What the hell do I do now?
Adam isn't the kind of opponent I can defeat. Even with help I don't know if we could do it.
"Jaune! Did Emerald come back this way?" Ruby shouted as she rounded the corner she had left from.
Jaune shook his head.
"Darn it! She gave me the slip."
"Forget about her, we have bigger concerns." Jaune said.
He explained the situation, but chose to leave the part about Pyrrha's involvement out. If getting her involved meant sending her to Cinder, he'd take the secret to the grave.
"We have to do something!" Ruby urged.
"Do we? Can we?" Jaune asked. "Do you really think it's a good idea to take Blake to Adam?"
Or to send Pyrrha to Cinder...?
"We'll be there too, don't forget. We fought him to a draw once before didn't we?" Ruby replied.
Yeah, after I nearly died weakening him and with the help of someone who is working with the enemy.
"Besides, it's her decision to make, not ours. If Blake wants to do it, we have to support her no matter what." She added.
Faintly, Jaune heard rumbling coming from above. The crowd was getting riled up about something. Jaune was willing to bet it was the start of Pyrrha's match.
"Fine. You get everyone together. If they choose to try and fight Adam, I'll do what I can. I'm going to make my way to Pyrrha, you guys catch up." Jaune stated.
"Actually, maybe it would be easier if you contacted everyone. Mercury broke my scroll." Ruby replied.
Jaune sighed.
"Mine's broken too." Ruby didn't look convinced. "It is! Anyway, you're faster than I am. Once you find someone you can use theirs." Jaune suggested.
"They should make these scrolls harder to break huh? But okay, I'll get everyone and bring them up to the arena."
Jaune nodded.
"Thanks, Ruby."
Ruby burst into petals, bursting down a corridor at high speed. Jaune in turn made a beeline for the arena.
After a few seconds, Jaune was able to hear the cheers of the crowd and the sounds of combat. Jaune knew they couldn't be blamed for their ignorance. Still, he couldn't help but wonder how they would feel if they knew what was going on behind the scenes.
Jaune rounded one final corner, bringing him face to face with the competitor gateway. Standing in front of it were two Atlesian Knights.
"Jaune Arc identified. Stand down and submit for incarceration." The robotic foot soldiers droned upon sighting him.
Jaune slowed from a sprint to a swift march.
"Failure to comply will be met with force." The droids warned as they raised their weapons.
Jaune slowed again to a stop.
I can't start a fight this close to the entrance. It could alert the crowd… or the general. I need to finish this in one move before they can react.
"Compliance noted." The robots stated as they lowered their weapons. "You will now be taken-"
When they had completely lowered their weapons and taken a step towards him, Jaune struck.
Jaune had once seen Qrow standing amongst a pile of robots just like this. He hadn't even drawn his weapon yet at that time. As such, Jaune knew that their durability couldn't compare to a huntsman. Jaune grabbed them both by their heads and crushed them together. The damage to the chassis was minimal, but the internal mechanisms were scrambled.
The crowd outside cheered. Jaune pushed the destroyed robots aside to finally see what was happening.
Pyrrha wasn't fighting like her usual self. She lacked all of her usual zeal and struggled to pull off any of her usual tricks. She was disarmed, yet she didn't bother trying to gain her weapon back, and just focused on dodging.
Jaune couldn't bear the sight of it.
"Pyrrha!" Jaune shouted as loudly as he could.
Pyrrha startled and spun in his direction just in time to see him leap onto the platform.
"I don't remember falling for a girl who gives up this easily. I thought my girlfriend was way cooler than this." Jaune spat, seeking to fire her up.
"Mr. Arc has broken the rules and intruded on the arena mid-match. This will mean a disqualification for Ms. Nikos and more severe punishment-"
Jaune drowned out the rest of the announcement.
"Jaune, you shouldn't have come." Pyrrha stated when she finally wiped the slack-jawed expression off her face.
"Why because of the tournament? Screw the tournament Pyrrha, we have to go, now." I urged.
I have to get her out of here before it all blows up.
"No! Not that, if I don't keep fighting-" the words died in her throat as all the force fields dissipated.
The arena was no longer separated from the crowd, and the crowd was no longer separated from the sky.
