Whew, can't believe how quickly I got the chapter of my original novel done! Still, I'm going to have to definitely go back and edit things whenever I do finish writing it… and that's one day that's definitely far off from now given just how much more I want/need to write for it. Oh boy, that's going to be frustrating in its own way… heh, but also just as exciting!
Ah, and now Fate/Grand Order is finally out in English! Heard online how some people are disagreeing – quite strongly from what I recall – over the 'official' translations of certain names and lines. While I can understand that frustration, I'm sure it won't get in the way of playing the game. Heh, of course, I have to upgrade my all but ancient phone in order to download it first. Hope it's as fun as people say it is!
Well, not much more to be said really, so let's get onto the chapter!
P.S. Got to see Resident Evil Vendetta recently. As narmy as some scenes were, even by the series' standards, it had some incredible fight choreography! I'd recommend the movie just for that alone!
Chapter 36
With lightning speed, Amber wasted no time in making the first move.
Wielding her makeshift earth staff, she all but slid forward and swung it at Jaune's knees, hoping to bring him down right away.
But to her expectations, the blond young man countered her move by smashing his left knee into it, the force behind it causing her own strike to lurch a bit.
Now she could've tried to push forward, engage in a bit of a power struggle right then and there and see if she could force her strike through, but this wasn't some kind of kid show. This was life. And spar or not, she would react accordingly.
Withdrawing her staff, she pivoted and whilst moving back a few inches, she lashed out with a sudden thrust towards Jaune's head. It proved to be an attack that he could indeed avoid, tilting his head to the right by just a few inches, her staff just barely grazing his blond hair as it swished in the wind.
Jaune charged forward, his right hand reaching up to grab her weapon, but seeing what he was planning, Amber immediately pulled back her staff once more and started to backpedal in order to put some distance in between them.
Jaune followed after her, his 'blind' eyes locking onto her with an intensity that honestly made her feel a little giddy in a way that she couldn't identify right now.
The blond young man then suddenly skidded and began to circle around her, disappearing for the briefest of seconds behind some trees.
Undeterred by this, Amber readied herself for Jaune's inevitable attack and he didn't disappoint. From in between two of the trees closest to her, his fist came hurtling forward, aiming for her chest. With a slight grunt, she maneuvered her staff to bat the fist aside with enough power to send it nearly smacking into one of the trees.
In the instant following this, Amber couldn't help but feel that doing so had been too easy for some reason and it turned out another instant later that her feeling was correct.
The fist opened up and gripped the nearest tree and from the other side of it, Jaune came swinging around, having used his grip and the momentum of his failed blow to literally throw himself around the tree.
With a 'hup!' he let loose a fierce kick in midair that would've definitely left a huge bruise on her face if she hadn't ducked at the last possible moment.
But it looked like Jaune wasn't done just yet, for with his hand still gripping the tree, he let out a huff and yanked the entire tree out of the ground and swung it at Amber while still in the air.
Ambers eyes widened involuntarily, surprised but hardly to the point of freezing. With her staff, formed and strengthened from equal part earth and her own aura, she wielded it like a long sword right now and with one mighty swing, she split the incoming tree in half.
Splinters erupted all around her as the tree broke apart and turning around in time to see Jaune land on the ground, Amber tapped into her maiden power just a little bit.
The splinters, numbering in the thousands, began to coalesce in the air, defying physics as they went from splattering everywhere to redirecting themselves towards Jaune, thousands becoming hundreds then becoming dozens as they merged together into what could only now be described as wooden stakes that were now traveling at hypersonic speeds and were easily sharp enough to pierce through steel.
Of course, to her expectations, Amber watched as Jaune weaved in between the stakes with a surprising amount of grace. No doubt, his Aura Vision could pick up the aura contained within them, allowing him to 'see' the stakes as clearly as she could see him.
Once more, he ran at her and unlike before, she charged forward to meet him. Thanks to her staff's overall size as well as the fact that it's, well, a staff, outright close combat ought to be impractical for her since properly maneuvering her weapon would be impossible. For staff users such as herself, it was important to keep opponents several feet away in order to fully capitalize on her weapon's range.
But this didn't apply to her.
She relished the slight shock that appeared on Jaune's face as they neared one another and without wasting any time, they both went on the attack simultaneously.
Jaune's fists became little more than blurs as he struck out at her with jabs, crosses, uppercuts and elbow strikes. That wasn't even including the occasional clinches, knee strikes, and stomps that he liked to mix in as well. Even to her, these blows were blindingly fast and immensely strong, no doubt capable of doing some serious damage to her if they connected.
