A Meandering Arc

by Denomen

Jaune Arc was bad with directions. Hell, before being trained, he was piss poor at most things. But, by some odd twist of fate, he somehow made himself into a huntsman. Not on paper though. No, now he wanders from town to town with a smile on his face. Who knew that turning right at the wrong crossroads would let him achieve his dream early?

3. Cleaning Up in Veinshire

Sorry it took a while, hope you enjoy!

---

The White Knight once entered a town,

Infested with evil of all types,

And after a month,

The entire town was torched with cleansing flame.

---

Jaune looking over an infested town with a telescope and doing recon before going to slowly clear it out over the course of a day or so

Jaune preferred not to call what he was doing 'grave robbing'. He wasn't really robbing any one specific person's grave. He was just clearing out a Grimm infested town (GIT for short). It was a simple mission that came with the promise on top of any pay he would get that he could keep any loot he found.

He wasn't about to dig up bodies to loot them for jewelry! He was just going to help himself to any hidden stashes of lien, any useful trinkets, and maybe he'd even get to look through the dust store. All to clear out the Grimm of course!

Ah, who was he kidding. He was looting. But to be fair, everyone who once lived there either died or wasn't coming back any time soon. And he was also contracted to find items of sentimental value. Wedding rings, pictures, ornamental weapons, and all that jazz. That, of course was secondary to clearing all the Grimm that were currently infesting the sizable town.

Luckily, he was the only Huntsman on this mission. The town wasn't in the way of any trade routes or anything, so it was a low importance mission that he could take without much of a fuss. The town was also rather large, which made it unappetizing for most when told of the relatively low pay.

For him? It just meant he had somewhere to sleep while he did his business. Grimm slaying business. Anyways, the town had two main parts, behind the brick walls, and the farms outside it. There were plenty of farms surrounding the town which had a few Grimm sparsely about wandering the dried up fields. From atop the hill overseeing it all, using a telescope he bought, he could spot around 17 Grimm total in the sizable fields. A pack of 15 Beowolves of varying stages of growth led by an alpha, and a large Deathstalker. Well, 17 countable Grimm. Sulfur Fish teemed about the dried up dirt of the fields, which were going to be a pain to deal with.

The town itself was harder to tell. From where he was, he could spot a giant Nevermore on the clock tower. That one would be hard to deal with, unless he could get a flare shot in to ground it after burning its feathers. And given what he'd heard about Nevermore feather resiliance, he wasn't going to count on that. He could also see a section of the town engulfed by spider webs. And by the look of the differing scales of the webs, there was probably a giant Terrorantula on top of any Hateweavers. Ravagers hung from the roof edges while Razorwings pranced on the rooftops.

Luckily, most of the Grimm wandering the streets of the town were rather small. Baby Beowolves, minor Creeps, immature Boarbatusks, and all that. There were a few major Grimm though. On top of the giant Nevermore and the probable existence of a Terrorantula, wrapped around a church was a King Taijitu that was going to be a pain to deal with. He could see a Goliath parading through the streets. And to top it all off, there was some sort of thing going on with the mansion at the center of the town. A few Arma Gigai patrolled it and Jaune suspected that there was a reason for it.

Now, any sane huntsman would've asked how Jaune Arc, not even a licensed one, was going to clear out all of that. The answer was that instead of tackling dick first into a sea of Grimm, he'd slowly work through the entire place. It may take a week or so. He may face a lot of trouble. But in the end, he was half sure he could do it. Plus, it wasn't like there was much of a penalty for quitting the job.

But an Arc doesn't go back on their word and he did promise some folks to retrieve their possessions from Veinshire.

Veinshire, such an odd name.

---

After making a rough map of the Veinshire, Jaune went down the hill and approached the outermost farm. The mission was, in all likelihood, going to be an endurance match. It was simply a test of how long he could be there without getting sick of it all. Luckily for him, he had endurance in spades.

Didn't make walking the road towards the farm any easier though. The fields were dried up, barren. Only rotten or wispy weeds sprouted out of the ground now. Jaune could see the occasional group of Sulfur Fish but refrained from engaging. It was often said that Sulfur Fish were an omen of bad harvests. Some joked that the reason why Vacuo was a dessert was because they had so many of the pests. Or perhaps it was the other way around and that Sulfur Fish were attracted to bad harvests.

Which explained why there were so many in Vacuo.

Ignoring the Sulfur Fish, he made his way to the first farm. The complex was made up of a run down barn, a small house besides it, a large grain silo, and a small wooden shack. Given the large 'G' on the barn, it looked like it was Geromian's farm. Jaune checked his list of objectives and found one item to look for: A shotgun owned by the former owner of the farm's father. He was asked to find it by his surviving family, who luckily made it out alive. It was a double barrelled shotgun with ornate carvings on the barrel and stock. According to the intel given to him, it would probably be where the owner's father was.

And even from afar, he could tell that there were some powerful Grimm in the farm.

"Welp, this is going to suck." Before anything, he decided to use his telescope to look over the farm in detail. From a window, he could see a large Ravager hanging from the barn's roof beam. Those were attracted to terrified screams, so Jaune reckoned that was where the father and shotgun was. He was going to have to enter the barn instead of screaming to get the Ravager's attention. It wasn't a good idea to challenge a flying enemy where there's open skies.

The small wooden shack was a mystery, so he ignored it for a moment. As for the house itself, Jaune could make out a Mourning Star in one room and a Beringel in another. Taking all that in, Jaune decided to approach the mystery shack first. He circled around the perimeter before approaching it from behind, putting an ear to the wood to see if anything was in it.

"Meow!"

Jaune immediately jumped away from the shed when he heard that before a large Grimm burst through the old wood. Jaune noted it as a Eschroding, a cat Grimm that could teleport when unobserved to any other unobserved space. With three tails, black fur, and a face split in half, one side normal, and the other side skull, it was around the size of a panther. It snarled at Jaune, who made extra sure not to take his eyes off of it.

But then he blinked and it disappeared.

"Fuck." Jaune instinctively turned around and blocked the Eschroding's lunge with Crocea Mors' shield. Keeping an eye on the feline, he thrust into its flesh. It hit its stomach but didn't detach anything. The only thing it really did was make the Eschroding yowl in pain before using its tails to slam Crocea Mors' shield into Jaune's face. It knocked him back and took his eyes off the beast, which allowed it to teleport behind Jaune and get a quick slash at his back.

While his armor covered his upper torso, his Aura had to shield the bottom half of his back. He still had a considerable amount left, but he wasn't in an advantageous position. Twisting as he fell, he managed to find his footing to find that the Eschroding had disappeared once more. Jaune's eyes darted around, searching for the disappearing beast. It occasionally dashed by him, making small scratches into his aura and teleporting before Jaune could track it.

Sighing, he twisted the unblemished blade of Crocea Mors to act as a mirror. Using this, he managed to see the Eschroding and twist in time to slash at it. The feline had already committed to its lunge, which meant that it could do nothing as Jaune used the momentum of his turn to cleave cleanly through it. With the crunching of bone and the sound of flesh and muscles being torn apart, the Eschroding landed on the ground in pieces, dissolving into black dust.

Recovering from the battle, Jaune's aura took a couple of hits. It wasn't anything major, but those scratches did add up eventually. Other than that, he was probably fine. Looking into the shed, it was full of cobwebs and untouched equipment. He saw three vials of green dust, probably used as fertilizer. He shrugged and pocketed it, he might be able to sell it. Taking inventory, he checked his flare gun ammo. Put into 12 gauge shells, he had six regular, a ice, a lightning, a gravity, and an electro-magnetic dust flare. Everything except his normal flares were custom made, however shoddy the craft. Perhaps at his first rest he could use the green dust to create a Growth Flare, though he didn't know how that would be useful. Shrugging it off, he decided to head to the farm home next.

Instead of going through the door, he hopped through the window and listened carefully. He could hear the weeping of the Mourning Star as well as the occasional steps from the Beringel. They were at opposite ends of the house. Meanwhile, he could hear the scurrying of Verminous. Jaune made sure to focus aura on his feet and legs, one bite from them and he'd be down for the count for a while. Considering that they were attracted to those with financial troubles, the family who owned the farm were probably having problems paying for things. Or well, had. And considering the Sulfur Fish, it was probably because of poor harvests. Jaune sighed. There were two ways to get rid of a swarm of Verminous.

Solution one: He sweeps the entire house for every single rat and exterminates each and every one of them. Solution two: He burns the house down and prays to whatever divine being was listening that all the rats died in the flames. Given nobody lived there or was going to live there, he settled on option two. But before that, he was going to sweep the house for any valuables. Plus, he still had a Mourning Star and Beringel to deal with. He decided to go with the Beringel first. Mourning Stars often didn't pay much attention to the world around it unless directly provoked. Meanwhile, if he fought the Mourning Star, the Beringel would definitely join in and merc him.

So, carefully going through the house and occasionally stabbing a Verminous, he found the room in which the Beringel made itself comfortable. It was swinging from the roof beams of the attic, with the window in which Jaune spotted it through providing light. From some cursory glances Jaune snuck, he could tell that it used to be a bedroom of sorts, what with the mattress and rather clean layout. Though, as Beringels do, it messed up the cleanliness of the room by a lot. Jaune wondered why the Beringel chose to settle there in particular, they were often attracted to blinding rage. Shrugging it off, Jaune decided to make the first move by charging in with his shield. He wouldn't be able to catch the gorilla Grimm off guard, but he could make the first aggressive action a safe one.

The Beringel turned to him and leaped from the beam with a double handed downward slam, which Jaune blocked with his shield. His sturdy stance allowed him to direct the force into the floor without much pain and he stabbed upwards into the Beringel. It slide off a bone plate and stabbed into the flesh, though it only made it flinch and jump back. Beringels, despite being attracted to overpowering anger, were actually rather smart. This was shown by how the Beringel began chucking things at Jaune, making him hide behind his shield. Lamps, desks, and crates were tossed at him. When he tried to slash at one of the projectiles, he found that he hit a pillow which spewed feathers all over him.

Temporarily blinded, the Beringel gripped onto the shield of Crocea Mors and tossed it away. It embedded itself into the wall, taking away Jaune's protective option. Growling, Jaune gripped onto Crocea Mors with both his hands and stared down the Beringel as they circled each other. Jaune's mind focused on what he had: experience. Whether inherited or gained firsthand, he did have the experience of a Huntsman. So, he thought back to the words his teacher once said.

"Take the fucker's arm off!" Beringels relied on their bulky arms to attack, to slam, to grab, and to move. They needed those arms. So, if Jaune were to take one away, the Beringel would be unable to move as it would suddenly be imbalanced with the lack of an arm. The problem was how. Beringels weren't particularly armored in the arm, so if Jaune were to put a bit of aura into Crocea Mors, he was pretty sure he could take it off with a few hacks. But the Beringel could probably smack his ass six ways to Sunday by the time that opportunity made itself known. Sighing, he resigned himself to fighting defensively. No point in doing otherwise against a Beringel.

Jaune sidestepped a few lunges, where upon the gorilla adapted and instead tried to do powerful strikes with its fist. Finally, it threw a punch which left it no opportunities to convert that momentum into a followup attack. Jaune took the opportunity and made a powerful two-handed overhead strike at the Beringel's arm, making sure to aim for the joint where cutting it off would be easier. And, as he predicted, he only made it about half way before the Beringel yanked its arm away and Jaune had to pull out lest he lose his sword. Despite that, he cut the muscles in the Beringel's arm, making it nothing more than a meaty flail it could use to bludgeon him. Unfortunately, it still had another arm. And Jaune didn't think Grimm cared about concepts like right or left handedness.

Unfortunately, without a shield, he kind of had to just duck or jump back whenever the Beringel tried flailing its limp arm at him. It didn't make the same mistake as before, instead sticking to the tried and true method of lunging or swinging at him. Despite his best efforts, he couldn't dodge every attack. The Beringel got a few lighter hits or swings in, nothing that made him keel over, but it did put a dent in his aura. Testing his aura, he wondered if he could utilize the momentum of the Beringel's limp arm swing in an attack. As any good fighter, he tried it out. As the Beringel swung its limp arm once more, Jaune swung at the fist and put a bit of aura into the blade of Crocea Mors. And with the combined speed of both his blade and the Beringel's fist, he was able to cleanly separate it from its arm.

Screaming in pain as crimson flesh was exposed, Jaune took the opportunity and stepped forward into a rising slash which took the forearm clean off. Smiling as the Beringel tripped itself trying to hit him with its other arm, he chopped off the arm stub proper. This, predictably, made the Beringel go bat shit blind with rage. It began flailing around, creating craters in the wooden floor and smashing inward a bed. Jaune hopped back to avoid the tantrum, quickly retrieving his shield from the wall. When he turned back the Beringel was rapidly swinging itself, trying to act like a top with a flail attached to it. In its anger, the Beringel didn't realize it made the same mistake before. And with the stroke of Crocea Mors, he took off the second of the Beringel's arms.

And before it could think of doing anything else, as the detached arm dissolved into nothingness, Jaune stabbed his blade deep into the Beringel's chest, landing a fatal bow as he stabbed through the chink in its bone plate armor.

With a bit of effort, he managed to pull out Crocea Mors out of the dissolving gorilla. The black dust left with the wind out of the window, leaving Jaune heaving from the effort that fight took. Checking himself, he reckoned that that fight took a solid chunk of his aura. He estimated that he was left at around 73% Aura. Well, he still had a few more things to deal with. But before he went to fight against the Mourning Star, he looked around the attic. While it was pretty messed up from the fight he had, there were a few bits and things left. He found a knife stabbed through a photo of some man kissing a woman on one of the untouched desks. The knife was a hunting knife, sharp enough, but not really something Jaune was interested in. It was beginning to rust and he could probably just buy a knife with the money it'd take to get it cleaned.

Plus, he wasn't much of a knife guy.

There was also a bat with nails driven through it in the corner. Again, it wasn't Jaune's type of weapon. Perhaps if it was metal, the spikes were a built in part of it, and Jaune was built like a Beringel, he might use it. But as he was, he felt comfortable with Crocea Mors. There was also a dartboard on the wall, the person who owned the room seemed to be a good shot. Checking the drawers, he could tell it was a teenage boy who occupied it. Given the size of the clothes and the hidden porn mag under the underwear, he could tell. Jaune was very, and he meant very, tempted to take it. But he didn't exactly carry a backpack and he wasn't about to clutter up what little space he had with a porn mag. So, with heavy heart, he abandoned the piece of literature.

