Chapter 14: Voidwalker

Having just finished their latest duel and exercises, Jaune dropped his sword and shield next to Pyrrha where she sat on the ground. After their trip into town, Jaune was glad to work through his conflicted emotions from the day through heavy exercise and a duel. Pyrrha had won again, her semblance too overpowering for Jaune to beat but he had improved massively since his time at Beacon. Pyrrha took significant aura damage in their latest duel.

Still trying to catch her breath, Pyrrha watched Jaune walk over to the outside tap to cool down. "What's... for dinner Jaune?"

"I think mom said curry, I hope so as I really li..." Jaune's words were cut short as a ripple in the air between him and the house caught his attention. Suddenly the space ripped itself apart as a circular portal appeared, light purple flames engulfing the edges and crackling with energy. A heavily armoured boot thundered as it stepped through the portal, followed by a huge being, armoured from head to toe in scarred, pitch black armour.

The knight stood up to its full height, towering above Jaune who was just a few meters away. Pyrrha wondered who or what it was. Her curiosity was short lived as the knight drew a massive greatsword it hefted with ease in a single hand, nearly as long as Jaune was tall, a solid slab of metal. The other hand had a huge ornate shield, weird symbols all around the edges of it.

The knight seemed to notice Pyrrha and turned its helm towards her, red gleaming eyes all that was visible beneath it. It raised the massive sword so it was pointed at her, crackling gold energy building in the hilt. "Voidwalker..." It's voice, a deep rumble that seemed to hang in the air for an eternity.

Suddenly Jaune launched forward and crashed into the knight with an almighty roar, pushing it back through the portal, himself along with it. Pyrrha reached out instinctively, even though she was far out of reach. "Jaune!"

A blazing gold beam of light shot past Pyrrha from the end of the greatsword, mere inches away from her head. The fence behind her a smouldering wreck. Jaune had seen the danger and acted. For a moment Pyrrha froze until she saw the portal was getting smaller. In an instant she had grabbed Jaune's sword and shield and was sprinting at the portal. "Please! Please make it in time!" Pyrrha dived through the portal, barely fitting through as it closed behind her.

As she hit the ground and rolled she felt the intense cold hit her like a physical blow, all around her was a frozen forest, nothing green for as far as she could see. Hearing a crash behind her, she saw Jaune was fighting the armoured giant completely unarmed with just his jeans and trainers on, desperately dodging swings from the massive blade.

Pyrrha threw her shield at the knight knocking it back. "Jaune! Catch!" With that she threw Crocea Mors at Jaune, he deftly caught both sword and shield and took up his stance in an instant. Akuo shot back to Pyrrha's arm, using her semblance and she took her stance to the side of Jaune. "What's going on Jaune?"

"No idea, but he picked the wrong woman to try to hurt!" Jaune charged the knight aiming a blow at the red eyed helm. The knight blocked with its shield and Jaune felt his entire momentum stop, his arm ringing with the impact. Before Jaune could regain his footing, the massive greatsword lashed out and Jaune blocked it with his shield.

Pyrrha watched as Jaune was thrown through the air by the impact, his body spinning as he rag-dolled across the ground for several meters, crashing into a rock outcropping. As Jaune struggled to rise, the Knight raised his greatsword aiming at Jaune, the gold aura building in the hilt again. In an instant Pyrrha transformed Milo into its spear form and with an explosive blast, hurled it with all of her strength at the knight.

The spear lodged itself into the knight's shoulder between two armoured plates and it reeled backwards, the gold beam piercing the sky. Just as Pyrrha was about to charge she noticed Jaune's confusion, his shield was split almost in two and Jaune's arm hung limply by his side. A single blow had broken Jaune's remaining aura, shield and possibly his arm. This knight's strength was impossibly huge.

Pyrrha charged the knight, summoning Milo back to her hand. She noticed there was no blood on the blade but the knight had clearly been injured. Only one thought came to mind. "Could it be...? It's a Grimm...?" Pyrrha pushed all unnecessary thoughts from her mind, focusing on the battle at hand.

The Knight swung his blade at Pyrrha, a great arc from the side that could cut her in two. Pyrrha jumped over the blade and spun in the air, slashing with her sword between two armour plates on its forearm. Unfazed by the attack, the knight spun around bringing its shield for a slam attack. Pyrrha still in mid-air was unable to change her direction quickly enough to avoid the blow, she covered herself and closed her eyes as she waited for the attack to land.