But the very same could be said for her as well. Currently on the defensive right now – intentionally so, it must be said – she masterfully pivoted from the waist and slid her feet back in order to deftly avoid Jaune's knee strikes and stomps while she twirled and thrust upwards and otherwise moved her staff to block, parry, and deflect the various punches and elbow blows Jaune kept on throwing from little more than a foot away.
This close to one another, Amber only scarcely noted how all of their limbs were little more than blurs to each other as they actually sped up, the two of them taking this ridiculously close encounter as a challenge of sorts.
As they duked it out and as she now began to deal out her own attacks by trying to essentially whack Jaune across either side of his face or ram him with either end of the staff, the two of them went from being on either all out offense and defense to an ever-perfecting blend of both, attacking and responding to attacks in equal measure.
The attacks themselves became increasingly stronger as well, with missed blows disturbing the air all around them, nearby trees creaking and breaking apart from the sheer level of air pressure their attacks were generating.
To Amber and likely to Jaune as well, this seemed to last for hours on end, a testament to the intensity of their close encounter despite it only lasting little more than half a minute in reality. Eventually, they both found this to be a little too intense for them and so they broke it off, the two leaping away an extra foot or two in order to open up a more comfortable distance…
Or so they'd try to have each other believe.
Faster than she could react, Jaune grabbed her by the arm just as she'd started to jump back and used her own momentum to perform a perfect shoulder-toss. It would've left her embedded in the ground below had it fully gone through, but she was able to stab her staff into the ground and wrap her own hand around Jaune's throwing arm.
Thanks to her ground stab having halted the shoulder-toss, it left the blond young man open just enough for her to return the favor, grabbing him and outright throwing him with a level of strength that belied her lithe and slender figure.
She looked on as the blond went sailing through the air and spun. Jaune then landed on a particularly thick tree feet-first and kicked off of it hard to make it explode under the force. He now sailed towards her, spinning forward through the air more than a dozen times before unleashing an axe-kick.
Sensing the power behind it, Amber determined in an instant that blocking it would be impossible and so she leapt back, tapping into her maiden power in order to manipulate the wind to further propel herself away.
She was correct to do so, for as Jaune's axe-kick smashed into the ground, what could only be described as an earthquake occurred, shaking the entire area as the spot he struck cratered and spider-web cracks formed for tens of meters.
Debris was sent flying everywhere and Amber had to spin her staff around for a couple of seconds to deflect the pieces that came her way. After that, she immediately hoisted her staff up high, channeling some of her maiden power once, this time directly into the staff just before stabbing it into the ground.
She felt her maiden power kick into action, ejecting itself from the staff, which acted in this instance as a 'trigger,' and spreading into and through the ground before concentrating itself and traveling to the spot where Jaune was at.
The maiden power then burst forth, literally burst forth from the ground in the form of what could only be described as a geyser of dirt that was intense enough to split a bullhead in two. Jaune somersaulted to avoid it, landing just outside the crater in a crouched position, looking not unlike a predator in waiting, sizing up his prey.
And in this case, his prey was her.
Somewhere in a certain part of her mind, this particular comparison was running wild, but Amber ignored the images that said part of her mind was promptly conjuring up.
The action lulling for the moment, the two of them merely stared at one another, she in a combat stance while Jaune remained predatorily crouched.
Amber couldn't help but smile.
Despite her words prior to the start of this spar, she had been holding back thus far, having merely wanted to get a feel for how Jaune moved before truly going all out. And she could tell that Jaune had been doing the same.
They'd merely been warming up. But now the time has come for the warm up to end…
…And for their 'true' spar to really begin.
Through his Aura Vision, Jaune watched intensely as Amber's emotions seemed to fluctuate. The one thing that stayed consistent throughout this moment, however, was the outright eagerness she seemed to be so strongly feeling.
A part of him couldn't help but feel the same way.
Thus far, the two of them had merely been good naturedly getting a feel for one another, testing the waters. Now that they'd done so, they could really kick things into high gear, something that both excited and worried him.
It excited him, since he could now find out just how he, in his current state, compares to a fully healed maiden without the risk of being killed.
But it also worried him since, while they wouldn't intentionally be trying to kill one another, that didn't mean some risk of serious injury didn't exist.
Ergo, he'd still need to exercise a good deal of caution, more so than what would otherwise be expected of such a serious spar. And on that note, he couldn't help but get the feeling that the 'knocked down x amount of times' rule wasn't really going to be all that important.
Whelp, no more time to dawdle around; Amber looked just about ready to attack him, a build-up of aura within her limbs.
Time to preempt her.
Being crouched not unlike an animal, Jaune then chose to make good use of this fact by pouncing directly at the Fall Maiden, all but flying across the crater he'd made a moment ago in a split second.