And with an equally heavy heart, Jaune went downstairs to eventually fight the Mourning Star. On the way though, he flipped the house upside down in search of anything useful. In the stove he managed to get two vials of fire dust. He hoped the fridge had something but was disappointed when the ice dust was used up. Under the sink he did happen to find some water dust stored. Seriously, the stuff was a godsend. To someone capable of using it, a vial of water dust was essentially a day's worth of clean drinking water all stored in an easily carried container. The only reason he carried his canteen was because water dust wasn't exactly available everywhere and he didn't feel like wasting money.

Aside from that, he also found a few papers in the farm owner's desk. They were financial papers. He read them over carefully and found that in recent years, the harvests had been getting poor. The family was beginning to have trouble paying its bills and began to sell its property in desperation to the Schnee Dust Company. Sighing, this was a relatively common site. Though that was more often the SDC buying Grimm claimed lands for dirt cheap prices from the few survivors of the attacks before sweeping away the Grimm and propping up a farm, a mine, or a logging site. He wondered why exactly the SDC would buy up specific patches of farmland. Shrugging it off, Jaune made his way to the room where the Mourning Star was.

Mourning Stars were, as the name implied, attracted to extreme sadness. Taking the form of a humanoid figure wearing an ornate black dress laced white with a black veil covering their face, two streams of sorrowful tears ran down their face, and it constantly sobbed and wept. Those streams of tears eventually turned into chained bone plate morningstars. The sound of its weeping made the potted plant wither up further. That was why Mourning Stars were hunted, as living things in its vicinity would shrivel up. That and their crying was noise pollution. Anyways, he was luckily protected from the withering effect as aura acted as a passive shield. The only way to kill a Mourning Star was to fight it through its five stages. The fifth one is when it'll be finally vulnerable to an attack. Until then, he just had to survive.

And that was going to be a real problem, because Morning Stars were really really really dangerous. So, starting the fight, he poked the Mourner until it finally acknowledged his presence. At that point, sobbing became hateful anger. Anger which turned the once clear tears into firey ones. Firey tears that streamed down to engulf the morningstars with flame. Flaming morningstars that were magically flung at Jaune with enough force to take a limb off. Jaune, in a series of swift sidesteps and occasional shield deflecting, managed to barely survive without breaking bones. He did have to use a bit of aura though.

And when he was tripped up by one of the blazing chains, he was clocked in the chest with one of the flaming flails. Luckily, he pumped aura into his armor and was only knocked into the wall. Unluckily, that still hurt like a bitch. And so he dodged and deflected some more until the flames died out and the Mourning Star moved onto its next phase. That next phase being trying to run away.

Jaune, of course, was not going to let that happen. Feeling like a bit of a bully as he did, he wrapped Crocea Mors with the Mourning Star's chain and stabbed the sword into the ground, effectively chaining it with its own tears. It futilely tried to run away, only to trip up as the chain held it back. Using his shield and Aura to deflect the crushing blows the Mourning Star tried hitting him with in order to dislodge Crocea Mors, he stood his ground. After a full minute of holding that position, it moved onto its next stage.

It simply knelt down and began weeping. More streams of tears came out as it no longer move, simply continuing to cry. The tears became chains, but those did not have a morningstar at the end. While the blunt instruments still tried to bludgeon him, he had to deal with the ten additional chains that came from the Mourning Star's face. And as one of those chains wrapped around a potted plant and turned it into dust, he gulped at the incoming danger.

The chains created during the fourth stage of a fight with a Mourning Star were able to effectively drain the life of anything it wrapped around. In the case of that already shriveled up potted plant, it merely took the last vestiges of energy away, turning it into dust. For Jaune, it would rapidly sap away his aura. After it broke, it would take away his energy. Then, it'd take away the fat in his body. Then, his muscles would rapidly atrophy. And going further, his insides would dry up, his flesh would grow thin, and his brain would simply collapse.

It wasn't a good fate, that was for sure. The one saving grace would be that once Aura was broken through, all of the victim's feelings would be overwhelmed by sadness. So at least he wouldn't feel the pain!

Laughing grimly at his possible fate, Jaune got ready to fight the blasted thing. The saving grace of this part of the fight was that the ten additional chains weren't all that powerful. So that's why Jaune used a few broken off legs of a chair to stake four of the chains to the wall and floor. The other eight he simply slashed away with Crocea Mors. He had to be careful not to put any aura into his sword, as it would just be sucked away by the chains if that was the case.

"OH NO!" He yelped as a chain wrapped around his leg. He could feel his aura be sapped away as he desperately untangled it. It took a few panicked seconds, but that was enough to take a good amount of his aura.

Luckily, the final phase had been reached. The chains went limp. The veil receded. And the face of the Mourning Star was revealed to Jaune. With two red eyes that constantly cried and a mouth full of sharp teeth, the hostile features contrasted with the constant look of grief on its face. On the forehead, however, a third eye opened. The eye was pure white, almost reflective. It saw the whole world as it was and simply stared at Jaune.

And with a sigh, Jaune stabbed the Mourning Star right through its third eye, killing it instantly. The Mourning Star began dissolving chain first, the morningstars fading away as Jaune sighed in exhaustion. Flexing his aura, he felt that he was now around 47%. It wasn't good by any means, but it could be worse. If he was really careful, he might be able to deal with the Ravager without going below 40%. That was pushing it though. He wasn't that good.

While he recovered from that tiring fight, he decided to look around the room. Checking the drawer, it was a girl's room it the woman's overalls, shirts, and privates were any identifier. Checking the drawers, he found a ring in a box. It wasn't anything fancy, just a simple silver ring, but it was still pretty good. Jaune pocketed the engagement ring and looked in the trash. Underneath some ice cream pints, he found a broken picture. A picture of a girl with a man. Jaune immediately recognized the man as the one from before, the one in the picture in the attic with another woman. Another woman who wasn't the one in this picture. Quickly thinking, he got the full picture. This girl was cheated on by her boyfriend who she was planning to propose to. After discovering this, she fell into a deep depression. Her brother was consumed by rage and planned to murder the boyfriend in question, but couldn't do it before the Grimm attacked. That explained why the Beringel took residence in the attic while the Mourning Star resided in the girl's room.

Feeling an odd and twisted sense of satisfaction from figuring out a story, Jaune left the house. Now it was time to head to the barn proper. He'd burn the house down after checking the barn. Actually, he was probably going to burn the barn down as well. And the shack. Just to be sure. But as he approached the barn, he heard a buzzing. Following the odd noise, he found the source to be the Grain Silo that was beside the barn. The buzzing was constant and rather loud now that he was next to the source. He put an ear to the metal and immediately regretted it when the heated metal nearly scorched his ear. If it weren't for aura and quick reflexes, he would've left a mark.

"Damnit, I'll have to kill whatever is in this." And with a sigh, Jaune stabbed a hole deep into the wheat silo. He immediately regretted that decision as a swarm of Wheatkillers buzzed out of the silo, formed a cloud, and immediately began to try and kill him. Wheatkillers were locust-like Grimm that operated in swarms. Their wings, much like the stingers of Sulfur Fish, were super hot. What that meant was that if he got caught in the swarm, he was fucking dead. So, keeping careful not to scream, he began to run away as fast as he could from the approaching swarm of black and bright orange-red. Putting Crocea Mors back into its sheath, he fiddled with his flare gun and managed to load in an ice flare.

And with the whistle of the bright ammunition, the light blue flare hit the swarm and tore a giant hole through it, instantly killing a good chunk of the Wheatkillers with its freezing cold light. The cold would instantly cool down the flaming wings of the Wheatkillers, which would make them drop dead.

Unfortunately, the culling of their kin made the swarm agitated. And the increased vigor allowed it to swallow up Jaune and bathe him in the agonizing heat. He grunted in pain and began to wince, swinging Crocea Mors in a vain attempt to free himself. But, hit with a sudden idea, he stopped swinging, pulled out his vial of water dust, and poured the blue substance all over his sword.

Flexing his aura under pressure, he managed to activate the water dust on his sword and began flailing, swinging it wildly. With every swing, water burst forth from the blade and would strike the locust swarm. After using up all the water in the dust, he looked back to see that the entire swarm had dropped dead. The countless petrified bodies of the insectoid Grimm were fading away into black dust and fine gravel.

Very luckily, he was not in there for too long. His aura managed to deal with the heat by simply shielding him from it. Unfortunately, that took a bit of his aura, which left him at 39%. While he did feel a bit annoyed at how fast it was gobbled up, he reminded himself that he did have quite the bit of aura. Anyone else would've lost a quarter of their aura in that time. Getting swallowed by a Wheatkiller cloud was basically guaranteed death. Unless on had ice or water dust, a bullshit semblance, or just a grenade, they were fucked. Luckily, he had water dust.

Dragging himself back to the barn with only four tenths of his aura remaining, he prepared himself for a fight against a grown Ravager. The bat-like Grimm wouldn't be as tough a fight, but it would still take quite a bit of effort. Going over what he knew, they were attracted to the screams of the damned, attacked with sharp sonic screams or the blades on their wings, and their weak point was their head. Their wings may looked easy to cut, but Jaune learned quickly that they were actually ridiculously tough. At least, for the larger ones.

He managed to enter the barn quietly without waking up the Ravager. Looking around, there were two floors. Though, to reach the second, he'd have to climb up a rather rickety looking ladder. And he could see a limp foot on the edge of the second floor. So it was either go up the ladder, risk the Ravager waking up, and maybe get into an advantageous position where he could land the first strike with his sword. Or just start it now and not risk it.

Well, Jaune knew what he was going to do.

"Shit!" The ladder broke, waking up the Ravager. "Welp, that's what I get for trying to be cool." Jaune spun on the floor to avoid the screech the Ravager let out, which struck the ground where Jaune once was and left a deep cut. "Weaknesses, weaknesses, weaknesses."

"Oh!" Jaune thought up of a rather simple weakness. If the screams the Raver lets out are in actuality just hyper powered blades of sound that cause intense vibration to tear apart anything it hits, what if he stuck Crocea Mors into its mouth while it tried to scream? Jaune hypothesized that it would effectively enhance the blade or just blow up the head. Well, like any good combatant, Jaune had to test that theory. The problem was that the Ravager was not going to go on the floor. With its wings spread out, it stayed on the roof and constantly screeched, forcing Jaune to dodge roll to avoid the targeted sonic booms.

How would he force the Ravager down from hanging on the wooden beam?

And then it hit him! Well, realistically, it hit the wooden beam. And by it, Jaune meant a gravity flare. In a brief grace period, Jaune took aim with his flare gun and fired at the beam in which the Ravager was hanging on. The gravity flare flew through the air and hit the beam. Upon impact, the gravity dust activated and effectively tore it to shreds, making the beam suddenly fall, the Ravager coming down with it. It didn't expect it and fell to the floor, where it began to scratch wildly at Jaune.

Unable to grab his shield in time, he just tanked the scratches and instead waited for the sign that the Ravager would start to scream. In the meanwhile, he dodged or tanked scratches while getting some strikes of his own on the Ravager. After a while, the bat's mouth opened, but before a noise could come out, Jaune stuck Crocea Mors into its mouth. It let out a loud and high pitched boom, some of which hit him, but most of it hit Crocea Mors and made it vibrate. That vibration essentially allowed Crocea Mors to became a chainsaw, which soon tore the Ravager to shreds.

After the fight, he cursed himself for his sloppiness. He'd taken a small beating that would definitely leave some bruises. He was now at 30% aura, which, if he was being honest, was probably enough for the day. Now, the only problem was getting that shotgun. In the corner of his eye, he saw some rope and tied it around Crocea Mors' handle. Then, he threw it into the roof in the hopes that it could act like a grappling hoook. Luckily, it instead tangled around one of the non-damaged roof beams. Taking it, Jaune climbed up the rope and saw the dead body of the farm owner's father. Or at least, the remains of it. He was mauled by the Ravager, with his insides eaten, and an arm detached. The detached arm was gripping onto a shotgun, the one he was looking for. With a little prayer for the dead, Jaune took the shotgun and slung it around his back. He'd probably have to stash it somewhere to get later.

Now though? Now that the entire farm had been cleared out, he could burn it to the ground. So, over the course of thirty minutes, he broke furniture, grabbed papers, and gathered all the fuel into a pile, where the kindling sat on top. Using the fire dust weaved into his gloves, he created a spark that latched onto the kindling, which in turn latched onto the fuel, which in turn began consuming the entire house around it. Repeat this process in the barn and shack and he was done, taking a rest by the perimeter of the barn.

And he still had a few more to go.

"This is going to take a while."

---

Jaune had just cleared out another farm. It was a smaller one, just had to deal with a few baby Beowolves and all. So he was left with 96% of his aura. Anyways, after finishing up with the farm, he decided to go to the middle of the farmland, where he saw something odd. He thought he saw a tower in the distance. And when he got closer, he actually saw what it was, a pump. It was rather large and no longer operational, actually beginning to rust in places. It was an official SDC pump, which dug into a hole in the ground beside it. Looking around more, he noticed that these pumps were scattered throughout the farmlands.

Jaune looked down into it to see marks of drilling and pickaxe mining. There were also a few bodies next to the pump, the bodies of SDC contractors that were probably mauled by Grimm. Knowing what he knew, they were probably locals that had no choice but to take the job because it paid well enough. Aside from that, he decided to check around the pump for any barrels, only to find none. Given the lack of use or barrels, Jaune assumed that whatever it was pumping, there's none anymore.

Then, Jaune tripped. The ground below him rose up as something dug out. He rolled backwards and gained his footing to see what attacked him. With pitch black skin, bone plate digging claws that could form a drill, and a single red eye, a large Hillraiser dug into the ground once more. Jaune pulled out Crocea Mors and got into a fighting stance. Hillraisers typically fought in a hit and run style, jumping out of the ground to get a good hit in before going back down. They'd also use the land to make their enemies lose their footing.

