TWIP! SHOOM!...POW!...CLING! SNICK! AAIIEEE!
Jaune sent one of the guards flying into the cave wall with his great sword, he had augmented Nuit d'Orléans with his aura. The white fang acolyte was taken aback by the amount of force the blade imparted. As Jaune smashed her in the face, shattering her white mask, two more stepped forward. He quickly spun his sword over his head, the two jumped forward for the repost, but Jaune was ready. He brought the blade around faster than they anticipated, his larger blade meet theirs.
TING!
There blades broke, the broken blades falling to the floor with a harsh 'clang! ' Jaune looked at them with a smile as there macho façade broke, they looked at their swords, at Jaune, then at each other. They quickly took off for the exit, the woman Jaune had sent into the wall getting up and following suit.
CLACK! TING! CLANG!
Jaune ran into the training room, Bianca had lured Kara and the other two guards to try and divide there numbers. He entered the room, the guards were unconscious on the ground, Bianca and Kara were locked in a heated struggle. Kara was wearing armor, her blade glowing with red dust. She and Bianca had cuts on their arms, each had been trying to repost one another. Jaune launched himself at the fight, catching Kara off guard, unfortunately his hand slipped on the hilt and he smashed her face with the face of his sword.
She stumbled backwards, blood oozing from her nose. She lowered her blade and it shifted into gun mode as she began to make a run for the exit. Bianca and Jaune followed her.
BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!
Jaune easily dove out of the way of the first two and even deflected the last one with his blade, but Bianca took a glancing blow as she rolled into one of the aisles for cover. Jaune didn't notice though, as he smiled and triumphantly ran towards the exit, when he got to the entrance however he froze.
"Well, well, well…What do we have here?" Adam said, his arms crossed his chest with a hand on his sword. Dozens of guards also standing on the stairway, Jaune thought fast and pulled the lever on the side before running out. Instantly, the stairway began to ascend, pinning and crushing the guards on the stairway and blocking the ones out in the garden.
Jaune ran, spotting his bag he had dropped at the start of the fight, he grabbed it and saw Bianca jogging toward him, she noticed Adam walking into the room, "This way!" She called to Jaune, he followed her and ran into the kitchen. Bianca pulled out her spear.
TWIP! THOOM! CRASH!
She fired out a shock-wave at the door frame, causing the entrance to collapse. When the dust cleared, a pile of boulders filled the doorway completely blocking them from the murderous faunas.
"Great! Now we're trapped!" Jaune said in panic, "We aren't going to be able to escape! They will dig out the tunnel then kill us or they will just leave us in here to starve or go insane or…or-"
SMACK!
"Sorry, but I need you to focus Jaune." Bianca said sincerely, Jaune rubbed his face and nodded. "Besides, do you really think I would drag us in here without a plan?" She then walked over to the oven and grabbed a few of the dust crystals, she stored them into her throw bag, she then reached into the oven.
Click!
Immediately, the back of the stove gave way to reveal a passage big enough to crawl through. Though it was completely devoid of light, cobwebs lightly dancing in the soft wind. Jaune looked at it, then at Bianca.
"Ladies first," Jaune chimed, Bianca rolled her eyes.
"My hero," she snorted, she then crawled into the oven. Jaune followed her and closed the door behind them. Jaune crawled on his hands and knees in pitch black for what felt like an eternity until he rammed into Bianca's butt. "Umpf!"
"Well… Jaune… as much as I like the idea, I don't think this is even close to the appropriate time." She said, Jaune didn't need to see her face to know she was smiling.
"Well you know what they say, 'No one wants to die a virgin.'" Jaune retorted in a seductive tone and capitalized on it by pinching her on the ass, earning a small squeal and soft kick in the face in response. Eventually, Jaune began to notice, not really a light, but a lessening of the darkness ahead. A dull blue light appeared in front of him and Bianca.
"Hang on a sec," Bianca said, she stuck her hand out.
TWIP! SHOOM!
The darkness was quickly dissolved by the silver light from Bianca's otherwise dark aura blast.
Suddenly, the dull blue light gave way to sunlight, Jaune and Bianca clambered out. Jaune realized they were at the pond where they had trained previously, A hole now in the frozen waterfall where they had climbed out. The academy was still partially obscured by a snowy mist, but the valley below visible, it was much deeper than he had previously thought, with a zig-zagging path that went to the bottom. A bridge crossed a swiftly moving stream, and then into a small structure at the foot of the adjacent cliff.
"Let's do this," Jaune said with determination.
