Best possible version of yourself, part 4
AN: I'll answer questions from reviews at the end of each chapter from this point forward, thanks to ArcAngel087, dragoon109 and Aelmellin for reviewing. Now let's get started on the next chapter, hope it is a nice read.
Hotel room, Oakville
As Jaune wakes up, steps out of the bed and starts going through his morning routine he thinks of something while shaving. 'Spirit?' as the man in question appears next to him as he watches him in the mirror while he continues shaving 'Forgive me if this sounds strange, but how strong of a huntsman where you back when you where alive? I know you weren't the strongest of all time considering you were fighting together with seven others, one of whom was an immortal wizard and the other a magical powerhouse, in addition to you, you know, dying to somebody else with magical powers, but how strong where you compared to regular huntsmen that didn't have those advantages? Top three?' the spirit shakes his head 'Top five?' the man shakes his head again 'Top 10?' by this point the older man holds up his hand to stop him.
'Let me stop you right there in your tracks, while I was a strong huntsman, quite a bit stronger and more experienced than most others my age or even near my age, I wasn't anywhere close to being the strongest. Even then, my main strength was fighting large numbers of weaker opponents, like Ursa minors and regular Beowulves, since my main advantage over others was the combination of defensive capabilities, raw strength and sheer endurance. While all very useful in a fight, unless the difference between you and your enemies on those fronts is extreme, it's not going to win you a fight against somebody that can rip mountains to pieces with magic, or send out waves of ice and/or fire the size of actual tidal waves if they get a moment to prepare, or go fast enough that they can essentially fly simply by using their sheer speed to stay airborne for quite a distance.'
He thinks for a moment as Jaune finishes shaving and washes his face clean before he starts brushing his teeth 'Even compared to those without magic, while I was a capable combatant in my own right, I often didn't have the sheer amount of training, resources or combat experience to match the best of the best. The best and most well documented example of this is probably James Ironwood, general of Atlas. He is currently, if leaving out the people with magic probably the third strongest combatant on Remnant. Just like with me, this is somewhat deceptive if you put him up against the other best of the best simply because his strength is far more suited to fighting a large number of weaker enemies, for even mostly the same reasons, he is one of the strongest around in raw strength, his endurance is extreme and his defensive capability is also very high.
However I, even with my own body and equipment, would have, on a good day and with plenty of rest and warning beforehand but no assistance from anyone unlike what we had, only been able to take on a force about five times of what we fought at the outpost at once and make it out without suffering some level of injury. To see how Ironwood compares to that and fully soak in just how extreme this can be, look up a video on 'Ironwood, siege of Swartzwalderwalt', I'll explain more once you've seen it when we're on the train and you have time to burn, right now you need to hurry if you want to make it to the station in time.'
Looking at the time on the clock in the room, Jaune realized that the man was right and quickly finished his routine, packed what little had left the bags back up and rushed downstairs where he gave the key to the receptionist, received the usual 'Hope to see you back soon' and left the building, jogging towards the station and getting there a in time to buy a ticket, figure out which was the train going to Vale and find a good place to sit down before he took out his scroll and earbuds to check out what Spirit was talking about.
He finds a small list of video's, but Spirit quickly directs him to one that is apparently the most important one. Once he's clicked on the first half a minute or so is text instead reading 'I upload this to show the world that even if everything is going horribly and the situation is collapsing around you, always keep hoping that you and those you love can survive if you can reach out to the nations of the world, because we had lost all hope, our garrison was nearly overrun but somehow, somehow we survived, all thanks to James Ironwood and his men. From the bottom of my heart if any of you ever read this, thank you, without your efforts hundreds more would have died that day.'
Afterwards the video starts playing, clearly being shot from a security camera on a rooftop, showing around thirty defenders trying desperately to hold back a horde of hundreds of Grimm with an improvised furniture barricade, spears, pitchforks and small arms fire while far behind the Grimm a gate can be seen that had visibly been broken open with a Grimm streaming in though the number of them re-enforcing through it seemed to quickly dwindle while some of the dozens of airborne Grimm turn around and start flying back over the town walls, still leaving far too many for the defenders to fight off. While for now it is holding, it was fairly obvious that situation would change soon if nothing significant took place, since several large Beringels can be seen moving up through the horde slowly, even a single one of which could outright flatten the small barricade.
