Whoa, this chapter was a rush. Written it between yesterday and today, feels really good to get it done. Especially since I kind of left with a cliffhanger, heh.
Anyway, news on my holiday, it's going really good, my sister and I are... getting along, which in sibling code means it's going great. Visited the surroundings, she convinced me to buy some more elegant clothes and kind of convinced me to get a haircut (which I hate, but I do have to admit my hair is worse than a tangled nest of vipers). Tomorrow we go see a necropolis, and Friday I go back to Ireland.
The situation wasn't good. It wasn't good at all.
The suits of armour were a dozen or so in number, not counting Mordred itself of course, all of them possibly unliving entities they couldn't slay in any way. It was true they all wielded old weapons that were not guns nor had any kind of special mechashift mechanism, but a weapon was still a weapon even if it wasn't a fancy multi-tool gadget.
Myrtenaster also wasn't a weapon made for fighting empty armours. Weiss preferred precision over strength, but against such opponents, there were no vital spot to hit, leaving her to try and fight her opponents with a huge disadvantage. She could've used the Dust in her weapon, combined with some of her Lunas, of course, but she usually needed space to fight, and the cramped battlefield was not the space she needed.
"Yang, take on Mordred!" Jaune called out, his greatsword forming from smoke in his hands. "And punch him as hard as you can!"
"No!" Ruby immediately counter-ordered. "Pyrrha, keep Mordred busy until we can gang up on him! Yang, you try to destroy as many armours as you can!"
The blonde brawler didn't waste time listening to her sister and tried to charge right in, when Weiss grabbed her arm.
'If it wasn't for me…'
"You dunce, you can't charge a shield formation! We have to break their line first!" she berated her when she allowed the heiress to pull her back. The formation, with Mordred right in the middle, took a step forward in perfect coordination. "You would've just gotten yourself in danger!"
"Well, how to we do this then, if I can't trash them?" huffed Yang, glaring at the heiress for ruining her fun. Despite her displeasure, though, she stayed where she was, not daring to charge again. The formation of shields moved again.
"I got an idea," offered Jaune, removing his right hand from Désespoir and holding it up as if he were holding a cup. A sphere of a blue so dark it looked black formed hovering over his palm. "I throw this, you charge in right after. Just watch out 'cause it's gonna explode."
"If we need firepower, I got it," Yang protested, slamming her gauntlets together, but nonetheless she prepared herself.
"You got firepower? I got more," grinned Jaune, throwing the sphere at the armours, where it exploded with a bright flash of light. Yang charged in at the rattled shields and knocked a couple aside before letting loose on her foes. "And now everyone, have fun!"
Everyone darted forth, and Weiss was the first to arrive. Unable to strike the armour with a shield between them, she chose to use her Glyph Luna -which was actually a combination of different Glyph Lunas- to force the armour back. Unfortunately, that did nothing to make it lower its guard, and she had to quickly dodge the oncoming sword slash that threatened to cut her in two. She had Aura, so she wouldn't have actually been cut in two, but it still never hurt to conserve Aura.
The others' first charge hadn't gone much better. Despite the hooked shape of Crescent Rose, a shield was still very difficult to bypass, especially when used in formation. Blake wasn't having better luck, either, being unable to use her Shadow Luna to move behind her opponent, and Jaune's swings were easily parried and countered by the armours.
At least Yang was having a fun time.
Blunt force wasn't totally stopped by shields and armours, and given her incredible strength and Lunas, she was the perfect bulldozer for the job. It was true, success was still far away, but she was at least doing something.
Pyrrha had no such trouble, and Weiss wouldn't have expected anything less. The girl was a prodigy, a champion, someone who could've already taken the final exams and pass with flying colours. Her skill reflected on her actions as she deftly dodged all her foes' attacks and aimed straight for Mordred. There was a frown on her face as she charged the former king's empty armour.
Weiss could definitely relate. While Pyrrha still possessed great physical strength, her fighting style was one based on speed, agility and precision, not brute strength like Yang.
Her current opponent's sword cutting the air mere inches away from her shoulder tore her from her thoughts and made her focus on the task at hand. Her rapier was next to useless in this fight, having no real target to strike. Had she been able to just crush the armours like Yang did…
Wait…
She could do that.
Jumping back to dodge another strike, she flicked Myrtenaster's Dust chamber and switched to Earth Dust before using a Glyph Luna to propel her opponent, sending it crashing against the ones behind it.
