I'm Back!
I've actually been back for about three weeks but writing this chapter was quite difficult.
Anyway, Reviews:
X3runner - Thank you for the suggestion but I don't think I will go with it because I've already written that shamans can only use either aura or Over Soul one at the time and since Over Soul are more powerful than most auras anyway I think that doing also this would be too much of a nerf.
Gamelover41562 - I had to this this somewhere and I don't think the rivalry between Jaune and Ren is that big in this fic.
Dragonslayerjah [You aren't the Dragonslayerjahn are you? (╭ರ_•́) ] - I didn't really watched Bleach up to that point (stopped after Aizen's defeat.) so I don't think I will use it. I won't say anything about the theory yet. Thank you for your story with the shaman king and Yes some of the Over Souls later in story are OP.
Guest - I guess they do have some similarities, don't they?
zeldawolffang, NinjaFang1331 - Thank you.
Blowing winds, falling trees and swung weapons, those were the sounds one would hear if they were to take a walk near the edges of the Emerald Forest. And the reason for it was a single battle between certain two shamans.
The fight between Ren and Jaune has started not even a minute ago and it already resulted in several trees being either cut down by Jaune's halberd or torn apart by the wind created by Ren's Over Soul.
In the short time since their fight began they've already exchanged blows more than ten times and Ren, despite coming on top of most of them in the short term thanks to his huntsmen training, was clearly the one who was more tired from their fight out of the two of them.
It wasn't because he was exhausting more energy in every exchange than Jaune did. It was the opposite in fact as in reality he was the one who was conserving more energy during their fights by holding more stationary and defensive position in every single one of them.
The reason why he was the one who was loosing more stamina in their fight was because every exchange they had up to this point was on Jaune's terms who was using his Over Soul's ability to teleport to always keep a pressure on him while dodging away when the situation wasn't going in his favor.
"You aren't going to fight me on equal grounds, are you?" Ren said with a huff right after jumping away from one of Jaune's slashes.
"Hey, don't blame me for it. I didn't go through the huntsman training like you did so I have to do something to level the playing field." Jaune said with a wry smile before covering himself with a cloak from his halberd to teleport once again.
"Thought so." Ren murmured to himself while dodging yet another of Jaune's surprise teleport attacks.
He really needed to find a way to counter that ability of his friend otherwise the entire fight was going to look like this.
There has to be some limit or a weakness to his Over Soul I could use to get a few hits on him. He thought to himself as he ducked under a quick swing Jaune launched at him from the side.
Small currents of wind started to gather around his Over Soul as he prepared himself to launch his counter attack only to stop the moment he saw Jaune covering himself with the cloak to teleport away.
He then slowly released the wind he gathered to conserve stamina and quickly looked around to see from where his opponent would attack him this time.
Unfortunately he didn't see Jaune anywhere around him. Instead he heard something quickly falling above him.
When he lifted his head to see what was falling at him he saw Jaune in the middle of swinging his weapon flying at him.
Noticing that he didn't have time to dodge the attack he decided to trade blows with his opponent and quickly raised his Over Soul in the air to fire a wind projectile at him.
A small and formless wind bullet flew upwards from his hand to meet Jaune in the middle of his swing. It wouldn't do much damage as he didn't have the time to gather a lot of wind but he hoped that it would at least force Jaune to teleport away stopping the attack.
Jaune, seeing that he was about to get hit in the middle of the air and put in a dangerous position decided to try to teleport somewhere else on the ground to gain a solid foothold and a safe distance from Ren.
Unfortunately for him one cannot just effortlessly stop an attack they have already committed to doing which meant that he couldn't quickly cover himself with the cloak from his Over Soul making him fall directly into Ren's projectile.
A quiet yet clear whooshing sound together with a small groan of pain were heard in the Emerald Forest as a certain blond shaman was knocked backwards by a wind bullet created in hurry by Ren.
A short while of silence came right after as the brains of everyone present processed the meaning of that sound.
That short silent moment was cut short by the sound of Jaune hitting the ground and a jubilant shout of a certain redhead spectator.
"Yesss! You finally got the first hit, Renny! Now finish him off and take that win for us!" Nora shouted with a wide smile on her face while raising her fist and jumping in glee.
