coat hanging over his shoulders.
"If we fight now we'll only draw the Grimm to us, so let's try settling this peacefully." The man looked to Jeremiah with a cocky grin. "What say you? Surrender and prevent any blood shed or get gunned down. Your…"
Before the leader could finish Jeremiah charged at the man, thrusting his spear for his throat. Before it reached him though it was deflected with a loud clang of metal on metal as a man appeared before the leader. He was again dressed like the other bandits, the only difference being his strange weapon which looked to be a mix between an old Atlesian rifle and sword with the long blade under the barrel that curved around the bottom of the grip. The man skids back from Jeremiah and shoulders his rifle, a smile of glee on his face. The leader behind him laughed before raising his hand over head.
"Negotiations have broken down, open fire!"
Jaune's eyes widened as he kicked over the wooden lawn table and dove behind it as gun fire rang out. He saw Arjuna leap into the air, firing several lightning bolts towards the crowd as screams soon followed. He wanted to scream but pushed it aside as he jumped out from behind the table and charged the bandits. He had no time to be afraid, let alone scream. If he didn't act now he was going to die.
He couldn't do that, he knew if he died his family be sad, and his two masters would be furious! Why that bothered him, he didn't know nor cared as he crashed into the bandits. He just hoped all the training he'd gone through would be worth something. He slashed out, knocking one bandit down before dodging several Dust rounds. The odd thing was they seemed slow to him, before cutting the riflemen's weapons in two.
He ducked under a slash from an axe before jumping back to put some distance between him and the men. He readied his blade to block a downward strike from three other bandit's blades. He expected his legs to buckle, but found the bandits reeling as he slashed back, parrying their attack. He was surprised by how weak the bandits seemed as he slashed out knocking one down after the next not sure how he was doing it with such ease. He felt his fears fade ever so slightly at this as he prepared to take out the rest of the bandits before him.
End
AN/ ok, I will admit, this took forever to do. Also I doubt I did any good here. I feel it isn't very good, but that is only because I couldn't figure out the best things to do and the original way I had it written was lost after the file some how got corrupted. Why I don't know nor care but this chapter seems off. I also originally planned the bandit attack to happen later but couldn't do that seeing as suspense isn't something I know how to do. So I make a copout to just throw the bandit attack into two chapters. Note this was my way of showing how messed up remnant is. Something I know without a doubt is true, even if the show is trying to be cheery. Either way I want to note something for those who may not know. But this story is a side story so I never intended it to get the focus I had been giving it. Another reason for the delayed update. (but the delay is mostly work and file lose) But yeah I will not update as much as I did. I need to focus on my main stories which I have also delayed with. Either way sorry for the wait and thank you.
Do leave a review and tell me what you happy little reader peoples brains think of this chapter and story idea.
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