Chapter 6 is done!
Reviews:
TheBlackWolfoftheArks - Good to know you like the previous one. I will have to play monster hunter games one day as i never really had a chance but for now gameplay should be enough. Also don't worry I didn't forget about Ren's dagger and this is a plan for the future.
Guest - You guessed it.
X3runner - I will think about Jaune treating Whitley as his younger brother. The relationship between these two I originally planned wasn't actually that different.
Midnight49 - Didn't really think much about the villains from RWBY aside from Cinder and Salem yet but I will think about something that might work.
dragonslayerjahn - Yeah I know that later in the Shaman King Over Soul can be crazy I read the manga. Also I watched some of the Rash Plays videos. The one about Hao and ant arc in hunterxhunter were nice.
Gamelover41592, NinjaFang1331 - Thank You.
Two weeks have passed since Ren began his Over Soul training. Thanks to it, he was now capable of forming his Over Soul rather consistently although for some reasons he still couldn't use both his Over Soul and aura at the same time.
He wasn't sure whether it was because it was impossible or simply because he didn't know how. He didn't really mind though as just the ability to use an Over Soul was enough for him to be able to take part in the Shaman Fight selections.
Which was why he was currently at the Vale's docks in the middle of the night waiting for his examiner to arrive.
He just got here not even half an hour ago so unlike Jaune, who he heard from Summer had to wait for multiple hours before their examiner showed up, he didn't mind waiting for a few more minutes.
"Son, are you confident you want to take part in this test? I won't think anything less of you if you decide you don't want to join the Shaman King Tournament." His dad asked him with care in his voice.
The question startled him a little as he was just getting used to the comfortable silence present around him while awaiting for his shaman tester.
"Yes father, I'm sure I want to do it. Going back now after finding a way to be a shaman would not only mean turning back on our family's roots but also letting all of Jaune's struggles go to waste." He answered with a clear resolution in his tone.
After seeing how hard Jaune was training to do well in the tournament he would feel ashamed of himself if he didn't try his best as well. Especially since, partly because of him, his shaman friend's training became at least six times as hard as it had any right to be thanks to Nora who decided to kindly use it as a revenge for the violent way of obtaining an Over Soul Jaune used two weeks ago.
It wasn't hard to pity the blond shaman after seeing him barely breathing while in the middle of a hundredth lap around the cliff side of Beacon. He would have to ask Nora to ease up a little on getting back at Jaune.
Even if he also was still a bit bitter about that.
"Ohh? So you actually came to take the test, newbie?" A loud and cocky voice from behind him shook him out of his thoughts.
In response he calmly turned around to see who was the person calling out to him.
The person he saw was a girl who didn't seem to be much older than he was. She had short brown hair and cold blue eyes. Her posture was confident and maybe even cocky just like the smirk on her face.
Spirits of a swallow and a sparrow were sitting on her shoulders looking almost as brash as their shaman was.
She certainly didn't match the description of Raven he got from Jaune and Summer. Which wasn't that surprising as he somewhat expected to have a different examiner than his friend.
"My friend went out of his way to make sure I was able to take part in this tournament. It would have been rude of me if I didn't at least try." He peacefully answered his tester while looking her straight in the eyes.
His father proudly nodded his head with content next to him showing he agreed with the virtues he lived by.
"Ha! Good to know that at least the final person I have to test will be someone worth testing!" The short haired girl shouted happily before starting to boldly laugh together with her spirits.
The brash laughter of his examiner and her spirits lasted for a couple good seconds, slightly irritating him and his father after a while.
"The name's Vernal. The second strongest shaman from Branwen Tribe and your examiner." The girl said after stopping laughing before moving past him to get to the edge of the port they were currently in.
"My name is-" He was about to introduce himself as well to show his respect but Vernal cut him off. "Lie Ren, I know. Boss told me she made a deal with the first person she selected for the tournament to allow his friend to take part in the selection at their end."
Soon after saying that she reached the end of the dock. She then turned towards him and grinned with confidence before saying. "I guess your friend already told you the rules, right? Hit me once in the next fifteen minutes and you win, fail to do so and you lose. Simple, right?"
He nodded agreeing with her, already knowing the rules from Jaune, before giving a sign for his father to turn into the spirit ball form.
"Good, then let's start this test!" She shouted with excitement while quickly forming her Over Souls from the spirits who were sitting on her.