"No no no! I'll keep fighting. I'll get him to leave, I promise, please don't do this!" Pyrrha screamed as she pushed Jaune away from herself and charged at Penny.
She channelled her Semblance and summoned her weapons to herself. They were intercepted by two of Penny's floating swords. Six more blades transformed into blasters than floated above Penny menacingly.
"Too late Ms. Nikos, we had a deal." General Ironwood's voice calmly replied from Penny's mouth. "Any further data will be tainted. Penny now has new orders."
The blasters turned on the crowd. Jaune knew what was about to happen but was powerless to stop it in time.
As he drew his weapon and raced forward, the lasers tore through the crowd. Each beam sliced through dozens of auraless audience members each second. Their screams were sickening. Men, women, and children alike slipped on a growing pool of blood that cascaded down the steps. Chaos erupted as they all pushed through each other to reach the exits.
"Pyrrha, use your Semblance! Ruby said it would stop her, remember?!" Jaune shouted.
Pyrrha must have been thinking the same thing. No sooner than he'd said it, Pyrrha released a wave of magnetic energy that even pushed Jaune a few steps back.
Ruby's concerns proved to not be without reason as Penny didn't move a muscle as Pyrrha moved into range. Instead, Penny had uttered three words.
"Please stop me!" she cried.
Pyrrha's sword screamed across Penny's chest an instant later without a hint of aura in sight.
Her white top split, exposing a chest that was smooth and featureless underneath. Beneath the strip of skin that had been peeled away by Pyrrha's strike was the shine of metal.
Penny's a robot?
Whatever the magnetic wave had done to her wore off as Penny's face dropped to pure neutrality. She grabbed the stunned Pyrrha around the shoulders, pinning her arms to her side.
Her six ranged weapons combined into two much larger ones and fired upon the grappled pair. The beam of energy that resulted was far beyond anything she had thrown in the fight thus far.
Jaune raced forward to intercept, and activated his aura skills. As he did, he noticed something weird with Pyrrha's aura.
Pyrrha's aura, which was normally a gorgeous red became muddied. Flecks of orange began to sparkle in her aura and her eyes began to glow.
A moment later Jaune realised that glow wasn't a result of something he could see with his aura sight. She was actually glowing.
A staggering amount of energy erupted form her body. Jaune was stopped in his tracks along with the energy of Penny's attack.
What the hell are you thinking?! If you use that much aura you'll-
The aura displays from the match were still active. On it, her aura hadn't moved an inch.
The green beam of energy split into two directions, tearing a hole in the arena and splitting a cloud in the sky. A cloud of dust covered the entire arena from the destruction.
When the dust cleared, what was left was a large dark-grey tetrahedron. A single tip glowed a dull red, having absorbed the energy of Penny's attack.
Jaune and Pyrrha both stood dumbfounded for a few seconds. Penny, however, did not.
She still had a grip on Pyrrha and with it, she lifted Pyrrha clean off the ground from behind her back and over her head.
Pyrrha thrashed to try and get away. Her skin began to turn red and veins popped out from her temples as she activated her adrenaline rush. Despite this, she was unable to break the iron grip that Penny had. She wasn't even able to shake the arm that held her.
So when her physical strength failed her, she used the next best thing, her Semblance.
Jaune knew that Ruby might hate them for it, but he only had one goal right now and that was to get Pyrrha out of here. As he watched Pyrrha wrap her blackened aura around Penny's limbs, Jaune said nothing to stop her.
With her Semblance, Pyrrha broke Penny's arm just below the wrist. It was torn so thoroughly that it dangled by nothing more than the synthetic skin she wore.
With half the grapple broken, Pyrrha repelled Penny with a large wave of magnetic energy. Penny was picked up and rag-dolled across the arena.
Before she landed, Jaune caught a glimpse of Penny's face. It was dripping in panic and concern once more.
"I don't want this! I never wanted this! I don't to be a weap-"
The desperation of her face evaporated returning the inhuman nothingness from before.
Penny pushed herself back onto her feet and gathered her weapons behind her.
Penny used four of her blasters combined to fire at Pyrrha head-on. Pyrrha met it on instinct with the large black object by moving it with her Semblance.