Jaune turned to look up towards the garden wall, he quickly grabbed Bianca and tore off sown the path with reckless abandon. The white fang had found their cave and had been looking around, the mob of white masks searching over the hill side, some had begun to point out at the building across the divide. Some had taken off to report to Adam, others to rally the rest of the troops.
The race to the artifact was now on.
…
"This is much bigger than it looked above." Jaune noted as they crossed the bridge, the swiftly moving stream was actually river rapids.
"You can usually catch some pretty awesome fish when the water isn't so cold." Bianca explained, looking down at the water as plates of ice shattered against the swiftly moving water. The snow was deep on the bridge, but Jaune had taken care of that, using his great sword as a snow plow to create a path.
"Somewhere, a blade smith has a sudden urge to kick your ass." Bianca noted as she watched Jaune hack away at the snow.
Jaune merely let out a grunt as he continued his work, he had his head down, intensely trying to work his way to the cliff where the snow ended and the road began. A sharp bang caused him to break his focus and jump, his head whipping around for the source of the sound as it reverberated off the cliff walls.
PIIIISSSHHHH! KA-BOOM!
The snow fifty feet from Jaune suddenly erupted in a spew of ice and steam.
"On the cliff!" Bianca yelled and ran in front of Jaune, he turned and looked, the White Fang had begun marching down the cliff-side as fast as they dared. A silver glint caught his eyes just seconds before a familiar bang sounded. Mechs, the White Fang had somehow got their hands on friggin mechs. Jaune began to sludge through the snow with Bianca, but both kept tripping in the thick powder.
PIIIISSSHHHH! KA-BOOM!
That was less than 30 feet, it managed to make Jaune fall over, he noticed the crater it left, he did not want to be near those things when they went off. However, It did give Jaune an idea, and he decided to take a chance, "Bianca! Get behind me!" She did and Jaune raised his great sword and focused.
THWIP! THOOM!
Jaune forced aura into his blade and then sent a golden stream of power down a trajectory to the open mouth of the structure, the snow instantly dissolved. Jaune was surprised to have Bianca give him a kiss, "You have your moments and damn if they aren't amazing!"
Jaune smiled and then ran before they could launch another rocket. They made it inside, just as the next rocket slammed into the building.
KA-BOOM!
The roof they were under groaned, Jaune and Bianca dashed quickly inside as the roof crumbled and collapsed. The area ended up being a cave of sorts, dust crystals had been uniquely shaped to act as a kind of light so they weren't completely in the dark.
"Well that was close," Jaune said dismissively as he looked back at the now sealed entrance. "How are we supposed to get to the academy now?"
"Follow me," Bianca said as she walked down the hallway, Jaune followed. Eventually the hallway came to the end next to a massive door, "Here we go!" Bianca said, nodding for Jaune to raise his weapon. She pushed her foot against the door and then swiftly surged forward with her spear and slammed into…nothing.
It was a massive open area from what Jaune could see, his mouth hung open as he looked up. A staircase spiraled upward, higher and higher it went around the perimeter of the opening. Jaune also noticed hallways that lead off from the stairway on different flights and walkways that circled the perimeter at different floors. They were in the school.
…
"The builders decided to dig into the mountain to build the school, using the natural warmth of the mountain to insulate the school." Bianca explained, "The visible portion of the school is actual just a small portion compared to what's really here. Just remember to keep your voice down, we don't want to attract any grimm."
Jaune gulped as he looked at all the additional paths that lead further in the mountain. It would take ages to try and find the artifact, thankfully Bianca lead the way. They quickly ran into the hallway in front of them and ran downstairs, Jaune was surprised that this place could even go further down. The hallway opened up to reveal a massive space that seemed to stretch endlessly, although it was hard to tell, as massive amounts of machinery blocked Jaunes view.
"What is this?" Jaune asked in a whisper, it looked familiar to him somehow.
"Airships," Bianca replied. "Kairos used to hold their air fleet inside the academy to protect them from the elements. Unlike your fancy ships of today, back then they were quiet fragile."
"Why are they still here?" Jaune looked as he studied the now archaic machines.
"It was one of my missions," Bianca said, Jaune looked up at her in confusion. "When the fighting started, I destroyed the opening, keeping them for them to be deployed. It stopped any of the factions from trying to get their hands on them. However, it also meant that there was no defense against the nevermores when they arrived" She said, pointing to a pile of massive boulders that seemed to form a line against one of the walls. "Let's keep moving, Grimm most certainly are nearby."
