Chapter 40! Yay!
That's another landmark for this story!
Reviews:
BrainWork27 - Taiyang won't be appearing later in the tournament as he's not a shaman. That scene with Chocolove at the beginning of the series was him helping a poor boy get who had a terrible day get back on his feet with comedy. Also by nightmares from the chapter that I mention last time I meant the process of writing it rather than the content (At some point I was writing the previous chapter at 3 am because the part that I wrote disappeared and I was too stubborn to delay the update.)
Gamelover41592, X3runner, Pedro Alonso Buby Huayanay Zamudio - Thank you! :)
The medical building was quiet.
Of course it was quiet, it was the middle of the night. There weren't even any staff in there at the moment since apparently any wound one could get in the Tribes Village could be just as easily healed after an entire day had passed since it happened as it could if it was treated the moment someone was hurt.
It wasn't like having someone to help would make any difference, the different healers from all the tribes responsible for the tournament were no doubt impressive on their own but when even someone who could revive the dead wasn't capable of helping Oscar in any way, people who could mend broken bones or regrow limbs likely couldn't either.
A couple hours had already passed since their unsuccessful attempt at separating Oscar from Ozpin and the boy, or the old immortal parasite depending on whoever was left, still didn't wake up.
In all honesty they were extremely lucky that the boy was still breathing correctly, who knew what they would have to do if not only the souls of the boy were a mess but the body as well.
They would have probably had to say goodbye to their most recent friend then and there.
Jaune gritted his teeth in anger. The air around them was cold, there wasn't anybody to help, and the room they decided to use as their temporary stay while watching over Oscar was so bare and unfurnished that it was a miracle they even had places to sit at yet despite all of that his anger was directed at none of that.
They shouldn't have allowed Oscar to freely decide on taking part in such a dangerous ritual. The younger boy was too blinded by hope and desperation to notice any danger it posed to him.
"It was his choice, Jaune." Summer's voice called out from behind him quietly.
Jaune was seconds away from snorting at his guardian spirit's words but he managed to hold it in because of the situation they were in. The room was full of his friends yet Summer was still the first one to notice how he was feeling, she truly was the greatest partner he could ask for.
"Yes, and it was a wrong choice that we knew wasn't entirely safe." Jaune did his very best to suppress his anger. "We should have watched out for him or at least warn him, damn it!"
His little outburst caused some shuffling noise to spread from behind him.
Upon turning around to check what made that noise, Jaune noticed all of his friends asleep in their seats and positions. It looked like the only reason Summer was the only one who reacted to his anger was because every other living member of their group wasn't awake anymore.
"Ohh." Jaune winced a little at the sight before him.
Summer, who was floating above the sleeping forms of his friends, looked a mixture between angry, concerned and disappointed, and it all was directed directly at him.
"All of us are also worried about Oscar and trust me there's nobody here who's not feeling guilty but unlike you they can't keep themselves awake solely on anger and self-hate!" Summer shouted loud enough for him to register it clearly but quietly enough not to wake any shamans.
Jaune winced once again at his guardian spirit words before glancing to the sight in guilt only to meet the sight of Nicholas. Whitley's grandfather's gaze didn't look that much different from Summer's.
"Summer is right, Jaune." Nicholas sighed before shaking his head. "If you keep yourself awake on guilt right now then the moment Oscar wakes up you will be too tired to help him in any way. Just accept that you can do nothing to help that boy right now and go to sleep, trust me it will be better for everyone here, especially you."
Summer's and all the other of their team guardian spirits's gazes slowly but steadily intensified on him as if to pressure him into agreeing with them and taking care of himself a little.
"I-I..." Jaune stuttered a little but before he could formulate any coherent sentence a shifting noise from the bed they had laid Oscar on made him immediately snap his attention back to his friend.
Oscar slowly propped himself up from the lying position he was at. Or at least attempted to as the shaky and slow movement that the younger boy was doing was barely accomplishing anything.