As her Semblance touched the metal Pyramid it seemed to vibrate and ripple. When she moved it, its shape broke down and it flowed like water. When she stopped, it reformed as a large cube and absorbed the beam.
The remaining four blasters circled Pyrrha. They shot at her from beside her newfound defensive structure.
She was forced to dodge while contained within the small space behind her metal wall. She took several shots in the process that lowered her aura down into the red.
While Pyrrha was occupied, Jaune tried to once more get into range. The second he did, Penny lashed out with both her broken and functioning arm. Despite her size, the fact she was mechanical and powered by aura made her incredibly strong. Jaune was forced to activate his muscle augmentation just to stand his ground.
Jaune slashed at Penny's body. His sword cut cleanly through cloth and skin alike but scraped along her metal chassis.
Tch. She's tougher than the Atlesian knights were by far.
With his aura sight, Jaune had seen her aura shield retreat to exclusively protect her skull. He'd hoped that would mean he could deal some damage. Sadly, she was made of high-quality steel and capable of diffusing the force of his strike by evading.
"Penny! Why are you doing this?!" Jaune heard Ruby shout from behind him.
From his peripheral, he saw the entirety of team RWBY, along with Nora and Ren who handed Pyrrha her weapons.
Damn it! They got here too fast.
Penny seemed to respond to Ruby's voice. Her eyes which had been motionless other than to track the movement of her targets blinked.
"Friend Ruby..." Penny whispered.
As fast as she had appeared the traces of that girl disappeared behind the mask of machinery.
"She's not doing this because she wants to!" Jaune shouted. "She's being controlled!"
"We have to help her!" Ruby cried.
"We don't have time to help her Ruby! The best we can do is stop her before she hurts anyone else."
Penny used the inhuman movement of her joints to bend around Jaune's shield, landing a direct hit. Jaune replied by slashing across the arm that did it. He severed a few of what he assumed to be some kind of dust-based muscle wire. They ran from her shoulder to her elbow where her bicep should be.
Enough of those and she won't be able to fight.
"She's my friend! There has to be something we can do!" Ruby shouted.
"There is. Take out her weapons." Pyrrha stated. "Without those, she's not as much of a threat."
"Pyrrha's right. I'll keep her distracted." Jaune lied. He intended to disable her if he could. "You guys take out the blasters. Make it fast, we don't have long. You all know that."
Jaune hid behind his shield and checked his status as quickly as he could. His aura was already down to 70% of its absolute total. He had to be careful where he could to not use his aura in unnecessary ways.
Penny was no once again focused on the arena which was a good thing. The crowd was still struggling to push their way up and out of the stadium through the exit gates.
With the threat of death no longer a factor, they should be able to calm down and-
Gunfire erupted from all four directions. An avalanche of people began to fall down the stairs from the top of the stadium as the crowd turned and fled.
"What's happening?" Jaune shouted as he blocked a tackle from Penny. He was too occupied fighting to check himself.
"T-The Atlesian Knights opened fire on the crowd. The gates are blocked off!" Blake shouted.
Damnit... Nothing like a good slaughter to rile up the Grimm.
"What do we do?" Nora asked as she batted one of Penny's out of the air with her hammer. It crashed into the concrete and stopped moving.
Loathe as Jaune was to admit it, he needed everyone present to try and make this plan work. In the long term, stopping the plans of those who caused this was worth more than the people who might die here.
"We don't do anything. There are people with huntsmen training in the crowd. The other professors should be around somewhere too. We have to trust them to get everyone to safety." Jaune parried a blow and reconsidered what he said. "If you're going to help them, go now. I need to know who is with me."
"We're with you Jaune," Ruby replied after a few seconds of deliberation.
"Thanks Ruby; everyone. We're in over our heads right now, so I'm glad you're all with me." Jaune sincerely stated.
"Maybe you should let me finish the fight against Penny then? You've done a good job of keeping her busy, but your biggest attacks use too much aura." Pyrrha suggested.
Jaune chuckled. This wasn't exactly the ideal circumstances for showing off his new powers for the first time. But it would have to do.
"I'm out of my depth with the responsibility. Fighting though? I've got a few tricks you don't know about yet. You let me handle Penny and you focus on her weapons." Jaune replied with a smile.