Vernal's Over Soul looked similar to his with it being a flame like aura around her crescent shaped weapons. There were differences of course. For example Vernal, unlike him, made use of both of her weapons in her Over Soul and the color of the flame around her weapons was dark orange unlike his green.
Soon after his opponent formed her Over Soul she threw one of her weapons at him. He thought it was the one she used her swallow spirit in but he wasn't certain.
Seeing a weapon swiftly flying at him he quickly jumped out of It's way and used his dodge to safely create his own Over Soul.
"Father! Over Soul to the Storm Flower!" He shouted while in the air before merging his father with one of his weapons.
Creating an Over Soul during stress situations or in the middle of dodging was one of the first things he practiced as he assumed that during the shaman fights it would be one of the most important abilities.
Looking at his current circumstances It appeared that he assumed correctly.
When Vernal saw what he was doing she merely narrowed her eyes at him before smirking a little and slightly moving her head as if to signal something to someone.
At first when he noticed what his examiner was doing he became a little confused but he decided to ignore it to focus on finishing the process of forming his Over Soul.
Unfortunately for him, that small action of Vernal he dismissed was a command given to the spirit residing in the weapon she threw at him earlier. The moment the spirit of a swallow saw their master command it immediately changed its target to him turning around in an unnatural way because of that.
After the Over Soul turned around it began to accelerate to the speeds no object thrown by a human being could.
The moment it once again started flying at him he finally noticed it and realized what was the purpose of Vernal's head movement, making him hasten the creation of his Over Soul to have an ability to protect himself from it.
It flew towards him as fast as a bullet would. Although unlike a normal bullet he could most likely block with his aura it was an entire weapon enhanced by supernatural means soaring at him.
Neither his aura nor his body would be able to stop this projectile.
As it was nearing him he began to worry a little, especially since it seemed to be aiming at his neck.
Thankfully for him at the last moment he finally managed to form his Over Soul and use its ability to blow Vernal's weapon away right before regaining footing from his previous dodge.
"So it seems that your training wasn't pointless. Though it was a close one, I almost thought this one attack would have been enough." Vernal said loudly with a grin, happy her opponent wasn't weak.
"Thank you. I must say your Over Soul certainly surprised me there." He answered back while being on guard just in case the flying weapon were to attack him once again.
"Ha! You've seen nothing yet! Now let's get back to the fight!" Vernal shouted with a smile before aiming her other gun at him and pulling the trigger.
The bullet she shot at him to his surprise wasn't made out of Dust. It instead was made purely out of furyoku and it wasn't a single projectile one would think it would be based on the single pulling of the trigger.
It almost looked as if from the barrel of Vernal's gun more than a dozen of feathers were shot and each a of them were aimed at him.
He almost subconsciously tried to dodge it but upon doing so he found out that his opponent's other Over Soul was currently circling around him waiting for an opportunity to get a clean hit on him.
Seeing his opponent's weapon flying directly at him while he was still in the middle of a dash to the side he decided to make use of his Over Soul and generate a wind current under his feet to push him forward dodging the attack and getting closer to his foe.
When Vernal saw him dodging her second attack she widely smiled before charging at him with an excited battle cry.
Realizing that its master wanted to have a close range fight the spirit of a swallow decided to fly back to its master side not only to allow her to have more fun during the fight but also to make sure that Vernal wouldn't be hit.
Of course during its way back it tried to attack Ren hoping to either get a cheap shot on him or at least distract him from the fight for a few precious seconds.
While it didn't manage to hit him as he dodged it rather easily with the help of the wind around him pushing him out of danger when he heard it speedily soar behind him, it did get his attention making him not see Vernal jump above him to launch her next attack.
"What are you looking at!?" He heard a shout above him getting his attention back to the fight and making him look up.
He saw Vernal aiming at him with one of her weapons while being upside down and having her legs crouched on the other one as if prepared to jump.
Immediately after seeing that he used his Over Soul to try to push himself out of the way of the attack or Vernal away from him.
He didn't care which would happen.
Feeling a wind gathering near her, Vernal pulled the trigger of her weapon and straightened her legs as if trying to jump, allowing her to fall to the ground and get a good footing almost instantaneously.
A cloud of dust appeared as a result of Vernal's previous attack and Ren instantly jumped out of it. He wasn't going to risk fighting against such an opponent while having limited visibility.
He didn't come out of it as unscathed as he hoped he would be. While none of the many feathers shot by Vernal hit him directly, many of them still managed to cut or scratch him. It wasn't anything serious as it would easily be healed with one night of good sleep with his aura but it made him look like he just went through a gang fight.