"Let me help." Jaune said hurriedly before supporting his friend up a little.
"Thank you." Oscar answered in an absentminded manner before moving one of his arms to grab his head as if it was in pain, it was hard to tell whether the person who said that was Oscar or Ozpin.
Jaune gulped audibly from the nerves, it was the time to find out what the consequences of their failed ritual with Sati Saigan were. He only hoped that the worst didn't come to pass and Oscar was still in there and Ozpin wasn't the only one who was calling the shots.
"A-Are you...?" Jaune started to ask but found himself unable to finish.
"I'm fine, Jaune." Oscar, or whoever was the person talking at the moment, said without really answering his question.
The answer didn't put Jaune at ease, it didn't actually tell him anything about the state of Oscar's soul at the moment. It was impossible to say what the 'fine' from Oscar's mouth even meant for that matter.
"B-But are you Oscar or Ozpin right now?" Jaune finally found it in himself to properly ask the most important question.
Oscar turned to look at him with a clear confusion in his eyes. That confusion made Jaune fear the worst. What if they had already fused completely and Oscar had been assimilated by Ozpin?
At that point there wouldn't be anything they could do to help.
"Ugh, I am me." Oscar shook his head slowly in pain and Jaune was about to let out a breath of relief but the next words from Oscar stopped him. "What's the point of even asking whether I'm me or me anyway? It's already confusing enough that my memories are so jumbled up that I don't know what's past and what's future and you are trying to make it even more complicated."
The room instantly turned so quiet that if someone were to move even the littlest bit it would have seemed so loud that it would be almost deafening.
"W-What?" Jaune asked, his voice shaking from fear.
"I am myself, didn't you hear me?" Oscar, as if not understanding where the question came from, repeated himself. "Brother gods know how hard it is to keep sane while having so many memories."
Oscar's, or whatever the person before them really could be called, annoyed words appeared to have some sort of awakening power as the moment they spread through the room the shuffling sound around the room intensified and their friends started groggily to wake up.
"Is everything alright?" Someone, probably Ren but Jaune wasn't actually focused enough on them to discern, asked with a sleepy tone.
"Yes, everything's fine. Jaune is simply being a worrywart who's asking which set of memories I feel resonating with me the strongest right now for some reason." Oscar said with an annoyed, and almost dismissive, tone of voice as he waved his hand a little to show that nothing was really happening at the moment.
These words were the only thing that needed to be said, everyone already understood what was going on. While the person before them wasn't Ozpin yet, the Oscar part of them was almost completely gone.
They tightened their fist in determination.
If there was a single person who could save Oscar right now it was the shaman king, and becoming one right now stopped being something that they didn't have any real stakes in.
Hao would still need to be defeated but if they do that without winning the tournament themselves they might as well count that as a loss.
...
A few days later...
...
If their previous training was called brutal then their current training regime could only be considered cruel, not to anyone else but to themselves. Crude weights were added to every exercise they could be added, their break time was nearly completely gone, and through sheer effort alone they brought themselves to a state of barely living almost every evening.
Were they seen by anyone outside the shamans in the village they would have been called crazy and even some of the people around them started considering them a little bit ill in their zeal for the training.
They didn't work themselves to a literal death; however, every one or two days they've decided to have a proper break day during which their bodies could recover and their strength grow. On these days they allowed themselves to do nothing more than meditate a little and watch the fights of other shamans at the arena.
It was one such a day right now.
A bit over a week had passed since the round began and all the teams had already finished their first fights and the second sets of these fights began. At first team ARCS had expected that they would be called out to fight at the very beginning of the second set of fights, similarly to how it was during the first set, but as they quickly learned it wasn't quite the case.
Six different teams have already fought their second battles of the third round, and obviously only half of them had won, but despite it being the second day of the new fight set they haven't been called out for a single battle yet.
The judging tribes and the Great Spirit must have updated the data about their capabilities they had based the order of their fights on.
