Chapter 8: The New Status Quo

The fires continued to spread unabated as the fight between the two Grimmlords waged on. Jaune and Wolf continued their pursuit which was made even more difficult by the stray Grimm avoiding the fight and coming upon them. Not to mention the Nevermore still raining down feathers whenever it got a good shot in.

As Jaune cut down another Grimm he made a list of his situation:

Racing against the clock in order to stop a cataclysmic event.

Fighting down hordes of enemies that seem to pop up out of nowhere.

Taking cover from an aerial enemy because you don't have a means of taking it out…

*BOOM*

.Explosions

After thinking about it Jaune made a mental revelation.

'…so this is what being in a Spruce Willis movie is like.'

Shaking himself from his thoughts Jaune "we need to find a way to take out that Nevermore" if he had been paying attention he would have seen Wolf given him a deadpan look.

"Can you call him!?" he asked as they took shelter behind a tree.

Wolf seemed to pause at the question before complying and released another howl, this one even louder than before.

A few hundred meters away Alpha glared angrily at White who had taken to the skies. The large wolf Grimmlord had taken some amount of damage from the aerial barrage and unlike White they showed no signs of healing. White on the other hand looked just as he did before the fight started only with a few dirt marks.

White leveled a finger at his fellow Grimmlord and Alpha tensed and just as predicted a small ball of Green light swirled at his finger tips. Just then both of their ears twitched as Wolf's howl could be faintly heard. Alpha immediately turned his head to the side and White, ever curious, shifted his gaze in that direction slowly.

What they saw through the small fires spread in their wake was the Nevermore firing at something in the distance. Alpha immediately ran towards it leaving White to stare at it for a while before eventually following at a slower pace.

Meanwhile Jaune has had just about enough of that bird and so climbed the tree they were hiding behind to get a better shot. That's right, he's still not sure how but he managed to shoot a laser beam from his hand. Not to mention he saw Wolf, White, Alpha and his inner Grimm do it so how hard could it be?

The tree wasn't that tall so he made it to the top in a matter of minutes. The Nevermore kept circling the entire time but as soon as Jaune's head popped up among the leaves it gave a screech and turned to dive bomb.

"Moment of truth" he spoke anxiously and held his palm out.

On the outside he appeared to calmly concentrate but on the inside 'please work, please work, please work, please work, please work, please work.'

To his immense relief, awe and satisfaction he saw red energy slowly swirling into a ball in the palm of his hands. The process was slow and with very second the ball continued to grow in size until it was the size of a grapefruit. Then with a high pitched hum a blast of red shot from his hand and towards the Grimm.

The Nevermore's eyes widened and it attempted to veer off when something hit it from behind and exploded on its back. The explosion stunned it for a moment but that was all it took for the beam to hit. There was a resounding explosion and the avian Grimm plummeted in a haze of flames. The crash managed to shake the ground for two seconds as trees toppled over.

Jaune looked at the downed Nevermore then his palm there was moment of silence before "WHOOOW" he celebrated "that was awesome!"

Just then there was movement and the Grimm started moving albeit shakily and Jaune deflated "so much for living in the suspense of disbelief" he muttered before extended his palm again but not before noticing the black line that ran through the Nevermore's mask.

The Nevermore only managed to look up when a red energy beam literally tore its head off.

"Boom, headshot!"

What? He just fired a laser beam from his hands…twice! After all the crap that's been happening he deserves a break an-

"What the…" his words trailed off as the ashes from the Nevermore trailed off the body in his direction.

It wasn't that the smoke was headed in his direction that surprised him, it was the rate at which it came. He saw the massive Grimm which was about the size of a Bullhead disintegrate in about ten seconds. The literal cloud of miasma headed in his direction like a tsunami threatening to wash him away.

Jaune's eyes bugged out "meep" was all he said before it washed over him like a swarm of angry bees.