Seeing that Vernal wasn't charging at him again he decided to take a little breather to calm down and prepare for their next exchange.
The dust cloud soon dispersed revealing a standing up Vernal to him. He also noticed that all of her last few attacks somehow managed to pierce through the docks making many holes in it.
"Well that was a nice dodge. Although if you focused more on pushing me away and not on trying to dodge it, you might have already passed the test." Vernal said while stretching her muscles.
"Not everyone is always thinking about offense, You know?" He asked with a deadpan expression, wondering if his examiner ever trained anything other than her offensive.
"Quit talking! You still have more than ten minutes so let's get back to the fight." His opponent said before getting ready to charge at him again.
The moment he saw Vernal preparing herself for an attack he jumped backwards and used the wind to create a soft barrier between them so that he could have some time to think about a strategy on how to actually get a hit on his examiner in between her never-stopping offense.
Though, from looking at the face of his examiner he could tell that she didn't like his defensive maneuver.
"Oi! Where do you think you're going? Get back here!" Vernal shouted before commanding her flying Over Soul to charge at him.
Unsurprisingly a spiritually enhanced steel weapon flying at the speed of a bullet didn't have any issue with passing through the light wind barrier he set up, quickly forcing him to once again focus his attention almost entirely on dodging.
Thankfully, with the help of his Over Soul and control of the wind granted to him by it, avoiding attacks made by only one of his opponents Over Souls wasn't impossible. It did mean however that he had to use more of his furyoku to dodge, making his already fragile wind barrier even weaker.
Soon after his barrier was pierced through and he started dodging he, out of the corner of his eyes, noticed that Vernal realized he couldn't fully keep up his barrier as well and resumed her charge at him.
Maybe I could use this attack of hers to get a hit on her and pass the test. He thought as he gracefully jumped over Vernal's flying weapon with the help of a wind pushing him upwards.
Just as he began thinking of a way to take advantage of his current situation he spotted his opponent retracting her flying Over Soul to use it as a platform while shooting at him with the Over Soul in her hand.
Seeing this he smirked a little as he just got an idea how he could get a hit.
He quickly used the wind to swiftly push him to the ground while simultaneously dodging the barrage of feathers flying at him.
Once he touched the ground he immediately extended the hand he was holding his Over Soul in upwards to create an ascending current of wind to throw Vernal off balance.
Vernal smiled a little when she saw him finally getting on the offense. She then jumped off the weapon she used as a flying platform because of the difficulty in balancing on it and to attack him while falling.
"Finally fighting back? Good! It would have been too boring if you were just dodging!" His examiner shouted while falling at him and shooting from her Over Soul.
He smirked a little while dodging Vernal's feathers as his opponent, from her excitement during the fight, didn't realize that she was now completely exposed to any of his attacks.
While in normal fight Vernal's current position wouldn't have been an issue at all as even if her opponent were to take advantage of it and strike her she would have been able to use her flying Over Soul to either quickly recover from the hit or, which based on her fighting style was more likely, instantly strike her foe back with a greater force from behind them. In the current fight where he had to hit her just once though such a situation meant his win.
As he saw Vernal nearing the ground he hastily used his Over Soul to change the wind from blowing straight up to pushing down and to the side with twice as much strength as the previous one.
"What?" Vernal asked in surprise as she was blown to the side directly into the water.
Seeing Vernal fall he smiled a little as he knew that should be enough for him to pass the test.
His smile was short lived though as just when he began smiling he felt a hard and fast object colliding with his back launching him almost a dozen meters forward.
As he laid down on the ground he instinctively tried to use his aura to begin a healing process breaking his Over Soul and making his father's full ghost form appear again.
"Lie! Are you alright?!" His father shouted in worry.
"Yes dad, I'm fine." He paused to cough up some saliva a few times before adding. "Although, I will probably have to lie down for a dozen or so hours to let my aura patch me up."
"You! What did you just do!?" He heard an angry scream from the water.
He slowly and carefully turned towards the direction he heard the voice coming from to see Vernal sluggishly climbing back to the docks.
"I just got a hit on you, didn't I?" He said with a tired smile after he saw Vernal climb back up.
A look of surprise flashed on Vernal's face proving that since the beginning of their last exchange she saw their fight more like a light spar than an actual test.
