Chapter 11: King Takes Knight

Jaune could only stare at the Grimmlord in muted astonishment as he glared at him "w-what am I? You already know who I-"

Jaune jumped a little when a loud growl escaped the Grimmlord 'I knew the Traveler. You have most of his appearance and his scent but you aren't him. So I'll ask again. What are you?'

Jaune looked at him, he knew it, deep down in the pit of his stomach he knew he would eventually be in this situation. Even before he could actually understand them it was just one of those feelings. After all how cold he even think about living amongst the Grimm without any problems?

'Now what?' he thought looking around, Wolf was at the side and White was at the entrance.

There's no way he could take all three of them in a fight and running isn't a good idea either since he's sure they were faster than him. He sighed, there was only one thing he could do in this situation and hope they don't kill him.

Tell the truth.

"My name is Jaune Arc and I'm human"

'What!?' Wolf exclaimed

'Impossible' he heard White whisper

'That's nonsense' Alpha began 'there are no humans in the Kingdom, they are extinct'

Jaune shrugged "well yeah there're no humans here but there are a lot outside the Grimmlands.." he trailed off

'Wait why am I even telling them this?"

Jaune Arc, the boy who doomed mankind.

Jaune yelped when he found himself mere inches from wide pink eyes 'there are places outside the Kingdom?' she leaned in closer

"Uh yeah, you didn't know?"

'No Jaune Arc we did not' White stepped into view.

"You've never been curious about what's out there?" he asked, Wolf and Alpha he could understand but given White's curiosity he's surprised he wasn't the one they called traveler.

'I've been to the edge of the Kingdom before Jaune Arc, there was nothing to see but a barren wasteland'

"You never thought about going further?"

'No' was his simple answer.

'So there are humans?' Wolf eagerly questioned and Jaune nodded noting how her tail was wagging 'how many? What are they like?' she leaned in 'are the odd like you?'

"I don't know exactly how many, like millions I think. They have a lot of personalities and who're you calling odd!? You're the ones who are odd"

'How am I odd?'

"Well you were stuck in a cave before I came. Actually you were all in caves and I bet you wouldn't have left if I weren't here."

They had nothing to say to that and Jaune folded his arms in triumph.

'Okay so you're human' Alpha sighed 'why do you look and smell like the Traveler?'

'Guess I know why he told me that was his name'

"I don't really know how it happened but" he lifted his scorched shirt "he gave me this and I impaled him through the heart with Crocea Mors then we sorta fused."

'You killed him?' Alpha said hotly.

Jaune winced "not exactly, we merged together" Jaune tapped his temple "he's still here plus I see and talk to him in my dreams so I wouldn't say he's dead."

'Wow~' Wolf breathed 'I was right, you are weird'

'So he actually did it, I thought he was making it up but he did cross out of the Kingdom and into unknown territory' Alpha looked to Jaune 'are humans and our kind still at war?'

Jaune tensed "yes"

'That explains why you freaked out when you first woke up'

"How did I get here anyway?"

'You dropped off by one of the lesser ones'

"Lesser ones?"

'It's what we refer to the others' White spoke.

"You mean the other Grimm?"

'Is that what humans call us?'

"No that's what they call the others, they would call you guys Grimmlords"

'….that sounds appropriate'

"So you guys aren't going to kill me are you" he asked hesitantly with a nervous smile under his mask.

They looked amongst themselves before locking gazes on him 'that depends on whether you're going to attack us'

"I don't attack my friends" he said seriously before pausing, they all did before looking at the mouth of the cave "what is that?"

Jaune could actually feel something coming, he didn't know what it was but it was something dark and something strong.

'Since when could I sense power levels!?'

He turned around to see Alpha and even White looking apprehensive. He could also see, no he could feel their fear.

'Stay here' Alpha commanded coming out of the cave.

'Why?'

He turned to White "what's going on?"

White gritted his teeth 'he's coming'

"Who's coming?"

'Whoa!' he could feel more, not as strong as the first but there are a lot of them 'I don't care if he's stronger than me. There's no way I'm letting him face them alone'

He went to leave but a hand on his shoulder stopped him 'don't go, he may be after you'

"Who!? Who are you talking about?"