One of the men trying to keep a Beowulf back with his pitchfork overextended, allowing another Beowulf to grab onto with its maw it and pull him into the mass of Grimm, ripping him to pieces in at most seconds while a woman trying to stab at them with a spear cried out in rage and grief.
One of the men on an elevated position with a rifle cries out hysterically moments later as he runs out of ammo, only for half a dozen or so small nevermore to attack him and while he manages to kill a few by bashing them with his rifle or stabbing them with the bayonet attached to it, enough get past it to claw deeply into his face, throwing him off his elevated position after which he seems to break his legs during the fall, unable to get back up. As this is happening though, the Grimm near the gate far in the distance can be seen turning around and charging back out the gate, headed by a Boartusk, only for said Boartusk to come flying back through the gate as if thrown at high speeds, killing at least one and wounding several other Grimm as the same fate can be seen to apply to all other Grimm near the gate. As the figure crashes through the backlines of the Grimm, more and more can be seen.
It's a large, black haired man ripping through the first a dozen or so weaker Grimm in seconds while too far away from the camera to see the details. As he gets closer more and more of the Grimm turn around to fight him instead, giving the defenders at the barricade a far easier time while a distance behind the man soldiers rush in, with some shooting in a direction that can't be seen from the camera's point of view to their left while others start mowing down the flying Grimm. As more of the scene can now be seen, the man picks up an Ursa minor charging at him by its left arm after dodging a swipe and proceeds to throw it hard enough at a Beowulf to crush the both of them, before he jumps back slightly, dodging an attempt by a death stalker to spear him through with its tail, before he grabs onto said tail before it can return and pulls hard enough to rip almost half of it off and using it to parry a claw strike before burying it into one of the beasts legs.
As death stalker sags forward a bit to deal with the new balance, the man proceeds to punch it with a so heavily aura enhanced hand its visible all the way from the camera, proceeding to straight up punch through the beasts head, leaving only a gaping hole. At this point he is attacked by a trio of Ursa, only for him to kick one back hard enough to bury it into a wall, while he rips off the offending paw of the second and uses it as a short spear by burying it into the gut of the last with brute force, before punching the now armless Ursa hard enough to essentially remove its midsection.
As this all is happening more of the soldiers move in through the gate and are turning from the now almost emptied skies to instead offer supporting fire to the advancing one man army as he is fighting his way through dozens of Beowolves, which keep him busy for a moment by sheer numbers though many of them keep dying in the close quarter fighting new ones are always ready to replace them, only for one to make a mistake and get in the way of several of the others, allowing the man to rush forward, pick up the Beowulf and essentially use it as a makeshift battering ram while he tears through them, dropping it as it starts disintegrating only to use the gained momentum to jump onto a Boartusk trying to charge into him and uses a downwards kick as a springboard before aiming his gun behind him and using the recoil from a fired shot that finishes off the now wounded Boartusk to get level with the back of the head of a Beringel that was still focusing on getting to the towns defenders, using another aura enhanced punch to create enough damage to pulp the entire head with his fist coming out the other side, causing the nod headless body to tumble to the ground while crushing at least three smaller Grimm in the process.
By this point another of the Beringels is brought down by a mixture of numerous rifle-grenades from the soldiers ripping its left leg to pieces while a fire dust rocket to the shoulder sends the beast crashing into a building next to it, upon which falling debris from the now collapsing house finished it and some of the nearby Grimm off. As the last Beringel moves to fight the still charging one man army has to jump to the side to dodge a punch from it only for his return strike to bore a hole the size of a mans torso into the beasts arm, before he lights up visible from extreme aura usage only to lift up the broken remains of a nearby light pole and use is as a giant pike to spear the beast on before he drives the back of it near him into the road, temporarily pinning the beast in place even as its struggles start breaking it, giving him enough time to deal with two of a trio of Beowolf Majors trying to rush him from behind, by punching one hard enough to essentially cave in its face, while he dodges the second and lets it pass him in its headfirst charge only to kick it with enough force to ram it into a nearby building.