Focusing his hearing, he could sense that two more Hillraisers were coming by. Spinning around to deflect the charge of the one he was currently fighting, he managed to dodge the slash of sharp metal claws from a second one. Unfortunately, a third managed to chuck dirt into his eyes and make him stumble for just long enough for the first one to recover and stab into him with their bone plate drill. It made a scratch in his aura and left the first Hillraiser open for a well placed stab where the eye was, instantly killing it.

The other two Hillraisers dug into the dirt and began to try and make him fall over with well placed molehills. He carefully moved his feet to avoid every sudden rising hill and even had to roll away from one of the Hillraisers trying to hit him from below by digging straight up. He had to use his shield to block the occasional dirt flung his way while sometimes trying to stab into the ground.

As he was playing the defensive, he thought of an idea. Stabbing a small hole into the ground where the Hillraiser tunnel network was, he shot a flare into the tunnel and closed it up once more. He continued to play the defensive as smoke filled up the entire tunnel network. After a minute, the smoke became unearable for the Hillraisers as they jumped up from their tunnels for fresh air. Jaune took the opportunity to slash them as they hopped into the air, cleaving straight through each of them with two strokes of his blade.

The fight wasn't too hard, he was left with around 92% of his aura and could probably go to fight that Deathstalker later. He really should've expected the Hillraisers, as they're typically attracted to the woes of those who work the earth, mainly miners.

Using his telescope, he looked over to the marauding pack of Beowolves that were wandering the fields. 16 strong, with five babies, ten adults of varying sizes, and one alpha. The alpha was going to be tough. It was essentially the tactician of the bunch. So he'd probably have to commit to hit and run attacks to weed away the babies and adults before fighting the alpha after its resources were diminished. Alphas were strong, don't get him wrong, but their strength came from their leadership. Beowolf Alphas used tactics to utilize the strength of its pack more effectively. Instead of swarming a hunstman, an Alpha would make them fall into a trap or ambush. Essentially, get rid of its army, and it was just a slightly stronger Beowolf.

The problem was that Alpha Beowolves knew that as well. That's why in packs where Alphas are present, they'll order retreats whenever victory is impossible or pyrrhic.

So, what was a huntsman to do except play with the Alpha Beowolve's cunning by using that to strike first!? Approaching the pack, the Alpha spotted him and lout of a howl, which got the attention of an adult and the four infant Beowolves. It seemed that the Alpha underestimated him, which meant that he could deal a crushing blow first. The adult stayed back while the four infants approached him. One lept to get a lunging slash before all its brethren, only to find itself cleaved cleanly through by Crocea Mors.

The Yellow Death got through one more of the baby Beowolves before the adult joined in the fight and the three young Beowolves retreated. Jaune dodged or deflected the strikes of the mature Beowolf, his aura taking a few hits as he saw two more Beowolves come. The seven stayed back, the Alpha probably using the three adult Beowolves to judge whether or not they should retreat.

Jaune simply played on the defensive, intentionally getting hit a few times. It wasn't exactly pleasant. Beowolves, despite being cut to ribbons by Hunters, were fucking terrifying. A swing from a baby could cleave through steel. A mature one could tear down trees. An Alpha could probably singlehandedly take out a town if no Hunter was present. And those hits, regardless of if he had aura or not, hurt like hell. It felt like a bag of bricks hitting his side, almost driving out all the air in his lungs.

The defensive fighting was enough for the Alpha to comfortably commit two more adults to murder Jaune before leaving with what remained of its pack, which was 5 adults and 3 infants. As it left, Jaune decided to take the offensive before the the two incoming adults could get their licks in. He disarmed the swing of a Beowolf behind him before taking out its legs. Moving on, he beheaded another while deflecting a swing from the third. He took that opportunity to plunge Crocea Mors right into its chest. That was enough to kill it. Right as the two others approached, he finished off the disarmed Beowolf before engaging with the reinforcements.

Jaune took a defensive stance as the Beowolf tried to cleave clean through him, aura being the only reason why the claw didn't pierce through metal and flesh. He swung at its head, only for the sword to be deflected by the claw of the second Beowolf, which lunged at him. He had to kick it at an awkward angle, which kind of just hurt him more than the Beowolf. But aura helped and it was enough to fend it off for long enough so Jaune could get a clean cleave through the other Beowolve's neck. Moving on to the one he just kicked, the two charged at each other. Jaune used his shield to block any of the Beowolve's attacks and, when he got into range, swung and tore the Beowolf into two.

Wiping black dust off of Crocea Mors, he took a long breath. Tanking the hits was worth it in the end, since he was able to make the Alpha underestimate him for a moment and allow Jaune to take out more of its pack. He was at around 82% of his aura. Beowolves were really strong.

Still, he took out a bit under half of the Beowolf pack. With three babies, five adults, and that alpha to deal with, he got to planning. The alpha wouldn't make the same mistake again and would probably use overwhelming force with its five remaining adults. That normally wouldn't be a problem, but the Alpha would join in and Jaune was not good enough of a fighter to be comfortable fighting an alpha and five of its packmates. He might survive, but his Aura would be left in tatters. And there was no guarantee it wouldn't just run away the moment he came back.

Looking far away to see the pack, Jaune could see that the pack was going near the river. And that gave Jaune an idea. Coming closer to the pack, Jaune could see the Alpha's head perk up as it sensed Jaune's presence and it snarled. Instead of what Jaune thought it would do, use its entire pack as backup, it motioned for them to run the hell away. Jaune's eyebrow rose at that and he nodded, respecting the Alpha for its leadership.

"Hmm, why is it that I find that the Grimm are sometimes better generals than the people I meet?" Jaune mused to nobody in particular. The Alpha stepped forward, snarling at the Huntsman. "Whatever! Nice to meet you! I suppose we're fighting?" Indeed they were. The Alpha swung at him with animalistic ferocity, which Jaune could only duck under. Trying to block it would just end up with him being flung off into the distance from the sheer force of the attack.

He thought fondly about a tale of the strongman who could block an Alpha Beowolf swing with just one of their arms. Meanwhile he would probably be slammed into a tree. Well, whatever! Better to not be hit at all than minimize the damages. Though it was useful to be able to do both. Wouldn't want a fighting style to just be 'all or nothing.'

Still, he purposefully dodged backwards, twisting himself and only making a few token stabs at the Alpha. Its fur and flesh was strong enough that its neck would probably take a while to cleave through. It'd take a strong and pointed weapon, like a gravity dust enhanced rapier, or a high caliber gun to pierce through and kill it. So, he instead dodged the Alpha's swings. He was grazed a few times, though mostly was able to get away unscathed. But the time for fleeing was over when the Alpha stepped into the river. Jaune pulled out his flare gun, a lightning flare loaded in, and fired into the water.

Now, electricity was essentially the closest thing anyone's gotten to an anti-aura weapon. No matter how much aura someone had. No matter how powerful they were, they still had flesh and blood. And that flesh and blood could still be charged with electricity. And Grimm, no matter how powerful, still had flesh and blood. The Alpha Beowolf shook as it was shocked with intense electricity for a good moment, falling over and allowing Jaune to prepare for a finishing blow.

But before he could, the pack descended upon Jaune. Jaune, not having expected that, could only back away from the Alpha and the pack as they fiercely protected their leader. The leader growled at its pack for disobeying orders, but the pack merely grunted.

Jaune looked at this and shrugged, sheathing Crocea Mors and staring the Alpha in the eye. The pack growled at him and made to attack, but the Alpha held them back. Whether it be accepting the mercy Jaune offered or knowing that the pack couldn't survive fighting him, it simply retreated. Jaune shrugged, knowing that it really wasn't worth the trouble. He still had more to do. So, with 82% of his aura left, he left to go loo- clean the next farm.

---

Well, after cleaning all of the farms, retrieving a lot of items of sentimental value (he also managed to get a trunk to store them all), and burning down said farms to get rid of the absurd amount of Verminous that infested all of the farms (seriously! Why were all the farms here suddenly experiencing financial difficulties and poor harvests all at once?) he had a few tasks left outside the walls of Veinshire. Those tasks being killing that Deathstalker and dealing with the school of Sulfur Fish.

"I've said it before, I'll say it again, this'll suck." Deathstalkers were absurdly tough, what with practically its entire body being covered in bone plate armor. And the absurdly tough and strong pincers it had. Jaune might be able to use a flare to blind its eyes, but he'd probably just be slammed in the face by its stinger once it regains its sight or feels him on its back.

And the Sulfur Fish were worse. Sure, Sulfur Fish schools could be stabbed, unlike Wheatkiller swarms. But Sulfur Fish schools sucked to deal with! They usually gathered up into giant formations that were very proficient in murdering people. He heard that the Earth Wyrm formation could even spit lava! Why would anyone try to fight them!?

Basically, Jaune was picking which life-threatening scenario he was going to charge into first. Unlike what he'd heard about young Hunters, he didn't underestimate the power of Grimm. While most would be rearing to go fight a tough Grimm like a Deathstalker or Ursa Major, he would rather not. Deathstalkers could crush boulders in half with their pincers, Ursa Majors were capable of destroying unarmored and many armored vehicles in seconds, and Grimm in general were just terrifying. That didn't mean he wouldn't fight them, it just meant he wouldn't charge at them like a suicidal maniac!

So, which poison was he about to pick? The Deathstalker, which he had no real way of penetrating, or the Sulfur Fish school, which he had to gather up all in one place before fighting it properly. Either that or gathering them into smaller schools. Either way, he was screwed. Luckily for Jaune, his looting of the farms didn't just produce heirlooms, pictures, and antiques. It also produced dust! While plant dust, and fire dust were pretty much useless against Sulfur Fish, he did have a really cool idea.

The only problem was that the cool idea would only be cool if he did it against all of the Sulfur Fish at once. And you know that meant? That meant he was going to play bait for an ever increasing horde of red hot Sulfur Fish that were going to try and murder him! The cool idea was also going to use the two vials of water dust, the vial of wind dust, and the vial of ice dust he had found. But it would be super duper cool! It would waste precious resources he'd gathered, but again, it would be really cool!

And Jaune's childishness won out in the end as he began to run from the small school of around two hundred Sulfur Fish that were chasing him. Unlike the 'cool' image he presented typically, he was screaming like a child as he ran. To be fair, the school of Sulfur Fish had formed into a giant flaming skull that was chasing him. It opened its mouth and suddenly spewed out lava that Jaune barely dodged, making Jaune cry from fear. Those tears were immediately evaporated by the lava.

"Why did I COMMIT TO THIS!?" The answer was evident, because he tried to fulfill his fantasies and was getting ass handed to him for it. Still, nothing came without hard work. And Jaune was pretty sure that running for his life from an ever-increasing swarm of thousands of tiny little Grimm was pretty hard work. It was giving his legs a workout, if that counted for anything. He continued to run and run and run away from the school. The skull grew into a proper skeleton, a giant skeleton. A giant skeleton that was using its arms to crawl forwards towards its prey. A giant skeleton on fire. A giant skeleton that was shooting heat beams from its eyes, fireballs from its palms, and lava from its mouth. This was a bit comical if Jaune was being honest, but it was probably what he deserved for being stupid.

Letting out a string of overly complicated swears, Jaune finally noticed when the school stopped growing. All of the Sulfur Fish surrounding Veinshire had gathered to kill him. Jaune reckoned from the size alone that the number was about fifty to a hundred thousand in total, maybe a bit more. It was just an estimate. Still, the school had formed into something truly terrifying. The school had formed into a skeleton about the size of a few large trucks in a line. And it was constantly trying to burn him to a crisp with heat beams, fireballs, lava, just outright trying to smash him, grab him, and every other manner of firey death that Jaune really did not want to succumb to.

So, with the intense effort of a man who knew he was going to die very soon if he didn't do anything, he pulled out two vials of water dust and poured it onto Crocea Mors. Then, he smashed a ridiculously expensive crystal of wind dust onto his blade. And finally, he put an ice dust crystal into the mix. He pumped aura wildly into Crocea Mors, desperately activating it all and trying to control the effects. Crocea Mors began to weigh more as he held it with both of his hands. Winds grew stronger. Water turned to ice. Ice swung around. And in the end, Crocea Mors was enveloped by a blade made up of a vicious hailstorm.

"GLACIES!" Using all of his strength, putting his entire body into the swing, he pulled at his sword.

"TEMPESTAS!" The swirling ice turned fire into smoke, heat beams into nothingness, and lava into slag.

"MORS!" With all of his strength, he cleaved the newly christened Glacies Tempestas Mors downwards, hitting the giant flaming Sulfur Fish school with a giant hailstorm blade that cleaved through the flames and Sulfur Fish. Jaune began to rapidly swing about, pulling more and more of his aura into it. He had no stance as he spun around, desperately swinging the hailstorm blade at the Sulfur Fish school.

And after an intense minute of just trying to destroy the Sulfur Fish with a controlled hailstorm, the dust wore off, and he was left to see the results.

In front of him, the sight of the fading bodies of thousands upon thousands of tiny Sulfur Fish greeted him. With a tired smile, he felt himself. He was sore, numb, and at 3% aura. Most of it was pushed into Crocea Mors to power Glacies Tempestas Mors. Tired, bruised, a bit charred, and sore, Jaune sat down and weakly cheered himself for being able to pull that off. Seriously! He saw that sort of called out attack all the time on some shows one of his sisters watched and he always wanted to try and do that.

Too bad it cost him pretty much all of his aura. And also dust so pure and expensive that his organs probably would've fetched a lower price. He was pretty sure a decent Huntsman could probably have dealt with that school better. But hey, a decent Huntsman wasn't in Veinshire. Jaune was.

---

The next day, Jaune remembered he still had a Deathstalker to deal with. Sighing, swearing, and stalking from afar the Deathstalker (Jaune noted the irony), he thought up of a plan. He kind of just blew right through his dust reserves, which made him realize that he should really be careful about how he uses it. Regardless, he still had to figure out what to do. Fully rested and flipping an old Valean one Lien coin he found, he thought about what to do about the Deathstalker.