"I-I guess you did." Vernal said with a realization before sighing and reaching for one of her pockets. "Catch." She said while throwing an old scroll.
He caught it rather easily despite the pain in his back from Vernal's last attack.
"It's an Oracle Bell, an ancient communication device made by the Great Spirit itself and yes, I know It's just an old scroll. Through it we will be giving you your next instructions so make sure not to lose it and also check for any messages on it since considering that you are one of the last candidates it might tell you who will be your next opponent right now." Vernal explained with a bored tone while deactivating her Over Soul and walking away.
He slightly nodded in acknowledgement before turning his head towards the old scroll to see if there were any notifications.
The moment he saw what was written on it his eyes widened as he certainly didn't expect to see that message on it.
...
The next morning...
...
"FIRST FIGHT: JAUNE ARC VS LIE REN"
It, together with a typed in location and a countdown with less than thirty hours on it was the message Jaune saw on the Oracle Bell right after he woke up today.
He honestly didn't know how to feel about it.
On the one hand, he was beyond Joyous because of it as the fact he would be Ren's first opponent obviously meant that his friend managed to pass the selections and was now a contestant in the tournament.
On the other hand though, him being Ren's opponent could mean that only one of them would be able to pass the first round of the tournament. While if this was any other event he would have just given up the moment he learned he would have to fight against his friend, participating in the Shaman King Tournament meant way too much for him to give up on it.
"You know you aren't going to change your first opponent just by staring at that message, right?" Summer asked, startling him a little.
He sighed in response. He was currently lying down on a bench he used to sleep through the previous night while looking at the message on the Oracle Bell for the last hour, wasting his morning like that.
He knew he hadn't done anything constructive like training or doing his shaman work since waking up but he was too busy wondering how to solve the issue with having to fight Ren for his first match.
"Of course I know Summer but tell me, is there anything else I can do at the moment?" He asked while finally sitting up.
After he said that Summer looked at him with a light concern on her face before starting to grin a little.
He didn't know why but for some reason her grin sent shivers down his spine and made him want to run away.
"Yup!" She said with a smile while a popping sound at the end before continuing. "We can always train. You seem to have quite a lot of free time right now."
Hearing that, he started to sweat a little and began thinking of any excuses to avoid the hell training Summer no doubt would put him through. His guardian spirit's training sessions were one of the very few activities during which he truly wished he was the ghost in their unnatural relationship.
"How about we don't? After all, I have to be at my best during the fight against Ren, right?" He said with a shaky voice, trying to use the same excuse he used before his selection test.
Unfortunately Summer's grin didn't leave her face after he said that. It even widened, scaring him a little.
"Oh, do not worry Jaune, I will make sure that tomorrow you will be as fine as you can be." Summer said with a melodious voice and a scary smile on her face.
If he was scared when he heard her suggest another training, he now became terrified.
He was about to rapidly use every single excuse he could think about to not train today but he stopped himself when he noticed Summer trying to hold back her laughter. It didn't long for her to explode in laughter and for him to become really annoyed.
"Hahahahaha! You should have seen your face the moment I said that!" Summer shouted while rubbing off the tears from her laugh with one hand and holding her tummy with the other.
"Shut up! Your so called training sessions are the tortures from nightmares! How did any of your daughters survive even one of them back when you were alive?!" He shouted angry at Summer's prank before cowering a little after noticing people from the park looking at him as if he was some weirdo.
"Don't be silly, I would have never put my daughters through even one-tenth of what I'm putting you through during your training." Summer answered with a fake offended tone before adding after a second. "I'm training you the same way I used to train my team."
If Summer put her teammates through the same thing she was putting him through now then he didn't find this too surprising that Raven has been so spiteful towards her during their selections.
Of course he didn't say that out loud as he didn't want to really go through what Summer was talking about earlier.
"So?" Summer asked, expecting an answer.
"So, what?" He asked for clarification, not knowing what she was asking him.
"Do you feel better now? You didn't think I did that prank on you just to laugh at you when you were distressed, did you?" She asked once again.
Now that she said that, he did feel a bit better with his thoughts not being entirely preoccupied with tomorrow's battle. It was a nice feeling to take a break from worrying nonstop.
"I guess, I do. Thank you Summer." He said after breathing out the air to calm down.
"You are welcome! There's no point in worrying about something that was already decided by someone else. If I were to worry about every single little thing like that when I was alive then I wouldn't have any time to actually live or rest. Besides, fighting against Ren might not even be such a big deal you are making it out to be." Summer said with a smile, recounting similar scenarios back when she was alive.