Right now the fight at the arena was between two teams that Jaune felt they could have rather easily defeated on their own, even if they were forced to fight both of them at once, so that theory of theirs was quite possible. It also made them a little nervous, if the team they were going to fight this time was going to be so much stronger than earlier then would they be able to win?
He shook his head to get rid of the useless thoughts, there was no point in doubting their abilities at this point in the tournament, not after the cruel training they forced themselves to go through.
At first they had also been considering taking up that offer from Sati Saigan about training in hell but when they learned that the shortest time it could take was a couple of days they decided against it.
There was no point in gathering the strength if you were going to miss the chance to actually put what you gained to use.
One of the combatants at the arena was knocked out and the crowd cheered.
Situation with Oscar wasn't getting better either. The boy, if he was still there that was, could barely discern between countless different memories he had in his head and when asked about it he would claim that it was always like that.
The only silver lining about it was the fact that it still wasn't the full assimilation of the soul, the mixed up memories and Oscar still identifying himself as himself, albeit with dozens of other identities, and not simply as Ozpin wasn't the exact same thing as what had happened to Ozpin and every other of Ozma's previous hosts.
If they weren't going hurry up with the tournament and becoming the shaman king however then it soon might once again turned out like that.
Another one of the combatants lost the fight and the crowd cheered once more.
There was also the problem with Hao, they might be training so hard that nobody sane had ever trained the same way but compared to an immortal monster who probably practiced all of his knowledge in the afterlife, they simply didn't have enough time to catch up.
It was like trying to win a race around the entire kingdom against someone who had started good months before them, it was simply impossible and at the same time a miracle that their opponent hadn't finished already.
The fight ended and the crowd exploded in noise.
Radim screamed something about the exciting battle, people around them were shuffling, and another team lost their only chance at winning the tournament yet Jaune was so deep inside his thoughts that he barely registered any of that.
In the end fights of weaker shaman teams were of no importance to them and the only reason they were even here was to pass the time.
With the fight over, the crowds in the audience started to slowly move making an extremely inefficient attempt to leave the arena to do something else. People were pushing each other around and doing their absolute best to leave the place while unknowingly making the very thing they wanted to accomplish nearly impossible for anyone else.
Those more recognizable or powerful among them didn't have that problem however as almost everyone made way for them to leave. There wasn't a single person who was willing to offend people like Hao or the Iron Maiden Jeanne for no good reason.
As Jaune witnessed that scene he almost wanted to laugh at how all of these shamans were behaving. So many shamans often claimed that the modern world was nothing but business and hurry yet the moment something remotely similar happens in the world of shamans they start acting almost exactly the same as the people they were criticizing. It was almost like people would always be people no matter the situation they were in.
"Seriously, where are they even going?" Whitley slightly raised his arms in exasperation. "It's not like the Tribes Village is going to run away from them. And the time between fights is so long that there's no way they would be late for the next one even if they were forced to wait half an hour in here before leaving."
They nodded a couple times in response as they watched the crowds leave.
"They are so petty, aren't they?" A childlike playful voice called out from behind them and their blood instantly turned cold as ice. They didn't need to turn around to know who the monster that voiced belonged to was.
"Hao!" Jaune shouted as he turned around and jumped back a little. "What are you planning here, you monster?"
The crowds in the audience were still unbearable but most of them were quite clearly moving towards the exit so in the middle of the stands where they were there was actually some place to move about.
"Why is it that I would want to plan anything against you?" Hao, who specifically walked towards them, looked visibly saddened at his accusation, though everyone with capable seeing was able to easily see that it was fake.
Then again, there likely were next to no things that could affect that immortal's emotions in the first place.
"Don't play with us." Whitley scoffed as he moved a little bit forward to stand between his older sister's team and Hao. "You wouldn't just come to talk with us for no reason at all, especially since you are well aware of what we think of you."