Back on the ground Wolf was being cornered by some larger Grimm but despite this she doesn't back down but before she could do anything a blur barreled through the forest and in the blink of an eye the Grimm were eviscerated. Wolf relaxed as Alpha stood before her with half the body of a Boarbatusk in its mouth.

Above them White hovered before the receding black cloud with rapt attention. When it finally receded he could see the strange Grimm he had come to be very intrigued by. Jaune himself was….well the term Jaune would use would be that he 'felt like a million Lien.'

He had always felt revitalized whenever he absorbed another Grimm but that Nevermore made everything up until that point tame. A thought came to him and he pulled up his hoodie to look down at the hole but to his disappointment it remained unchanged. The smaller hole on the other hand was noticeably smaller.

Jaune frowned, he understood that it wouldn't be an easy task absorbing enough Grimm ashes to help regenerate (and really when is anything easy for him?) but if that massive Grimm only resulted in partially healing the small cut then.

'Just how much Grimm am I going to have to kill?'

His thoughts were interrupted when he finally took notice of White's presence "oh, you're back" he smiled slightly but then it turned to skepticism "please tell me you made peace with Alpha."

White simply blinked but Jaune noticed his frown deepened silently to show his displeasure of the large Grimmlord. Jaune sighed with his head in his hands "great~" he drawled sarcastically "just what I need, two super Grimm trying to kill each other for no reason."

White's brow furrowed and somehow Jaune knew why "yes I know he attacked first but that's still no excuse. Look at what you guys did!" he exclaimed pointing to the path of carnage they carved through the forest.

Still White looked unrepentant and folded his arms. Jaune found it amazing how human this Grimm seemed not just in appearance but attitude as well. Deciding that any further conversation about it was moot at this point he sighed.

"Come on" with that he jumped down and White followed.

The moment he and White landed Alpha stood defensively in front of Wolf and snarled at the bat Grimmlord. White hissed in response and looked ready to attack when Jaune finally spoke uh shouted

"Are you kidding me!?" All three Grimmlords looked to the uncharacteristically fuming blonde "maybe you guys haven't noticed but the entire forest is on fire!"

White and Alpha looked around and it took them a few moments to realize that they were literally surrounded by a blazing inferno.

"So how about you two make peace with one another" they stared at him and Jaune stuck Crocea Mors in the ground "NOW!"

They both flinched at his tone, looked at each other and one hiss and a growl later looked away in disgust.

"….close enough. Do you mind taking us to your cave White?"

The Grimmlord looked to him then the Wolves "..them too" he sighed, seriously what was their deal?

The bat looked uncertain at this "I swear they won't cause you any problems" he placated.

Alpha glared at them and huffed before turning to leave "I'm pretty sure you guys blew up the cave" he said folding his arms.

The large Wolf stopped in its tracks, eyes widening upon realization before turning to face the bat with renewed hatred only to be smacked across the snout. Alpha looked to Wolf who growled then stood beside Jaune.

'At least I'm not alone' he thought.

Jaune had no doubt that if she was bipedal Wolf would be crossing her arms right now. There was a tense moment of silence before White walked over to Jaune grabbed under his arms before taking off. Looking at them go, Wolf yelped as Alpha grabbed her by the back of the neck and shot off in pursuit.

None of them noticed the Grimm a few ways away who bore witness to their actions from the safety of one of the few trees left unscathed by the fire. It was an impish humanoid Grimm reminiscent of a spider monkey. There was a long line drawn across the front of its mask. The Grimm narrowed its eyes and made to follow them when-

*Squelch*

With eyes wide it went stiff and glanced down to see a hand coming out of its chest. The last thing the Grimm saw before it died was its own heart being crushed. The Grimm turned to ash right then and there to immediately be absorbed by its killer. A pair of ruby eyes were trained on the White and Jaune's retreating form before following.

It took twenty minutes to reach the destination. As they came upon the familiar mountainous caves Jaune realized a flaw in his plans.

'How are they going to get up there?'