The real problem in fighting them was that their armor was ridiculously tough to pierce. And Jaune, despite being fairly strong, didn't have a weapon that could really destroy the armor. If he had high power precision explosives (which he didn't), a sniper rifle loaded with a full magazine of armor piercing explosive shots (which he didn't), or some other weapon that could put an insane amount of force on a small area(which he didn't), he might be able to win. But he didn't, and was left flipping that old Valean coin.

If he had a hammer of sorts, he might be able to use Crocea Mors like a stake and drive it straight through the skull of the Deathstalker. He bemusedly mused that he might be able to drive a bullhead into it as a hammer of sorts. That would be rather comical. And he would pay a small fortune to see what Bullhead engineers would think of his usage of their marvel of technology. Probably rant and swear at him for recklessly crashing it like a suicide bomber before modifying the design of the Bullhead so it could survive a crash like that.

Ah, but he didn't have the time, money, or training to get, buy, and ride a vehicle like that.

Thinking back to his master, actually, no, he shouldn't. The old man didn't have anything up his sleeves for something like this either. The guy would probably take a swig of whiskey, flip off the giant scorpion, and screw off before it could get any ideas.

Maybe he could use the environment? The wall of Veinshire was pretty crumbly and he might be able to toss some red dust in order to make it collapse on the Deathstalker. No, that was too risky. He might get crushed as well and there was not guarantee of it even working in the first place. Plus, he might miss. He might be able to lob off the legs of the scorpion Grimm, maybe even take off the stinger! If he really got lucky, he might've even be able to chop off the pincers! But none of that mattered because to kill a Deathstalker, he needed to pierce that stupid body. And if he didn't, all of those things would regrow in time. And no matter how much he might wail on the shell, it would definitely not crack.

It was only when Jaune checked his ammunition where he got a spark of inspiration. He stared at the old Valean coin and thought for a moment. Maybe he could defeat the Deathstalker.

Well, like any good combatant, it was time to experiment!

So he stretched for the upcoming fight and approached the Deathstalker on some of the non-farming land outside of Veinshire. There were no other Grimm around, the Deathstalker the only thing left in the farmlands. It was his final challenge before he would have to go into the town proper.

It was also the thing that was charging at him, ready to murder him a variety of different ways. Yelping in panic, he rolled away from a thrust from the stinger and had to back away as the Deathstalker tried to murder him with its pincers.

It did scratch into his aura at times, but nothing too bad. Considering that getting hit by the stinger would chew through a quarter of his aura plus inject bright golden poison into him, he was lucky.

He was also lucky when he was able to slide under a snapping pincer and was able to hack off one of the Deathstalker's legs. Given that it had 5 others, it wasn't anything too major. Still, before he could celebrate, he had to block the stinger by quickly pulling out Crocea Mors' shield.

Jaune heard stories about what happened to those who were stung by that thing. If you didn't have aura, you basically just had a foot wide hole added to your body. If you did, it hurt like a ten ton bag of bricks. And if you weren't careful, it could inject its poison. The golden poison of a Deathstalker was a valuable tool to assassins everywhere. Mostly because it made quick work of the inside of whoever dared in ingest it. Jaune wasn't even sure if it was poison or acid because it effectively burnt its victims from the inside. But it didn't act like an acid.

Ah, whatever.

Point being, Jaune was not going to take risks with that thing. There were only two ways to neutralize Deathstalker poison. Either have an antivenom or cure all on hand, Jaune did not have either, or use aura to force the poison out before it could do anything to bad. Jaune was just going to have to hope it didn't come to that.

Anyways, he rolled out of the way as the Deathstalker tried to swing at him with its pincers, trying to hack it off but meeting too much resistance to really bother. The real problem here was probably the stinger. If he could just tie it down or cut it off, he might be able to pull off his good move.

But with how the fight had devolved to Jaune blocking stinger thrusts while dodging the pincers, he probably wasn't going to get that chance. Taking a risk, Jaune used good footwork in order to use the extra force the Deathstalker put into its next thrust to have the stinger embed itself into a tree. That was good enough for Jaune, who leaped on top of the Deathstalker, Crocea mors in one hand, and the old Valean coin in another.

Old Valean coins were made with zinc. Jaune learned in his middle school science class about how electro-magnetic forces reacted differently to different metals depending on how many paired and unapired electrons there were. With one hand, he held Crocea Mors blade side down against the Deathstalker's shell, as if holding a nail. With his other hand, he fiddled with the coin and his electromagnetic flare.

He cupped his hand in order to give the flare only one direction to act against: towards the coin. Because, as Jaune remembered when he used the electro-magnetic flare, zinc happened to be a metal that reacted against electro-magneticism. He remembered how his coin purse shook violently when he activated the flare. Smiling, he poured a lot of aura into the flare. While it was powerful, he was going to need an instantaneous burst of heavy power to make this work.

And so, pushing his aura into the flare, he activated it. His hand felt hot, because he activated a flare in it. Luckily, aura protected him. He felt the coin push away with the force of several bullets, except it pushed against Crocea Mors. Jaune could see the cracks begin to form in the shell at Jaune put more aura in, seeing as the cracks grew larger. The Deathstalker tried to toss him off its back but Jaune held on with a good and steady stance.

Even when the Deathstalker managed to yank its stinger out of the tree and stab him in the arm, Jaune did not relent. Even with the blinding pain that was burning through his arm, he did not pull away. And with one final burst, he managed to have Crocea Mors' hilt meet the bone plate shell. And with that, the Deathstalker died. It began to fade away. And as Jaune's adrenaline began to fade away, he realized something.

"OH FUCK! I'VE BEEN STUNG!" Jaune hopped back and began to panic, only to collect himself and work with his aura. The poison was only in his right arm, luckily. So he worked with his aura to block off the poison, then, he would gradually push that barrier further and further, until the bright gold death squirted out of the wound the stinger created. He panted, feeling sore, tired, and still in quite the bit of pain. That poison also happened to chew through aura. So, he was at around 34%. Considering he was done with the walls, he could afford to take a nap before entering Veinshire proper.

---

It was only a few minutes after getting into the walls when he realized that the farm was the easy part. It wasn't about the item fetching. Given the nature of Grimm attacks, less people inside the walls got away, and thus fore he actually had less requests to gather items from the city itself. He still had requests, the items of which he was gathering in the trunk he put wherever he was camping, but they were less so.

No, it was about the fact that the Grimm inside the walls were far more numerous. And also deadly. Really deadly. Machine gun deadly. Why machine gun deadly? Because to even get inside the walls he had to run through a storm of machine gun fire from Geists that possessed the turrets on the walls. If someone was able to find out how to make things Geist-proof, Jaune would pay a fortune to put that security measure on every single thing on Remnant.

That machine gun fire took a bit of his aura, leaving him at 91%. Now, he was in the slums of Veinshire. Well, slums was a bit insulting. The district he was in was actually fairly well off. It was just that from the cliff, he knew this was the poorest district in comparison to the others. It looked to have gone under (relatively) recent renovations, but those renovations seemed to be half done. Paved roads suddenly gave way to gravel, sidewalks disappeared at times, and one apartment could look fully functional while the other could look haunted. It seemed that whatever money was being poured to make it look prettier was cut off before it could be finished.

Still, Verminous were common all throughout. He could see the little things scurrying in the gutters or alleyways.

Now, was he going to burn down an entire town?

Yes. Yes he was.

It wasn't like he was going to an occupied town and lighting it on fire. Veinshire as it was had no real reason to stay standing. Nobody lived there except the Grimm, nothing really important was here, and he was tasked with eliminating the Grimm. He was not told to not destroy the town. He might also just have wanted to light the town on fire. So sue him! Still, before he could do that, he was going to have to kill a few things. Remembering from his scouting session on the roof, he had a Goliath, a giant Nevermore, a King Taijitu, a Terrorantula, and whatever was in that mansion to clear out. All of those things would likely survive the fire. On top of those, he was going to have to fight any Grimm he came upon while also gathering trinkets that the survivors requested.

So, with a heavy sigh, he began his long and tired work.

---

Jaune decided to start with the Goliath. while he stalked the parading beast, he thought about what he knew about them. Goliaths typically were hundreds of years old, rather intelligent, and opportunistic. Instead of being lured by negative emotions, they acted to create them. In particular, their ridiculous endurance, their unending stomping, and their hulking mass inspired despair to those who saw them. Goliaths were sometimes called Marching Inevitabilities. And that wasn't a good sign.

But how does one beat a Goliath? With what Jaune knew, it would be difficult. A sniper rifle couldn't even pierce its hide. And going anywhere near it would probably just end with him being crushed. Perhaps with a bomb, he might be able to do something, but where would he get a bomb? Where oh where.

So, he was now looting the nearby dust store. After murdering some Verminous and a minor Creep, he had found quite the untouched stash of dust. Adding up what he found in the display cases, there was enough dust to fire a minigun for maybe twenty minutes. And considering the ridiculous amount of bullets a minigun practically just spews all over the place, that was a lot. To be more specific, he could only really find electricity dust. A lot of it. And, being honest, Jaune wasn't sure what to do with it. While electrocution was a good way of just ignoring armor, it just didn't worth with Goliaths. They were too large to electrocute and their hides were too thick for the electricity to get past. So, effectively, he just had a bunch of batteries.

Considering what he found was a suitcase filled with ten high purity electric dust crystals, they were good batteries! But just batteries. Batteries that he had no clue what to do with. Honestly, the only way he could get through the thick hide of a Goliath would be with a dr-

"Oh, oh!" Jaune got an idea. It was clear that the SDC had an interest in this place because it had some dust underground. It was also clear that they drilled to get to that dust. So it was also clear to Jaune that maybe, they had drills still laying around. And if Jaune were to get one of those drills, he might actually be able to use it to pierce the Goliath hide! He might have actually found a way to kill that stupid thing!

Problem: He had no clue where to get a drill. He was going to have to search a warehouse or something. And it wasn't like he had a map. So, leaving the electricity dust there for now, he decided to scale the building by using a fire escape ladder in an alleyway. The dust shop he was in was below an apartment building which was the same height with its neighbors, so Jaune wouldn't have a problem traversing the place. The real problem came from the Razorwings that pranced about the roof and tried to murder him.

Seriously, Razorwings were annoying. They weren't even all that strong! They were just fast and their talons were sharp. Anyways, from where he was, he looked over Veinshire in search of an SDC warehouse. They usually placed those in the edges of towns for ease of moving and because the land was cheap. So, after a few minutes, he managed to see one besides the wall. After using his shield to block the machine gun fire, he managed to enter the warehouse.

With his guard up, he walked over to one of the crates and opened it, only to find that there was nothing in it.

"HISSSS!"

Jaune turned in a hurry and saw what probably already looted the entire warehouse. With a slim humanoid body made of pure black flesh, two red eyes, four arms with three fingers each, and two hands holding onto a giant sack on its back, a Packrat stared at Jaune.

Packrats, typically attracted to locations where items are hoarded, like banks, vaults, or warehouses, had the tendency to steal all the items in the area. That or use the area as a lair to store all their stolen items. It seemed that Jaune had just walked into a Packrat lair.

That was not a good thing. Because Packrats, unlike their animalistic brethren, were capable of using technology. And so, when it jumped to the roof and gunfire began going off, Jaune began to run. When a Packrat has a gun, there really is no way of dealing with it other than waiting for it to run out of ammunition and then running at it. That's why Jaune was frantically running through the warehouse to avoid being shot at.

BOOM!

And it began throwing explosives!

RATATATATATATA

And it learned how to activate and subvert Atlesian Knights! Ok! Wow! The silver lining of this thoroughly shitty scenario was that the Atlesian Knights were the old 130 model. The bad news was that he was getting cornered. So, with Crocea Mors in one hand and its shield in another, he charged at the firing line of Atlesian Knights and burst through, beheading and disarming knights with furious swings given momentum using some creative footwork and spins.

It wasn't ballet or anything, but if he were to give it a score, he'd say good enough because he wasn't being riddled with lead by robots. Anyways, he was still dealing with the absurd amount of things the Packrat was throwing at him. Older Knights armed with even older arm-guns were firing, punching, and kicking at him. And he couldn't exactly dodge or block every single one of them. His aura took quite a few hits during the mad dash through the warehouse. But after a good while of just destroying Knights, something truly terrifying popped up.

Shaking the floor itself, the main centerpiece that was kept under wraps in the Warehouse made itself known. A giant bipedal mech frame roared to life. Its engines sputtered out smoke. It was rather bare, without any guns or blades. The only thing it had was its fists. Coincidentally, attached to its fists in place of fingers were drills that the Packrat somehow attached onto it. The Packrat was piloting the bare bones mecha from a cockpit on the chest.

Anyways, the mech smashed through the aisles and knocked over and obliterated crates, showering everywhere with splinters. Jaune force himself to keep his eyes open as he dodged the drill-enhanced punches of the Packrat's mech. Still, he was hit by quite a few of the splinters and had his foot smashed by a falling crate. Luckily, aura prevented his foot from smashing. Unluckily, that did take a small chunk of his aura.

"HOW THE HELL DO I BEAT THAT THING!?" If he still had that electro-magnetic flare, he might be able to screw up the circuitry using it as a pseudo-emp. Unfortunately, that was not going to happen.

So he settled on the tried and true method of dodging the stupid thing. Then he remembered his objective: To get a drill. And looking at the poor handiwork on the grafted on drills, he might be able to actually detach it if he really tried. It was going to take a surgical amount of precision though. Regardless, there were five of them, so one or two screwups weren't all that fatal.

Dodging another one of the Packrat's swings, he took the opportunity to stab at the grafted on drill, only for it to 'pling!' right off. That was probably to be expected, if Jaune was being honest. Welp, plan B it was! Running away to one of the fallen Atlesian Knights, he used Crocea Mors as a crowbar to tear off the panel in the back before looking for its fuel compartment. And then: he found it. A small bottle of lightning dust. That was what he needed. Yanking it out with the wires and pouring it onto Crocea Mors, he smiled as he began to charge at the mech.

Jaune leaped over its next punch and actually used that as an opportunity to climb up its arm and get a landing strike where the cockpit was. Activating the lightning dust on Crocea Mors, he smiled as his blade met steel and electricity surged. He could hear the dying screams of the Packrat as it was electrocuted and the sound of the motherboard being fried. The mech went limp and Jaune smiled as he pulled Crocea Mors out of it. It wasn't all too special of a move, nothing worth giving it a name for. Plus, 'Yellow Death' technically covered electricity.