Yes, she could definitely work with that. With a rapid flick of her wrist, her rapier's Dust shot a brown ray into the tiled pavement, which cracked as several spikes of rock the size of a human shot up from the ground and impaled the armours in their paths.
'No Aura… good,' smiled the Schnee heiress. 'My Mana is still good, my Aura still full… they stand no chance.'
She took a second to observe how her comrades were doing. Jaune wasn't making any progress, but he wasn't losing ground either. His sword clanged against the empty knights', but the Nightmare seemed to be able to avoid the hits. On his face, though, there was an emotion she wasn't expecting. There was no malice, no excitement, no adrenaline. The Demon's gaze was full of determination… and fear.
Taking her eyes away from him, Weiss used her Wind Force Luna to push herself away from the armours that were standing up again from her earlier attack. The rocky spikes had only pinned them temporarily, unable to killing unliving beings. Myrtenaster swung again, and a wall of ice appeared in front of her before she sank her weapon into it and shattered it, sending the shards at the armours. It didn't do much, unfortunately, but it gave her the time to step closer to Yang, the one who was having the easier time of them all.
Ruby was engaging three foes at the same time but even then her weapon wasn't made for pure destruction of objects like Yang's brute strength. The girl apparently wasn't strong enough to push aside the enemies' weapons, or maybe the animated armours were just really strong, so the girl had to use every ounce of speed and agility in her body to avoid being hit, and striking the armours.
Off to the side Blake, who had tried to take the formation from the right, was struggling against three more knights, her blade having the exact same problem as Ruby's. It was indeed lethal against Grimm and human enemies, but animated objects couldn't just have their brains pierced, so the black-haired warrior couldn't exactly just aim for the head.
Yang was more or less having the time of her life. She took a hit or two, and Weiss noted how even she groaned from the pain -another point to her theory regarding the armours' strength- but otherwise she crushed and bent the steel cheerfully. It didn't kill the knights, but at least it left them unable to fight any more, something as good as dead when it came to that particular battle.
Pyrrha seemed to be having trouble. Not because of skill, she was faster and lighter than Mordred without being frail like Weiss – though the girl would never admit out loud to be frail. The problem resided more in the fact that even the strongest of shield bash didn't affect the king, and not in the way Myrtenaster couldn't impale an armour, but rather as if the strike's entire kinetic force had just been erased. It was like watching a fly try to strike down a mountain… with more or less the same results as well.
Finally, Ruby seemed to get lucky, and managed to use the blunt end of Crescent Rose to force a knight's greave away from the rest, leaving the empty armour unbalanced and making it fall to the ground.
One of hers down. Two more to go.
"Dammit, we need Yang to take care of these," mumbled Weiss as Blake joined the trio, escaping from a particularly vicious sword strike of one of the knights. "We need to dismantle them…"
"Or pit them against each other!" Jaune's very cheerful voice spoke up as he jumped away from his two opponents – which were now fighting among themselves. "Never thought Dark Corruption would work on non-humans!"
On normal conditions, Weiss would've facepalmed. As it was, she had to admit the Nightmare had a point. Why fight themselves if they could make them fight against each other? "I thought you said you were a weak Nightmare," Weiss pointed out, but it was more of curiosity than actual bite. He had actually done well, for once, and she wasn't gonna live up to her nickname by insulting him for doing his job right.
"Well, I am, but these guys are literally soulless and mindless. The only thing I had to influence is Mordred's control, and he's too busy with Pyrrha to really notice," shrugged the boy. "Dark Corruption wouldn't be so effective otherwise. Only an extremely powerful Nightmare could make allies fight among themselves. Still, we could make them all fight among themselves!"
"This is so fun~" Yang's sing-song voice rang out as a knight flew over their heads, probably launched by the fiery brawler's punches, and crashed into the ground.
"Or we could leave it to Yang," Blake smirked at everyone's deadpan. "Since she's doing such a good job at it."
"Okay, leave the knights to Yang, we gotta help Pyrrha with Mordred!" Ruby ordered quickly, disengaging from the armour she had been previously fighting.
Weiss turned to evaluate Pyrrha's situation, and found it was going poorly for the redhead. Mordred moved at a speed that should've been impossible given his armour, parrying attacks only when he intended to throw Pyrrha off-balance and follow up, otherwise just allowing all her hits to bounce off his platinum plates – something that should've been impossible as platinum wasn't a hard metal if compared to iron and steel.