The lowest cave was at least 50 ft up and he's sure White won't want to give them a lift if he could even carry Alpha, which Jaune isn't sure about.

"Uh, can you stop for a minute?"

White complied and they watched as Alpha ran onto the clearing and stopped once he saw the mountain and the caves. Dropping Wolf on the ground he turned to glare at the airborne Grimmlord and hybrid in what could be described as a deadpan expression.

"Put me down" Jaune spoke and the Grimmlord hesitated "don't worry he won't attack me"

'I hope'

Eventually he was lowered unto the ground where Alpha was still glaring at him. His gaze shifted to the side and Jaune followed to see the distant smoke and orange hue barely lighting the horizon now that they were far away.

"Aw come on! You can't blame me for what happened to the cave" he whined

Alpha's gaze lingered on the forest before returning to Jaune who was now glaring. He looked at White and growled inching a little closer as if to lunge. The bat Grimmlord hissed at him lowly.

"Okay time out" Jaune went between the two "why don't we all just calm down and not destroy this place too" to make his point he drew Crocea Mors, ready to stop them with force if necessary.

Wolf went before Alpha and shook her head at him. Jaune saw this and nodded "good, now why do you two even hate each other? You've never even met!" he exclaimed.

Alpha got his attention and gestured to White then Wolf.

This got Jaune thinking 'So Wolf had something to do with him trying to kill White? But why…'

Wait, there can only be one reason for that "White" he turned to the bat Grimmlord "did you hurt Wolf?" he pointed to the aforementioned Grimmlord.

White looked to the smaller wolf Grimmlord for a moment then to Jaune and blinked.

Jaune pinched the bridge of his mask "I'll take that as a yes" he groaned then turned to Alpha "look can you please forgive him just this once? I can promise he'll never do it again and if he does then….I'll help you beat him up."

White's eyes widened and after a moment Alpha snorted in what Jaune believes to be agreement.

"And White…"

*Whoosh*

Anything Jaune was about to say got cut off as White took flight, kicking up dust as he flew into his cave.

"Huh" Jaune turned around only to see the wolves already leaving him in favor of moving closer to the base of the mountain.

"Why do they always do that?" he slumped and went to follow them but stopped to glance into the forest.

Jaune could've sworn he heard something moving in there. His eyes scanned through the dark foliage with ease thanks to night vision. Eventually his attention was directed elsewhere when a loud crash was heard behind him.

'What is he doing?' he thought frantically as he saw alpha blasting blue energy into the mountain side.

Behind him red eyes peaked from behind the cover of the trees and watched his retreating form.

Meanwhile Jaune ran towards where Alpha was only to stop when Wolf blocked his path. He would've asked what was going on but got his answer. Alpha wasn't just blasting the mountain like he originally thought.

He's drilling into it' he realized.

Sure enough the concentrated beam started tunneling into the rocky vase. After a few minutes Jaune realized that the tunnel looked similar to the shortcut in the previous cave.

"So that's how he did it"

Jaune looked to his hands, because of all the commotion earlier he'd almost forgotten that he could now shoot beams of energy out of his hands! (As hard to believe as it sounds).

This changes everything about how he'll go about fighting the Grimm. He took down a colossal Nevermore with two shots. TWO SHOTS! At this rate he could take on any Grimm he comes across no, with this much power he could…..he could…

At this thought his power drunk internal monologue ceased and a somber mood overcame him as he realized he personally knew of three other beings who could do the same thing, four if he counted the so called 'king' of the Grimmlands and he could bet there are more that came from.

If these Grimmlords banded together and lead an army of Grimm then chances are they could seriously destroy the four Kingdoms and humanity on a whole. So why do they stay here? What exactly do they get out of being here?

It's not even a matter of fighting humanity since he learned that they don't attack humans. Even so why do they just hang around in caves…alone? Even his inner Grimmlord was curious enough to explore so why not them? It's thoughts like this that Jaune swear if he didn't come along then they would still be doing nothing inside caves all day.