The sound of tearing metal can be heard behind him, causing the man to jump aside just in time for the punch aimed at him to instead hit the last Beowulf that was trying to attack him, after which he grabs the Beringels still wounded arm and with a feat of strength proceeds to rip off half of its fore-arm all the way up to where he had first damaged it with a punch before using it as a Javelin into the Beasts chest that had already been ravaged by gunfire from his supporting troops and the earlier stabbing it through with the improvised light pole spear, creating a large gaping wound, into which a lucky rifle grenade falls and detonates, causing the heavily wounded Grimm to finally collapse.
At this point there are only a dozen or so stragglers left to deal with, most of them Beowulves with one alpha trying to take a swipe at the one man army only for the paw to get caught before the man uses another aura enhanced shoulder throw to crush a flanking Beowulf with it before breaking its legs with a stomp each and finishing it off with a punch through its back. As he finishes these two the soldiers have taken out the rest and are now starting to search and destroy through the streets while the man walks up to the surviving defenders with medics rushing in by his side to assist the wounded.
''My name is captain James Ironwood, myself and most of this platoon will secure this gate and commence a search and destroy operation on this side of the town, a huntsman team together with another platoon is moving up through the other gate, those of you that can walk lead a dozen of my men to your other positions to make sure they don't fall before they arrive to assist.'' As he says this those men come running up, upon which half of the still able to move defenders run with them to the other side of the defensive perimeter while the remainder moves to assist the medics with the wounded or the soldiers with search and destroy while Ironwood moves back to the gate where the soldiers can be seen firing into the distance, probably at another wave of Grimm attracted by the despair of the people inside the town.
After this the screen dims and goes black for a moment, showing the video has ended, at which point Jaune turns it off. '… How long did the fight last after that? Since it was at that point still a siege, did more groups of Grimm arrive?' Spirit appears opposite of him as he nods.
'The siege lasted another two hours, during which Ironwood in total killed many times the number of Grimm shown in the video, though what wasn't even fully shown in the video was the fact that to reach the town, they'd had to fight their way through hundreds of Grimm, where Ironwood had essentially been using himself as the tip of the spear and used up most of the ammunition he had for his guns, which caused him to have to switch to fighting in melee afterwards while only using his limited remaining munitions as a mobility aid shortly before they actually got through the gate.' Spirit sighs and shakes his head.
'However he paid a heavy toll. Over a third of the troops he'd arrived with died during the battle, and despite their best efforts close to half of the town's population was already dead, in addition to the problem that while this fight cemented him in the eyes of Atlas as a national hero, it also made him a target for Salem. Less than a year later she personally led an assault on him while he had risen to the rank of colonel and was on his way to Vale for a diplomatic mission in an airship. While he led a valiant defence even after the ship crashed and they managed to kill hundreds of Grimm before holding his ground against Salem herself for a while, she eventually overpowered him with her magic and ripped off his arm while severely wounding him in the chest before leaving him to die. Glynda Goodwitch arrived just in time to save him, with it being a miracle of medical science that he's still alive today. None of his men made it out of there alive.'
At this point Spirit touches his shoulder and gets him to look into his face 'This is the level of strength the strongest huntsmen alive have Jaune. And even with all that strength they can get horribly injured by opponents if the situation forces them into a position where they have no choice other than to take reckless action. Never forget that, in addition to the fact that while yes I was strong, I had in no way reached the level yet to be that strong, so if somebody like Ironwood, Qrow Branwen, Ozpin, any of them, gives you advice on combat, listen to it very carefully because no matter how much I can teach you, it pales in comparison to what they know.'
As Jaune is looking at Spirit he gets shivers 'Spirit, if that was the second or third strongest huntsman without magic, just how powerful are those with magic?' At this the other man thinks for a bit, as Jaune shivers in fear thinking about how monstrously powerful the best of the best will be.
'To be honest, most are weaker than Ironwood was here.' As the younger man now turns his not understanding gaze on him Spirit continues 'This video showed an Ironwood not limited by his current prosthetics, mostly fighting the type of enemy he is most suited to, killing hundreds of Grimm each hour, eventually reaching in the low triple digits of casualties while he was fully armed, rested and ready for a fight all the while supported by loyal, well trained soldiers. In addition, besides the initial invasion force, almost the entirety of the Grimm force was made up out of Beowolves and Ursa, there were very few of the more powerful Grimm he had to fight in the early sections of the battle later on, allowing him to fight what was for him close to the perfect opponents. If the Ironwood still had all his limbs he would be the number 1 huntsman besides those with magic in the world, no questions asked, with even most if not all of the maidens being lesser compared to him.'