Moving onto the drill hand, he used Crocea Mors and a bit of aura to chop off one of the drills. With a large metal drill head, a compartment to put electricity dust into, and a handle for convenience, it was rather heavy. But Jaune was strong enough to safely lug it around (as well as using a shield to block that machine gun fire). He actually managed to bring it back to the dust shop, where he managed to pour the electricity dust into it. After a few tests that may or may not have added a few new holes into the dust shop's wall, Jaune was ready to try and pierce that Goliath's hide with his new weapon.

Well, his new temporary weapon. That thing was not coming with him. It was giant and ridiculously heavy for god's sake! It would be like if someone tried carrying a chainsaw or a freaking giant steel beam as a weapon! Why!?

Whatever.

So, he continued to stalk the Goliath. Funnily enough, the path it went on was a loop from the entrance at the town wall to an SDC office building further into the city. If Goliaths often represented inevitability, did something often travel that route? Theorizing aside, Jaune decided to test out the drill where the Goliath couldn't hit him: on its back. Well, it couldn't hit him unless it used its tail or trunk. But those things were way less threatening that the fifty tons that their legs and feet could use as pressure.

How did he get on its back? Well he jumped off the roof of a building drill first onto the Goliath. It definitely noticed both the puny human riding it and the drill poking into it because it began to wildly swing. Jaune smiled and turned the drill on, which began to work through the flesh of the Goliath. It noticed that and began to smash into buildings, trying to get Jaune to fall off. But, using the drill and keeping a study stance, he managed to actually balance on the Goliath and continue drilling into its back. He even put a bit of aura into the drill to help it out. The Goliath screamed in pain as Jaune continued to drill into it.

He may have also been smashed through the side of a building. That was not a pleasant experience. The Goliath continued to thrash and try to get Jaune off. It even tried to smash him with its trunk. Jaune managed to block it with Crocea Mors. And when it tried to whip him with its tail, he simply sliced the tin piece of with a single stroke of Crocea Mors.

"HAHAHAHAH!" Jaune was actually laughing at how fun this was. Goliaths were so much more scary from below. And don't get him wrong, he was nervous as hell. The only reason why he wasn't curling up in sheer fright was because of the adrenaline. But, when he was riding the Goliath, it was just a giant horse that he was riding to hell. Pausing his laughter, he pondered on his mental state. Considering he was laughing while riding a Goliath while using a drill to pierce its back, he probably wasn't the picture of normal. Ah, who cares, he was having fun!

Plus, he could actually see the flattened bodies the Goliath created. He wasn't really about 'vengance on the Grimm.' That was a pointless endeavor that created more corpses than saved lives. But it helped dampen any sympathies he had for the thing when he saw the giant bloodstains it created.

Well, a few battered walls, a couple strikes from the Goliath's trunk, and murdered Nevermore, Razorwings, and Ravagers later, Jaune had pierced through the Goliath's hide. He smiled and pushed more aura into the drill, making it dig even further. Grimm blood sprayed out as Jaune pushed more and more on the drill.

When the drill was thoroughly dug into the Goliath's back, Jaune angled it forward, towards the Goliath's still moving head. And so, tearing through flesh with an aura-reinforced drill, he rammed it up the Goliath's back and into the back of its head. And with one final push, he managed to make the drill go straight through the head and out the skull. With shards of the bone mask exploding onto the floor and Grimm blood seeping from the wound, Jaune fell with the drill. Jaune rolled and managed to fall with grace, the drill did not. It fell on the ground and shattered on the pavement. Jaune shrugged it off, the weapon did its purpose, and the Goliath fell onto its bottom, beginning to disintegrate. Its unbroken eye stared hatefully at Jaune, who could only give a cheeky smile.

"Sorry, better luck next time!"

---

In the apartment buildings that Jaune took the time of looking around, Jaune found the same thing constantly. At least in the more run down apartments. He found financial papers. Mostly about raised rents due to property values. Other such things. It seemed like the SDC was systematically buying up apartments, renovating the buildings, and then upping the rent twofold. It was odd though, the moving in of the SDC was somewhat recent. What could've attracted them to the town? Perhaps it was whatever was being pumped out there?

Whatever, Jaune would figure it out later.

He checked his list of targets. Consulting the rudimentary map he made, he considered which one was closest. And considering he was still in the poorer district, the King Taijitu was up next. It was wrapped around a church, one head wrapped around the church tower, and the other at the door. Jaune took a seat on a somehow not destroyed bench and admired the sight of the King Taijitu.

They were often attracted to paradoxical things. Opposites existing at once. Like a torch whose fire creates coldness, a waterfall that flows upwards, or a flower blooming from a corpse. King Taijitus, like most Grimm, were also terrifying as hell. They were giant, had two heads, could swallow someone instantly, had fangs as sharp as swords, insanely deadly venom, could crush someone to death by coiling, and were just generally hellish to fight against.

As for a weakness, Jaune wasn't too sure. Their scales were strong and slippery, so his sword wasn't much help. Maybe if he got it to swallow a bomb, he might be able to do something. Really, a blunt weapon like a hammer was more effective against the slithering giant. Regardless, Jaune was going to have to fight it. Maybe he could actually use its two headed nature to his advantage? That was food for thought.

"No use just sitting here thinking." So Jaune got up and entered the church through a window. The front door was blocked by the white side, while the black side was up further at the belltower. Jaune walked through the church and looked around. He couldn't look out the window given that the King Taijitu was wrapped around the building, but he could search through the church itself. Jaune was not religious but even his opportunistic looting tendencies had limits. Those limits were no active stealing and do not touch sacred sites.

This Church was a sacred site.

So, he simply made his way through the church hall and went to the garden in the back. It was quite the gloomy thing, dried up, with the grass dying, and the tree withered. And in the center of the garden, there was a plaque.

"Dedicated to our savior, who died here to allow us to live." Jaune looked up and instead of seeing a statue or memorial, there was a large SDC pump instead. Jaune found what the King Taijitu was attracted to. Where a sacred place was desecrated, it created and helped the economy. It didn't make such a tragedy justifiable though. Checking the priest's quarters, he could see that the SDC had spammed the priest with mail to try and get a drill on that piece of land. And with how costs were growing for the priest, it seemed that he had no choice but to accept.

Sighing, he turned away. Going up the stairs of the belltower, he shook off the dower mood and instead got ready for the upcoming fight. And so, when he reached the top to see the black side of the King Taijitu sleeping, he rose Crocea Mors and plunged it into the closed eye of the large serpent. The black side woke up and screamed in pain as Jaune pulled his sword out. He ran down the stairs as the walls of the bell tower crumbled as the King Taijitu constricted on it. He made it to the hall right before the bell tower collapsed, letting out its final ring for Veinshire.

Now, both sides were awake. The door blasted open as the white head bolted towards him. Jaune rolled away, ducking in the aisles as the white head bolted straight past him and the wall. He could see a stabbed eye out the window right before the black head burst through, trying to lunge at Jaune as well. This time, Jaune hopped back, where upon the black head turned and rushed towards Jaune again.

Like a bull tamer, he jumped away right before it hit him, making the black head slam through the window on the other side. Before he could relax, the white head rammed into him, taking a good chunk of his aura from the sheer force of it. He recovered swiftly and rolled away before the white head could get a follow up attack.

And so the pattern continued, he ducked and dodged around the weave made out of the King Taijitu's body. With every failed lunge at Jaune, another string was added to the cloth. Black and white went over and under each other as Jaune continued to dodge.

Eventually, Jaune ran out of room. He was backed into a corner. The two heads of the King Taijitu dashed at him. But at the last moment, they stopped.

They'd run out of body to manuver with and they were now stuck. Jaune, who for a moment was curled up in fright, smiled. It seemed like his plan finally worked. The twin heads tried to back away but found themselves tied in the blanket they created. Jaune unsheathed Crocea Mors and, without fearing that the Taijitu would just dodge, slashed both heads of the twin headed snake. And with that, he sheathed Crocea Mors and watched as a blanket of black smoke fell over the broken church hall.

"If only my scroll had battery, then I might be able to take a picture."

---

At the start of another day in Veinshire, Jaune happily yawned as he woke up. He'd been at the dead town for a week or two, but food wasn't too hard to aquire. Well, ok, it kind of was. Most food was rotten. But grocery stores still had plenty of things he could eat! Like Pumpkin Pete cereal! And mom wasn't here to chide him for eating the ridiculously unhealthy snack.

Plus he could always bring up how many calories Huntsmen have to burn in their work as a counterpoint. Beyond that, Jaune was itching to have some food that didn't taste like it came straight out of a box. He loved the cereal and all, but he could only have it so many days in a row.

So he considered himself lucky when he found a fridge that didn't run out of ice dust. So, for breakfast, he was going to have bacon! On the street where he didn't have to worry about lighting stuff on fire, he set a campfire on the sidewalk. He held Crocea Mors' blade, flat side up, above the flame, watching as it heated up. And, his mouth watering in anticipation, he put the uncooked bacon on his hot metal sword.

It wasn't exactly the smartest thing, but he learned this sort of cooking from his teacher, who also couldn't be bothered to get a frying pan. The reason he cooked the blade for a while beforehand was to burn away anything harmful that may have clung to it. Now? It was fire purified and Jaune could happily cook his bacon on it.

After a couple of minutes of cooking, he managed to put it on a slice of bread he also found and eat the bacon sandwich.

"Delicious." Jaune was actually crying from how long it had been since he'd had a meal that was any sort of homemade. "Alright! I'm feeling motivated! Let's go to the creepy crawly corner!"

Indeed, a few blocks were essentially just turned into the webbing ground for Hateweavers and the Terrorantula that ruled the place. The Hateweavers were annoying, but there weren't all too deadly. They could and definitely did try to harm with by using their webs to trip him up, to trap him, or even to pull large things to fall on him. He managed to avoid all that and kill the small spiders that were doing it.

What really was going to be the problem was the Terrorantula. They were giant, their legs were ridiculously strong, a shot of their webbing could and would trap him, and they were also venemous. They were also really creepy. That was a minor thing, if Jaune was being honest, but it still counted for something!

So, a sigh, he went into the building the Terrorantula claimed as its own. An art exhibit made by the SDC. Though, from what he could see of the interior, it was rather plain. Sterile walls, boring furniture, paintings that looked mass produced. Really, it looked more like a factory made attempt to lower stress rather than an actual art exhibit. Still, there were some good paintings. Good paintings like a beautiful picture of the shattered moon, or one depicting a mythological map of Remnant.

Those two paintings were strung up by web in the center of the Terrorantula's nest. The giant thing had large bone plated legs and a black fur center with red eyes. At the sight of the paintings, Jaune remembered that Terrorantulas actually hunted for things with care and creativity put into them, mostly pieces of art. He remembered how a notorious art thief was found out to be actually just a Terrorantula.

Anyways, Jaune immediately set the webs on his side of the large room on fire. Mostly because there wasn't much light in the room. The Terrorantula screamed and began shooting web at him, which Jaune dodged. The webbing actually hit and fuelled the flames further. The Terrorantula, in a panic, grabbed onto the paintings and strung them up onto the roof so it wouldn't be engulfed by the fires before going to fight Jaune. It spat acid at him, which he dodged. And he sighed a breath of relief as he did so because the acid chewed right through the floor.

It tried squishing him with its legs, though he luckily was able to redirect the giant spider legs with his shield. On around the fifth time as he deflected a strike from the large spider's leg, he was struck in the back by it and had Crocea Mors and its shield flung away as a result. He tried to retrieve it but saw that the Terrorantula webbed it up swiftly. Jaune yelped as he ducked from a shot of acid and screamed as he avoided a web shot.

The Terrorantula's kick was pretty powerful and it took a moment for him to get air back in his lungs, where upon he made a plan and began to run towards it. He rolled and twisted to avoid the strings of web and managed to barely avoid being eaten up by the acid it spit. When he got close enough, it tried to lower itself in order to bite Jaune with its venemous mandibles. Instead, Jaune jumped over them and climbed it. On its back, Jaune kept stable footing before reaching its abdomen. And putting a gloved hand to the end, he felt it try to shoot webbing in order to pin his hand. What it didn't realize was that Jaune activated the fire dust weaving in his glove and set a flame that actually went into the Terrorantula's abdomen.

That wouldn't kill it, but it would prevent it from making any more webs. Suddenly, he was forced off of the spider's back as it furiously began spinning, trying to put out the fire that was already burning bright within it. Jaune simply went to where his sword and shield were webbed up, used his glove, and retrieved them. He raised his blade to the now webless Terrorantula, which growled at Jaune.

"Alright, come at me!" He yelled. Jaune charged at the Terrorantula and blocked the piercing strikes its legs gave, but had to give ground in order to dodge a swing from another one of its legs. He used both sword and shield defensively as he saw the Terrorantula attack him with more fervor.

Curiously, after it tried spitting acid at Jaune once more, he had an attacking leg hit the small pool of the corrosive stuff. And the bone plate armor was eaten away revealing crimson flesh. Jaune took the opportunity to take on of the Terrorantula's legs. That was only going to work once, but that was really all he needed.

Because now the Terrorantula was unbalanced and in the brief stumble that happened the next time it tried to strike Jaune with one of its legs, the knight ran forward and plunged Crocea Mors into its head. And that, finally, was enough to kill it. With a bit of effort, he pulled it out of its head and listened to how it faded to black dust.

Turning to the roof, he saw that the paintings managed to stay pristine.

"Oh thank god! I was actually looking for those." Because the artist of those two paintings was going to pay him in order to retrieve them. The question was, how was he going to get them down?

---

Eating an apple that somehow didn't rot, Jaune looked up at the clock tower. Standing far above all the other buildings, it was a convenient way to tell the time. Or well, it would be if it still worked. Regardless of that, Jaune looked up a bit more to see the giant Nevermore that was resting atop the clock tower. He wondered why it stuck around. Nevermore were attracted to unburied carrion. Veinshire however no longer had any bodies to pick.

Food for though, Jaune supposed.

Or well, lack of food for the Nevermore for thought, he re-supposed.