Hao, as if ignoring or not acknowledging the question at all, only moved his eyes towards the leaving crowd.
"They are all so pitiful." One could easily hear the loathing in Hao's voice. "They call themselves shamans and practice the ways of the spiritual yet they dare to act like that. If I didn't know that we were currently in the United Tribes Village I would have thought that these were the same vermin I am going to eliminate once I become the shaman king."
At the mention of his ambitions, team RWBY shuddered a little, the closest friends of shamans or not they would be considered as vermin in Hao's plan for the future.
"I might even execute a couple of them after becoming the shaman king." Hao mused out loud. "They don't appear to be worthy of my world anyway."
"Y-You!" Jaune was doing his very hardest not to rush forward and attack Hao at this very moment. He knew that if he really went and attacked Hao right now then not only would he be probably defeated instantly but the judges of the tournament would punish him for breaking the rules as well.
Hao only looked at him with mirth on his face. Jaune didn't know if that immortal monster was doing that solely to enrage him but if he did then it certainly was working splendidly.
"Don't worry, you guys are good enough for me." Hao smiled an honest smile as if his answer were to put them at ease. "There for sure will be a place for you in my utopia. I wouldn't want to lose such promising shamans after all."
"Like hell we would want to live in that sick idea for a world of yours!" Whitley shouted in anger as Ren moved a little bit behind him to support his friend. They might fight or bicker all the time when they were alone but the moment a threat like Hao showed up they both knew that it wasn't the time for infighting.
Hao glanced at the young Schnee shaman with an amused expression on his face.
"Well, I won't be stopping you from trying to leave my world once I become the king." Hao shrugged in a casual fashion. "It isn't the reason why I came to talk with you in the first place anyway."
"Then what is?" Ren asked with such a cold voice that others would mistake him for an ice shaman.
Hao smiled before spinning around on his heel like a young and bored child would do. No matter how many times they interacted with Hao, Jaune simply couldn't understand why an impossibly old person like Hao was acting so childishly when around them.
"I'm here to talk about my cute little brother, of course." Hao chuckled a little. "You didn't think that I wouldn't hear about your attempts to separate him from the other immortal present in this village, did you? Tell me, how exactly did it go for you guys?"
Jaune tightened his fists in anger, the last thing they needed right now was to have some immortal monster reprimand them about the mistakes they've made.
"If you know about it then you probably can already guess how it ended up, can't you?" Chocolove said with a scoff. Even the comedian of their group wasn't feeling very cheery when talking to a person like Hao.
Hao, on the other hand, looked absolutely amused, like the state of Oscar's soul was of no concern to him, and considering how many souls he had ended up devouring and completely destroying, it probably wasn't.
"Ah, you've accelerated Ozma's process of soul assimilation and made a mess out of their current state then." Hao said in a light tone. "Truly you are the master at taking care of your close ones."
Jaune tensed his muscles but he didn't move from his place.
Whitley however wasn't as restrained as his leader.
The young Schnee dashed forward, his hand guiding Furyoku and his grandfather directly into his saber, and just as he was about to activate his Over Soul and create the steel giant a huge hand made out of unbelievably hot spiritual fire knocked him away with an almost lazy wave.
Whitley came crushing meters away from them. It happened so quickly that even if somebody was able to react to it they wouldn't be able to catch up to the flying boy and help him. Suffice to say, the Over Soul that Whitley was forming broke as well.
"Ha! You guys certainly still have some spark in you!" Hao laughed loudly before reaching into his clothes to pull out some item and throw it towards them. "Catch. I think you might need it more than I do."
Despite the hatred all of them felt towards Hao, they did catch whatever the item was that Hao had thrown.
With a quick glance at the item, Jaune saw that it was some sort of ancient book that looked so worn out and beaten down that it was a miracle it didn't fall apart the moment they caught it.
"What is it?" Jaune asked, weary of the mysterious book they've received.