He could see Amber's aura ripple ever so slightly from surprise, but whatever small hope he'd held of fully blitzing her were crushed when she nigh-immediately responded to his pouncing attack by way of coalescing her aura through her hands and out from them came two lightning bolts.
"Damn it…" he muttered to himself. Looks like Amber was going to start utilizing her maiden power more often now that their spar was in full swing. He really should've seen that coming.
Nonetheless, he managed to shift his momentum enough to fully twist his body and avoid the lightning bolts by just centimeters, the heat of the bolts slightly singing the hairs on his body.
Having managed to dodge them, he ended up reaching Amber, but she'd already moved back, causing him to simply land where she'd just been standing lamely.
Amber was little more than several feet away from him and she was already making her next move, swinging her staff directly at the side of his head. Jaune had no choice but to roll to his right to avoid being struck.
Amber didn't let up, however, for she used the momentum of her strike to carry her across the ground and bring her staff down in a powerful swing that would've killed even the largest of Ursas with ease.
But against Jaune, not so much.
He reached up and grabbed a hold of the staff right before it struck him, his strength proving to be just great enough to halt her blow, but not without some difficulty. Amber sure was physically stronger than he'd actually been expecting, but thankfully it seemed his strength was greater still by a few notches.
With a light grunt, he then stood up with staff still in hand and he turned and yanked as hard as he could overhead. The staff went flying and so did Amber, her bright aura lighting up the area around her. This allowed Jaune to see the several tightly grouped trees that the maiden was going to end up slamming through, but to his (mild) amazement, Amber twirled in place, holding her staff tightly against herself and ended up passing safely through a small opening in between the trees.
She emerged just past the other side of the grouped trees without any damage whatsoever and gracefully landed on the ground.
"Wow…" he couldn't help but think aloud. He stood where he was at for a second, having to just admire the way his sparring partner had pulled that off.
That really had been impressive.
Unfortunately, she didn't give him any further time to admire her moves, for she flexed her aura and the very same trees she'd harmlessly passed through erupted into what could only be called pillars of fire that she then commanded to move towards him at near lightning speed.
Jaune allowed himself a millisecond of genuine surprise even though he was already making his next move.
The pillars, despite their speed, seemed to only be able to move in a straight line, meaning circling around them was his best option. The only thing that might prove cumbersome was the sheer width of each fire pillar, but his speed was great enough to render this point nearly moot.
Still, he made sure to rush around them as fast as he possibly could.
The whole time he did so, he made sure to keep focused on Amber, who moved to intercept him. She was probably thinking his attention was still on the fire pillars or something, for he could pick up something akin to elation and triumph within her.
So he took just a small bit of amusement in seeing that elation turn to shock when, just as they both neared one another, she tried to kick him in the side of his knee only for him to bend his leg and lift it up in time to avoid her attack. Then he brought his foot down as suddenly as he could, stomping on her toes with enough force to completely shatter car sized boulders.
The pained and surprised squeak Amber let out was hilariously high-pitched and he couldn't quite suppress a slight chuckle at her reaction even as he threw a punch at her solar plexus.
But high-pitched squeak or not, Amber was still able to swat his fist aside with her staff and promptly spun it around her whole upper body at a high speed right before it finally connected with the side of Jaune's neck.
"Urk!" It was the only sound he could make as the staff just right below his Adam's apple and he ended up stumbling to the right. This meant his foot was no longer pinning down Amber's and as if to emphasize this point, Amber then used that same foot to kick him hard in the side, right up against his ribs.
Pain greater than anything else he'd nearly experienced before filled his senses for a few milliseconds, but he shrugged it off just as he quickly recovered from the neck strike and grabbed Amber's leg before she could fully retract it. He pulled hard and Amber's form was pulled close to him, close enough for him to wrap his arms around her in what could only be called a hug…
…A hug that last for maybe all of a split second before he bent backwards and suplexed her.
The sound that was made when Amber's entire upper body ended up buried in the ground worried Jaune. Not for very long, though, as Amber's legs then wrapped themselves around him and with a show of impressive lower body strength, flung him over a distance of twenty yards and through several trees.
He bore the pain of each impact without too much trouble and landed on his feet, but by then, Amber had already freed herself from the ground and to his genuine befuddlement, threw her staff directly at him.
Naturally, he caught it with both hands.
Naturally, he should've known better than to do so.
For Amber raised her hands up into the air and seeing her aura at work, Jaune just knew she was going to bring down some serious firepower.
Sure enough, the Fall Maiden did just that in the form of a dozen lightning bolts from the sky, all of them attracted to the staff, which acted as a pseudo-lightning rod thanks to the aura the maiden had infused into it and into the lightning above.
