AN: Hello Again
I apologize for the wait. I know I was supposed to upload on the 28th of May but due to some uncontrolled circumstances, this chapter was delayed.
Chad got sick and wasn't there to check to the draft and I think I caught the same sickness from him. Oh yeah, the rest of my family is also sick. It's nothing serious, just a cold.
Anyways I apologize for the delay, and here is your new chapter.
Dream Cycle: Shadowgraph PT.4
"A spar?"
Augustus nods.
"But… why?" Jaune asks incredulously.
"Well, you see son. From what you said, I have discerned that you may have gotten trauma because of your dreams," He explains, "The reason as to why you can't sleep was because your mind keeps rejecting it, even when you need it. It keeps waking you up before you can fall asleep so that you don't have to experience nightmare again. The purpose of this spar is to clear your mind and get rid of all that fear."
"How… do you know all this?" Jaune asked curiously.
"Well, I've dealt with many situations where there are people who had trauma," he explains, "At that point, I guess it became sort of a second job. Although I'm no professional, I can usually help guide them to seek the help that they need."
"But why a spar of all things?"
"Like I said, it's to get rid of all that stress and fear," he sighs, "Besides, I'm gonna have to train you how to fight and how to use your aura sooner or later. Especially with that coming up soon."
"That?"
"Nothing," Augustus said, shaking his head, "Come on, make a quick change and meet me outside in the backyard."
~~AMONGST US~~
Jaune opens the door that lead to their rather large backyard, now dressed in a different outfit consisting of his pumpkin pete hoodie and blue jeans.
Augustus himself wore a tight-fitting brown shirt and light cargo pants. In his hand, he held a sheathed sword, and on his back, a similar sheathed sword was strapped to his back.
"Y-you're still wearing that?" Augustus visibly chokes.
Jaune merely raises a brow.
"A-ahem, anyways," His father coughs, "Now that you're here, we can get started."
"But I don't even have a weapon," Jaune shows his empty hand in emphasize.
"Ah, yes. About that, I'm going to be lending you Crocea Mors to use as your weapon in this spar." He says, throwing the sheathed heirloom at his son.
Jaune easily caught the heirloom. He expected it to be incredibly heavy, but instead, the sword felt light in his hand
"That heirloom has been passed down for many generations, you know? It has faced many warriors on the battlefield and has been the symbol of hope during the great war."
"I can tell," Jaune says as he unsheathes the sword from the sheathe.
If observed carefully, barely visible nicks and scratches can be seen everywhere on the sword and curiously, the sheathe itself.
"Why does the sheathe have scratches on it?" Jaune asks curiously.
"That's because it's also a shield," Augustus answers, "There, you can see a small button on the inside."
Jaune presses the small button located near the edge of the sheathe. It expands quickly and hard, the force causing it to bounce out of his hands.
"Cool." He says, picking up the shield, "I'm gonna assume that you're using the other sword on your back?"
"Good observation," Augustus praises.
"Only a fool would think otherwise," Jaune shoots back.
"Ah… well, I guess you're right," Augustus chuckles awkwardly, rubbing the back of his head.
"It got a name?"
"Huh?"
"It got a name?" he repeated.
"Why would you want to know?' Augustus shoots back.
"Just curious," Jaune shrugs.
"Ah well, if I remember correctly. Your mother said that this sword's name was Croceus Victoria," He said, drawing the sword from its scabbard, "It's actually the prototype to Crocea Mors."
When compared to Crocea Mors, There were quite a few differences between them. Unlike Crocea Mors, the blade was white, with a black line stretching from the cross guard and to the vertex of the blade. Speaking of the cross guard, it was unusually long for something to be on a long sword. It was almost as if someone stuck a Zweihander's cross guard onto a long sword and called it a day.
"What's with the cross guard?" Jaune asks, pointing to the sword.
"Oh that? Well, you'll have to ask your mother about that. Something to do with dust if I remember," Augustus chuckles.
Jaune nods before saying, "So… are we gonna start or what?"
"Actually, before we do. I have something to teach you," Augustus says, sheathing the sword and approaching Jaune.
However, he didn't walk towards Jaune, he shot towards him. The sound of soil and rocks cracking set off alarms in Jaune's head, and he lashes out in his father's direction.
"Woah!" Augustus exclaims as he moves his head out of the way.
He looked to his son to see him watching him, eyes wide as a saucer. He stood there, right leg back and the left forward, while his back was hunched, and his sword and shield was held by his sides. The stance that Jaune held reminded him of something similar to an animal.
'What was that?!' Augustus questioned, 'His reaction time… did the nightmares do this?'
"Jaune," He says as he holds his hands up, "It's alright it was just a demonstration."
Jaune's stance slowly lowered, and he stood back up, straight.
"The hell was that?!" Jaune yells.
'Damn it, I could've handled that better,' Augustus curses.