"You're right. We don't even know if by losing one fight we will already be disqualified so there's no point in worrying." He answered with a determined nod before starting to walk away and saying. "Let's go for a walk and we might as well check our fight location to see how it looks like before the fight while we are at it."
Summer in response nodded with a smile, being happy that he got better already, before joining him in his walk.
For the rest of their day they walked at a leisurely pace and relaxed wherever they could while trying not to think too much about their fight tomorrow.
...
The next day...
...
Most of the Emerald Forest was always monitored as it had to be for safety reasons because of it's closeness to Beacon which was one of the most important places in the entire kingdom of Vale but even Emerald Forest had places where one could stay hidden.
The edges of the forest were the perfect example of such places. They were far enough from Beacon that nobody could see what was happening there from the school and they were unimportant enough to not be monitored by any cameras from Beacon.
It was precisely because of its lack of importance that they were the perfect place to host one of the first fights of the Shaman King Tournament.
The sun had already set a few hours ago and Ren together with his father were currently waiting for their opponents to arrive so that their first fight could begin.
They were awaiting the match in a comfortable silence with both of them doing different things to either pass the time before the match or to prepare for it in some way.
At the moment Ren was leaning against the tree while having one of his hands on his chin put in a thinking pose. He seemed to be deep in thoughts as he was ignoring almost everything around him.
The only things he was paying any attention to were the words spoken by his father as he knew that if something dangerous were to happen he would most likely warn him.
Especially since from the moment they arrived here his father appeared to be scouting the entire place they were going to fight in.
Ren wasn't sure whether his father was looking for any traps or if he was simply looking around to search for any advantageous positions they could use during their fight against Jaune but he was sure that thanks to that he would be able to easily see any danger before him.
"Dad?" Ren asked loudly to get the attention of his father after moments of thinking.
"Hm?" Li calmly hummed in response to signal to his son to continue.
Seeing that he got the attention of his father, Ren straightened up to ask his father a question.
"Do you think we should surrender our fight against Jaune?" Ren asked his father, revealing his uncertainties.
A clear confusion could have been seen on Li's face after he heard his son's question. He didn't know where that question came from. While he and his son might have less experience as a shaman and a guardian spirit than Jaune and Summer had, Lie's training as a huntsman and his knowledge as a shaman should be more than enough to make up for that difference.
"I don't know why you think of giving up. Even if we lose and Jaune wins, I don't think he would intentionally do anything to harm either of us." Li answered, showing his puzzlement at his son's question.
"It isn't about winning or losing. I just don't know if this would feel right to win after only getting into this tournament thanks to him." Ren explained while not looking directly at his father.
Hearing his son's explanation, Li looked warmly at him, understanding his concerns. He also didn't feel right knowing that they might be the reason for their friend's elimination from the tournament.
After a few short seconds of thinking about his next words Ren's father sighed lightly before giving Ren his own opinion on the topic. "Son, surrendering right now would be pointless. When Jaune taught us how to create an Over Soul he most likely already knew that sooner or later we would have to fight against each other. There can be only one Shaman King after all."
When Ren heard his father's reasoning he realized that he agreed with all of them and was about to voice his concurrence but he abruptly stopped himself when he heard a rustling from one of the trees near him.
He immediately turned around and readied his weapons just in case it was a grimm or some unknown villainous shaman who wanted to sabotage him before his first fight. He didn't instantly create his Over Soul as he didn't want to waste his energy before the fight.
"Who are you?" Ren asked loudly while not lowering his guard for a second.
"Don't shoot! It's me!" He heard a very familiar and energetic voice as he saw his red haired friend appearing from the crown of one of the trees.
Right after she said that, Nora laughed a little before jumping down from the tree only to land right before Ren with a smile.
Seeing that the person who startled him was Nora, Ren hid his weapons knowing they were unnecessary for a person like her.
"What are you doing here Nora?" Ren asked with a tired tone present in his voice.
"I'm here to watch your fight, Renny! There's no way I'm missing an amazing fight between two shamans and your first win!" Nora answered with a small giggle.
After hearing Nora's answer and thinking about it for a second Ren loudly sighed, wondering why did he even ask her that question.
Of course Nora would sneak out of Beacon in the middle of the night to watch his first shaman fight. Not only was he involved in it but the fight itself would also be an exciting supernatural fight she would love to watch even if it wasn't his fight.