"It's Cho-Senjiryakketsu." Hao said with a smirk. "A book that I've written back when I was around your age, or maybe a couple decades older, I'm not sure. In it you will find all my past knowledge about shaman techniques and the spiritual world. I'm sure it will help you improve quite a bit."
Suspicion filled Jaune's eyes as he looked up from the book at the person who gave it to them.
"Why would you give it to us?" Jaune raised one of his eyebrows. "I don't know if you realized it yet but we are enemies."
"Didn't I say that already?" Hao tilted his head to the side in almost genuine confusion. "I see a place for you in my new world, and you certainly have potential, isn't it only natural for me to grant some strength to the people who will in the end become one of mine? There won't be a place for worthless shamans in my world, after all."
That was what they were for him, wasn't it? Potential citizens of his new world order that wouldn't differ from hundreds of other shamans in it, they weren't even considered to be enemies by him.
Before any of them could answer or react to Hao's words in any meaningful way the childish immortal monster spun on his heel a little before heading towards the exit of the arena.
It looked like Hao just didn't care whether they accepted his gift or not.
The remaining crowds, that had already become quite sparse compared to earlier throughout their conversation, parted ways so that the most powerful shaman of the tournament could comfortably leave. Fear, awe, and some anger were easily visible on most of those people's faces and frankly Jaune wasn't quite sure what expression he would have if he was among one of those people.
With a final glance, Jaune looked back on the Cho-Senjiryakketsu again. Be it from their greatest enemy or not, that book was still their greatest bet at acquiring strength to challenge that monster at the moment.
If they weren't going to be able to compete in this round, using that old book might end up being their only available solution at moving further in the tournament.
...
A couple days later...
...
His entire body hurt like hell, he was covered in sweat, and he could barely breathe. For any other shaman it might have meant that they were in a life or death situation but for Jaune and the rest of his team it only meant that they had an easy training day this time.
They were already on their fifth and final lap around the village and after training like that, or even worse, for the last week or so mere five laps around the Tribes Village stopped being an issue at all.
The reason behind their easier training today was because they finally after a good couple of fight-free days had a fight that was about to happen!
This time they were even going to fight against opponents that were way closer to their power level. Or at least ones that were supposed to be way stronger than team Wild Might were before.
Team Miraculous Pilgrimage, who were their opponents, wasn't really known to them as they, being too busy with training, didn't manage to watch their first fight of this round but based on what they learned from their friends and surprisingly Sati Saigan, these guys were quite the formidable shamans that at their best were considered to be almost equal to the X-Laws teams.
How much of that was true, they have yet to learn but the mere fact that they were compared to the X-Laws at all meant that they were leagues above their previous opponents and if they met back during the tournament's second round they would have likely lost quite quickly against them.
Also these people were apparently one of those few lucky shamans who managed to receive help from Sati to find the United Tribes Village.
While at first it might sound like it's a sign of their weakness the moment one thought about it a bit more extensively they would realize that it simply meant that they weren't as focused on exploration as the other groups of shamans.
In the worst case scenario it could mean that they were solely combat focused shamans whose Over Souls overshadowed the ones of even theoretically better shamans.
Jaune wasn't discouraged however, their opponents might be impressive compared to ordinary shamans but they not only went through the training at Raven's camp but they also were constantly putting themselves through hell practically since they've arrived in this village.
As long as they were able to fight them properly they should be able to win relatively easily.
Jaune's legs carried him further and further as he absentmindedly began going over ideas on how their fight in the next three hours could possibly go when suddenly a tribal looking shaman stepped in front of him making him stop.
The man looked serious and raised one of his hands up a little in greetings, it was one of the tournament judges.
What would they want from him right now?
"Is there anything wrong, sir?" Jaune asked, uncertainty seeping through his tone to hide his nervousness.
In reality he already had a couple decent ideas about what was the reason behind that abnormal action from the judges and the most probable of them was making him sweat a little. All his friends behind him appeared to be thinking of it as well.