He condensed his aura and boosted his strength to its absolute limit. He left his dexterity as it was though. He couldn't justify the doubled aura cost when he was already keeping up with his opponent.
He readjusted to the changed sense of weight in his sword with a few experimental swings. It felt light and he could swing much faster as a result. His timing was different and it was harder to put his weight into his swings. Despite all that, he knew he was stronger like this.
Penny watched from afar. While Jaune wasn't distracting her, she was able to control her weapons more fluidly.
Once he felt he had a good grasp on his strength, he dashed and shoulder-checked Penny. The impact wasn't kind on his shoulder and he regretted not having invested in pauldrons. Still, the force behind the blow did its job and knocked Penny off balance.
Jaune followed the tackle with a rising slash that screeched across Penny's breast. His attack left a visible scar in the steel.
Penny, unable to feel the pain or impact of her robotics being damaged, fought on. Her hyper-mobile limbs lashed out like whips. Any spot that Jaune left unguarded got pounded, regardless of the angle or position.
Jaune, though very much able to feel the pain of her strikes, also tried to push through. His chest was sending sharp shooting pains that spiked up his throat. He swallowed through them and brought his sword down onto the girl's head from above.
For a change, Penny blocked. She sacrificed the top half of her already damaged arm to protect her skull.
Jaune had already assumed as much due to the aura. Now though, he knew that there must be something inside there that keeps her working.
"We're almost finished here!" Weiss shouted from behind him.
Time for me to finish up here as well then.
Jaune feinted a horizontal slash at Penny's head. When she predictably blocked, Jaune dipped the slash diagonally downwards. His sword chewed from her left rib-plate to her right hip, avoiding the thick chest chassis. In the process, he had cut clean through a solid steel rod that ran down the center of her body like a spine.
Jaune's body was blown backward as electricity arced up his sword into his body, but the job was done. Penny's legs gave out leaving her prone on the ground.
Without her lethal weapons or the ability to walk she wouldn't be a threat. The worst she could do is crawl with her hands towards someone.
"Jaune, what was that?" Pyrrha asked, bouncing up to him.
Jaune deactivated his aura and sucked in several deep breaths. That form always left him out of breath no matter how short the usage was. His chest pounded away at a million miles a minute.
"Muscle augmentation plus the ability to condense your aura equals a lot of strength. I wasn't bluffing when I said you'd fallen behind. Although... whatever that is-" Jaune gestured at the large vibrating mass of metal that hovered behind her. "-will probably even the odds a bit."
"I kind of think it's cheating a bit th-" Pyrrha paused mid-sentence. "Jaune, are you okay?"
Jaune raised his eyebrow at her. "Yeah, I'm fine, just puffed, why?"
"Your nose is bleeding," Pyrrha replied.
Jaune wiped at his nose and sure enough, there was a trail of blood left behind on his gloves.
I don't remember getting hit in the head...
"I'm sure it's nothing." Jaune dismissed. "Anyway, we've got bigger problems."
"Like what?" Pyrrha asked.
Jaune looked over at the others. They were with Ruby who at the time was trying to get through to Penny.
"We need to leave." Jaune quietly urged. "We need to get out of here now. You need to get out of here."
"Because I'm the maiden?" Pyrrha confirmed.
"Because I don't want anything to happen to you. We can take Nora and Ren and run away. We get out of Vale, then if we keep our heads down, it could be years before they find us." Jaune suggested. "We knew this was going to happen, we should've stayed out of it. We should never have gotten involved."
"Well we are involved now. We need to get back to the professor; he'll know what to do." Pyrrha replied.
"That's the problem Pyrrha. Getting back to him means walking into the enemy's trap."
"What?"
"The professor lost. Oz and Ms. Goodwitch are both being held hostage in exchange for you. Our choices are to do exactly what they want or to find our own way forward. Only one of those ends up with us walking out of this alive." Jaune explained.
"And only one of those has us doing what's right. Don't you want to save the professors?" Pyrrha shot back.
Jaune looked back at the group, it didn't seem like they'd noticed yet.
"Of course I do. But not if it means putting you at risk."
"You're not putting me at anything. I'm making this choice."
"Then don't. Please Pyrrha; I'm begging you. Don't do this." Jaune begged.