Jaune let go of the staff as quickly as he could and started to backpedal in a straight line. He did so in just the nick of time, with the first half of the lightning bolts hitting the staff while the others were aimed directly for him. Dodging to either side was impossible due to the erratic paths of the bolts so he was forced to keep backing straight up, smashing through a large boulder in the process as if it wasn't even there along with a tree.
Only marginally, did he mentally note the boulder he'd just gone through. Boulders weren't too common throughout most of the forest, but could mainly be found in the general area where initiation was usually held in.
Huh, he hadn't noticed him and Amber going this far out.
As the final lightning bolt missed him by inches, Jaune looked up into the sky above, spotting Amber levitate her way towards him, her staff returning to her hands as she willed it back to her.
She evidently saw him despite being a good forty feet up for Jaune noted yet another build-up of aura but not as great as before. Said aura was then concentrated into her staff and she launched it once more at him.
Eyes narrowing in concentration, Jaune chose to confront this attack head on. He could tell with just a simple glance that the Fall Maiden had essentially turned her staff into an explosive, no doubt meant to detonate on contact, but he nonetheless opted to confront it.
Jumping up a few meters into the air, Jaune then reached out without hesitation for the staff. Sure enough, the very instant his fingers grazed its surface, the aura within was released and took the form of an explosion easily tens of feet in diameter and with enough power to fatally injure a Goliath.
The pain was immense and he could feel most of his shirt get blown off along with the part of his pants that covered up his calves, but he soldiered through it long enough to fully grab the staff – still intact, he eagerly noted – just before the force of the explosion blasted him back towards the ground.
Spinning a dozen times over, he hit the ground hard but lessened the damage he took overall by rolling along for a few feet before managing to get back on his feet, a snapping sound reverberating in the process.
And as he stood back up, he spun once and flung the staff right back at Amber at hypersonic speeds.
He watched as the young woman swerved in midair to avoid it, her head turning to watch as the staff kept on flying upwards and onwards into the distance.
This meant that she didn't see it coming when he then threw the other part of the staff that he'd broken off in mid-roll.
He imagined Amber heard a faint swooshing sound of some kind, for she turned to look back at him with confusion coloring her aura, confusion that then turned to complete panic upon seeing the second object he'd thrown, which was little more than a foot away from her face by the time she saw it.
And naturally, avoiding it at that point had been impossible. So Jaune was treated to the sound of the staff part smashing loudly into Amber's nose and eyes hard enough to for it – the staff part, that is – to break further on impact.
In pain from the hit and with her concentration broken, Amber's levitation came to an end and she went plummeting to the ground.
Jaune dashed forth to reach her, uncertain if he was supposed to capitalize on this moment and attack or catch her in case the fall proved to be too much for her.
He needn't have bothered, for Amber recovered in mid-fall and concentrated once more to restore her levitation, causing her to arc and start gliding directly above the trees.
She passed directly over him without slowing and Jaune had to grind to a brief halt before turning around and giving chase.
For once, he mildly cursed his lack of any ranged options thanks to being a complete brawler, but this only lasted a few seconds before Amber's aura, lighting up the entire area thanks to how powerful and intense it was, lit up the path.
He recognized where they were going.
The same area where his sister's team along with team RWBY had faced that Nevermore and Deathstalker.
A fully open area, in other words… well then, this ought to be interesting.
With a speed that many likely wouldn't expect of him, James Ironwood charged across Beacon and towards the forest in record time.
By now, a number of students had started to get up and start their day in earnest and it looks like they were going to get a bit of a spectacle to go along with their breakfast.
For off in the distance, what were undoubtedly the sounds of battle were ringing out loudly for them to hear.
It didn't help that some trees could clearly be seen being toppled or outright destroyed. And that wasn't even getting into the 'odd' weather changes, with the sky going from clear to cloudy to stormy and back again sporadically and only in certain spots.
Were he a lesser man, James would've already ripped out all of his hair from the panic he now felt.
Whatever exactly was going on in that forest – it seemed a little too much to call it a spar anymore – it was only a matter of time until students got curious enough to go looking into things themselves.
If that happened, Amber would be seen and while in such a scenario it'd be impossible for someone to figure out she was a maiden, the mere knowledge of Amber and her obviously incredible power would likely spread like a wildfire across the net.
God damned web forums.
By now, he'd already managed to leap into the forest, his landing most ungraceful and loud, but effective nonetheless.
Gritting his teeth in equal parts mounting frustration and worry, he burst into a sprint once more, following the sounds of battle with ease.
Kind of hard not to know what direction it was coming from, anyways; one would truly have to be blind not to spot the miniature tornado that was changing directions constantly.
Oh, the sheer number of trees and ground that it ripped up as it kept on moving… James wanted to cry over the destruction Amber was causing right now.