A screech of tortured metal and heavy breathing for a few seconds was all she heard. "You're not done yet are you Pyrrha? If you want to live, move!" Opening her eyes she saw Jaune standing over her, one arm still hung limp by his side with the ruined remains of his shield attached. His other arm was outstretched in front of him with his sword in hand. The sword was missing half the blade though. Jaune had blocked the attack with the point of his sword knowing he couldn't stop it with the flat of his blade and it had shattered under the onslaught. Chunks of Jaune's shattered blade lay scattered around in the snow.

"Jaune..."

"Move Pyrrha!" Jaune roared as he struggled to maintain his footing as the knight slowly pushed him back, overpowering him inch by inch.

Jaune's anger snapped Pyrrha out of her shock and she spun around, stabbing a blade into the Knights leg. The knight stumbled back, giving the huntsmen precious few seconds to recover.

"Any bright ideas?" Jaune's breathing was ragged as he struggled with the pain from his arm.

Pyrrha laid a hand on Jaune's arm. "Jaune your aura..."

"It was already weak from our duel but it's depleted now. I can manage... Just be careful. We need to take it down fast." Jaune looked at his ruined blade. "I might be able to distract it but otherwise I'm going to be useless..."

"My semblance is useless on the armour or the weapons. I don't know what they're made of but I can't change their polarity at all. I have an idea Jaune but I need to get on top of it."

Jaune wracked his brain for any possible solution but drew a blank. "Ok then, I'll do what I can."

The Grimm knight having recovered from its wounded leg, roared out. "Voidwalker!" In a berserk fury it swung its massive blade with wanton abandon, smashing anything around it as it tried to kill the two huntsmen. Jaune and Pyrrha dodging as best as they could from the frantic swings.

Finally the greatsword cleaved into a rock and was pinned momentarily. "Now Pyrrha!" Jaune leapt upon the knights other arm and struggled to hold it back as Pyrrha nimbly jumped onto the knight's chest, transforming Milo into a rifle. She stuck the barrel of the gun through the visor in the helm and unleashed shot after shot into the knight.

Finally the knights thrashing stopped as it toppled over backwards with a great crash. Pyrrha hugged Jaune as they stood in the snow, both of their breathing ragged as they sucked great lungfuls of air in. A soft black mist rose from the Grimm knight as it finally died.

"I've... never heard of... anything like that before!" Jaune wearily trudged over to the now empty armour. "The armour didn't disappear, so someone gave the armour to the Grimm. That narrows it down to two people that we know of..."

A dark expression came across Pyrrha's face. "Cinder... and Salem..."

Jaune started pulling the armour apart, separating the pieces, struggling under the immense weight of each piece. Jaune retrieved his goal from inside the armour, the leather lining under the plates of armour. Jaune shivered as he pulled the leather tunic over his head. It was far too big for him but he wasn't going to complain in this frozen landscape. He also unclipped the great long, red fur cloak that hung from the shoulders of the knight.

"W-what do we do now Jaune? It's s-so cold!" Pyrrha visibly shivered as she stood next to Jaune, her breath misting in front of her.

"First things first, find some shelter for the night. We have less than an hours sunlight left. Before that however..." Jaune trudged over to the greatsword and managed to prise it from the knight's hand. He hefted the massive blade with both arms, struggling under its immense weight and his broken arm. Noticing Pyrrha's look of confusion, he gestured to his shattered blade. "There's no chance of repairing that, even with your semblance."

"I c-could p-patch it together but it would shatter easily, you'd have to r-reforge the blade from s-scratch." Pyrrha hugged her arms desperately trying to fend off the biting wind.

Jaune walked over to Pyrrha and wrapped the long cloak around both of them so they could walk side by side, rubbing his hands over Pyrrha's bare arms to help warm her.

"Th-thanks."

"We need to keep moving, try to find shelter for the night. This cold is nothing compared to at night time. I think we're west of Atlas, on the frozen dragon wing. If so nights are going to be longer..."

Pyrrha looked at Jaune in confusion. "H-how c-can you tell?"

"The sun shifted when we went through the portal, if we went straight north to Atlas the sun wouldn't have moved so much horizontally. It's much lower on the horizon so we moved a great distance around Remnant. Let's head for that ridge over there, we might be able to find somewhere to shelter for the night."