'..The king'

Outside Alpha stood as they came both on the ground and in the air. His blue eyes narrowed on the one leading in the sky and a growl escaped his lips. His ears perked in the direction of the cave, they were watching.

Meanwhile Jaune had gripped Crocea Mors tighter when he gazed upon the approaching horde. He was ready to attack the moment this king so much as sneezes. The Grimm which Jaune recognizes as a Griffon soon landed and a smaller Grimm came off it. Even at this distance Jaune could see its appearance and had to do a double take.

This Grimmlord was wrapped in a purple silk robe that looked worn but he didn't doubt its authenticity. In his hand was a golden scepter with a bladed tip at the bottom and a star at the top. He also wore an extravagant golden crown. His face Jaune couldn't decide if it was a skull or a bone mask but he's leaning to the former. It didn't have any visible eyes and lastly there was a red jewel at the centre of its forehead.

'He was right, there's no way I could've missed him'

'What do you want?' Alpha questioned not even trying to mask his contempt.

The Grimmking looked up to the wolf 'you would be wise to properly address your King'

Alpha snorted 'you're not my King, now answer the question'

'Be careful mongrel' the King spoke darkly 'treaty or not I can still kill you where you stand.'

'Then you would've started a war with the rest of us' Alpha replied uncaringly.

The King didn't seem to care much about that though 'a war that neither you nor the youngling would be alive to see'

The air grew tense as Alpha's eyes glowed ominously and all the lesser Grimm cowered. Even Jaune could feel it from this distance. It felt suffocating and he figured he would be choking if he were closer.

'You should leave, right now' the wolf warned.

'You're far from your territory, why is that?' Alpha silently glared at him so he continued slowly walking to the side 'I saw that the forest was burned down, your dwelling was destroyed' he stopped walking 'you were fighting someone, who was it? Was it the Traveler?'

'Why do you care?' Alpha countered.

'The Traveler claimed to have crossed over the borders and found humans, I've been meaning to find him.'

'So you can eliminate the humans?'

'Of course' he gave the closest to grin 'the humans are after all a plague that need to be snuffed out'

'Humans are extinct'

The King's grin vanished 'hmph, so you say. Now where is the Traveler?'

'How should I know?'

'Some time ago I witnessed his signature red energy blasted into the sky. All the guards I sent to investigate never came back. I know you nor the other ones ever leave your nest and they aren't so stupid as to go in there so it must've been him. Then there was the battle that destroyed your nest and some of your territory. All the lesser ones flee the other one's territory in fear of the Traveler, now where is he?'

'I don't know'

'….I see' the King lowered his gaze from the Grimmlord

Jaune watched as the King did nothing for a moment. Then he realized he was looking directly at him 'Oh shit'

'You dare lie to me'

Before his eyes he saw the King swing his scepter at Alpha so fast he barely caught sight of it. The larger Grimmlord was sent flying aside.

'NO!' Wolf shouted running out the cave.

"Wolf wait!" Jaune exclaimed following her only to be thrown back by White.

'Stay here' he ordered before going out.

Outside the King caught sight of Wolf 'ah, the youngling has grown' he said amused.

Wolf was upon him with a claw strike in a matter of seconds but the King simply raised his scepter to successfully block the attack without so much as visibly straining.

'I was mistaken, it seems you are still a naïve child'

White suddenly appeared behind, stabbing at his chest with a knife hand only to hit nothing. Wolf was sent flying and White suddenly found his airways congested.

The King held the struggling bat by the neck 'attacking my back, a predictable tactic expected of your kind' he tightened his grip.

His head suddenly jerked and he disappeared in a burst of speed, Alpha's paw smashed into his last position a second later. Alpha slowly turned to glare at the King, he had blood dripping at the corner of his mouth where he was hit.

'It seems I have to put you in your place' he raised his hand and the Griffon gave an ear piercing screech- until a blue Grimmbeam tore its head off.

Not that it mattered, the call was already made and the Grimm army began converging on them. There couldn't be more than a hundred Grimm coming to them. White took to the sky to confront the aerial Grimm while Wolf gave a howl before she charged the ones on the ground.