The boy shook away his thoughts as Alpha and Wolf disappeared in the newly constructed cavern. Jaune wisely decided not to join them, instead opted to climb to the nearest cave on the side of the mountain.

The climb up took roughly ten minutes. The cave he chose wasn't nearly as expansive as White's and unfortunately didn't have a water source. That was alright though, he really just needed a quiet place to relax.

So just like before he stared at the ceiling and let his mind wander until

….

"Welcome back"

This time Jaune found himself staring at the amber eyes through slitted holes in a standing position. It was a nice change from waking up lying down.

"Hey" Jaune greeted

"You did it"

"Did what?"

"Absorbed enough to heal"

Jaune blinked "oh that" he frowned "how is it that the Nevermore didn't do more? I mean when that other Grimm bit my neck it healed completely, like I never even got bit" he argued frustrated.

The Grimmlord took a moment to consider it "maybe it has something to do with when you got the wounds" he figured.

"What do you mean?"

"You got the neck wound when we were already fused and you have my regeneration but you got the hole in your chest and stomach before. I'm thinking that would take more power since the regeneration would only heal any wounds you get after the fusion. It would treat anything before as if it were normal so.."

"That's why I need to absorb other Grimm"

"Exactly" he nodded "think of the other Grimm as material to fix a broken fence."

Well when he puts it like that it makes sense, now then "yeah so about the shooting energy beams thing. How does that even work? The last I checked Grimm aren't supposed to be able to do that."

"I don't know" he shrugged honestly "but it's something all Grimmlords know how to do"

Jaune already knew that "so is there like a limit to how many I can fire? Does it use Aura" he added more to himself than to the Grimmlord.

"Grimm don't have Aura" he spoke but even he considered it.

"I know but when I shot the beam out of my palm it felt a lot like that one time I tried concentrating Aura during one of Pyrrha's training session. Only it felt" he paused "I don't know stronger like really stronger and like it wasn't even mine."

There was a bout of silence as they both contemplated this before Jaune eventually sighed "I'll figure that out later. So do you think there's a limit?"

"…I don't think so" he admitted unsure "but I think you should make some."

"Why?"

"Because firing one of those things takes power, power that should be used to heal the wounds."

Ha~ he should've known it too good to be true. What's the point of having a super awesome new power if he couldn't get in some practice with it?

"So I have to watch how I use it, got it" he said halfheartedly "how do you know it's affecting the regeneration?"

"One of us has to keep an eye on what's happening inside your body. Trust me it affects the regeneration process."

"Oh, right" now Jaune feels stupid for asking.

"Tell me something Jaune" he spoke getting the boy's attention "if this doesn't work then what are you going to do?"

"We don't know if it won't" Jaune countered.

"But what if it doesn't work and you end up looking like a Grimm for the rest of your life?"

Jaune opened his mouth to answer but closed it to really think about it "I-I don't know" he finally spoke "my friends and family all probably think I'm dead and I can't go back looking like I do.." he trailed off.

"You don't need to over think things. It was just a hypothetical question. What do you think would happen if it worked though?"

Jaune looked to the Grimmlord who was looking at the sky almost..wistfully.

"What do mean, if it works then I can find a way to get out of here and back to Beacon"

"Not what I meant" he looked to the teen "I meant if you became human then what happens to me?"

Jaune blinked, he never really thought of what would happen "I guess we split bodies….or something?" he scratched the back of his head.

"You and I both know that won't happen Jaune. I don't exactly know how we got in this situation but this" he gestured to both of them "looks like a permanent thing."

Jaune took everything in for a few moments before he spoke again "if….if the plan works and I look human again then I'll still go back to Beacon…but I won't go alone" he fixed him with a look of conviction "so I guess we're partners for life now" he held out his hand.

The Grimmlord looked at him long and hard before breaking out in a laugh which sounded creepy thanks to his odd sounding voice.