"Don't do what?" Blake asked.
Damn her good hearing!
Blake's question had drawn the attention of the others.
"Jaune?" Ruby asked.
"It's nothing." Jaune stated as she refused to meet hiseye. "She's already made her choice. We need a way off of Amity. We can't use the bullheads though, they're for the civilians evacuating. We've got about 9 minutes to get to Beacon before Adam kills the hostages."
"If it was me and one other, I could use my glyphs, but I can't take all six of us," Weiss replied.
"Ruby and I can probably use our landing strategies. It's too big of a drop without enough horizontal distance for the rest of you though." Yang explained.
Jaune had to agree. Even as strong as he'd gotten he doubted he could survive a fall like that without slowing himself down somehow. Even Pyrrha needed to use the forest and her shield to break her fall.
"I have an idea... maybe?" Pyrrha offered.
"Let's hear it." Jaune replied.
"What if I used this to carry us down?" Pyrrha said, moving the metal obelisk in front of everyone.
It slowly warped into a 4-inch thick plate that would easily fit all of them.
"Isn't that heavy? Surely you can't carry it and all of us without exhausting yourself."
"Actually, I don't know why, but it's incredibly easy to manipulate with my Semblance. My control is a bit off and I can only make simple shapes. But I've kept it up this entire time without much drain on my aura at all." Pyrrha explained.
Of course it's that easy. Now even if I wanted to stop her I wouldn't be able to.
"Is it... safe?" Blake asked, putting a foot on the levitating platform to test its stability.
"For the most part, I think so? If something goes wrong, Weiss can take you and I'll handle myself and Jaune. But I think it can get us most of the way without a problem."
"Let's do it then." Jaune ordered, jumping onto it himself.
Everyone hopped on and Pyrrha managed to keep the object floating without much issue.
"Wait!" Ruby suddenly announced. "What about Penny? Are we just going to leave her here?"
"I know she was your friend, but there's nothing we can do for her. She'd be a liability if we brought her along." Jaune stated as nicely as he could.
Ruby shrunk in on herself, no doubt unhappy with the concept of leaving her friend behind. Still, she nodded in agreement.
Pyrrha lifted the platform up and out of the arena and began directing it toward the academy.
"Jaune… I know you're angry with me." Pyrrha whispered as she scooted over to him.
"I'm not angry. I'm scared." Jaune whispered back. "You just don't get it."
"Then help me understand."
"We have to fight Adam, the same Adam that left me hospitalized for a week. We have to do that without the Atlas super-robot on our side. But you? You have to fight Cinder, the one who did all of this. She is probably the one who beat Oz and Ms. Goodwitch. And you have to do it alone. We can't bring you with us because if Cinder finds out and we have to fight them both at once, we all die. We still might. This plan is suicide for you and damn close for the rest of us."
"Then come up with a new one. That's what you've always done. Why can't you do it now?" the others had noticed as her voice rose, but they gave us the illusion of privacy.
"I did. We should run." Jaune gave up pretending like the others couldn't hear. "All of us should run. The odds were never in our favor. An entire kingdom wants us dead. Would it be so bad for us to run and live to fight another day?"
"Heroes don't-" Ruby started.
"I'm not a hero. You're not a hero. None of us are heroes." Jaune interrupted.
"But we can be!" Ruby insisted.
"This is what we've both been working our whole lives for Jaune. Why are you suddenly running from this?" Pyrrha asked.
"Because-"
"Does anyone else hear that?" Blake suddenly asked, interrupting us all.
Everyone paused to listen and shook their heads.
"Why, what do you hear?" Yang asked.
"It sounds like… rumbling."
As if summoned by the word itself, the noise became audible to everyone as it grew in volume.
The sound came from the direction of Mountain Glenn which towered in the distance.
"Could it be a stampede? We saw all of those Goliaths right? Maybe they're all on the way here?" Ruby asked.
"It would take a Grimm way bigger than that to make this much noise," Blake complained. She pointed her ears away from the source.
That's asking for troub-
Jaune didn't even have time to point out how cursed that kind of talk was before Mount Glenn itself exploded.
From the mountains now crumbling remains a Grimm far larger than any Jaune had even heard of emerged.