Jaune watched this with confliction, he should be helping them right now but he made a promise not to get involved with the King. Alpha and White were holding off the King and flying Grimm respectively but Wolf was being boxed in by the numbers on the ground.

"Screw it" he cursed running out the cave at top speed.

Jaune reached halfway to Wolf's position in a matter of moments to his pleasant surprise. With both hands on Crocea Mors he spun once before releasing a wide horizontal Crescent Arc. The white Aura cleaved through at least six Grimm before exploding on the back of a huge Deathstalker.

The Grimm turned around, it was bigger than the one at initiation yet that wasn't the reason for Jaune's hesitance. It was because it was Deathstalker Jaune was wary, no matter how many Grimm he killed no matter how strong he was, this was the first Grimm he ever met face to face. Despite the fact that he helped killed the Deathstalker at initiation, the encounter left a scar on him.

He used to sneak out of his dorm room in the middle of the night because he kept having recurring nightmares about him being brutally killed by that goddamn Grimm!

Now he was standing before one again by himself with no friends and no prayers to back him up. He saw that it had a dark line going across where its red symbol was. The Grimm charged snapping Jaune out of reverie and caused him to launch a hastily done Crescent Arc. The attck exploded on its pincers which were used to block its face.

He had the presence of mind to dodge an attack from another Grimm before cutting it down. The Deathstalker used its stinger this time and Jaune dodged it, he killed several more Grimm before leveling his glare at the Deathstalker.

'I'm going to kill it' he thought with conviction.

Jaune released a calming breath before killing another Grimm with a single swing and that's when he realized he was cornered. There was no time for an epic confrontation to prove his worth.

Alpha just got hammered again.

Jaune made his decision and with a nod raised his palm and a Grimmbeam charged. He could see the panic in its red eyes, it and any Grimm in the vicinity tried to flee. Jaune wasn't surprised but nonetheless kept his sights on the Deathstalker.

When the beam was fired Jaune had to brace himself due to the recoil. The beam ran through the Deathstalker and cut a swath through the Grimm unlucky enough to be in its path and exploded in a dome of fire.

Jaune looked from his palm to the raging fire 'maybe absorbing those two did do something after all'

The Grimmking saw this and was confused; not only by the Traveler's appearance but by the ashes he was absorbing. He blocked another swipe that sent him flying but he easily landed on his feet easily enough.

'Who, no what is that thing?' that was the only term to describe it. It looked and felt somewhat of the traveler but it had something else mixed in, something he hadn't felt for a very long time.

It felt like a Human

The king glared at Alpha 'that thing has the scent of a human' Alpha replied with another lunge 'enough!' he blocked again but this time stood his ground 'enough of this farce.' Black miasma leaked out of his form.

Alpha jumped back and landed 20 feet away. A blue Grimmbeam shot forward and the King swung his scepter in a wide arc and a crescent shaped wave of miasma washed over the beam. The miasma ate through the Grimmbeam and headed straight the Grimmlord who had to jump away.

That was all the Grimmking needed as he blurred out of sight.

Jaune was making steady progress in cutting down any Grimm that came close when his senses suddenly flared. He raised his sword I a blocking position and not even half a second passed before a tremendous pressure on his weapon forced his knees to buckle.

Widened blue eyes met hollowed 'what' and though and he felt them boring into his very soul.

"Human.."

Jaune heard that, it wasn't some disembodied voice he heard coming from the Grimmking, he actually spoke.

"Y-you can speak"

A low eerie snarl was the reply before he forced the sword down and grabbed Jaune's face in a iron grip "DIE!"

Black miasma enveloped his hand and started to eat away at Jaune's mask, the boy tried to struggle but it was a futile action. Before the miasma reached his skin a wave of red blew the king away though he skidded to a stop a few feet away. He glared at White who shot another Grimmbeam in his direction.

The king simply held up his hand still covered in miasma to block the blast which disintegrated before it could ignite. In fact the miasma traveled along the length of the beam towards White who cut the blast and flew away.

"In due time" he spoke before his gaze shifted to Jaune.