"That was just a demonstration of what I was about to teach you," his father answers, "I wanted to teach you how to use your Aura and what it can do in a fight."
"You couldn't have… showed me after you told me that?"
Augustus rubs the back of his head and sighs, before saying, "Sorry, I won't do that again. It's just that, this was what I did with Valerie before, so I thought… never mind."
His father sits down on the grass and pats the patch of grass in front of him, gesturing for him to sit down. Jaune complies and sits down in front of his father, his weapon now sheathed.
"So, son, tell me what you know about Aura."
"Um… okay?" Jaune says, a brow raising, "Aura is the manifestation of the soul. It's energy that courses through living beings and allows them to be protected?"
"Anything else?"
"It can be broken, and you have to rest in order to regenerate it."
"So, you know the basics of it then, good," Augustus nods, "What I'm about to teach you – as you might've guessed, is how to use your Aura to protect and enhance yourself."
Jaune nods in understanding.
"Aura is not just something that you can use. It is something that you must focus in order for it to work, it doesn't automatically protect you from damage. Huntsmen have trained it so that they subconsciously keep their Aura shrouded around them." Augustus explains, "I can't teach you how to do that as it requires time, but I will, however, teach you how to focus and enhance yourself with Aura."
Augustus picks up a nearby pebble and closes his hand around it. His eyes go lidded as silver light began to surround his arm. He then crushes the pebble and opens his hand to show Jaune the damage he had done. The pieces of the pebble were so small that it could've been mistaken as dust.
He then gestures for Jaune to do the same.
Jaune picks up a pebble by his leg and holds it in his hand.
"Close your eyes."
Jaune looks at him, but Augustus repeats it.
He sighs and complies, holding the pebble in his hand and shutting his eyes close.
"Now, I want you to focus on your breathing."
He did so, blocking everything else around him and focused solely on his breathing as his father said so. A minute or so passed and then, he felt something. A warm sensation within his chest. This was noticed by his father.
"Can you feel that?" Augustus asks, "That warm sensation? That is your Aura, remember it."
'Fascinating,' Jaune thought.
"Now… I want you to push that feeling into your arm."
"Push?" Jaune asks, eyes opening.
"Imagine that same feeling that you felt before – that warm sensation. I want you to imagine that in your arm this time, focus on nothing else but that."
Jaune closes his eyes again, listening to his father's command. He tried to grasp that warm feeling that was Aura, attempting to push it into his arm as his father said before. But nothing happened. He couldn't find that feeling from before.
His frustration showed and his father chuckled.
"Not easy, is it? Just keep trying, eventually you'll figure it out."
Jaune nods and attempts to repeat the process once again.
He could feel the night breeze washing over him, he can feel the pebble in his hands, he can feel the presence of his father. But he couldn't feel the same warm sensation from before, it was almost as if it was lost. But he continued to wait, waiting for that sensation to come back to him.
And so, he lost touch with his surroundings altogether, focusing on finding that one feeling only. And he was rewarded for his efforts. He had founded that warm sensation in his chest once again. Instead of mentally commanding it to move towards his arm though, he instead just focused on his arm and the warm feeling. He then felt it, the warmness caressing his arm.
When he opened his eyes, he was treated with the sight of his father grinning at him, and his hands closed around the pebble.
"I guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree now, does it?"
Jaune opens his hand to find crushed pieces of the pebbles laying against his palm and could only mutter a whoa.
"Okay, now let's try again. This time, do it with your legs."
~~AMONGST US~~
"So, you ready?" Augustus asks his son, drawing Croceus Victoria.
Jaune responds with a nod.
"Good," his father responds with a nod of his own, "No rules. You win if either one of us are unable to fight anymore."
"Understood," Jaune says as he draws the sword and gets into the same animalistic stance he was in before.
'Not going to use the shield? Alright then.'
"I'm ready when you-"
Before he even finishes the sentence, Jaune shoots towards him, leaving a small crack on the ground beneath where he was. Augustus blocks an incoming swing from his son, the metal clanging of the clashing blades singing through the night yard.
Augustus shoves Crocea Mors away from him and counter attacks, swinging his blade at Jaune. However, Jaune dodges into the attack and slams into his abdomen before stabbing his sword at Augustus's neck.
Augustus moves his head out of the way just as the blade was about to hit and kicks his son away to create distance.
'Only one hour and he's already got the grasp of Aura enhancement," Augustus muses, 'And his fighting style… it resembles something more to a wild animal, but there is a certain finesse to his movements. Is this also from the dream?'
Their eyes interlocked, watching each other's movements as they circled each other.
~~AMONGST US~~
He's never fought with a sword before, even in the nightmares that he had. However, the way he fights and how he handled the blade felt as though he had trained with it for many years. He could feel it, the knowledge and skill ingrained into his body.