"Just make sure to watch from a safe distance. Shaman fights are different from our combat lessons at Beacon and It's likely that there will be collateral damage." Ren said with a tired voice, warning his friend.
Hearing that Ren allowed her to stay, Nora widely smiled before showing her best friend a thumb up and saying. "Don't worry Renny. I'm sure everything will be alright."
Ren calmly nodded in response before going back to leaning against a tree and waiting for Jaune and his fight.
Or at least tried to as quietly waiting with Nora near him was a task even the strongest of huntsmen and shaman would be unable to do and he certainly would fail at it as well. For that reason not too long after Nora arrived there, through the edges of Emerald Forest a loud and almost one sided conversation could be heard.
Strangely throughout the entire conversation not a single grimm was seen. It almost looked like every grimm in the area they were in was eliminated before they even got there.
Ren even began thinking about what could have been a reason for that in the middle of his conversation with Nora making him sometimes doze off during Nora's longer statements or answer with a simple "Yes" or "No" while half-listening to his friend.
"So I was thinking if the winner of this tournament becomes a god then if you won would you be able to make everyone pancakes? Also would that mean that your pancakes would be divine?" Nora asked after a long tangent she went on just a second ago.
"Of course Nora." Ren answered with a yawn, paying little attention to what his best friend was saying at the moment.
While Nora was energetic she certainly wasn't stupid so when she heard Ren's answer she realized that her friend wasn't paying attention to what she was saying.
"Are you even listening to me Renny?" Nora grumpily asked while pouting.
"Yes Nora." Ren answered with a monotone voice and a simple look at Nora.
"Then prove it! What was I talking about just now?" Nora challenged him while boldly pointing at him with one of her fingers
After he heard Nora question him, Ren sighed lightly before turning his head towards his friend to look her directly in the eyes.
Nora, seeing his sudden action, became surprised as she wasn't expecting such a reaction from her friend. She became even more startled when she noticed how silent was around them after she stopped talking.
For a few seconds, not a single sound was heard at the edges of Emerald Forest. There weren't any animals or insects there who could make any noise. Even grimm who usually could always be heard no matter where you were couldn't be found.
"You were wondering about the limits of the Shaman King's power using the creation of pancakes for everyone as an example. You then proceeded to ask me whether pancakes made by a god would be considered divine and I answered you positively." Ren said calmly, proving that even though he was thinking about something else he still was paying attention.
When Nora heard Ren answer her she beamed in joy from the fact that her best friend with whom she was together but not together-together was indeed listening to her.
"I knew you were listening to me!" Nora said with a smile while moving to hug Ren before continuing their conversation with yet another countless ideas and questions.
She talked about many different topics. Some topics were about their lessons at Beacon while others were about her weird or interesting dreams. She even talked about the Shaman King Tournament, wondering about Ren's next opponents or what the next rounds would look like.
Listening to Nora's speeches was never boring as she always had either some interesting topics to talk about or a never ending energy to share with others during her talks.
Thanks to that the time began to fly a bit faster for Ren as even though he enjoyed comfortable silence and a moments to think he also liked being with others especially if they were as charismatic as Nora was.
A few minutes have passed like that. Neither Ren nor Nora were sure how much time had already passed but from how high the moon was they knew that Ren's first fight was about to begin.
"Good to know that you are as energetic and chatty as always Nora." Ren, Nora and Li stopped what they were doing as they heard a familiar voice from behind one of the trees.
Soon after saying that, a blond shaman who was well known to them walked out of the deep bushes of Emerald Forest with a smile on his face.
"Hey." Jaune greeted the three of them with a wave of his hand.
Summer appeared next to him while waving her hand as well right after he said that.
"Hello." Both Ren and Nora greeted him back with a smile even if Nora's looked a bit mischievous.
If Jaune noticed Nora's smile he decided to kindly ignore it. Ren couldn't blame him, after the hell Nora put him through under the pretext of training he would ignore any of her suspicious actions hoping to avoid the next torture by doing it as well.
"You are later than I expected. Did something happen along the way here?" Ren's father asked while looking at Summer and Jaune.
In response Jaune and Summer looked at each other for a second and quickly nodded before Summer answered Li's question with an embarrassed tone. "Everything is alright but... we kinda got lost on the way here."
Summer then laughed a little, embarrassed at the fact that even though she used to be a student at Beacon she still had trouble with reaching the edges of Emerald Forest.