He leveled his palm towards the Grimm/human only to be blindsided by another Grimmbeam courtesy of Alpha. The force was enough to send him sprawling on the ground, he got up just in time for White to claw him across the face and further away from Jaune. He and Alpha then fired Grimmbeam at the dazed King.

Meanwhile Jaune was in a lot of pain, he remembered the first time he tried to remove his mask and it hurt like hell. Having someone actually try to destroy it was even worse, he never actually felt it but what the king was doing is the closest someone could do to melting his face off with acid.

He could barely see through the now disfigured mask and to make matters worse he dropped Crocea Mors 'just great' he can't see squat and he could feel the urge to kill something coming on. Though its strangely not as bad as before but he could still get carried away.

He ducked a swing and grabbed the throat of the unlucky Grimm that was bigger. Size didn't matter with Jaune and he effortlessly ripped its throat out, the ashes began repairing his mask and healing any injuries the miasma may have caused.

Jaune found Crocea Mors soon after and joined Wolf in taking down the horde whose numbers were less than a quarter of what they started with.

Meanwhile Alpha and White looked on as the blazing inferno caused by their combined attack was put out and the king stepped through the dwindling fire with not a scratch on him.

'I will turn you all into dust' was his raged filled declaration before miasma enveloped his scepter and he blurred out of view. Alpha and White were quick to mimic the action.

It was relatively easy for Jaune and Wolf to take out the rest of the army. They both turned see or rather barely see the fight between the two Grimmlords and the Grimmking.

'How are they moving so fast?'

An explosion of miasma sent White careening near their position. They were both quick to come to his aid

'Stay back!' the usually calm Grimmlord shouted.

The action was so shocking it caused them both to stop as the Grimmlord shakily stood with a grimace. It was then Jaune saw why he didn't want them close, White's right arm was encased in miasma that was slowly eating away at it. The Grimmlord grabbed his bicep and with a grunt ripped off his own arm.

If Jaune hadn't been hacking & slashing Grimm apart for the better part of his stay there then he would've probably thrown up. As it stands he was rendered speechless by the action instead. Tossing aside the corroding appendage White cringed at his bloody stump.

"White" Jaune trailed off as said Grimmlord seemed to concentrate on his stump and a few seconds later a new arm formed.

'You can grow body parts?' Wolf said incredulously.

'As you've just seen' was his calm reply 'unfortunately I cannot say the same for your companion'

They all turned to Alpha who was now on the defensive, he kept his distance or at least tried to. The king was persistent in getting close and Alpha's instant Grimmbeams did little to slow him down. In fact they didn't even make it past the Aura of miasma.

'We have to help him!' Wolf cried charging a red Grimmbeam

'It won't work' White warned but it fell on deaf ears.

Just the king was about to release another miasmic wave a Grimmbeam hit his back. The blast wasn't enough to visibly phase him but it did manage to distract him long enough for Alpha to get away.

He looked over his shoulder to the three 'insects' with that he released a crescent shaped wave after hem.

'Move' White urged getting out of the way

Wolf followed but Jaune released a Crescent Arc and the two waves hit before the white crescent bore through he miasma and headed straight towards the king.

'What!' was all the king managed to shout before white Aura smashed into his chest. The King grunted and looked down, for a moment he saw the shape of the attack carved through the miasmic armor.

Jaune jumped when Alpha suddenly spoke next to him 'how did you do that?'

"I don't…"

Whatever Jaune was about to say died on his lips when he heard a cream of outrage. The king shot out towards him and Jaune replied in kind, Crocea Mors ignited in white Aura.

At the last moment the king split his scepter and the bladed end met Crocea Mors while the spherical end was reared back as a bludgeon. Jaune jumped back before the bludgeon connected, he went in close when it hit the ground.

The two then began trading blows at a fast pace but it was obvious that Jaune was being pushed back. Jaune who's only offense and defense against the king was his sword made sure not to let the scepter touch anywhere on him. Consequently he didn't get enough to attack and the king was faster and stronger than him.

The King had Jaune thoroughly outclassed.