"Surrender, and I shall allow you to live," Mordred's ancient voice reverberated within his empty armour. Immediately afterwards, Pyrrha had to jump back from a two-handed swing of the huge greatsword. "You have my word!"
"Plans?" she inquired as she landed beside Weiss, not a drop of sweat on her athletic body, but strain was the last thing on their minds at the moment. "Everything seems ineffective. Even brute strength is not fazing it in the slightest."
"I got an idea," Ruby spoke up as Pyrrha ran back in to engage Mordred, keeping him away from the others. "This is the Relic of Treason. Like with the Guardian, we have to think like traitors and liars. Are you following me?"
"The back," Blake replied immediately. "Another name for treason is backstabbing. Maybe we have to hit his back?"
"That's what I thought too!" nodded Ruby, darting to the side to try and find an opening for the King's back.
With a huff, Weiss ran after her to aid her in the task. "You two, help Pyrrha keep him busy!" she called back to Blake and Jaune, both of which nodded. "And don't give us away!"
Weiss reached Ruby a second later, joining her in her hiding place behind one of the pillars and continued to observe the fight.
The empty knights had turned out to be the easy part of the fight, and Yang was quickly cleaning up the battle, with dozens of pieces of armour scattered all across the floor and a mad grin on her face. She was covered in sweat, but she seemed to be enjoying herself. The same could not be said for the others.
Pyrrha, Blake and Jaune were trying their best, she had to give them that, but all their efforts seemed absolutely useless. Just as she looked, the black-haired girl managed to create an opening for the other two. Jaune's greatsword rang uselessly against Mordred's chestplate, while Miló vainly pierced the helm's visor. All teens jumped back when Mordred just ignored the hits and swung again, missing Jaune by the breadth of a hair.
The situation wasn't the best, yeah.
"Should we go now?" Ruby asked in a whisper.
"Not yet," Weiss replied quickly, placing a hand on her shoulder just in case the young reaper decided to attack anyway. "We need to attack so that your attack and their own is contemporary. If we attack now, he'll probably just turn and swat you aside. Prepare yourself, though."
Weiss's eyes narrowed as Jaune ducked under a slash while Blake jumped over it, landing on the boy's shoulders and using him as jumping platform to leap higher. The Nightmare recovered from the sudden weight very quickly and tried to sweep low with his greatsword while Pyrrha offered herself as target for the apparently invincible armour. "Now."
Ruby shot off immediately and crossed the distance in a blur of rose petals, swinging her scythe with as much strength as she could muster, hoping for her sprint to do the rest. At the same time, Jaune's greatsword caught Mordred's left kneecap, and Blake drove her katana into the King's visor. Time seemed to slow down to a crawl for Weiss as the blade of the scythe made contact with the armour back of the empty knight.
And harmlessly bounced off.
Ruby stepped back as the knight chuckled heartily. "You thought you just had to attack me from behind, Soul Reaper." The massive suit of armour towered over them all, turning to face the young reaper. "You thought that just attacking me from behind would make it a betrayal? How laughable. This is not treason."
Not treason? If backstabbing was not it, then what could account as treason? They were obviously enemies, and an enemy attacking another enemy didn't count as betrayal as they were on opposites sides. Did that mean one of them had to turn on the others? No, she was certain Mordred wouldn't fall for such underhanded tricks. Maybe they'd have to use one of the knights Jaune turned on the others? Again, it only worked as long as Mordred wasn't focused on them, so it was not an option.
"Uhh… your darkness? The reason why Demons hunt you? The Gift of Salem? The Blood of Remnant?"
"We aren't like that, our darkness is what we are."
"Four relics of the ancient times will be scattered upon the land."
Weiss's eyes widened before they narrowed again as the fight resumed, still hidden behind the marble pillar that supported the ceiling of the throne hall. She was certain the solution was somewhere in those lines.
The Blood of Remnant… darkness… what Nightmares were made of. 'So, in a way, Nightmares and Grimm are part of Remnant itself… but the entity as a whole, not the planet. The Blood will heal the Body… and the Relics are part of the Body…'
"Weiss, a little help here would be greatly appreciated!" Jaune's voice calling her name made her dare another look at the situation, and it didn't look good at all. No one had been hit yet, but it was clear that Mordred was just untouchable. Even as she watched, the former King was keeping everyone at bay with wide swings of his greatsword, which he wielded like it was weightless, clear proof of his enormous strength.