At this spirit shakes his head 'However by now, with the combined factors of his prosthetics and him having less time to train raw strength due to the sheer number of responsibilities the man is shouldering, he no longer has the chance of retaining that position. Even Cinder, for all of her being an overconfident little shit, would have stood a decent chance in a one on one duel with him by the time she arrived in Atlas as long as she caught him off guard in an ambush.
This also shows however the sheer difference in strength between what is usually called 'the best' and the real best of the best, since despite the fairly large drop in combat capabilities, Ironwood is still the third or fourth most capable non-magical fighter in the world. He's still worth half a dozen of me at my best and I was already in the top 100 best fighters on Remnant by the time I died, yes only somewhere around place 70 but still. The strongest people on Remnant are overpowered monsters, and despite that I know that at least half a dozen of the ones currently alive were be dead by this time next year in my timeline.'
At this point Jaune starts staring out of the window, thinking on the information he'd just gotten while Spirit sits reminiscing how he had come across all this information and just how far they still had to go before they were ready to fight their most dangerous potential enemies. After twenty minutes or so of this though Jaune started feeling hunger and as such took out the croissants, baguette and cheese and brie he had bought the previous day in addition to his dagger, deciding he may as well have his meal now since he would still be riding another two hours to reach his destination.
.
Vale city, three hours later
.
After having exited the train, taken the bus from there to Vale itself and then gotten through the checkpoint into Vale, Jaune was walking towards one of the more nightlife focused streets of Vale, since while there were a lot of clubs and bars there, those often also had fairly cheap adjoining hotels, mainly intended for use by those too drunk to get back home or too busy with whomever they'd picked up at said bar or nightclub.
As he walked past an alley though he heard an unknown voice threatening somebody, causing him to rush forward towards it only to become stunned as soon as he entered the actual alley upon seeing that there was a very familiar young man surrounded by a group of five of suit clad thugs. He tried to get contact with Spirit in his mind, only to be met with silence, the sight of the to him far more familiar, if a bit younger than usual, teenager being too much to handle for now. Jaune snapped himself out of it and dropped his luggage onto the ground before shouting ''Hey you assholes, care to pick on somebody your own size?!'' all the while drawing his sword and shifting the sheath to a shield while stepping forward.
No matter what else, this change in what Spirit knew of the timeline wasn't the thing to focus on right now, it was helping said change in the timeline against thugs armed with machetes and guns, while as he stepped forward the three closest to him turned around to face him while the other three kept their weapons aimed at the young man. ''We're here to teach farm boy a lesson kid, if you value your health stay out of it. Or are you trying to play the hero, what with your toy sword and plastic knights armour?'' as one of the men next to him laughs slightly at the bad joke Jaune can see a flicker of recognition go through the boy they've surrounded, letting him know that he also has at least some information he shouldn't have had yet.
''You might want to leave my friend Oscar alone there and go help your boss, I think he needs your help again in dealing with angry teenage girls… oh wait no that was last week when your entire crime syndicate got their asses kicked by a single seventeen year old girl that hadn't even entered Beacon yet, simply because he didn't have the info she needed, my bad.'' By the end of his sentence all of the men look shocked, giving him the opening he needed to close the distance with aura infused legs and bash the leftmost one into the wall with his shield all the while slashing at the spokesman of the group, with the first sliding down the wall almost unconscious already while the second can only block partially before being thrown back by the momentum, allowing him to parry the wild slash of the third man to the side before kicking him in the leg and smashing his swords pommel into the back of the mans head, just as he'd seen and felt spirit do to him in the training sessions in the forest.
As the spokesman recovered though and charged back in, the element of surprise was lost and as he parried away another slash and readied to attack he got a warning shout of 'your left' in his head from a finally reacting Spirit. He brought his shield up on his left just in time to block the shots from the man he'd thought of as out for the count against the wall, followed up by several more shots while the other man charged back in, causing Jaune to step aside to the left to dodge the charge of the spokesman before stepping over and kicking the mecha-shifted gun-machete out of the hallway conscious mans hands before putting him to a blissful sleep with another bash of his shield to the face.