Rushing a little more quickly now, James put aside his growing concern just long enough to realize where exactly the tornado was centered at – the ruins that Ozpin liked to use to hold relics for initiations.
He inwardly sighed. At least Amber and Jaune Arc had made sure to go a fair distance away from the academy for this. Not to mention that the ruins were already pretty messed up from many years of just sitting there, unoccupied. So those two destroying the area a bit more honestly wasn't that troubling anymore.
Nonetheless, he wasn't about to turn back. Amber and Jaune, given their age and mannerisms thus far, seemed like excitable people. If they got worked up enough, he was pretty sure they'd cease to pay much attention to where their fight ended up at.
So keeping a close eye on them still remained as his objective. A good thing he was doing this personally and hadn't bothered calling in any of his men to assist, for if the fight got too out of hand, he doubted they'd have been able to avoid getting hurt in any potential crossfire.
And for the Trial, he needed as many able-bodied people as possible.
"Wish they knew that too…" he muttered as he continued to close in on the ruins, the tornado mercifully dissipating.
Seriously, was it not Jaune who asked of them to work together and build their forces? Did he not realize that he and Amber would be serving as two of humanity's heaviest hitters against Salem and her Grimm? If they weren't careful and got too injured, the only thing they would've ended up succeeding at is making more work and trouble for everyone!
For a moment, his frustration over the circumstances behind this situation outweighed his ebbing concern.
But only for a moment, for as he finally cleared the trees and came to a standstill on the very outskirts of the ruined area, all his thoughts just ceased to be.
Right there, standing close to the ruined temple was none other than Jaune Arc himself, the young man's dull blue eyes focused upwards on Amber, the Fall Maiden in question standing atop said ruined temple, her eyes glowing with an immense amount of power that could only be the work of her maiden power.
What could only be lightning crackled around her very form, destroying parts of the temple below without even meaning to. Combined with the serious gaze she cast upon Jaune below her, James could see why people mistook maidens for goddesses.
And then they both moved.
Amber flung herself off the temple and twirled through the air with a level of agility and grace that would've left even an expert gymnast in awe. Her hands lit up and shot forth several balls of pure flame at Jaune.
Jaune, in turn, had apparently anticipated this in advance, for he'd already started to weave by the time Amber had fired them. In between each fire ball he moved, unbothered by the obviously immense heat they had. He dashed forward so quickly thereafter that the ground itself seemed to erupt with every step he made.
But he hadn't been able to move quickly enough to reach Amber, it seemed to James, for the young woman landed on one of the temple walkways without issue. Then she stomped down hard enough for even James to hear it despite the distance and with his keen eyes, he could literally see the maiden's aura flow out of her and into the ground.
And as Jaune neared her, pillars of flame shot up, hot enough to outright melt the thick stone they sprouted from.
Jaune once more weaved past them all, his movements so small however that if viewed from the side, it looked like he was actually passing through the fire pillars as if he were a ghost.
But as this happened, Amber too had charged forth, the bits of debris that the fire pillars had kicked up gathering instantly in her open right hand and form a short staff. However, before it could fully form, Jaune lightly jumped forward and arced his body so that he was parallel with the walkway and then threw a punch at it. His blow was so powerful that the entire walkway collapsed immediately and James could only watch as Amber's concentration was broken, the nearly formed staff breaking apart.
Yet the young woman hardly looked surprised. Hell, James would dare say she looked giddy for some reason. As he unconsciously jogged forth for a better look, he noted Amber's expression go from giddy to almost enraged as she let out a battle cry. Kicking off a small piece of the walkway in mid-air, she rammed into Jaune with impressive force and they both went sailing towards the nearby cliff that overlooked the temple.
To his amazement, Jaune merely shrugged off the pain of the hit, wrapped his left arm around Amber in such a way that it looked like he was somehow going to DDT her and then suddenly flipped around, striking the cliff feetfirst. Then he hefted Amber over his shoulder before suddenly throwing her downwards to where the cliff and ground meet. Gravity combined with the strength the young blond put into the throw made it impossible for the Fall Maiden to brace herself in time and she slammed into the ground hard enough to rock the entire temple, another part of it falling apart as a result.
By now, James had gotten across the open plain and near the front of the temple in time to see Jaune dig his feet into the cliff and start running down it as if it were the ground! But this lasted for only a few milliseconds before he kicked off the cliff and slammed his feet into Amber right before she could start getting up.
The maiden cried out in pain and seemed to cough up blood despite how tough she was and for an instant, James considered taking action-.
-But then, Amber's eyes glowed even more brightly then before and the lightning that had crackled around her form before returned, this time concentrating into her right fist. She threw a punch at Jaune, whose form was crouched atop her and James could see the young man's eyes go wide with shock and even worry, to the point where he tried to jump back.