The Nevermore had destroyed the roof of the clock tower, making its nest there. Jaune was considering climbing up the tower and maybe even riding the blasted thing. The problem was that Nevermore Feathers were both sharp and tough as steel. So trying to actually stab the giant bird would be a problem. Still, if he could cut a wing muscle he could probably kill the thing with just a fall. Regardless, Jaune was have to actually climb the tower first.

And that was a whole different mess. Because hundreds of smaller Nevermore were everywhere in the clock tower stairs. And he had to constantly swing Crocea Mors in order to murder the murder of murderous birds that was swarming him with intent to merc him. It was, for lack other words, very very annoying. Extremely annoying.

Regardless, he continued upwards.

"You know, I really wish they installed elevators." Ignoring the fact that the elevator would be equally defunct. Still, trying to fix an elevator would've been easier than an hour or so of constantly climbing upwards while fighting a bunch of avian Grimm. So, to take his mind off things, he thought about his finances.

Like any good wandering Huntsman, he was pretty poor. This mission was definitely going to keep him eating for a while. He wasn't even asked for a Huntsman license! Apparently the mission was so tedious that nobody really bothered with it. Plus the low priority nature of it meant that the city wasn't really paying that much for it.

And from how the SDC wasn't funding an army to reclaim it, whatever that made this place valuable wasn't in Veinshire anymore. ANd then it struck Jaune, that's why the Nevermore was here! The city itself was a corpse, left to rot by humanity and the corporation that once poured so much money into it. That sounded about right, though he supposed that the Nevermore might've just been attracted by the dead bodies and none nearby enticed them enough to move. That was also possible, but he liked his prior interpretation more.

When he made it to the top of the clock tower, he didn't know what he expected to find. Maybe a cool lair? Maybe a giant birds nest? He probably should've expected it be messy, half rotten, and also absolutely filled with giant Nevermore Feathers. Picking a sword sized one up, Jaune reckoned that he might be able to turn it into a sword. Well, it he felt like figuring out how to use it. Regardless, he looked upwards to see the still form of a Giant Nevermore. He chomped on core of the apple he had eaten, still sucking out the last bits of sweetness it had, as he examined it. As it was, he could probably get up there with the help of some rope and maybe a ladder.

Well, no time like the present!

So he did exactly that, utilizing rope and some ladders in order to scall the wall and reach where the Nevermore rested. It was a giant thing, about the size of three bullheads. One of those feathers could probably kill two people. Two feathers could probably destroy a bullhead. A diving strike could probably kill 5 people or destroy a building. Jaune knew all of this from experience, both firsthand and inherited. Regardless, he softly mounted the Nevermore, and plunged Crocea Mors into its back.

"CAW!"

Which was one of the stupidest mistakes he could've ever made as it immediately woke up and took flight. Jaune, with one hand on the handle of Crocea Mors, desperately stuck to it as he was suddenly flown really high. As in, if he landed Aura probably couldn't save him high. That wasn't very good. It was, in fact, very very bad. He was very screwed. After a few minutes of screaming and crying, he'd calmed down. All the while, the Nevermore was flying in the air above the Clock Tower in order to try and shake Jaune off.

In his non-sword-occupied hand, he felt the core of his already eaten apple. His last regret was no being able to have a better last meal. Or even just have more apples. Oh well, whatever. It wasn't like he could- Wait, yes he could! Hysterical with hope, Jaune clung tightly to his sword and actually managed to make the Nevermore tip over to let him kneel on its back. Still clinging onto Crocea Mors just in case, Jaune pulled out his three vials of plant dust and put it in his palm with the apple core.

He gripped his hand so hard that the vials broke, with the green dust leaving and meeting the apple core. Then, moving Crocea Mors a bit, he opened up a small wound. A small wound he proceeded to jam his fist into. He activated the green dust and pulled his hand out, leaving the now activated green dust to do its work on the apple core. And given how many seeds were in it.

The Nevermore cawwed in pain and tried to buckle Jaune off, but every time it did Jaune simply held onto Crocea Mors, which only exasperated its pain. It took a get couple of seconds, but Jaune smile when a small sapling began growing out of the Nevermore's back. The Nevermore was panicked as its body was the new host of a small bunch of apple trees. Those trees were growing fast. He put quite a bit of aura into the plant dust, which accelerated the growth of the tree a hundred-fold. Jaune could only laugh as the Nevermore flapped its wings wildly as its weight quickly increased.

"Sorry, but at least with your death, something beautiful will grow!" Jaune said happily as the Nevermore felt its energy being sapped by the growing tree. It drew for water somewhere, that somewhere being the Nevermore's blood. And quickly, it could only angle itself downards in order to land smoothly.

So it did, outside the walls of Veinshire, it crashed. Its body was dragged through the dirt and the Nevermore let out a weak caw. With the adrenaline dying down, Jaune got off the Nevermore and looked it in the eye. It had no more energy for hate anymore. It looked pitiful

"Yea, sorry about that. Was the only idea I had. I can only give you a quick death, I hope that's enough." So Jaune raised Crocea Mors and lobbed off the Giant Nevermore's head with a clean strike. Beheaded, the Nevermore began to fade away. The apple tree that grew out of it was left on the ground, have grown out of the Nevermore. Its roots simply sunk into the ground, but the shape it took when it grew from the Nevermore's body made it look like the tree just decided to stand up.

There was a problem however.

"Oh god, it's going to take me forever to get back to camp."

---

After a good night's rest (that was only interrupted once by Grimm!), Jaune had one final target in the city to take down. One final thing to take care of before burning Veinshire to the ground. The mansion in the center of the city. From what his scouting implied, there were three layers to it. The first layer would be the forest/park surrounding it. He could see the evil eyes of Twilight Oaks in the woods. The second part would be the outside of the mansion. That was patrolled by Arma Gigas. The final layer would be whatever was inside the mansion itself. The only reason the Arma Gigas would actually be guarding a place instead of going off and marauding would be if an intelligent and strong Grimm was inside to command it.

There were a few problems on the road to finding whatever lurked inside the Mansion of Veinshire. First, Twilight Oaks were hard to deal with. Two, Arma Gigas were very hard to deal with. Three, whatever was in the mansion was going to be twice as deadly as the first two threats combined. The solution to all those problems, at least to Jaune, was to simply wing it. That usually worked for him!

Sometimes. Ok the first time he tried that he was almost torn to shreds by his master's sword, but that was an accident! Plus, he now knew how to use dust magic. Kind of. Ok well he improvised most of that as well.

Still! He somehow survived this long and he wasn't about to die now. Before he decided to assault the Mansion of Veinshire, he loo-sca- oh who was he kidding he looted all of the city's dust stores in order to resupply. He managed to craft two electro-magnetic flares and a gravity flare. In terms of dust, he had found some rare and good bits! He managed to actually find a hard-light dust crystal, which apparently was super rare and expensive! Well, expensive if you aren't the Atlesian military. He also managed to get some wind dust as well. Aside from that, he was set.

So, gripping onto the blade of Crocea Mors, he stepped into the forest surrounding the Veinshire Manshion. And after five steps, he entered the forest of the Twilight Oak. The black and red eyes of the trees stared at him. He sighed. These plant based Grimm were pretty easy to deal with, at least for someone stronger. For him? He just had his sword. And no matter how much Aura he pumps into it, cutting through wood was still difficult.

And there were plenty of these things. Twilight Oaks really just infested trees and used them like shells. More specifically, the entire forest was a single Grimm. A 'Twilight Forest', if you will. Basically, the entire thing was hive mind. And considering how they began shooting bark at him, he was their newest prey.

So, putting up Crocea Mors' shield, he stepped further into the forest. That was a mistake, as Crocea Mors' shield could only be held up in one direction. And when he stepped further in, he was immediately pelted by sharp pieces of bark from all sides. Fortunately, bark, even when thrown at bullet speeds, isn't that strong. Unfortunately, the constant minor stings was getting both annoying and a bit painful. It was like being constantly poked by needles and he wasn't a big fan of those.

And then the Ursa came out. Now, he was in a perilous predicament, because he had to constantly shield his eyes from the Twilight Oaks lest they get stabbed by a well placed bark shot. But he also had to fight an Ursa that was right in front of him. To be fair, it wasn't an Ursa Major, simply an Ursa. Still, a mature Ursa like the one trying maul him were capable of- Oh, how convenient.

So, pedalling back, he lured the Ursa to make a wide swing towards him, a wide swing which he ducked under. The Ursa's claws instead cleaved through a Twilight Oak. A neighboring tree then tried to slam him with the fallen trunk, which he hopped over and allowed to go towards the Ursa, which merely cleaved the bludgeoning wood in response.

To its credit, the Twilight Forest caught on. Or well, it caught on after the Ursa assisted Jaune in destroying couple more trees. After that, a giant trunk was slammed into it repeatedly, killing it with blunt force. But at that point, Jaune had attracted the attention of a Beowolf. And Beowolves may have a little less weight than Ursai, but they were way quicker.

And as it wildly lunged at Jaune with razor sharp claws that could cleave cleanly through metal, Jaune wildly ran away from it, still protecting his eyes from being shot. Its swings met wood and tore through the infested plant flesh. With every swing, he counted off another tree. A few more smaller Beowolves joined in on the chase, unwittingly helping Jaune destroy the Twilight Forest. But then, an overwhelming force hit his shield. He put his feet in the ground and was dragged through the dirt. The Beowolves weren't as graceful, dying as the blunt force hit them like a truck.

And when it was over, he pulled his shield down and looked up to see what happened. The Twilight Forest had gotten tired of the stagnant fight. All of the trees in the forest surrounding the Veinshire Mansion had gotten up and gathered to become a Twilight Greatoak. About as tall as an apartment building and as wide as two, it stood tall against Jaune. Along its body were countless eyes, staring hatefully at him.

And in the center was the largest eye, with red swirling in black. Its body resembled a giant tree, with legs like roots and arms made of countless trunks. If Jaune didn't know better, he'd have said this was the final boss. But, unfortunately, he was sure that whatever lurked in the Mansion of Veinshire was far more deadly than the Twilight Greatoak.

That didn't mean it wasn't deadly, as the dead Beowolves could attest. It was, indeed, very deadly. Crush a building with its arm, deadly. Destroy an army by itself, deadly. Probably would kill a student easily, deadly. Or well, kill a student that didn't have a way to break wood. He, unfortunately, did not have a way to break wood. He did have a way to burn wood though!

"Take this!" Suddenly pulling out his trusty flare gun, he shot at the Greatoak with a regular flare. Catching onto some of the dried leaves, a small fire grew. And the Greatoak flailed to try and put it out, only to feed it with more air. It roared with fury at the puny human that dared to harm it. Said puny human only smiled cheekily as the Greatoak tried to smash Jaune.

The problem with burning the Twilight Greatoak down was that in relying on the fire, he was turning the fight into an endurance match. And fire took a long time to really burn through trees. Especially giant trees. So he effectively had to wait an hour or so for the Twilight Greatoak to burn down. All the while it was chucking sharp logs like javelins, trying to smash him flat, and even to outright step on him with an extended root-leg.

"Hey, if you impaled me with that." Jaune looked at the small forest worth of logs that were stabbed into the ground in an attempt to kill him. "Could I call you 'The Impaler?'" The Greatoak merely shot a larger log in response. "I'll take that as a 'no'."

Now, to anyone whose been watching Jaune as he cleared out Veinshire, it may seem like he's become numbed to the hilariously deadly threat of the Grimm. He had not. Even as he quipped to the wooden giant that was going for blood, he was quivering in his boots. It was just that he had a certain quality. A quality that his master described as, "Enough stupidity, confidence, luck, and emotional suppression that makes me think you actually could've faked your way into Beacon."

That quality of his was the only reason why he wasn't curling up on the floor and giving up immediately. That and he still had just a pinch of what his master called, "The will to not die horribly."

Oh and now he was reminiscing on what his mentor drilled into his head. Did that count as 'life flashing before your eyes?' well whatever, it wasn't like he was dying. It was just that he was having an endurance match against a giant wooden golem. A giant wooden golem that was currently trying to smash him flat. A giant wooden golem whose entire top half was consumed with flames. A giant wooden golem whose hits he had to 'block' (really just put his shield against and hope his footwork was good enough to not fall over) smashed into his aura.

He would internally complain to himself about not getting a gun, but really, what would a moron with a pistol do against this thing? Huh!? The only gun that could really be any amount of effective against the Greatoak would be a missile launcher! And by 'missile' he meant the stuff that was stored in silos underground the middle of the Atlesian Tundra. And he was pretty sure they weren't selling those to be used in arm-mounted rocket launchers.

Regardless, he still had to fight. Idly, he went for the obvious weak point: The giant eye. Aiming his flare gun, adjusting for wind, gravity, and innacuracy, he fired it towards the eye. It wasn't much of a target, being a giant eye. Still, the flare managed to hit and puncture it, lighting a flame inside the giant eye. That might've been a mistake, because that enraged the Greatoak. It began to scream and shout, flailing with its arms and legs like a blender. The added air just fuelled the fire more, making it consume the large tree golem faster.

And Jaune wasn't looking pretty from the rapidly burn Greatoak's death throes. Mostly because its last couple minutes of actions were not tearfully thinking about its past or musing about what it should've eaten for breakfast, no, it was trying to murder him. To be fair, Jaune did light it on fire. Also to be fair, he was pretty much the sole reason for its death. Still didn't make the fired off on fire sharp logs any less painful to avoid. He was grazed by a few of them and while his aura did protect him, it still hurt like a bitch.

But, finally, after what felt like an eternity of just surviving, and also 40% of his aura just crumbled, the Greatoak fell. Its legs gave way. The black veins that connected all the trees began to fade away as the eyes shrivelled to nothingness. Jaune fell to his knees on the grassy floor of the used-to-be-a-forest and wept a single tear of joy as he saw the once-strung-together trees fall apart and continue to burn.

"Alright, the forest is gone. Now it's time for whatever's in Veinshire Mansion to burn."