"That's understandable. I don't think I would have been able to find this place on my own as well." Li said with understanding to the relief of Summer.
Meanwhile during the short conversation between the two present ghosts Nora experienced an uncomfortable moment of silence as she, despite her struggles, was still unable to interact with spirits.
"Why are you all so silent?!" She shouted out of frustration before pointing her finger at Ren and Jaune and adding. "And don't say that the ghosts are talking. If they are, then tell me what they are saying."
Both Shaman Fight combatants laughed a little after they heard Nora say that before deciding to start a small talk between all of them to wait for the signal to start their fight.
Despite the fact that they were going to be each other's opponents in just a few minutes there were no signs of hostility in their conversation. It almost felt like they were just waiting for a training room to empty for their light spar.
Their chat lasted for a few minutes before it was rudely interrupted by a voice that was familiar to Ren.
"Ohh? It looks like both of you are already here and ready." A loud remark was heard from one of the upper branches on the trees.
"Huh?" Summer and Jaune reacted in surprise while turning towards the source of the sound.
Ren simply smiled when he saw his brown haired examiner lazily sitting on the branch with both of her spirits on her shoulders after looking up.
"Who are you lady?!" Nora asked loudly so that the newly arrived person would be able to hear her.
After hearing Nora's question the brown haired shaman smirked before easily jumping from to the ground, knowing that her aura would nullify all of the damage.
"Name's Vernal. I was the examiner of that windy boy here." Vernal said after landing, pointing at Ren while introducing herself before continuing. "Now I'm here as a judge for the first Shaman Fight between these two."
When Jaune and Ren heard her they instantly became serious.
They had to be if they wanted to win.
"Will you tell us the rules? The info we got from the oracle bell didn't explain very much aside from the where and when the fight would take place." Summer asked Vernal hoping to get more info as it was very important.
"Of course. What sort of competition would that be if you didn't know your objective." Vernal answered before pulling out an Oracle Bell from her pocket and beginning to explain.
"The first round of the Shaman King Tournament will be three fights against three different opponents and you have to win two of them to advance. The fights will begin the moment your Oracle Bells show the message START on it. The moment that message appears you must have your Over Soul formed or you will be disqualified. The fights last until one of the combatants loses consciousness, all of their furyoku or life." Vernal's explanation was cut off the moment she said that.
"Wait. You can be killed by your opponent during the tournament?" Nora asked out of concerns for her friends.
After Nora said that, Vernal frowned at her out of annoyance born from being interrupted.
"Yes, although the tribes aren't encouraging it so don't go too crazy against your opponents." Vernal answered with a sigh before coming back to the rules. "There's no time limit as battles go until the winner is decided. If your Over Soul is broken you can reform it and you cannot use any outside help. Understood?"
Both shamans nodded resolutely after hearing the rules of the tournament.
They then moved away from each other and took a battle stance, getting ready for a fight as they both knew that it was time.
Seeing them getting ready for the battle Vernal nodded with satisfaction before sitting down on the ground with her back against the tree in a comfortable position to watch the fight.
"Alright, this fight might be interesting." She said after finding a good watching position.
"3"
The countdown began.
Jaune and Ren grabbed their weapons in preparation for a battle.
"Kick his ass Renny! Make him regret using that method of obtaining an Over Soul on you!" Nora screamed her encouragement to a bitter smile of Jaune.
"2"
"Father! Over Soul to the Storm Flower!" Ren shouted while creating his Over Soul.
Wind began to swirl around him creating a small hurricane protecting Ren from any unexpected attacks.
Vernal's expression filled in with excitement and Nora's with worry.
"1"
"Summer! Over Soul to the wooden staff!" Jaune shouted creating his Over Soul as well.
His furyoku rushed to the staff, merging it with Summer to create a spiritual silver halberd in the place of his staff.
Rose petals visible only by shamans began falling from the sky around them as a result of his Over Soul.
Both he and Ren tensed awaiting the final message before the fight ready to charge or dodge the moment it appeared.
"START"
With that message a fight between two great friends began.
Only to be continued in the next chapter.
I feel dirty for doing that. Especially since there most likely will be a longer break between this and the next chapter. It won't be anything as long as a year but it will be longer than the usual two weeks (I think it will be from 1 to 3 months).
Also I don't really like how fillery this chapter turned out but I think it's at least better than the first chapter.
I hope it won't be a big issue and that this chapter was enjoyable.
See ya.