As if on que, a beowolf howled nearby, causing the hair on Jaunes neck to stand straight up. He gripped his sword a little tighter and followed Bianca as she ran to the right, sharply following the wall. She stopped near a large boulder and then began to push. "A little help?" She grunted, Jaune got next to her, and together they pushed the boulder out of the way to reveal a much smaller passage way, lit up by dust lights.
"Further down the rabbit hole we go," Jaune said with mock enthusiasm. Bianca kept a stoic face which surprised Jaune, obviously they were in a bit of situation, but she would normally give a situation a little levity. As they walked further down the path it opened up to a cave, Jaune was taken back. If it was possible, this cave was bigger and more impressive. Massive prisms of dust jutted out of the ground in all colors, Jaune let out a low whistle and then looked at the middle of a cave. There was what he could only describe as a shrine with an ornate roof that covered a stairway, and at the top of the stairway…
"The eye," Jaune said in a low voice, Bianca merely shook her head in acknowledgement. Jaune and Bianca climbed the stairway to artifact, a faint glow radiated from it. "It's beautiful," Jaune said, indeed it was even more beautiful in person than Jaune would have ever even thought possible, the duo stood there for a moment, mesmerized by it before Bianca reached forward to grab it.
"WAIT!" Jaune screeched, causing Bianca to jump in fright and look over at him.
"What!?" She hissed, Jaune put his hand to his forehead and moaned.
"Haven't you seen any action movie EVER! If we grab it and don't have something to replace it with of equal weight something bad will happen!" Jaune whispered quickly, but Bianca merely smacked the back of his head.
"I PUT IT HERE YOU IDIOT! THERE ISN'T ANY TRAPS!" Bianca said in a whisper that came out more as a yell. Jaune suddenly became very interested in his shoes, Bianca grabbed the eye, turned Jaune around and put it into his bag.
"Alright, let's go!" Bianca said and began down the stairway, Jaune followed.
WHIP-POW!
Bianca feel back and Jaune felt something hit his face, he reached up and touched his face. He pulled his hand back, blood. He turned to look at where the shot was fired from, he saw Bonnie holding a high powered rifle and what appeared to be a lieutenant walking into the cavern. Jaune pulled out his great sword and looked at Bianca, her eyes where closed and blood was beginning to stain her clothes, "No…nononono," he reached down to check her over.
"Oh no you don't!" Bonnie yelled lowering her rifle.
WHIP-PING!
Jaune deflected the shot back towards her, Bonnie let out a 'yip!' as the bullet went screaming by, imbedding itself in the wall behind them. He knelt down and looked over Bianca, the shot thankfully was high on her shoulder, missing any vitals or arteries, but her shoulder blade looked broken. As he looked over her, Biancas eyes snapped open and she softly grabbed his hand and looked up at him with uncertain eyes.
"Valhart honey? Looks like I messed up a bit this time…this could be it…a shame about the baby…what…what were we going to name her?" She then closed her eyes and slipped into unconsciousness.
"Well that's one down, I'll let you deal with the other for fun-sies." Bonnie said happily, the lieutenant smiled and grabbed his weapon, a massive chainsaw and began walking forward. " Who would've thought a pathetic old hag could cause that much trouble, oh well! It looks like I get to have the last laugh!" Bonnie said with a giggle.
Jaune snapped, and something deep within erupted…
Instantly, his aura began to glow, the Lieutenant didn't seem to care however as he walked over to Jaune revving up his, trying to get a reaction out of him. "Looks like I finally get to kill an academy brat." The Lieutenant said in satisfaction, he raised his saw over the kneeling hunter, he didn't even notice that the great sword Jaune was wielding began to hum, with power.
"Question." Jaune said, not even looking up at the lieutenant, "How many of you are roaming around the academy?"
"Uh? ….There's enough to find the artifact if it's around here! But as for you? Sorry, you'll be killed by just me." The man said arrogantly.
"Oh! No need to look for the artifact, it's right here!" Jaune said softly as he reached around and opened up his pack, the artifacts soft glow lighting up the chainsaw wielders face.
"Uh…Wha? Why are you telling me this?" The lieutenant said dumbfounded, Jaune looked up at him and the lieutenant took a step back as Jaune stood up, his iris's aglow and a dangerous intensity upon his face. The man had been around since the beginning of the white fangs start into terrorist enterprises and had come close to dying in many operations over the years. However, for the first time, he felt a cold chill run down his spine as Jaune stood up and looked him in the eye. A smile cracking across his face.
"My name is Jaune Arc and by the end of today, you and everyone in the white fang is going to speak of me in only hushed tones and terrified whispers."
The Lieutenant slashed his chainsaw downward…