Pyrrha nodded and they both started trudging wearily through the snow. The furrow Jaune left behind him as he dragged the massive greatsword, was swiftly covered in the constant snowfall. Something bothered Pyrrha, the only words the knight spoke was when he called her "Voidwalker". What did that mean?

Finally after an age, Pyrrha noticed they had reached the ridge Jaune had spotted. Her legs and arms were numb with the cold but the cloak Jaune had draped around them helped greatly. Jaune steered her to an overhang in the rock.

Jaune stepped out of the cloak and wrapped Pyrrha up tightly. "Stay here and stay warm, keep wiggling your fingers and toes if you don't want to lose them. Stay close to the cliff to avoid the worst of the wind." Before Pyrrha could say anything, Jaune laid the greatsword on the ground flat and started piling snow on top, packing each layer he added down, compacting it into hard bricks.

Before long Jaune returned and started piling the improvised bricks on the windiest side of the overhang, packing a small amount of snow between each layer. Slowly but surely the wind was diverted and Pyrrha felt herself start to warm up in earnest, still wiggling toes and fingers as best she could.

As Pyrrha watched Jaune work, she couldn't believe how well he was taking this. They were the other side of Remnant, in a frozen tundra and yet Jaune seemed to be in his element. He took charge, found shelter, improved it and was seemingly unaffected by the cold as he started packing more ice bricks in nothing but jeans and a loose leather tunic. "J-Jaune, you should come w-warm up."

Jaune looked at Pyrrha through the snow fall where she huddled against the cliff, her nose and cheeks red with the cold. He trudged over and hugged into Pyrrha, she went to open the cloak to let him in but he held it shut. "It's going to be ok, I p-promise." With that he smiled, kissed her on her chapped lips and went back to packing ice bricks.

Just as the last whisps of daylight faded, Jaune crawled through the hole he had left in his makeshift wall and started gently packing snow against the inside of the wall. Soon all the snow on the ground in their shelter was cleared with bare stone beneath them. Jaune wearily crawled over to Pyrrha and gratefully accepted her warm embrace as she wrapped the cloak around both of them.

Pyrrha felt Jaune shivering and his hands ice cold as she tried to warm them. "Oh Jaune, you shouldn't push yourself so hard."

His teeth loudly chattered as he spoke. "I'll p-protect you a-always..." With that, Jaune's head dropped as fell asleep.

"Jaune... Jaune! Jaune wake up! You can't sleep!" Pyrrha shook him but he didn't stir. Pyrrha knew she had to warm him up and fast. Putting her embarrassment aside, she started stripping off her armour and her top layers of clothing, using as much as possible as extra layers on top of the cloak that covered them. Then she wiggled herself down and managed to squeeze inside the leather tunic Jaune was wearing, wrapping her arms around him, face to face as he shivered. Sharing her body heat as best as she could.

Pyrrha kept talking to Jaune, trying desperately to keep him from drifting off to a sleep he would never wake from. After what seemed like an age, Jaune stopped shivering and she felt warmth in Jaune's hands. "Thank goodness..." Pyrrha finally let her exhaustion take over as she fell asleep, content in the knowledge that Jaune would survive the night. The next day however, would be another matter for both of them.

Jaune woke the next day and he felt heavy, his fingers numb and pinned to his chest. As he groggily opened his eyes he suddenly remembered where he was and what had happened. How he got into this particular situation he didn't know however. A topless Pyrrha laying on top of him, inside his tunic and his hands pinned between both of their chests. Jaune silently thanked the powers that be that he was cupping his own chest.

"She must've shared her body heat with me last night to warm me up..." Jaune thought, cursing himself for falling asleep. He knew that falling asleep in the cold was a good way to die. Strangely enough, Jaune didn't feel embarrassed with Pyrrha atop him semi-naked. It felt... natural, comforting. Jaune wanted to hug her but he daren't move his hands so he lay still, just listening to the sound of her soft breathing.

Jaune's belly loudly growled in protest of the lack of food and Pyrrha's eyes fluttered open. "Uh... that was my belly not my... never mind... Morning Pyrrha."

Pyrrha's eyes slowly swam into focus and was greeted by Jaune's smiling face. "Jaune... Jaune! I was so worried about you last night!"