---

Oh yea, Veinshire mansion was being patrolled by a couple of Arma Gigai. Jaune, utilizing his wits, stayed back and scouted around the Mansion's perimeter to get a good look at his enemies. There were several of them. All of them were Geists possessing various suits of armor, knights armor, as it was. More specifically, old Atlesian knight armor. Arma Gigai were quite difficult to kill, as one would either have to penetrate the armor and shatter the mask of the Geist inside or find a way to subvert the armor. To put it simply, he was going to have to either work through or around the armor.

Anyways, one was armed with a greatsword about the size (or twice) of him, another had a large war hammer, the third one had a halberd, and the last one just had fists. Jaune considered how each fight could go. While he could use his shield to deflect the greatsword and halberd and block the fourth one's fists, the war hammer was essentially a all or nothing fight. Even one solid hit from it would definitely destroy his aura, even if he had quite a bit and in total his regenerated to about 79%.

He could use his electro-magnetic flares, but there were two too many Arma Gigai relative to his ammo. He might be able to split up the payload into 4 lower powered ones, but there was no guarantee of it working. Plus if he did that, each one might be too weak to paralyze the Arma Gigas. The only solution was to engage two at once.

But what would he do after paralyzing them? He'd have to physically tear off the armor in search of the Geist's mask.

If he had a hammer, a bullshit semblance, or explosives, this would've been easy. Just smash it until the Geist mask shatters. But no! he had a sword! And the best he'd get would be denting the armor. Maybe he could pull off the same trick he did for the Deathstalker? Eh, no that wouldn't work.

Plus, he couldn't use his magnet flares until he was sure of where the mask was, at that point he'd use it to immobilize the Arma Gigai and then immediately shatter both masks before the magnetic effects wore off. So he had to survive a fight.

It was still early in the morning as Jaune decided to begin the fight. He'd engage the weaponless and war hammer Arma Gigai first. The weaponless one had modified gauntlets made for punching. He was planning to bait the war hammer to accidentally smash the weaponless one. Plus, their patrol routes met in a place where the others did not.

So, when his two targets' paths crossed, Jaune hopped between the two of them, with Crocea Mors in one hand and his shield in the other. They didn't wast any time trying to murder him and Jaune quickly realized that hopping between the two metal giants wasn't his best idea as he had to block a metal fist with his shield before rolling away half a second before the hammer smashed the ground under him.

Yelping in shock, he backed up as the two Arma Gigai unleashed a flurry of hammer swings and punches at him. He picked a fight with them in an outdoor courtyard, where a fountain was. A fountain that was slammed by the war hammer of an Arma Gigas. He gulped as the stone head smashed through the hedges.

In a pretty stupid move, he tried to swing his sword at the weaponless Arma Gigas, who merely punched it in return. The resulting vibrations shook Jaune to his spine before he pulled back and dodged a swing from the hammer. Fighting on the defensive wasn't working for him, so he put his shield away and wielded Crocea Mors with two hands. It wasn't the smartest idea, but he had to take risks.

As the warhammer slammed into the ground once more, Jaune hopped up onto the hammer head as it rose up once more. Before it could angled in a way in which he'd slip off, he hopped on the shoulder of the hammer Arma Gigas. The weaponless one tried to punch him off, but he moved his legs to dodge its fist. He thrusted Crocea Mors into the helmet of the war hammer Arma Gigas, but didn't find a mask.

That was one bit off the list. Unfortunately for him, the Arma Gigas let out a hellish roar before trying to smash him with its own war hamemr. Jaune jumped off and rolled onto the floor just in time to see the Arma Gigas smash its own helmet in with its hammer. Jaune would've laughed, but it was ultimately a harmless move that wouldn't really do much damage. Plus, the weaponless Arma Gigas tried punching him. Jaune sidestepped and allowed the punch to barely graze his side before grabbing onto its fist.

In response, the Arma Gigas forcefully raised its arm up in preparation to smash him downward, but he let go of the weaponless Arma Gigas in order to fly midair towards the Arma Gigas' head.

And then he was punched in the gut by the Arma Gigas' second hand. And while he was struck, he saw something glowing beneath the plate covering the back of the Arma Gigas' palm. Something glowing like the yellow eye of a Geist Mask.

He registered that while flying through the air into the wall. Luckily, he had a bit more aura than most. Unfortunately, it still hurt like hell when he slammed into the wall, almost creating a crater.

"Brothers! That flight was so bad I might've gotten airsick." Jaune coughed up a bit of blood and dodged a follow-up slam from the war hammer Arma Gigas.

With Crocea Mors in its sheath, he tried to pry off the plate armor covering the war hammer Arma Gigas' frontmost leg and found nothing. That took enough time that the Arma Gigas lifted its weapon up and tried to smash Jaune again, only for Jaune to, once more, roll away. Really, it was quite slow. And while Jaune wasn't a speedster, he could still run circles around something as slow as a possessed suit of giant armor.

He dodged a few punches while trying to figure out where the war hammer Arma Gigas' mask was. Then, Jaune realized something. In its footwork, it always kept its left leg towards Jaune. Whenever its right leg was put forward, it corrected that as quickly as possible. So, putting it all on a hunch, Jaune pulled out his electro-magnetic shot loaded flare gun and fire right between the two Arma Gigai. And when the flare activated, the two were stuck together, unable to move as they essentially crumbled towards the flare.

Jaune smiled and approached. Both of them tried to strike him, but their punches were misled by the magnet. Jaune went to the weaponless Arma Gigas and tore off the armor protecting the mask. He raised Crocea Mors and stabbed it right in the eye. The Geist's mask shattered and an Arma Gigas went limp.

Turning to the other one, he used Crocea Mors like a crowbar to reveal another Geist Mask. Another stab, another mask shattered, and another set of armor going limp. The magnet flare soon ran out of fuel and everything fell to the ground.

Checking his aura, he had around 40% left. Arma Gigai were slow, but very strong. Strong enough to put Alpha Beowolves and Ursa Majors to shame. And he still had two others to deal with. And also whatever was in Veinshire Mansion.

Moving back to the mansion's perimeter to stalk the two remaining Arma Gigai, he noticed something useful. The greatsword wielding Arma Gigas passed by a large and somewhat deep pool. The Arma Gigas with a halberd would pass by it later as well. So, when the greatsword Arma Gigas was in front of the pool, he took aim with his flare gun and shot a gravity flare right at its back, making it stumble and fall into the pool.

That wasn't going to kill it, but it was going to incapacitate it for long enough for him to fight the halberd wielding Arma Gigas. Maybe he could even kill it without the need for the magnetic flare! Regardless, Jaune ambushed the halberd wielding metal giant by rounding the corner and getting the first strike with Crocea Mors.

He struck metal and not much more, what did he expect? He was kicked for his efforts away and turned that into a roll, which he used to dodge an overhead strike from the halberd. The axe head broke the stone pavement, making Jaune gulp. That could've been him that shattered.

Steeling himself, Jaune put Crocea Mors and its shield up, ready as ever to fight the Arma Gigas. After he put the two remaining living armors to rest, he'd have to take a rest of his own in order to regain his aura. Or at least do something that doesn't place him in danger.

Well, that was in the future, because he was currently fighting a halberd wielding Arma Gigas. It kept him at a distance with cleaves and prodding, preventing him from approaching unless he wanted to get impaled.

It was when the halberd thrusted past him Jaune used Crocea Mors to break the blade part of the halberd off. While tree trunks were beyond Jaune's ability to cut, a thinner staff like the pole of the halberd was easy. Without its blade, the Arma Gigas chucked the rest of the pole at Jaune like a halberd and settled on its fists.

Jaune analyzed its posture, seeing if it was hiding anything. It was facing right towards him and was using both of its arms and legs. The Arma Gigas actually took off one of its arms and began using it as a bludgeon to get Jaune to back off. He kept his distance, focusing instead on finding the Geist mask.

When its empty socket faced him, he saw into the suit of armor itself. And in it, he could make out the mask of the Geist. From the distance, he could tell that it was attached to the back of the armor interior. So, loading up a magnetic flare with one hand, he took aim and fire on the floor. With the angle that the Arma Gigas was standing, it immediately fell down and was stuck to the floor.

Jaune ran up to the fallen down Arma Gigas and positioned Crocea Mors. And after putting a bit of aura into his sword, he stabbed into the back of the Arma Gigas. He heard a the sound of metal clashing against metal before he finally punctured the plate, where upon he heard the cracking of the Geist mask.

Another Arma Gigas dead. One left. The Arma Gigas that was left swiftly arose from the pool, brandishing its greatsword. Jaune sighed, he didn't have any magnet flares left, so he had to actually fight it.

For an opening move, it smashed the pavement by the pool, picked some rubble up, and threw it at Jaune, who could only put up his shield to block it. When he put it down, he saw that the Arma Gigas had advanced towards Jaune, dragging its greatsword with it, ready to cleave him in two.

Yelping, Jaune forced Crocea Mors out of the back of the empty suit of armor as he dodged the overhead strike from the Arma Gigas. He hopped over a swing towards his side and blocked a forceful punch, the impact of which forced him to put a bit of aura into his shield.

"You know, if you weren't so large that you could probably squish me with your foot, I'd really love to try out your armor! Though, white's more my color. But hey, it gets dirty easily!" The Arma Gigas stabbed at him with its massive sword and Jaune was really feeling the effects of aura depletion. He had to conciously turn off his aura just to keep what he had from dropping.

That meant his cheek was nicked by the thrust, the blood from the cut dropping onto his white chestplate.

"Hey! That's not very nice. Bloodstains are hard to get out! I assume. Cause, you know, it's armor and all. Do you think I need to wash it or something?" Another overhead swing that cracked the ground. "Not a fan of talk? Got it!" Jaune was sweating bullets. He was desperately analyzing the metal giant for any signs of its mask. But that concentration was constantly being interrupted by the giant sword that it was swinging.

Then, it hit him. Even if its possessed, a suit of armor is still reliant on the plates not being super deformed to still work. Otherwise it'll jam. And that was the thought Jaune had as he hopped onto the Arma Gigas' arm and struck the wrist, palm, and shoulder of the Arma Gigas as it tried to strike him with its unoccupied hand. Now, its entire arm was just dead weight, even a hindrance. It noticed this as well and wrenched it out, taking off a method of attack and a mask location. And it also made balancing hard for the Arma Gigas.

As Jaune was dodging (and occasionally getting a small cut from) the Arma Gigas, he noticed something. From the look of it, it was gripping onto its sword with more force than necessary. As in, its fingers were actually beginning to jam up and bend. It also seemed adamant on not allowing Jaune to use its sword as a stepping stone. So, taking a gamble, Jaune began his assault.

On the next thrust, Jaune threw himself upwards, twisting midair in order to land on the blade. Jaune used it as a springboard to hop towards further up the sword, which reflexively tried to grab him, but couldn't because its arm was detached. As it tried to do that, Jaune landed on the hilt of the greatsword, where Jaune held Crocea Mors with both of his hands and plunged it downward into its palm.

A mask shattered and the Arma Gigas slowly went limp, falling to its knees as Jaune was let down onto the floor. He collapsed, exhausted, and panted for breath. He weakly got some bandages and began dressing his wounds. Those were going to sting for a good moment until his aura got back up. Even with those scratches, Jaune was lucky to have noticed it. If he didn't, he'd have been stuck trying to straight up destroy the suit of armor. And Jaune knew that trying to do that was a difficult task. A hail of bullets was actually stopped by the armor covering his breast-area.

Well, Jaune supposed it was time to move onto the mansion proper.

---

If Jaune had to describe the mansion with one word, it would be dusty. The mansion was untouched. There were a few bodies, but aside from that, it had been left to dry without any interference. Not a single Grimm entered the walls of Veinshire Mansion. Jaune could see the symbol of the SDC snowflake. He might've not known what the SDC was before embarking on his travels (Hey, he really didn't pay that much attention to dust), but he'd gotten better. More specifically, papers with the SDC snowflake were in the mansion owner's office. In fact, almost all the non-empty papers in the office were official SDC papers.

And there were plenty papers. Official papers, as well as a very nice leather journal owned by the owner of the mansion. It was old, to say the least.

"Memoir in progress. Working title? A new city of hope? The man who grew something from nothing? The genius behind Veinshire? Note: figure it out later." It seemed to be a variety of titles, most of which were crossed out for a variety of reasons. Jaune flipped to the first page.

"I will be using this book to record my rise in Veinshire. This notebook is the first thing I bought for myself with my new wealth. It holds a dear place in my heart. Now, it all started two months ago, when I struck gold. No, not gold, something more valuable. Veinshire is a bastion of agriculture, though its infrastructure is rather poor and its more of a large farming community than anything, it is without a doubt a key source of produce. The reason why has been a mystery for a while. For a while, we thought it was sediments from upstream or just the right climate, except it was not. When I was digging a hole for a well, I figured out why Veinshire's land has been so prosperous. Underground pools, or veins, if you will, of liquid green dust unusually rise up in the area of Veinshire, having a positive effect on the growth of plants above it. This is likely caused from seismic activity. Whatever the case, liquid dust like the source beneath Veinshire is extremely rare, expensive, and valuable. It is essentially dust with the purity of expensive crystals and the volume of less pure dust. So, when I found out what lay in my backyard, what was I to do? I've been collecting the liquid dust in wooden barrels and selling it to the other farmers on top of using it in my own gardens. Even without aura to sufficiently charge it up, green dust, especially of this quality, helps plants grow by leaps and bounds."

Jaune flipped to the next entry.

"For the past week or so, I've been steadily growing a profit. I've stopped growing crops entirely, as the green dust has helped the farmers produce far more to compensate. A few traders came by, hearing rumors of Veinshire's exponential boost in crop production, and asked about it. I decided to sell a barrel or two of the liquid dust to them. It wouldn't do for me to only keep it here, after all."

He flipped to the next entry.

"Wow! When I saw those a fancy bullhead landing right in front of my little farmhome, I couldn't believe it. They look even more impressive in person. Well, the person in the white suit made an offer to me. They wanted to 'invest' in me. They offered me a job with pretty good pay, even offered a swanky suit like his! All I had to do was ship them the liquid dust! They said I would be given resources to begin my work. I took the job, who wouldn't!? Here I am, a nobody farmer, being made into an SDC branch manager!"

Flip.