But he wasn't quite fast enough and Amber's lightning enhanced fist struck him in the worst way possible.
On pure instinct, James shifted his posture to cover his crotch, but this didn't stop him from wincing as he watched Jaune get struck right in the jewels. Even Amber looked aghast as her fist made contact.
But Jaune, despite the expression of genuine pain on his face, only ended up staggering back a few feet in a bent over posture and in the span of several seconds seemed to already start overcoming the pain and stand up straight again. This was an action that automatically made James start to respect him much more than before, if only because if anyone else – man or woman – had been struck there by such a blow, they likely would've died from the figurative and literal shock, and that was assuming they would have even been physically tough enough to not outright die from the hit in the first place.
To his further amazement, Amber got up whilst massaging her fist, the same one she'd struck with just now all the while she briefly sported a look of mild pain and shock. Holy hell, just how tough was Jaune?!
Whatever mild pain Amber's hand had just experienced, however, it wasn't enough to occupy her for long and the woman decided to go for a mid-range attack by manipulating the wind to pick up some random pieces of debris that then pelted Jaune, still recovering despite his standing, hard enough to knock him onto his back.
Jaune rolled with it and landed back on his feet in a second, but that had given Amber enough time to finally form two short staffs, each one easily the length of an average sword when held in the young woman's hands.
James watched as Amber blitzed Jaune, hitting him across the shoulder with the makeshift weapon in her left hand before following it up with a hit from the other, this second blow hitting Jaune hard on the very side of his forehead.
The young blond stumbled but managed to recover in time block the third and fourth blows with his elbows, the stone that formed the weapons chipping ever so slightly as they were guarded against. Amber remained unfazed and simply extended her left leg out behind Jaune's right knee and tried to trip him up, only for the young man to raise said leg over Amber's just before it connected.
Then with a surprising swiftness that James had to admit took even him a bit by surprise, Jaune went low and swept Amber's legs out from under her with the very same leg the woman herself had tried to hit. A yelp could be heard coming from Amber, but she bent and did a handstand to keep from hitting the ground and promptly spun in place with her legs sticking out. Had Jaune stood back up – something he'd clearly been about to do just now – her legs would've smacked him right in the chest, but the blond had been quick enough to remain low and skip back a few feet.
The maiden ceased her spin and bent in such a way as to place her feet on the ground before her and then right herself, already swinging one of her makeshift weapons downwards at Jaune. Said blond raised his arm in time to block it, but the strength of the blow was still able to knock him onto his back. A wild kick ended up preventing Amber from delivering a follow-up blow and this gave Jaune just enough of a respite to roll back and up onto his feet and kick at the ground, his blow ripping a man-sized chunk out of it and sending it flying at Amber.
The young woman jumped a little bit to her left, twisting her body to the side to allow the chunk of earth to miss her by inches and then wasted no time in turning back around to charge forward.
But Jaune had already reached her first, his right fist shooting directly towards her face. James was impressed at how quickly Amber assessed the situation just before tilting her head to the right, Jaune's fist grazing her cheek just lightly enough to seem like a complete miss yet closely enough for James to note Ambers aura momentarily glow as it tried to soften whatever hit she just took.
Then the Fall Maiden yelped and the Atlas general could only gape when she was suddenly picked up and sent flying tens of yards up into the air and already covering a distance of a dozen meters.
It took the general a few seconds to figure out what had happened just now and it left him somewhat stunned – Jaune had opened up his attacking fist at the last possible instant to grab Amber's hair and throw her.
That… was honestly pretty impressive. It takes speed and skill to pull off such a last-ditch maneuver since Jaune would've had to grab accurately at Amber's hair or else he'd have succeeded in only pulling out a few loose strands. Not to mention his strength too; throwing a person of any size like that wasn't exactly the easiest thing to pull off when their posture was off, not unless they possessed a high level of strength to make up for the difference.
Alas, Jaune's wild throw also succeeded in keeping him from regaining his balance for a second or two and that allowed enough time for Amber to land on her back, get up and already start to prepare her response to the move just now.
Pieces of earth rose up from the ground and were added onto her two weapons as she held them close together, forming a staff that was just a little longer than what was considered the norm.
Spinning the newly formed staff in place to test its weight, James spotted a satisfied smirk on Amber's face just before she swung it with both arms, generating a good deal of air pressure but hardly enough to harm Jaune, let alone from so far away.
However, Amber then activated her maiden power, her eyes glowing with energy as the air pressure she'd generated suddenly gained a lot more strength, all while the 'size' of it seemed to shrink and condense to the point it looked genuinely visible to the naked eye.
With a speed comparable to lightning, this enhanced air pressure shot forth at a mildly surprised Jaune, who was already jumping directly over it.