"Sorry about that, I just couldn't keep my eyes open any longer. Thank you for saving me Pyrrha."

Pyrrha kissed Jaune on the lips and nuzzled into his shoulder. "About time I saved you for a change."

"Pyrrha... you've saved me more times than you think, outside of combat too..." Jaune softly kissed Pyrrha's neck a few times as she hugged into him. "We'd better get up soon, who knows how many hours of sunlight we'll have and what time it is now."

"Ok, you're right."

Jaune bit his lip as Pyrrha slithered her way down and out of the tunic that barely fit the two of them. As Pyrrha re-emerged, Jaune closed his eyes for her modesty.

Pyrrha whispered in his ear, barely loud enough to be heard. "Jaune... i-it's ok... I don't mind if you want to... look..."

Jaune's breath seemed to freeze in his lungs as he heard the words, still he kept his eyes firmly shut. "I w-want to, truly I do... but I t-think I'll need my blood in my chest when I go g-gathering in a minute..." His cheeks a deep crimson as he cursed the need to forage for food.

Pyrrha's musical laughter warmed Jaune more than their previous sleeping arrangements. "Oh Jaune. You're right and you worded that perfectly. Thank you." She softly kissed him on the cheek and started pulling her clothes and armour back on. "Ok I'm decent."

Jaune tentatively opened his eyes and bit back his disappointment that Pyrrha was correct.

Sitting next to Jaune and pulling the cloak over them, Pyrrha looked into Jaune's eyes. "So Jaune, you have experience surviving in the wild. What do we do?"

"Water, shelter and food in that order. We're set for shelter for now but we need to collect water and start finding and storing food. We can either head East towards Atlas which is closest but we'll have to cross the Atlesian sea in a raft we make in these frozen conditions, or we can head south until we find ourselves at the dragons tail and cross the Vale sea. It's a shorter distance across the sea and much warmer but it's a long way to get there. Either way will be hundreds of miles and neither of us has our scroll to send out an SOS beacon, not that we could get a signal this far out."

Pyrrha's jaw dropped with a look of shock on her face at how quickly Jaune had come up with a strategy and several plans to get back to civilisation. "Actually I have my scroll on me but as you said, zero signal. I've turned it off to save power. So for now we forage and survive until we have enough supplies to begin our trek I guess. We can decide which way to go later."

"Do you have anything in your belt pouches that might come in useful?" Jaune nodded towards Pyrrha's belt.

"Only things for repairing weapons unfortunately, a whetstone, a tube of filler and a suspension line."

"What's a suspension line?"

Pyrrha pulled out the line. "It's a flexible metal cable that you can use to suspend weapons. It's light and strong, I have quite a lot of it." Pyrrha let go and the line wound itself back to the reel.

Jaune nodded. "That could come in handy. First thing is we need something to hold water and food." Jaune reached down and ripped off both pockets from the leather tunic. Reaching over to his shattered shield, Jaune managed to prise off a shard of metal. "Could you use your semblance to shoot this shard through the leather around the edges? After that I can sew it together using a shoelace to store food in snow."

Pyrrha looked at Jaune in comical disbelief due to his instant solution

Jaune smiled at her expression. "My parents always said I was a DIY guy."

"S-Sure thing Jaune, that's a really great idea." Pyrrha held the shard for a moment while Jaune held the leather taut. In an instant the leather had small holes around the edges and Jaune turned the leather around so Pyrrha could finish it off. Pyrrha watched as Jaune removed one of his laces and started expertly sewing the two pockets together making a rough pouch, leaving a little hole that could be tied shut. "I take it you've sewed before?"

"Yeah, seven younger sisters. There was a ripped or torn dress at least once a week, until Aureolin learned I had to do it all as mom would be in the fields till late." Jaune inspected his handiwork and smiled when he was satisfied. "Right, now the hard part... Actually finding the food and water. Ready to go out?"

Pyrrha smiled weakly as she looked out at the frozen landscape. "No but I guess we don't have a choice."

As they stepped outside, Jaune stretched his arms out after being cooped up for so long. Testing his arm, he found the pain had almost gone so his aura must've healed the break and started to regenerate. Jaune put the cloak around Pyrrha's shoulders and hefted the massive greatsword. Pacing around he swung a few practice blows, struggling to maintain his balance with the huge weight.