Upon which he made a halfway turn after another warning from spirit, blocking a hit from the spokesman with his sword, before pushing back with his superior strength, throwing the other man into the wall behind him before hitting the man hard in the arm with his sword, the mans aura visibly breaking, pushing him back into the wall once more as Jaune then disarmed him before aiming his sword at the mans neck, keeping one eye on him while he glanced to the side where Oscar had somehow disarmed one of the men and was now using that man's machete against the other two, tripping one of them before hitting the man in the back of the head just as Jaune turned to watch.
''All of you surrender now, hand us your spare ammo and some lien and you'll walk away from this without too much harm. Continue and your leader here might get a few red stains on his nice jacket while the rest of you will be in a prison cell within the hour with some broken bones.'' At this the last man still fully on his feet stepped back, looked over and dropped his weapon while the men on the ground that were getting back up again or aiming weapons thought better of it and stayed down for now, allowing Oscar to step back and change his weapon to the gun mode while aiming it at the men on his side, with Jaune turning they now stood back to back as the men quickly dropped their own spare ammo and lien on the ground before helping their wounded allies up and fleeing the scene.
As Jaune turns towards Oscar he asks him something so he'll know for sure it's the right person ''Ever heard the story of the wizard Osma and princess Salem?'' upon this the young man replies with a vigorous nod and a smile, causing Jaune to smile in return before shaking his head ''Come on, let's get the ammo and lien they dropped, its probably nowhere near all they had but you can use anything you can get your hands on with your new weapon.
''Yeah I had a pitchfork with me when getting to the city, but upon entering I had to hand it in to the customs office since I didn't have any form of permit to carry weapons other than a knife, and the knife I've got on me isn't all that useful in a fight with thugs that have their aura unlocked.'' As Jaune picks up his luggage and they both grab the dropped ammo and lien whereupon Jaune hands both over to Oscar, Spirit finally fully regains his senses, sheaths his weapons and hugs Oscar.
Somewhat surprised by the show of emotion, the younger man is still happy to receive the affection and stability this hug gives him after having his life turned upside down ''Thank you Oscar.'' As the mentioned man looks up at the older one somewhat confused he gets an answer to his unasked question ''I was not the best friend to you last time around, but this time I'll make sure to support you. You were in an even worse situation than most of us, but instead of supporting you we all wallowed more in our own issues. Despite this you were the one that put an end to the woman that caused us and the rest of Remnant so much misery, avenging my team in the process.''
Both men controlling their younger selves bodies are now slightly teary eyed before Oscar shakes his head ''She deserved that and far worse, but lets discuss further in my hotel room, its not far from here.'' At this the young man now blushes before he whispers ''And maybe you'll draw away the attention of all the women around there that keep trying to touch me.''
At this Jaune's teary look quickly turns to anger ''Did they do anything you didn't want, they didn't touch you… inappropriately did they? Do I need to teach them a lesson, maybe call the cops?'' Oscar shakes his head at this, already taking something of a liking to the more protective side of his friend.
''No, no its not like that, while they're way too flirty towards my bodies age, it seems to be more for the fun of it than anything actually serious for most of them, but for some I'm less certain about their intentions which makes all of it very awkward. The only reason I still stay at that hotel is that its owned by an uncle of mine, who lets me stay there for a somewhat lowered price.''
''Probably a good idea to turn our bodies back over to our younger selves, that will probably help both them and us deal better with this situation.'' As both of them turn their bodies back over to their younger selves, it has a visible effect on both of them, though a far larger one on Oscar, who essentially starts staring back and forth between the weapon he's now got in his hands and the tall blonde man in front of him.
As Jaune notices this he holds out his hand for the younger man to take ''We might already know about each-other, but we've not been introduced yet, I'm Jaune d'Arc, seventeen years old, a first year potential Beacon student with seven sisters and apparently a future knight serving with a wizard in a magical war, nice to meet you.''