James thought that had been a bad move even before Jaune had fully leapt into the air, but his opinion of how bad a move this had been solidified when the air pressure struck the cliff behind Jaune and practically exploded. By God, Amber had essentially made an air cannon, one with tremendous power as Jaune, even though he'd been several yards away from the point of impact, got blown away much further than he'd been intending to jump, smashing through one of the few pillars that had remained standing after all this time.
Amber wasn't done just yet it would, for she levitated up into the air and two things began to simultaneously occur. First, a small tornado suddenly formed from the ground up, catching Jaune in the process. Secondly, a relatively small storm cloud formed in the sky far up above, blocking out the sun and therefore rendering the entire area seemingly dull in color as the light of the sun was cut off.
That was when one of the most massive bolts of lightning James had ever seen or heard of was shot down from the cloud, its movement heralded by a deafening thunder clap just a millisecond prior to its appearance.
And it went straight for Jaune.
All James could see just before it struck its unfortunate target was the very tip of the lightning bolt aiming dead center for Jaune's chest… and considering the sheer size of it, what this really meant was that Jaune would be completely enveloped by it. And sure enough, that's exactly what happened, the lightning bolt's blinding light making it impossible for the general to see even as it blasted Jaune straight down the tornado and towards the ground.
The tornado itself seemed to invert itself, now taking form around the lightning bolt and all but ripping away at Jaune before he finally struck the ground.
What an impact it was too, cracks forming for meters on end as the young blond was blasted more than ten feet under the surface, the remains of the temple falling apart for good as the whole area shook with all the violence of a small yet highly intense earthquake. It took James had to keep from falling onto his butt.
He continued to look, though, seeing the wind and lightning disperse to reveal the sun once more in the sky. As sunlight reappeared and covered the area in its brilliance once more, James saw Amber break out into a sweat and start panting as she bent forward and placed her hands on her knees. The staff she was just barely holding onto seemed to start falling apart as well as the power used to form and maintain it wavered.
As powerful as she clearly was, it seemed that using her maiden power in such ways takes a lot out of her.
A loud groan grabbed her attention, however, as well as James'. Amber ceased her panting, stood up and slowly began to make her way towards the hole her attack had ultimately formed. She looked a little worried now. "J-Jaune? You alright?" James could hear her say from her in the wake of how dead silent things seemed to be right now.
In what could only be a response to her brief call of concern, as Amber neared the hole, two hands suddenly burst from the ground directly beneath and latched onto both legs. Amber let out a startled cry just before she was quickly pulled under.
Stunned, James immediately started to charge forward to see if he could grab the woman out of the ground, but before he could even cover a few feet, he stopped as he heard once more the sounds of fighting occurring right beneath his feet.
Shocked, he could only look to the ground and try to detect where exactly Amber and Jaune were located at. But judging by the sounds of punches and battle cries being let loose, they were moving around underground – "but how, though?" James wanted to ask – far too quickly for him to get a proper lock on.
One second, they were making a small portion of the ground burst open a few yards to his seven o'clock and then the next second, they were directly behind him, making the equivalent of a sink hole occur, one that forced James to stumble forward a bit to avoid falling in.
More than halfway tempted to grab his gun and start blasting at the ground until those two were exposed, James could only follow the chaotic sounds with increasing accuracy.
Just when he felt it was high damn time to forcibly put an end to this, the ground erupted just six feet away from him on his right and he turned just in the nick of time to see Amber and Jaune go flying out of the ground, practically latched onto one another in a fierce grapple. Even as they struck the ground and went tumbling closer to the forest, they seemed intent on continuing their 'spar.'
Jaune was trying to get Amber in an armlock, but the girl swiftly broke out and bumped her side into his own, sending him rolling a bit just long enough for her to get on top of him and attempted to throw a punch.
But the blond easily caught her blow and reached out to grab a hold of her other hand with a tight grip.
The two of them reared their heads back, ready to freaking headbutt each other-.
-And that was when James decided enough was enough.
Having withdrawn her gun, he fired two quick shots into the air.
It was rather comical to see just how quickly the two stopped what they were doing, the two turning their heads in his direction in perfect unison. And oh, how surprised they were to see him.
"G-General?!" Jaune stuttered out, his eyes wide. "What are you doing here?!"
"Well," James began, only to pause for a second as his eyes roamed over their positions and current state. "Originally, I came out here to make sure things didn't get too carried away with your spar. On that front, I believe I somewhat failed."
He motioned with his firearm first towards the forest, a clear-cut path of destruction leading to this area before then motioning to the ruins behind him, which frankly no longer could be considered ruins due to being complete rubble now.
"…Whoops," Amber could only say sheepishly, an apologetic smile on her face.