With a screech, it forced more of the stone to break away. It unfurled a set of red wings with which it lifted itself into the air.
"Get us out of the air, now!" Jaune shouted.
Everybody scrambled to grab onto an edge as Pyrrha sped their descent.
When they were about to crash into the ground, Pyrrha put on the brakes. The sudden stop caused everyone to slam into the metal frame. They all jumped off, eager to be off the flying death-trap and onto the safe earth.
Jaune pulled himself to his feet and stared at the Beacon tower which loomed over them like an omen.
"I have to do this Jaune, or I won't be the girl you fell in love with." Pyrrha stated, throwing his words from earlier back at him.
"If you're going to go no matter what, then at least do this properly. Your goal isn't to win, it's to delay her until help arrives. If anyone can stop her, it will be the professors. I'll make sure they get to you even if it costs me my life."
"Jaune…" Pyrrha whined.
Nora raced up and hugged Pyrrha.
"Good luck!" said Nora.
Ren too placed a hand on Pyrrha's shoulder.
"We know you can do it."
"Just hold out as long as you can! We'll be right behind you." Said Ruby. Her teammates all nodded in agreement.
Pyrrha looked to Jaune.
"This better not be a goodbye, you hear me? In fact, I'm not even going to say it. Once today is over though, we're going to have a long talk. Just... don't do anything I would do." Jaune ordered.
Pyrrha nodded.
"Alright guys. Let's do this."
/-/
It took more time than expected to reach the cafeteria. Grimm had already begun swarming the courtyard and they had to fight their way through.
Worse than that was that the Grimm they had sighted before was flying overhead.
Black tar oozed from its gaping maw and its chest and created large puddles all over the school. From them, Grimm spawned.
Still, as numerous as these Grimm were, they didn't quite measure up to the level of a true Grimm horde just yet. Between the seven of them, moving forward wasn't an issue.
When they reached the cafeteria Nora took the lead.
"I've always wanted to do this," she admitted.
The doors stood no chance against her hammer.
Inside, there were no lights, not even from the appliances in the kitchen. It was like all power had been disconnected within the building. Fortunately, with just the flames of the city and the light of the moon, it was lit enough to see inside.
All of the tables and benches had been pushed to the side save for one. The final bench sat dead center of the room. Upon it sat the professors, bound in place. Behind them stood Adam Taurus.
"Hello, my love." Adam coolly stated.
"We've brought her, and Cinder has-" Jaune tried to negotiate.
"Shut up! Take them and go." Adam shouted. He cut through the ropes that held Glynda and Ozpin down and kicked them forward toward the group.
"Ah!" Glynda grunted as she broke her fall. She was barely conscious enough to stop her head from bouncing off the ground.
Oz thudded motionlessly to the ground.
Jaune and Ruby ran forward to help the professors up. Ruby helped Glynda make it back behind the group. Jaune however was not as successful.
Professor Ozpin was non-responsive. The cause, an inch wide wound that punched straight through the center of his chest. The lining of his chest was cauterised. Whatever had happened to him, he hadn't even had the chance to bleed.
"This wasn't part of the deal!" Jaune shouted. "We brought Pyrrha and Blake and you returned them to us alive!"
"That's not my problem. When you made that deal he was already dead. If you were smart, you would've checked the condition of the hostages first." Adam smugly retorted. "Now, it's time to do something I've been wanting to do for a long time."
The speed of Jaune's observation had increased in the many months since his last encounter with Adam. Even then, try as he might, his body just wasn't fast enough to react in time. Adam crossed the room and brought his sword screaming across Blake's aura. All Jaune could do was watch.
Those closest to her reacted first. Yang fired two shots from her gauntlet. Adam sliced through both of them, causing them to blow up before they got into effective range. Weiss summoned a glyph a fraction of a second later but Adam broke through it with the sheer force of a single swing. He then kicked Ruby backward and out of the air as she leaped for him with her scythe ready to strike.
Jaune wasted no time bringing forth his full power and dashing at Adam from behind. He reached Adam just after he managed to catch a full swing from Nora with his bare hand. Adam threw her into Ren who had opened fire with his weapons before turning to Jaune.