"Me and the other boys had a big party in the tavern over my new job! I couldn't believe it! Then I heard why they were excited, because if Veinshire's going to become a big deal, then they'd be safer. After all, with more money, I could afford guards and maybe even get a wall for the town! That sounds good, maybe I could make Veinshire into more than a little farmland. I heard that Argus is practically a city only second to the kingdoms and Mountain Glenn, well, it was also supposed to be that. Regardless, maybe I can put Veinshire on the map."

Flip.

"It's starting well. With the help of my friends, I got a pump installed where I first found the liquid dust. Then, Jima suggested I look all over my land for a sprout. After all, if I'm not farming, what else am I supposed to use my fields for? I guess they're right."

Flip.

"You know, I don't know what those rich folks that are my bosses are thinking. Why wouldn't they give money freely? I'm barely as rich as any of them but I have so much cash I barely know what to do about it! I gave ten thousand lien to Patty to repair her bakery and another ten thousand to Bel for her bar. And on top of that, the boys I hired to help pack up the barrels are getting paychecks and bonuses nearly every day! And I still have more than I know what to do with! I've also got to talking with some engineers about getting Veinshire some proper walls, just some stuff to protect against the Grimm. Maybe we could get a full time Hunter here! That'd be perfect."

Next entry.

"The wall's looking pretty good! There's some bad news as well, because Helinsfear and Backintire have fallen. They were good towns and the countless refugees came here. I couldn't just let them starve or become Grimm chow, so I had paid for apartments to be built. I had to cut some costs though, there were just so many I actually couldn't afford anything better. Let's hope our harvest will be enough to accomodate them."

"Well, our little town didn't have any real need for it before, but the guys have rallied up support and actually held an election. It was practically unanimous as they voted me in as mayor. It's more ceremonial and all, pretty much everything was running fine without me. I'm just the guy paying for the walls and the buildings, nothing else. I've actually started expanding my drilling operation to give the refugees some jobs. Bel's bar can only hire so many people. And people looked really excited about it as well. Things are looking up for little Veinshire."

"A Grimm attacked one of my employees. Mauro, one of the refugees. He had a wife and two children he was working to feed for. He was attacked by a Beowolf and lost his arm and his leg. The only reason he lived was because the Beowolf was stabbed to death by his coworkers. I probably should've expected this. I paid for him to be treated and his family to be taken care of, as well as arming my employees with weapons that I bought from the company. It's the best I can do, Huntsmen aren't cheap and I can't hire one for every drill in the field."

"Ah, this is the life. I just had a mansion made for myself. Jerimiah suggested I get one since I was complaining that the only place I could think to use my Lien was Bel's. Some of the refugees used to be builders and were more than glad to make it. It's a nice place, if I do say so myself. Doesn't hurt that I got a bunch of fancy decorations from the company as a gift. It's been a couple of years since I started, I've come so far. And yet, when I look out of my window to see the town, I see that there's more work to be done. Regardless, I suppose I should get some sleep."

"Something's wrong. I've been through the numbers plenty of times and something is definitely wrong. While to the average employee we've been growing exponentially for a while, we haven't. Our production rates of Liquid Dust have been actually steadily dropping for a while now. It's slow, every day may just be a fraction of a cubic inch, but it's there, and I've noticed. After thinking, I've come to a single conclusion: that the liquid dust in Veinshire is going dry. Before, there was enough in the ground to both sustain the farmland and also sell off, but now? I've been asking around and crop numbers have been dropping little by little. If I don't do anything, Veinshire will fall. If we run dry, then no more money will come. Everyone will lose their jobs, we won't be able to sustain people, and the Grimm will come for us. I could arrange for people to be sent off, but then Veinshire itself would collapse. I have to do something. I have to make Veinshire more than a liquid dust faucet."

"I've begun work. I've researched the history of Argus and Mountain Glenn. In the end, they both had a reason to exist. Mountain Glenn was supposed to be an extension of Vale, which is a major industrial and population center. Argus is an important port to Atlas and has a large military base stationed by it. I simply need to make Veinshire something sustainable. I haven't left my office in a while, I've been making calls and having my employees report to me constantly. Perhaps I should ask my good friends at the SDC for help."

"They were useless. My superior in the SDC told me that, when Veinshire has run dry of liquid dust, it has served its purpose. That was my home they're talking about. They're saying that I should just leave for other ventures. Well, that's not happening. Veinshire is MY city. Veinshire is MINE. And I am not going to let it crumble. I can't break away from the SDC, but I can make it valuable in other ways. I just need to play their game."

"I've bought up land in Veinshire and have begun renovating apartments into luxury homes. For this to work, I need the interest of those with power. I need to turn Veinshire into an important place. At least, important enough to get investment. To get the funds necessary, I've quadrupled my drilling efforts and cut back on the pay of my employee's. There was some grumbling, but they're still being paid far more than the average farmer. Then again, the farmlands are being ravaged with the drying up of the liquid dust pools. I've had to begin shipping in food, which meant I had to increase my drilling. I've begun to buy land I suspect holds liquid dust for cheap from destitute farmers. Most have no choice but to become a driller."

"The big moves I've made have caught eyes all right. People in the big cities can smell opportunity when they see it. I've got potential biters, but none are too sure. Mountain Glenn was a long time ago, but to investors it's a recent nightmare. I need to prove that Veinshire can become a new Argus. I've had to increase drilling some more to produce the funds. Apparently, there was a rather large pool right in Father Mitali's backyard. He had to sell the land, food was becoming expensive for the people he was caring for. And I needed the land, or else everyone would die."

"I saw a bird, yesterday. I was overlooking my city on the clocktower and I saw a small Nevermore, just staring downwards like an opportunistic carrion eater. It was mocking me. It was laughing at me, as if Veinshire was doomed. I'll show it, I'll show them all. My superiors can go to hell, the people protesting about ridiculous rents can also go to hell. They don't realize that everything is relying on this, if I don't do this, Veinshire is doomed. My city will fall if I don't do anything. So, I must. I cut all costs. My mansion staff has been culled, my meals are the cheapest I can afford, and every cent I use is for the cause of ensuring Veinshire's future."

"I got a call. My superiors were hearing about my little protest problem. They said since it was affecting the production of liquid dust, it was their problem as well. They offered Atlesian Knights and some sort of giant exo-skeleton to deal with it. If I'm being honest, it's the best I can really do. The cost of electric dust for the Knights is less than the cost of hiring strike-busters. I'll do it if the protests don't calm down for a while. I can still do this. The city is almost fully remade. The wall is sturdy and mounted with heavy machine guns, the buildings are pristine, and the amenities are great. I just need to solve a few problems."

"I looked in the mirror and what did I see? My skin was pale, my hair had fallen out. My face had morphed into a hideous expression. And I have fangs now. The sun burns my face. Outside my doors were protestors once, the denizens of Veinshire who'd come to dethrone their rightful ruler. They are all dead now. A voice whispered into my ear and asked if I was the true ruler of Veinshire, if I wanted to see it not fall. I said yes and, after an hour, everyone was dead. At least, I'm fairly sure. Those who didn't fall to mass invasion of Grimm fled and were not going to come back for me. I suppose I should weep for the fallen men and women, but I can't. I can only gaze upon the city with the sickening feeling of content. The feeling of accomplishment. The feeling that I've saved Veinshire. Now, protected by legions of beasts that follow my commands, Veinshire will not fall. Perhaps now, I may rest. My work is done. This has been the journal of Oaten Cratz, I bid you farewell, oh sweet kingdom of mine."

Jaune looked at the leather bound journal and pocketed it. He sighed and checked his aura. He was at 100%, more than enough for him to finally kill the resting Cratz. He sighed, having an idea of where the man was. Every single room in the mansion had windows, with afternoon light pouring through, all except one, of course. And as he went down the stairs to the attic, he felt the air get colder. He walked through a small hall and entered a chamber, an ornate one.

It was large, it was dark, and it was decorated. It had royal red banners, gold trims, and a flag probably pertaining to the town on the sides. The floor had a carpet of the exact same colors. At the end of the room there was a large portrait of what Oaten Cratz used to look like, a healthy farmer sitting with his friends. And before the painting was a coffin made of rare Vacuan oak.

Taking the lid off the coffin, Jaune looked at the slumbering form of the vampirized Oaten Cratz. Pale skin, thin physique, hideous face, and fanged mouth. He was wearing an SDC suit as well, white and light blue. It was impossible to miss, Oaten Cratz had turned into a vampire. Sighing, Croea Mors rose above where his heart was and plunged. He felt a crunch and the puncturing of something. He pulled Crocea Mors out and swept it of any blood.

Sheathing it, he turned away.

CREAAAAAAK!

"What." Jaune turned around to see Oaten Cratz sitting upright in the coffin. His face unnaturally turned towards Jaune and he let out a screach that hurt Jaune's ears. "ARE YOU KIDDING ME!? YOU-" His swears were cut off by a large blade made of blood trying to lob his head off. With a stumble, Jaune managed to dodge it. "DO YOU HAVE SITUS INVERSUS OR SOMETHING!?" Apparently, he did. Because vampires had to die from a stake to the heart. And Jaune was fairly sure it didn't matter if the 'stake' was wood or a sword.

Cratz turned into mist and phased through the coffin, lunging towards Jaune instead. He dodged and tried throwing the vampire into the banner, hoping it would tangle him. Instead, Cratz ripped it apart without a problem. The problem? His scratches also tore into the stone of the wall and floor. Cratz' fingernails extended into bloody blades that lunged and scratched for Jaune, who dodged every single one.

Any attack Vampire Grimm make that involves direct physical contact with the Vampire's blood, body, or soul can and will drain the blood or soul of the victim's body. An scratch would essentially have the same effect as taking a chainsaw to his aura.

His mind raced for any answers. Vampire Grimm were typically nothing more than a rumor. Even amongst rare Grimm, Vampires were especially hard to find. There were two weaknesses Jaune knew about. One, a stake through the heart killed them. Two, garlic repelled them.

"Do you think Olive Field will deliver here?" Jaune jokingly asked, only to almost be skewered by the Vampire's blood nails. "No? Got it!" Think, Jaune, think! There has to be something! Anything at all, what was even the point of reading through that journal in the first place!? Why did he come down here?

"AHH!" Jaune felt the scorching hot burn of getting struck. His aura stood strong, but it hurt like lava being poured into his veins. He couldn't win. The vampire was faster, so he couldn't run. It was stronger, so he couldn't defend. And it was beefier, so he couldn't attack. He was fucked, entirely fucked.

But then, as he lay defeated by the stairs and Crocea Mors was lowered, it screeched.

"EEEK!" Smoke came from its palm and Jaune realized something. Not all hope was lost yet. There was still a way to kill it. Pulling out the hard-light crystal, Jaune smashed it into Crocea Mors. He forced it to take the shape of a giant claymore. And with the fire dust he'd stored for quite a bit of time, he lit that sword on fire.

It was heavy, yes. The idea was stupid, yes. And his life was on the line, of course. But if he did this and died anyways, well, he'd have fewer regrets than if he didn't.

"IGNE!" With all of his strength, he hefted the large blade up as the Vampire was still recoiling from the light.

"PURGANS!" He hit the Vampire in the gut as it tried to lunge at him. It was bent over the blade and was screaming in pain from the fire that was consuming it.

"MORS!" And Jaune began to wildly swing. Without any real form or grace, he began to desperately swing around. He brought down the supports in the basement, the supports of the mansion, the walls of the mansion, and everything in it. He pumped more aura into his blade, making it and the fire grow further. He screamed in fear and pain as he did so, feeling debris fall on his as he tried in desperation to kill the monster that plagued this town.

He had to send Oaten Cratz to the afterlife. The shell of the man he had fought deserved that much.

And after one final swing that buried Oaten Cratz in the rubble, Jaune felt the hard light dust fade away as fire began to consume the remains of Veinshire mansion. With a sigh he sat down.

"D-did you think that would be enough to kill me!?" Jaune's content smile didn't falter as he heard the wispy voice of Oaten Cratz himself. "I AM THE RULER OF VEINSHIRE, I WILL NOT BE DEFEATED SO EASILY."

"I know." Jaune smiled as the vampire king of the town emerged from the rubble and stared Jaune down with hateful red eyes. "I know I, a normal dude with a sword and some dust, won't be able to kill you. Even if I smashed you into every piece of rubble in this mansion, I probably couldn't kill you. But you know what can kill you? The giant ball of fire right above us."

Jaune smiled at the stone form of Oaten Cratz, who was mere milliseconds away from throttling Jaune. He poked the statue's stone nose.

"Boop!"

---

It was done. After weeks of work, he'd finally cleared out Veinshire. The cleanup afterwards was rather simple. He got some rest, double, triple, and quadruple checked if everything on his list was accounted for, and proceeded to burn Veinshire to the ground. He even had to topple the walls with some explosives he'd found. It was probably for the best. There wasn't much reason to keep it all around since it realistically could only be used as a Grimm hive.

After he came back, the clerk who gave him the task and the survivors looked like they'd seen a ghost. And they tearfully thanked him as he gave them back their belongings. He'd gotten a nice sum for clearing it out as well, though in all honesty it didn't feel like nearly enough for what he'd done.

Oh well, it was money he could use to get himself a good meal for once. He hadn't had one in weeks and it was really starting to get on his nerves.

---

AN: This took a bit of effort! Also, I don't think in the show they actually specified what each Grimm was actually attracted to? Or really had them be used as anything other than 'incoming disaster' or a population mood ring. Well, aside from the Apathy. Anyways, with that lack of canon, I decided to have some fun! Hope you enjoyed.

AN2: Also no, Qrow is not Jaune's teacher.

AN3: Which would you rather have next? Jaune stepping in to protect Amber or Jaune being caught in Argus by his sister and/or being caught up in a feud between Qrow and Winter? Or should I combine the two? (aka have it when Winter asks Qrow how he knows Jaune, there's a flashback)

AN4: As a pre-emptivie note, sorry if it feels like Jaune is too competent in this. I've tried to frame all the fights to make it so Jaune's doing things anyone could do/make it less impressive (Weiss could use the ice dust to freeze the sulfur fish, someone with a hammer and stake could probably delete the Deathstalker, etc etc). I just wanted to do a giant Grimm chapter.