Jaune looks down to Crocea Mors. The image of an arm wrapped in a black clothing and a white glove that held a silver sword overlaps over his own. He quickly blinks and shakes his head to dispel it from his mind.
'What was that?' he questioned.
But the sound of the ground cracking snapped him out of his thoughts. Without thinking he rolls away to see Augustus stabbing the ground, where he was at before. Jaune raises his left hand and pulls his index finger like he's firing a gun, this confuses both of the Arc's for a moment, before Augustus charges for him again.
Jaune sloppily parries the attack from Augustus, his strength and Aura being the only thing keeping the sword from being knocked out of his hand. He ducks under another slash from his father and slams into his chest, however, Augustus stood his ground and grabs Jaune before throwing into the ground.
Tears threatened to fall as Jaune coughs and hacks, dust entering through his nose and mouth. He instinctively rolls away, just before a foot slammed next to him. He continues to roll until distance was made and he spits out the contents from his mouth.
"Not great, is it?" Augustus chuckles, "Yeah, it really hurts, especially in the eyes."
"This isn't my first time," Jaune spits out.
Augustus hums in thought, 'He must be talking about the dream.'
"Well, there's more to where that came from," Augustus taunts.
Jaune only clicks his tongue and gets into his animalistic stance, Augustus following in suite. Boosting towards his father, Jaune kicks his feet into the ground immediately as he shot forwards to Augustus, driving a cloud of dust towards him. Augustus shields his face from the dust cloud, blinding him from Jaune.
Augustus grunts as he felt himself getting cut up from behind before it moved to his right. Croceus Victoria drives the dust away as Augustus swings his sword in round slash, forcing Jaune away from him.
'I'm gonna need to end this,' Augustus thought.
Without hesitation, Jaune boosted towards Augustus for another assault. This time though, Augustus just stood there, the tip of his sword laying against the soil. As Jaune swiftly approached his father, he noticed something different about him, his posture, his presence and the way his eyes shone a strange, bright blue in the moonlight.
Jaune brings down Crocea Mors on his father, but it somehow misses, a mere inch away from him. He quickly swings again, but just like before, the attack misses, a mere inch away from his face. Jaune growls lightly and unleashes a whirlwind of slashes at Augustus.
As Jaune kept his eyes locked onto his father, he notices something peculiar about his movements. Augustus adjusts his body slightly with each swing, so that each of his attacks misses slightly. But with each swing Jaune notices that Augustus moves before he even raises his sword to attack.
"That type of fighting style is quite unorthodox," his father suddenly speaks up, "On a normal opponent, you can catch them off guard quite easily. But it won't work on me."
Augustus catches Crocea Mors mid-swing and tosses it away from Jaune before kicking him in the stomach, driving the air from him. Jaune then keels over and drops to his knees, arms over his abdomen.
"So, you give?" Augustus asks, placing the tip of Croceus Victoria against Jaune's neck.
"I… g-guess so," Jaune coughs out.
"That was a pretty good match. Caught me by surprise," Augustus praises, sheathing Croceus Victoria, "So, how do you feel now?"
"Like my rib is broken," Jaune grunts.
"I mean emotionally," Augustus chuckles.
"Kind of pissed," Jaune growls.
"But not scared like you were before, right?"
Jaune pauses for a moment before replying, "I… guess so."
"You were pretty good, during that fight. But like I said, your fighting style was quite unorthodox and needs work. You can use that to your advantage however, when facing another human opponent," Augustus praises, "You could probably get in without even applying for a combat school."
"Is this the thing you were talking when you told me why we're having this spar?" Jaune asks.
Augustus nods.
"What is it anyways?"
"Well, there's no point in hiding it anyways, so I'll just tell you," Augustus commented, scratching his head, "It's the initiation for applying into Beacon academy, they're beginning their enrolments in two years. Since they're one of the top huntsmen training academies, a lot of people from different combat academies will be applying."
"Beacon…" Jaune muttered under his breathe .
"…Jaune, what's wrong?" he asked, concerned.
"Nothing it's just… nothing to worry about…" Jaune waved, "I'm gonna head to bed now… thanks for the help, dad."
Jaune walked into the house, leaving Augustus in the yard. Augustus could only sigh, grasping his face in frustration.
"Where did I go wrong?"
AN: I don't really like that ending if I have to be honest. I mean, I could've expanded on that last part but that would mean this chapter would be delayed for another week or so. Besides, what I wrote didn't seem great so I just scrapped my previous ending for this chapter.
On a side note. I want you guys to know that I won't be uploading anymore chapters as I will be working on Fragmented Star. This doesn't mean that I'm dropping the story though. It's just that I haven't touched the chapter that is sitting in my folder for quite a while and I REALLY want to start writing for it again. I will say this now so that I won't take up anymore of your time, but I won't be uploading any chapters until I have uploaded 3 for Fragmented Star.
I'll see you guys some time in the future then.