Was the help they've received from Raven found out?
"You four are team ARCS, right?" The unknown judge asked coldly. Although it was obvious that the man already knew the answer to his question very well and was only asking for confirmation.
Jaune slowly looked back at his friends as if to ask what to do but upon noticing that none of them had any good idea either, he decided to take the role of the leader again and answer the question.
"Yes, it would be us. Did we do something to warrant questioning?"
Judge's eyes narrowed at him specifically. If that person wasn't one of the few people responsible for the peace in the village, he would have thought that they were about to get attacked by him.
"There's actually something I want to ask you about your unexplained increase in power." The moment those words left the judge's mouth they knew that even if they weren't found out yet they were already considered as suspicious.
Knowing that they couldn't just ignore the situation at hand anymore, Jaune decided to do the only thing he could really do at the moment, stall, lie, and think of a way to hide Raven's involvement.
"I wouldn't exactly call it unexplained myself." Jaune shook his head lightly before pointing at him and his team. "You can see how hellish our training is yourself, would we really put ourselves through something like that if it didn't yield any results?"
His friends frantically yet tiredly nodded their heads in unison to his point.
The judge didn't look convinced.
"If it was just that training that's responsible for your increase in strength then either we or the Great Spirit itself would have known about it." The judge hummed a little. "Yet as you four have probably guessed already, it wasn't really the case."
Jaune gulped as the judge's eyes fell on them. At this point there weren't many things they could deny, especially when the one responsible for monitoring their power was confirmed to be the Great Spirit.
Even if they manage to keep a secret from the judges, lying to the closest thing they've had to a god might not have been such a great idea.
"Uhm..." Jaune said a little dumbly as he kept glancing to the sides in the minuscule hopes that he would find something to help him.
"The only way to hide yourself from the Great Spirit that I know of would be the nests of the Grand Elemental Spirits but you couldn't have entered them considering that each of them is protected by a shaman tribe and in four of them rest the Grand Elemental Spirits themselves." The judge mused out loud as he kept coming closer and closer to their secret. "Unless, of course, you've somehow received guidance from one of those tribes and were allowed to train there."
Jaune's nerves were on the verge of giving out.
He was doing everything in his might not to start shaking and give his fears away, and it was something that, as he quite quickly realized, was ridiculously difficult to do when the person before them was not only likely way stronger than them but also had the authority to condemn both them and the people who helped them as well.
It was slowly becoming worse than their recent conversation with Hao at the arena, at least when talking to that guy they didn't need to worry about hiding anything from the monster.
"Tell me, were you helped by the Branwen tribe?" The judge asked the important question without beating around the bush too much, proving that the judges already had good suspicions about what they did.
Jaune looked at his friends in worry, they were basically as good as caught.
"We-" Just as Jaune was about to say something a familiar masculine voice butt into the conversation from behind them.
"Nobody received any help from anyone, Magna."
Moments later, just as everyone turned around to look at the new person in their conversation, Silva walked up to them. The older shaman looked serious and appeared to be focused on the job as he arrived right next to the judge that was questioning them, that now they knew was a person named Magna.
As Silva passed them there was next to no recognition of them in his eyes. If there was anything at all that suggested they knew each other in his behavior it would have been only the fact that he came here to defend them right now, which considering that they were just ordinary shamans with not a three hours until having their fight being kept busy by a singular judge was completely normal for any impartial judge to do.
"It is quite suspicious though that they've grown so much in power with nobody, even the Great Spirit, knowing." The other judge, Magna, looked at the newly arrived Silva. "Doubly so when they were already known to disappear off our grid during the second round."
If sight alone could channel Furyoku and be used as a medium for an Over Soul then both Magna and Silva would have probably already ended as statues of ice with how cold their looks at each other were.
"I'm well aware of that issue, Magna." Silva practically growled at the other judge. "I was the one sent to investigate what was happening and as you can easily learn from the report that I gave you and every other judge, it was absolutely nothing serious, and certainly not an instance of cheating."