Their swords clashed and for a second Jaune thought he had the upper hand in the clash. Adam destroyed that brief glimmer of hope when he used Jaune's strike to flip backward away from the group. His sword began to glow a dull red.
"I told you once that I was going to take everything from you Blake. I think I'm going to start with the one who interrupted us last time." Adam stated.
Jaune was distracted with thoughts of making it to Pyrrha as fast as possible. He charged straight for Adam, channelling aura through his blade for more power.
Adam met him head-on, not only matching, but far exceeding Jaune's strike with his own.
A red-colored sickle of energy extended beyond Adam's sword, flinging Jaune's sword up and out of the way. A large scar was carved into Jaune's chest plate, and his aura boiled on contact with the red energy. Jaune almost lost consciousness from the attack and the crash into the wall behind him.
That... hurt...
Jaune checked his status to check how much damage he had taken. In terms of aura, he still had his regular reserve available. His backup aura that he had spent all day recovering, however, was gone. Adam had likely not expected anyone to have as much aura as he did.
Physically he wasn't doing so well either. Even with his enhanced aura shield's ability to mitigate impact he had a concussion. His vision was blurry and he could feel his legs shake as he tried to pick himself back up to rejoin the fight.
Adam was tearing through the group even as they fought him 6 on 1. His level and skills were just too far above theirs. Adam had time to react to each strike and reposition for the next. At any given time he was only truly fighting one of them.
Weiss was sent flying into him, knocking them both into a heap near the corner.
"Caught you..." Jaune coughed.
"My hero." Weiss flatly stated before trying to get back up and unleash another torrent of dust at Adam.
Adam sheathed his sword and grabbed Ren and Nora by the throats when they rushed him. He promptly threw them through the roof. They must have gone far because Jaune didn't hear them land.
In a blink of an eye, the battlefield shifted. Without realizing it, Jaune had lost consciousness.
Weiss had been knocked down again several meters to his left. Ruby was now recovering from having had her aura shattered. She wore a large cut that started at her collar bone and ended just below her breast. On her petite frame, it looked that much larger than normal.
Ren and Nora leaned on each other for support as the pair looked like they were on their last legs.
Yang and Blake were the only two who remained able to fight, and only then because Adam was choosing to toy with them.
Rather than cutting them down, he was pummelling them both with his open hands.
It was clear that the beating was charging Yang's Semblance. Her hair began to emit a stronger and brighter golden flame.
Jaune tried to stand once more but succeeded in only making it to his knees.
"Come on, we can do this guys!" Ruby encouraged. "He's alone. We have each other."
Weiss stood and pointed the tip of her rapier at Adam. Ren and Nora slowly separated themselves from each other to ready themselves.
"Is this what you've been doing since you left? Playing hero with a bunch of children? It seems you've grown weak in your time away Blake. I've grown bored of playing with you." Adam stated.
"Play with this!" Yang spat as she finally released her Semblance.
She charged head first at Adam who took a stance with his sword sheathed.
With perfect timing, Adam lashed out at Yang the instant she began to enter his range.
Jaune could see in almost slow motion the path they each were taking. Adam's sword would reach her throat before her fist reached his face. But the instant after it was drawn an inch from its sheathe, Blake appeared before him.
She threw herself onto his hand that drew the blade, smothering his draw.
But it wasn't enough to stop him.
A red crescent moon divided Blake's arm from her body.
An instant later Yang's fist found purchase with Adam's skull.
He slid back several meters, clearly woozy but with his aura still intact.
Shit shit shit!
"Weiss, that thing you did to Ruby. Hit me with it!" Jaune shouted as he forced himself to dash at Adam.
As he ran, he saw a golden glyph appear beneath him and the world slowed to a crawl.
A piece of glass fell from a broken window and moved like it was suspended in water.
Before Adam could even resheathe his sword, Jaune was upon him. He pushed all his remaining aura into enhancing his strength. He knew that it was more than his body could handle. He could feel it too as the bones in his legs began to fracture from the pressure.
He swung at Adam, who somehow managed to react in time to block. His guard was blown aside.
Jaune's elbow dislocated from the forces exerted. Jaune simply acknowledged it and prepared to swing again. He was so drunk on pain that everything was a blur.