"I am thinking!" she snapped back. Fighting was easy, but it was also useless at the moment, so they were the ones who were being useless! She understood that they couldn't all stop and think – but that's what she was there for! She was the brains of their little ragtag group. Ruby might look like she was their leader, but in fact without Weiss's logic and organization skills the whole group would've fallen apart.
Okay, maybe that was exaggerating a little, but still she was by far the most intelligent of their group, and as such she was going to find a way. That was how she was helping them!
'Okay, I came to the conclusion that Nightmares are part of Remnant, just like Relics. Ugh, I already knew this! What does having a great mind matter if then I cannot find a solution! It's just like back at the entrance!'
Wait…
Back at the entrance, Ruby had found a solution because she had thought in terms of smartness instead of knowledge. At the bridges, Yang had used mental sharpness to find out which bridge was the right one – even though Weiss hadn't appreciated the pun. So she just had to connect the dots. The answer was within those lines, but she would never reach it by adding them up neatly. She had to think how those lines fit in the situation.
"Weiss, seriously, it's getting a bit out of hand… and Mordred's not even a good conversationalist!"
She tuned out Jaune's second call and the sounds of combat that thundered in the hall and concentrated. Even with Yang taking care of the knights, it was only a matter of how much longer they could keep Mordred busy. 'Both Nightmares and Relics are part of Remnant. So they are… on the same side! So the only one able to kill Mordred is… ugh, Jaune. That's so going to feed his ego much more than we need, but if it's the only way, it's the only way.'
"Jaune, come here now! I need you!" she called for the Demon, peeking out from behind the column. The battle was a standstill – that meant her allies had completely given up offence and only focused on not getting halved by the huge greatsword wielded by the King.
"Here?! Now?!"
"Yes!"
"Of all the damn fetishes you could've had-"
"Not like that, pervert!" she yelled back at him, feeling her cheeks heat up in embarrassment. 'Not here, not now, not ever!' she promised herself, grossed out. "I have a plan!"
The Nightmare gladly took the chance to get out of the fight and bolted to her hiding place, skidding to a halt beside her not three seconds later. "Okay, what do you do?"
"It's not me, it's you, dunce," she berated him, but she was wearing a satisfied smirk. "It's simple. You have to hit him from behind. We've seen that from the front, you still do nothing. But a backstabbing from another creature of Remnant…"
"Okay, I get that you hate me, but serious your plan is 'Jaune, go piss off the giant dude that's kicking all our asses at the moment'? That sucks." Her frosty glare made him hesitate to continue his mockery. His eyes danced between the heiress and the knight. "If I do this, we're going on a date."
"Not in a thousand years, Arc."
"Yikes, don't say I didn't try to get to know you better, now I better go before I get frostbite!" winced the Nightmare rushing off to find another pillar where to hide, preferably far away from her. Preferably for her, of course.
The heiress sighed before darting out of cover and using her Dust Channelling Luna to shoot a stream of fire at Mordred via her rapier. She idly wondered if Dust could be counted as part of Remnant -and thus able to harm him- but even then she would've had to hit his back, not his helmet.
On the good side, he was now focused on her instead of her tired comrades.
On the bad side, that wasn't really a good thing. She was still fresh, having only fought briefly at the start before leaving the knights to Yang, but the armour before her showed no signs of fatigue – something he was probably immune from, having no muscles to be sore nor brain to be tired.
She caught a flash of dark blue passing behind Mordred, and she quickly trained her eyes on the suit of armour as it brought down a greatsword that was taller than she was. Skillfully dodging to the side, she used a Propeller Glyph to jump over the sword and lead the King away from her companions, something they really appreciated, if Blake's exhausted nod and Ruby's thumbs-up were anything to go by. Pyrrha wasn't showing the strain, but even the champion couldn't fight such an overwhelming opponent for long before starting to tire.
'If only they hadn't had to spend so much energy to dodge…' she thought bitterly as she dived to the side, avoiding Mordred's sword as it carved a clean path through the marble floor with terrifying ease. The Knight didn't seem fazed by having yet to land a hit on any of them, probably because they too had yet to do any damage to him. 'If only Mordred weren't so strong…'
A glance back told her that Jaune was in position, with a large black sphere of glowing energy in one hand – the same one he had used against the lesser knights, she noted. She caught his nod, and promptly used her Speed Luna to bolt out of the way as fast as she could.