Jaune quickly glanced between both the judges' faces and suddenly came to a small realization.
At first he thought that the judge that was questioning them was simply one of the many ordinary judges responsible for keeping the tournament fair but upon seeing the amount of hate Silva and Magna were directing at each other, he started to suspect that it wasn't as simple as that, there was already some animosity between them and the antagonistic judge.
Both judges glared at each other for a few more seconds before finally, with an audible grumble, Magne relented and turned around to leave.
"I won't be doing anything for now but know that the moment we get a better proof of their and Branwen's cheating we will eliminate them from the tournament and position of United Tribes member." Magne warned with his back facing them before going away.
Everyone stood in silence watching the leaving judge for a few moments before, after making sure that he was too far to hear or clearly see them, letting out a breath of relief.
"Good riddance, I thought that guy would never give in." Silva huffed a little as he turned around to talk to them directly. "For a moment I was almost scared for you guys there."
"Yeah..." Jaune said absentmindedly with a sight before quickly snapping his head towards Silva in worry. He had an urgent question to be answered. "Is there a suspicion about us among the tournament judges?"
Silva shook his head in response.
"Not really, most people I've talked with about you are simply impressed at your quick growth in strength." The older shaman subtly pointed at the quickly disappearing figure of Magna in the distance. "It's just that some people like him there think themselves as followers of Hao so the moment they learned of your surprising growth in power and the fact that you were Hao's enemies they searched for any info on you to find exactly how you did that."
Jaune frowned, sure the fact that judges could find some information about their training at the Branwen's camp was concerning but it wasn't the most worrying thing he just learned from Silva.
"There are Hao's followers among the tournament's judges!?"
Silva nodded slightly.
"Despite our duty and responsibilities, not every judge is truly impartial." The older faunus shaman pointed at himself. "Just like I helped you to have some chance against Hao, some other judges do everything they can to get on Hao's good side to have a place for themselves in his 'perfect world'. I'm not sure whether they are really successful with that or not."
Jaune had to back down a little at that information.
Were there really people who considered Hao's idea for a world as 'perfect'? Did these people not have any friends or colleagues who weren't shamans or even spiritually aware for that matter?
There was so much that he simply couldn't comprehend about it.
"Are they going to interfere with the tournament?" Jaune decided to ask a bit more currently relevant question.
"I don't think so." Silva hummed a little in thought. "They might want Hao to win but not many people are insane enough to cheat in a tournament overseen by the Great Spirit themselves. It would practically mean a suicide to most of them."
Which made the fact that they broke one of the most important rules of the tournament even more insane in comparison.
Hey, at least nobody could accuse them of not trying to win hard enough.
"Besides, I think Hao is a little bit too proud to even consider cheating in the tournament." Silva added after a moment of thought. "When you have lived for millennia and competed in the previous tournament to decide a god without actively cheating earlier you probably wouldn't start to blatantly break the rules on the final stretch. At least I don't think I would in his situation."
They nodded thoughtfully as they thought the matter over in their heads.
"There's a bit more we could talk about but I think I should stop taking away your time for now and allow you to get ready for your fight." Silva checked the time on his scroll. "You only have a little bit over two hours left after all."
At the mention of the time, all of them instantly shook a little before turning around and starting to run towards their lodging in the village. They've practically finished today's training and it was a high time to rest a little bit before the fight.
"Thank you for the help!" Jaune shouted as the distance between them grew, he made sure to not say Silva's name out loud as at such volume people could hear them and they didn't want anyone to think that they knew each other.
The old buildings of the village and the shamans around them rapidly passed them by as they sprinted through the streets towards their temporary home. They didn't bother with paying attention to most of them while they ran.
They had a fight to prepare for and win after all.
And Cut!
That was far more enjoyable to write than the previous chapter was.
Well, that's it for now, See ya!