He could feel every part of his body aching as he moved. His bones creaked from his excessive use of aura to strengthen his muscles. His heart beat out of sync, simultaneously pounding and fluttering. His blood pressure spiked and the blood vessels in the corners of his eyes exploded.
And he forced himself to ignore all of it.
With his still dislocated arm, Jaune swung his sword into Adam's body four more times in succession. Each strike crossed through several vital spots as they ground along his aura. With the rest of his energy, Jaune released a final horizontal swing.
"Coup de grace!" Jaune shouted.
The real world slingshotted back to its normal speed and Adam was sent flying.
Jaune collapsed on the spot. He released his muscle enhancement in favor of trying to breathe as his whole body screamed in pain. Jaune began to cough uncontrollably as his lungs protested his life choices. Through red-stained vision, he could see splatters of blood coming up with each cough.
"Jaune!" Weiss shouted from beside him.
At least my ears still work. That's an improvement from last time.
Within a few seconds, his aura began to work its magic. As the pain numbed, Jaune craned his head to see what had happened since he collapsed.
Adam was retreating, holding a hand to his chest which looked to be bleeding freely. That was good news. The bad news was that Yang and Blake were in just as bad shape as he was.
Yang's arm was bloodied by the bones that poked through the surface of her hand. Even for Yang with her Semblance, a punch that strong on low aura was bound to have consequences. Still, it would heal easily enough given time.
Blake however was doing considerably worse. Her arm stopped at the elbow in a gory stump. It was bleeding even through the tourniquet Ruby had fashioned with her cloak.
"Nora... Ren..." Jaune called from his place on the floor.
"We're here!" Nora replied from behind him.
He felt her hand on his side a moment later as the pair squatted beside him.
"Take Blake, Yang, and the professor somewhere safe," Jaune ordered.
"What about you? You're hurt! You're coughing up blood and your arm is broken!" Nora cried.
"You overused your muscle augmentation didn't you?" Ren accused.
Jaune tried to laugh it off only serving to induce another coughing fit.
"Yeah, I did. But that's not the point. Those three need help and they can't fight for themselves. You two are the least injured. Where I'm going, I can't take you with me anyway." Jaune replied.
"But-"
"Take them and go! This isn't up for discussion; I'm ordering you as leader of team JNPR to protect Blake, Yang, and the professor." Jaune ordered.
Please just go. I want at least half of my team to make it through tonight.
"Fine. But you better be right behind us." Ren insisted.
"Sure. Of course." Jaune lied.
Ren frowned but nodded and picked up Yang. Nora in turn carefully grabbed Blake and the four of them hobbled out of the door.
Jaune watched them leave and once he was certain they were out of earshot he spoke to the two remaining girls.
"Weiss, Ruby. What's your condition?"
"Better than yours." Weiss replied.
Jaune saw that she was leaning on her rapier for support. From the way she was shaking, she could clearly barely stand.
"Ruby?" he asked.
"I'm out of aura, but the cut isn't a dangerous one. I can still fight." She replied.
"Then I need to ask you for a favour. If you can fight, I need you to help me save my partner. We're all in bad shape, but the three of us combine might be able to make a big enough distraction for Pyrrha to end the fight."
"You mean up there? After what happened?"
"What do you mean?" Jaune asked and Weiss pointed out the window toward the tower.
The entire upper floor that used to be Oz's office was gone. In its place, the dragon Grimm which had been flying overhead.
"While we were fighting, that thing ripped the building apart. It's been up there ever since just watching and covering the tower with that black liquid." Ruby explained.
Jaune chewed his lips hard enough to draw blood as he contemplated his options.
"I have to go up there." Jaune hadn't finished healing yet, but he had done enough to stand himself back up." If you won't join me, then at least help me get there. I'll do the rest myself."
"Jaune..." Ruby started.
"Please! I can't heal myself, fight through Grimm, and make it to Pyrrha in time by myself. I'm nothing without her..." Jaune begged.
"I'm sorry Jaune. I know what she means to you, but I have my own team to think about. I... I can't justify leaving Weiss here and I won't bring her with us. I have to prioritise my team, that's my responsibility as a leader." Ruby apologetically explained.
So that's it then...
"Fine. I guess I'll do it by myself." Jaune stated.