Not a moment too soon. The Nightmare's sphere impacted against the King's back, and another explosion burst out in a flash of white light, though much larger than the one he used against the lesser knights. Large enough to destroy part of the floor and kick up a huge cloud of dust and debris.
Jaune coughed as he waved a hand in front of him to clear the air. "Wow, I didn't think I'd disintegrate him, though I did put all my Mana into it. Let's hope the Relic's alright," he grinned, cheerful despite the dust now smeared on his face.
"The Relic is intact." From the dust, the huge figure of Mordred stood up from the hole in the ground.
"Jaune, watch out!" Blake exclaimed, but it was far too late. The Nightmare brought up Désespoir to parry the backhand, but the sheer force of the hit was enough to send him flying, Désespoir flying from his hand and into the mess of armour pieces that were once the empty knights. Weiss winced as the boy crashed into and through a marble pillar, and then into the tapestried wall, leaving a large indent in the marble behind the cloth.
The boy's body fell to the ground without a word, sign he had been knocked out by the hit, but he didn't disintegrate – a sign he was still alive.
Weiss released a sigh of relief before catching herself. Her eyes narrowed and she turned to Mordred, trying to find out what had gone wrong. Unconsciously, she also stepped to the left until she had put herself between Mordred and the fallen Nightmare.
'It's logical,' she told herself once she realized her actions. 'If he dies, the mission fails. It's only natural we have to protect him – no matter how annoying he is.'
To her great relief, she could see that Mordred had been heavily hurt by the attack. Both shoulderguards were now absent alongside three of the chestplates and his left bracer. The back of the armour was bent and burned, that meant the attack had actually harmed the King. It just hadn't done enough damage.
And their Nightmare was out of Mana and out of the fight.
"I told you to surrender, and I will give you one more chance. I do believe in changes of heart. Stop fighting, and I shall spare you. You are of no use to me if you are dead," spoke the giant armour of platinum. "You would become my heralds, my flag bearers. You can either accept, or you can try to fight me, and die."
Weiss gripped Myrtenaster harder. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Ruby mumbling something to herself before her face lit up. If she had a plan, the Weiss would be very happy to hear it, because she had none. Surrender wasn't an option, but without Jaune, neither was offence. For all her intelligence, Weiss Schnee couldn't find a solution.
If Ruby had one, then the most she could do was to buy her time until she could enact her plan. She stepped closer to the King, despite wanting to run away with all her soul. "Your Majesty, despite having to fight you, I respect you. And I hope you respect us as well." She took a deep breath and fixed her glare on the empty visor. "If so, then why are you lying to us?"
"Lying? I speak no lie, Warrior Queen," replied the King. "The powers of the Relic may influence me, but they do not control me."
"You said you would make us your heralds, Your Majesty – yet you've just proven that you already have servants in your kingdom," continued the heiress, keeping her eyes fixed on Mordred even as a blur of red darted behind the knight. "Why would you need us? Why not send your servants? This is what makes me think you are trying to deceive us, Your Majesty."
"You speak the truth, but you do not know everything, Warrior Queen. I cannot reach beyond my kingdom without living servants to do so in my stead. But do not think I have not noticed your own deceit, my lady." Weiss tensed up as the knight raised the huge sword and stepped forwards. She involuntarily took a step back. "I know that only the Blood of Remnant can enter the Temple of the Relic, and I know the only reason humans and Nightmares could work together is for the Healing of Remnant. If I kill the Nightmare, you won't take the Relic because you won't be able to carry it like it could be done in the ancient times. You were trying to give your comrades time, but now it ends. You cannot stop my sword, and you cannot save the Dark Light. It ends here, Warrior Queen."
Weiss didn't know if she was more afraid of the huge sword raised in the air, ready to kill both her and the Nightmare behind her, or the absolute calm at which those words were spoken. Nevertheless, she summoned a force shield and braced herself for the impact.
An impact that never came.
"Yang, now!"
Weiss winced at the harsh sound of metal screeching against metal before the sound of metal clattering to the ground was heard. When the blow still didn't come, she dared to open her eyes, and she was met with a sight she would've never expected.