"Are you sure you can fight with that Jaune?" Pyrrha's worry was evident on her face.

"Against regular Grimm I should manage but I doubt I could keep up with your speed in a duel. I just need to adjust my stance to the weight of the blade, I'm not used to using a two handed weapon." Jaune held up the blade, pointing it at a nearby tree focusing his thoughts and aura into the blade. He noticed Pyrrha's confused face and shrugged. "No laser cannon for me then." Jaune walked over to a nearby tree, practising his swings as he went. "So Pyrrha... exactly how hungry are you?" He glanced over his shoulder with a grin.

"Pretty hungry but I can survive a few days without food if need be."

"You should always keep your energy up and eat when you can without diminishing your supplies. Ready for something to eat?" Pyrrha nodded, curious where Jaune was going to find this food.

Jaune lifted the massive blade above his head and swung it at the tree in front of him in an overhead arc. The tree disintegrated under the blow, shattering into pieces at it fell. As Pyrrha approached she noticed the tree was mostly rotten under its frozen exterior. To Pyrrha's dismay Jaune gestured to the bugs crawling everywhere.

"Ta da! If you can stomach it, eat some now. Otherwise grab a bug, encase it in some snow and put it in the pouch. After the fourth or fifth day without food, you'll eat anything..." With that Jaune bent down, grabbed a huge centipede and stuck it straight in his mouth without batting an eyelash.

After battling her initial disgust, Pyrrha nervously picked up a small fat white worm and raised it to her mouth. Her hand trembled as she felt it squirm between her fingers. The moment hung in the air, Jaune glancing up at her between freezing bugs in snow.

"It's ok Pyrrha, don't force yourself right now. You can always eat them frozen or thawed later, it's a bit easier when they don't move." Jaune swiftly grabbed bugs and packed them into snow, knowing every morsel of food would be essential if they were to survive.

Pyrrha sighed and dropped to her knees, packing the white worm in snow, depositing it in the pouch. "Jaune I can't imagine how hard it must've been for you..."

Jaune shrugged. "I just did what I had to survive. The first time you feel the real burning pain of hunger, you lose your squeamishness really fast."

Pyrrha looked at Jaune with sadness written across her features. "No Jaune that's not what I meant. I mean... you could've headed back to Vale at any time you liked but you didn't. Even when things got really bad, even when things were impossibly hard for you, you didn't come back, you didn't give up... You could've just come back and had food and water and safety but you didn't..."

Jaune didn't look up from his foraging, grabbing and packing bugs in astonishing speed. "Pyrrha... The only reason I came back was because the Grimm couldn't train me much further. It's only the special ones like the Turtle-Lion or that Knight that give me any real challenge. What I needed was practice fighting humans... huntsmen. My task still isn't complete..."

Pyrrha laid a hand on his shoulder. "Jaune you don't have to-" His voice cut across her in a burst of anger.

"Yes I do! She's still out there! Both of them are! While either live, humanity is in danger... you... are in danger. We both know they are responsible for that knight appearing at your house!" Jaune looked down at his hand where he'd inadvertently crushed a bug, wiping it off in the snow.

"But Jaune... to make yourself suffer like that. All those nights alone beyond Vale, injured and hungry..."

Jaune let out a bark of laughter. "Suffer! Ha! I could've stayed beyond the walls for the rest of my life and the 'suffering' would've paled in comparison to that night... I swore I'd never be so weak that I couldn't protect those that I love ever again... and an Arc never goes back on his word."

Pyrrha looked into Jaune's eyes and saw the conviction and determination burning in them. "Jaune..."

"We'll escape this place Pyrrha. I'll keep us both alive and get you to safety. One day I'll deal with Cinder, Salem too but for now, protecting you is my highest priority." Jaune went back to packing bugs with renewed vigour, the pouch nearly half full already.

Pyrrha smiled at Jaune, knowing he'd go to any lengths to keep her safe and she'd do the same for him. "Well I can't be a burden on you if you're trying to protect me." With that she grabbed a centipede, stuffed it in her mouth and forced herself to chew and swallow, suppressing her grimace.

Jaune looked into her eyes and saw that she'd do anything for him. His shocked expression turned to a smile of genuine pride as Pyrrha grabbed another bug, stuffing it in her mouth, unwilling to let anything prevent her from protecting the man she loves.