"Whoops indeed…" James muttered as he massaged his forehead. "While the destruction in and of itself isn't too big a deal given all of the initiations held here over the years, you two certainly risked being exposed to the students. And the absolute last thing we need is word of the maiden's existence getting around, even if they wouldn't have known what you are per say," he said to Amber in a flat tone.
She winced ever so slightly at that, making James feel somewhat bad. Nonetheless, at least he'd brought his concern to her attention, even if it was well after the fact. By now, students would have no doubt seen the destruction, albeit from a distance, and it'd only be a matter of time before the rumor mill did its work.
If he was lucky, rumors would get out of hand and keep students and others from discovering the truth too early.
In any case, for all of his troubles, he might as well take this moment to amuse himself somewhat. "Of course, it also wouldn't do to have any kind of scandal on hand right now, especially considering your surprising popularity, Arc. Seems to me like the students here like to gossip about you enough as it is. Giving them more ammo doesn't seem very smart of you."
"Huh?" was the intelligent response Jaune gave him.
By this point, Amber seemed to actually look at the position she and Jaune were in. James could see her piecing it together in the span of a split second:
There she was, sitting atop Jaune with their hands grasping one another in some way, their faces less than a foot away from each other. Her lightning/tornado combo had blasted Jaune's shirt completely off, thereby completely exposing his slim yet incredibly well-muscled upper body, some mild scratches and bruises here and there across his pecs and abs while the muscles in his arms seemed to tense and bulge with the lightest of movements. His shoes and socks had likewise been incinerated along with parts of his pants legs, showing off his calves and a part of his left thigh, equally as muscled as the rest of him.
On her part, her tumbling underground had gifted her with just as many scratches and bruises as well in addition to some torn clothes – modeled for the most part after her old clothes sans the brown vest and shoulder bracer – both of her slim shoulders exposed and the back of her blouse torn open to reveal the sensuous curve of her back as she all but leaned forward over Jaune in her seated position – directly atop a certain part of said blond man's lower body, it must be said – while the front was torn to show considerably more cleavage than before. Just the lightest of breaths would be enough to draw attention to the gentle and curvaceous swells of her chest. Part of the bottom of her blouse had been burned off somehow to reveal her toned stomach while her right pant leg had also been torn up, showing off a lithe and slender leg.
The disheveled look of her hair and reddened cheeks from her recent exertion (of battle) along with the light sheen of sweat that Jaune sported completed the compromising image.
A shrill and strangled sound rose up and out of Amber's throat, the young woman freezing in place all the while.
James merely grinned, his frustration over the situation mitigated a little by the fun he'd just poked.
As for Jaune, the blond could only blink stupidly, his 'blindness' allowing him enough sight to see people, but not enough to realize the situation he was currently in.
As James finally began to walk forward and help them up, more than eager to get them back to the academy, he could only dwell on the power and skill he'd seen the two exhibit just moments ago.
First chance he got after they had changed and rested, he wanted to talk to them and see where exactly they stand from a combat perspective. Cause if that was the sort of performance he could expect from them during the Trial, then they just might have a decent chance of overcoming this Trial after all. And maybe they might be willing to offer some training tips for his soldiers… or even outright train them if they had the time.
When they finally began to walk back, James was treated to this, however.
"Just what did he mean by that?" he heard Jaune ask Amber.
The maiden merely let out another brief and shrill sound, her face refusing to meet Jaune's own.
James could only smirk in amusement.
Meanwhile, at that exact same moment in one of the training rooms, Jeanne perked up.
Currently taking a little break before continuing with the team training, the leader of team JNPR could let out a surprised 'bwuh?!' just as she'd been taking a drink of water.
Her brother sense was tingling just now! Something of note was seriously going on!
So utterly (and comically) worried was she over this unknown development she was sensing, Jeanne failed to see Pyrrha suddenly space out, a small yet perverted smile on the redhead's face.
Somewhere out there, there was a magnificent sight of Jaune and here she was missing out on it, though its significance didn't seem lost on her somehow.
And so as Pyrrha's fantasizing continued from directly beside her, Jeanne remained completely oblivious to it and was instead much more focused now on finishing up this training as quickly as possible.
She had a brother to get to!
Heh, hope the ending is something you guys will find some amusement in because no matter how I tried to plan it out, I couldn't really make it as funny as I was picturing it in my mind. In any case, I certainly do hope the spar was something you all found entertaining, both in scale and in length. It'll serve as an indicator of the battles to come, or at least that is my intention.
In any case, future battles will start to be just a bit more detailed than before and hopefully better written in terms of overall quality and specifics.
Up next chapter will be some plot development too, so I also hope you will be looking forward to what I have planned for it!
Until next time, everyone. Take care!