Yang Xiao Long, one of the most annoying girls she had ever met, stood behind the former King, eyes crimson and hair aflame, a current of hot air billowing around her from the sheer heat. On her lips stood a triumphant smirk as she used every ounce her Mirror Damage Luna's power to finish off the Knight. Weiss's eyes followed her extended arms until they reached a familiar dark blue hilt.
Désespoir.
Which was, technically speaking, still part of Jaune.
Weiss waited with trepidation as the giant armour clattered to the ground. The empty helmet tumbled over her, and she kicked it away in a show of pettiness she rarely revelled in. Or at least that was what she thought. With no magic to keep it up, the chestplate too fell to the ground, almost dragging Yang with it, but she released the sword at the last second.
The blonde and the whitehead stared at each other for a second before the former broke out in a victorious howl of laughter. "Whooooohooo! We did it! We got the first Relic!"
Weiss smiled, she actually smiled, at her antics. She'd let it slide for once, as the girl had earned the right to brag and be annoying after saving her life. Speaking of lives, she turned around to look at the still unconscious Nightmare and sighed without any real disappointment. Despite how infuriating he could be, he too had actually done his job right for once.
She knelt beside the blond Demon and gently shook him awake.
"No, Mom, no cookies no Rubies…" he mumbled in his sleep, a sentence that made everyone freeze and look at him. Weiss shook him again. "Ruby's not home…"
"Oh my god he's mimicking Ruby when she has to get up!" Yang burst out laughing, much to said redhead's embarrassment. "He must've learned from her!"
Weiss rolled her eyes and shook him harder. "Wake up, Arc, we have a Relic to take."
"Uh?" Blue eyes cracked open and took in their surroundings. "Uhh… nope. No pretty girl around, no wakefulness needed."
Weiss felt her eye twitch. "Moron, get up."
"Ugh, no pretty girls but meanies… life's so cruel…" Jaune opened his eyes fully and sat up straight. "I feel like shit after said shit's been crushed with a car bench…"
"You got bitch-slapped by the King," chuckled Yang, still trying and failing to reign her laughter in.
The Nightmare shook his head and slowly got up. "Okay, so we won?"
"We did… no thanks to you," huffed Weiss, feeling all her previous empathy for the boy disappear like morning mist under the desert sun. He raised an eyebrow at her. "Okay, you helped, but we won even without you."
The Nightmare shrugged and walked over to the collapsed armour, winking at Yang before leaning in with a conspirational look. "I think she hates my guts."
"I thought you said you're all Dusk," she shot back without missing a beat.
"Ugh, just woken up and everyone's against me. Well, let's make my day better." Jaune leaned down and swooped up the crown from the fallen helm. With a grin, he briskly waltzed over to the throne and jumped on it before turning to the others and placing the crown on his head.
"I'm the King of the castle, I'm the King of the castle~"
Yang and Ruby snickered while Blake and Pyrrha looked amused by his antics. Weiss, unfortunately, didn't feel like sharing their mirth. "Okay Jaune, that's enough. Get down from that throne and remove that crown."
"No."
"What?!"
"No. I'm King and I this is my kingdom! Guards!" He looked at Ruby and Yang. "Arrest her!"
Weiss's eye twitched again as her comrades snickered once more. Sometimes she hated her companions, and sometimes she really hated them.
I made this whole chapter one single PoV, Weiss's. I could've used Jaune's since it's been a while since we last got a Jaune PoV. I was tempted to make it a Ruby PoV because again it's been a while. I wanted to make Blake or Yang too, but Weiss offered way more to add to the story, including her train of thoughts.
Possible pairings for this story, currently, are KnightShade, WhiteKnight, or Lancaster. Or any combination of these three. I'm honestly still not thinking about that part of the story.
So, one big fighting scene without much actual fighting. Two reasons. One, I find fighting scenes boring when there is no plot nor banter nor anything. Two, it was from Weiss's PoV, and she was the worst equipped to deal with those armours, so the fight wouldn't have been great either way.
Now, Jaune's Mana. Mana is magic energy, so Nightmares and humans use the same Mana, unlike Dusk and Aura. Jaune's new Luna is Dark Matter. He basically creates a miniscule, invisible to the naked eye, particle of antimatter and uses Dusk to prevent it from making contact with matter, so when it does strike something a process of annihilation takes place and releases energy, creating an explosion.
Moral of the chapter: if you can't kill them, blow their limbs off so they can't move to attack you.
Also, 5k words, I'm getting better! ;)
Until next time,
Khor Evik Vlakhavlakh