"Alright then partner" he took his hand and Jaune smiled.

Jaune's smile faded however when the grip on his hand tightened "what're you..?"

"Which brings us to another matter I've been thinking about lately"

Without any form of warning Jaune was tossed unceremoniously into a pile of rubble. Pain exploded in his back before it subsided like a burn being cooled by ice. Jaune recognized that as the work of his Aura healing the damage.

This was odd since during his fight with the Grimm the pain was always numb and he was able to shrug it off and continue fighting. Unless…..!

Before he could further process any thoughts he rolled to the side just when the Grimmlord crashed into the ground.

Jaune rolled to his feet with sword and shield at the ready "what was that?"

"Did you figure it out yet Jaune?" he asked standing from the crater

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about the fact that my added powers compensated for your lack of skill"

"W-well I mean it can't be all-"

"It is" he cut off "you got more than just strength, speed, healing and….shooting energy beams. You also got my Grimm instincts and let's be honest you're better off for it, am I right?"

Jaune lowered his shield somewhat "where are you going with this?"

"Pyrrha did a good job training you, her heart was in the right place that much I've seen" he began "but at the same time she did a terrible job teaching you"

Jaune scowled, it was one thing to insult him but it was another to insult his friends much less his partner "I think she did fine."

"You sure about that?" he waved him over with two fingers "then come and prove it"

Jaune didn't need any more encouragement. He charged with all the precision he could muster which was not nearly as good as Pyrrha but was enough to score some hits on the Grimmlord, just like how Pyrrha taught him.

Yet it wasn't enough, his attacks were precise and coordinated but the Grimmlord's strength and ferocity broke through it like a rock through glass. He had to skip back to gain distance and reevaluate his opponent.

"Trying to find a weakness in my guard to exploit?" he spoke.

Jaune didn't even question how he knew what he was thinking and let him continue "do you know why you were effective out there than you ever were at Beacon?"

Jaune didn't speak only attacked and was once more pushed back "sure the added powers helped but it was your instincts that really made you stronger. So" he caught the sword with his clawed hands "instead of following sword techniques Pyrrha thought you, trust your instincts and go with the flow" with that is tail lashed out catching Jaune under his chin and sent him flying.

"Ugh"

"Get up Jaune we have a lot of work to do."

"W-what?"

"Pyrrha spent months trying to teach you how to fight like her with a bunch of fancy sword techniques that she probably spent years practicing to perfect with her weapons. I'm going to help you hone your fighting instincts, you'll learn how to trust and act on them" he spoke with conviction.

"What's the point if I don't know how to use a sword?"

The Grimmlord sighed and knocked him upside the head "idiot, you already know how to use a sword from what I've seen, that's what Pyrrha did right. We're going to focus on developing battle skills" he clarified "Now get up."

Jaune complied with a sigh "so how exactly are you going to do that?"

Jaune soon realized that might possibly be the dumbest question he's ever asked and even though he couldn't see his face Jaune could tell the Grimmlord was smiling. His next words confirmed the boy's fear

"That's simple, I attack, you try to defend and we'll see what you learn by the end of it"

'Crap'

To Be Continued


Author's Notes: Tell me I'm not the only one who thinks Jaune would have never been as good as his friends skill wise if he continued to train with Pyrrha. Sure she uses a sword and shield but they have completely different fighting styles and Jaune will never be able to do the things Pyrrha does.

Well that's my belief anyways and Jaune seems like an instinctual fighter kinda like Nora. With his Aura reserves and shield he could just simply overpower his enemies instead of using coordinated strikes.

Next Week will be a time skip and it would be the first chapter I've written by hand before typing it on Microsoft, let's hope the quality is still good. Also I'll be moving up the schedule of release from Tuesday to Thursday or Friday depending. As always leave a review or if you have any questions PM me.

Oh before I forget to the Guest named 'Chrono' it will be a while before Jaune returns to civilization and with good reason.