As proof of this the king disappeared in a burst of static and Jaune's senses flared causing him to instinctively leap to the side. King then appeared swinging his blade which would've cleaved Jaune's head off if he hesitated for even a second. King disappeared again and Jaune threw himself forward just as something crashed behind him.

Jaune rolled to a crouch 'how is he doing that?'

There was that distorted sound again but this time Jaune hesitated and chose to narrowly dodge the hit while lashing out his sword. He didn't know where he hit but he's certain it wasn't anything metal.

Jaune looked to the king who was frozen in place, his hollowed gaze set upon his arm or more specifically the slowly closing knick that oozed black blood. Looking at Crocea Mors he could see a bit of that same blood on the blade tip.

"You wound me" it was a whisper but Jaune heard it clearly "you actually wounded me" the king slowly turned to Jaune and the miasma flared around him as two burning purple orbs were shown in his hollowed eye sockets.

King pointed a bony finger at Jaune "DIE" purple energy and miasma swirled into a ball and Jaune knew exactly what he was doing.

'Grimmbeam' Jaune held out his palm to charge his own with haste.

The two beams then collided and there was a struggle for all of three seconds before the miasma tunneled through Jaune's beam creating a path for the king's beam.

'Shit'

*BOOM*

If Jaune thought being set on fire was the most painful experience he ever had that day then being caught in a fiery explosion trump that, definitely. Jaune hit the ground covered in burn scars that were slowly healing, most of his jeans were gone and his hoodie was nothing more than a scorched memory leaving him shirtless. His left hand, the one he used to fire the Grimmbeam was a slowly mending bloody mess.

In all, Jaune looked and felt like shit but to his credit he didn't let go of Crocea Mors. He could see the king slowly approaching and he could both see and feel the murderous intent surrounding him. Just as he came close three Grimmbeams crashed into a wall of miasma he erected. Jaune himself started to slowly raise his bloody hand which only had his thumb, pinkie and ring fingers.

*RRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRR*

All eyes went up as they caught sight of a giant dragon that Jaune recognized as the one to eat the Nevermore that one time 'this day just keeps getting better and better' Jaune thought sarcastically.

The dragon however didn't land, instead something jumped off of it and to Jaune's shock he recognized this newcomer as Guardian.

'Tell me what is your business here?' King commanded.

'Rescue Jaune' was the reply before he shot a Grimmbeam which was easily blocked.

Jaune could actually see his missing fingers start to slowly regenerate and with a steely resolve started to focus. Crocea Mors shimmered with white Aura but he didn't notice.

'Jaune, is that your name human?' he spat and turned to the downed human.

At the same time Jaune started to charge a Grimmbeam, except it didn't look like a regular one. It formed with jagged swirls and had a white centre mixed with it causing it to have equal parts red and white. Just before Jaune fired the red-white Grimmbeam the king raised a wall of miasma.

When the beam released it created something akin to a sonic boom before tearing through the miasmic wall like wet tissue paper. The king was hit and blasted to the side of the mountain directly into Alpha's cave.

'Impossible' was all Jaune heard before he was sent into the cave. The explosion that occurred afterwards managed to destroy most of the mountain and engulf the remaining parts in a sea of flames that ignited the entire night sky.

"Cool~" Jaune said dazedly, he had never actually felt any adverse effects of using a Grimmbeam before..until now.

His hand wasn't healing and occurred to him that firing such a powerful Grimmbeam may have stopped the regenerating process, he could feel the pain his healing managed to numb causing him to feel lightheaded. It was then the dragon finally landed causing a small earthquake

'You' he heard a voice say and barely recognized it as Alpha.

Jaune saw with half lidded eyes, someone jumped from the dragon's back. With his vision blacking out the last thing he saw before passing out was a pair of legs slowly making their way towards him.

To Be Continued

Author's Notes: With this all the chapters which were previously written by hand for this story are now finished. As such and with exams coming I won't be able to get the time to write the chapter until sometime in May. Plus I'm going to be introducing some new concepts and that's going to be a real bitch to research.

I based King's weapon off of that cool scepter weapon I saw Castor use in God of War Ascension.

As always remember to leave a review.