Oscar smiled in return and took his hand ''Hello Jaune d'Arc, nice to meet you, I'm Oscar Pines, I'm a thirteen year old farmer who lives with his aunt in a small village only to one day wake up with a voice in my head saying that he's me from the future where I become the host to a re-incarnating wizard fighting a magical war against my many times predecessors ex-wife as an almost direct result of the pettiness of two 'gods'.''
As they walk and make some small talk and quickly befriend eachother the two older versions of themselves sit in their minds, thinking of how different their own meetings with each-other would have been if they had met in better circumstances similar to their younger selves without all the issues they had back then standing between them, though one thought is resounding through the minds of the younger Jaune 'Is this what having a younger brother feels like?'.
AN: So before anyone complains, I put in Oscar for multiple reasons, but one of them is that unlike the entirety of the cast besides Ozpin, Oscar knows a lot about Salem, the Grimm, hidden past weapons and other interesting possibilities that the rest of the world forgot, simply because he glimpsed them from Ozpins mind while in their shared body. Another reason is that I can't help but feel for the guy, he's younger than the rest of the cast but since he shares a body with the a re-incarnating wizard he's suddenly a target and combatant in a millennia during war with even many of his allies distrusting him due to the other person inside his head.
All the while he knows he'll be absorbed into the Ozpin/Ozma mind conglomerate eventually. So yeah I feel for the guy, in addition to wanting to introduce something: magic will often have unintended consequences in this story, that aren't immediately visible. Which is one of the reasons why I suppose Salem didn't just do something like teleport a shitload of Grimm into Beacons dorm-rooms once her followers had exact coordinates: there are consequences to all magic more intricate than just throwing a ball of fire at people that would potentially cost her more than the advantage that these type of actions would give her, meaning she has to stick to proper planning instead, with Ozma/Ozpin mostly being in the same boat.
Reacting to reviews:
Review from: ArcAngel087
Really liking the story so far. Hoping Jaune and Pyrrha's relastionship gets going sooner, as he knows she likes him. One thing I noticed is it switches to 1st person a few times in chapter 3.
Answer: Thanks, I hope you'll keep liking it. I'm not yet sure of what kind of relationship the characters are going to have, simply because while yes he'll see it a lot faster, one of the problems is going to be that the 'Spirit' Jaune has essentially been mourning and got done mourning her death after what is anywhere from several months to more than a year. So any relationship will still take a while to be worked out.
The 3rd person to 1st person shift was partially intentional, since I always feel close quarter combat is more immersive when written at least somewhat from a first person perspective, due to allowing you to include more of a persons thinking, observations, emotions, etc. into it, however a third person perspective is more useful for a flowing story narrative. Its been too recent since I wrote it to fully judge it, I'll probably not apply it to other fights and instead simply write it from a third person perspective like I did for the fight in this chapter, though I would like some commentary on if everyone else sees a quality/enjoyability difference.
Review from: dragoon109
the 'curse' had nothing to do with salem.
Answer: Which curse specifically are you talking about? If it's the one Ozpin got, Salem's own curse was literally the whole reason he got his current cursed existence. The childish fools that are Remnants brother gods decided that, despite her immortality being their fault and something they could reverse at any point in time, it was a better idea to send the man that she loved and who loved her in return down into a cursed existence as the voice in the back of somebody else's head doomed to in the long run start subsuming his hosts against both their and his own will, simply because every decision made by the brother gods was made without care for how the humans would fare under it.
Also after that short rant, I would like to point out I like how they handled the Brother Gods in the show, uncaring overpowered children. Without it Ozpins thing would make little to no sense with how he is doomed to re-incarnate until he finds a way to kill Salem and then call the gods back.
Review from Aelmellin
Definitely an interesting idea and looking forward to where it goes. So many possibilities for intrigue, politics and epics with spirit along with jaune. good job and looking forward to the next chapter!
Answer: Thanks, hopefully this chapter and future ones will remain interesting. And yeah I'll be trying to write interesting chapters involving a lot of those possibilities one way or the other (for example one discarded idea was that everyone who had received an aura boost from Jaune at one point or another would have a piece of 'his' soul through the energy, causing versions of them all to be transported into this time by the spell. Problem is at that point you'll get so many people travelling back that any of the villains besides Salem herself will no longer be much if any threat at all, since suddenly all of the main cast and half of Atlas's younger huntsmen remember the future.)