"Finally! I was starting to think that the entire fight was going to last without a single person getting hit. Now show me some action!" Vernal shouted with an annoyed tone.
That was it! Jaune couldn't teleport unless he covered himself with the cloak from his Over Soul.
There still were many aspects of his opponent's Over Soul he didn't know about but at least now he had something to work with. He would just have to time his attacks to hit during Jaune's strikes and figure out the exact limitation in the meantime.
"Looks like the first strike of this fight is mine. Better step up your game Jaune or else the first win will also be mine." He taunted with a small smirk to compel his opponent to action as if he were to be the one on the offensive then Jaune would easily be able to dodge out of every single one of his hits.
Regrettably although quite predictably his taunts didn't have much effect on Jaune as he just sighed a little and shook his head before standing up in response.
"I guess I should try something new. I can't compete in a Shaman King Tournament if I'm a one trick pony, can't I?" Jaune answered with a small laugh while dusting himself off.
Soon after saying that Jaune swung his weapon to cover himself in the cloak to teleport away making him immediately raise his guard up in case he were to be attacked again.
A loud footstep resounded behind him.
Jaune was dashing at him with his halberd ready to strike from behind.
He turned around and got ready to attack. He already knew that there was no point in dodging before counterattack as Jaune would just relocate himself anyway so he tensed and waited.
Small cyclones began forming near him as Jaune was getting closer. He knew he would have to time them perfectly because if he were to launch them too soon then Jaune could easily dodge them, on the other hand if he were to attack too late then he would get hit.
One was created when Jaune was still one and a half meters from him. It was too soon if he were to fire now then his opponent would even have to use his Over Soul to dodge.
Two were formed when only a meter divided him and Jaune. It was still too soon. Jaune hasn't started swinging yet so he could still use his Over Soul to teleport away.
Three cyclones took shape when a bit more than half a meter was between them and Jaune raised his halberd above his head yet it still was too soon as he couldn't be sure whether his foe was feinting or not.
Although the forth one started forming when Jaune was already in the middle of his strike, he didn't have time to finish it as the time to attack finally came when the halberd was at the just before his head.
He launched all the cyclones he created, no matter whether they were finished or not, while being sure that they would hit Jaune directly.
Unfortunately his plan didn't come to pass as Jaune instead of swinging his halberd directly at him decided to aim his weapon at the ground to use it as a pole to lift himself into the air and jump over him.
The moment he realized what his opponent was doing he immediately used the wind to push himself away in order to dodge the attack that undoubtedly would happen if he were to stay in place.
"I should have expected that. You did the same thing when you fought against Whitley, didn't you?" He said with a huff after landing on the ground.
"So you remembered that? Pity, I hoped I would surprise you with that and end this fight." Jaune answered with a wry smile after landing as well before spinning his weapon to get a good hold on it and continuing with a grin. "I will just have to think of something new then."
Ren smiled at the confidence of his friend and answered back while raising his guard to get ready for a fight. "It won't be so easy to catch me off guard next time."
After saying that he dashed at Jaune. If passive methods wouldn't work then he would just have to make sure that Jaune wouldn't be able to cover himself with the cloak while he is the attacker.
Seeing his charge Jaune reflexively used his Over Soul to teleport away. It was exactly what he was hoping for as the moment he noticed Jaune doing that Ren stopped himself and quickly gathered wind around him.
He waited for a second to make sure that Jaune had the time to reappear again and the moment he knew that Jaune was somewhere near him, he released all of it creating a huge blast of wind moving in every direction and originating from him.
"Ahh!" He heard a surprised shout of Jaune to his left and he instantly turned towards its direction.
He then rushed directly at his opponent knowing full well that his friend wouldn't be able to stop his charge from the uncertain position he was in.
Wind started to gather behind him as he extended the hand he was holding his Over Soul in to the back while using his other arm to deliver a simple and straight palm strike meant to throw his opponent into an even more unbalanced state.
Jaune, seeing that he was about to get pushed into the ground by his palm strike, decided to ignore the unbalanced position he was in and use all of his strength to activate his Over Soul and teleport away.
Unfortunately for Jaune, Ren's attack wasn't a palm strike but a grab meant to interrupt his Over Soul's ability.
"Wha-?" Jaune reacted in surprise only to stop himself and raise his arms in defense after seeing considerable amounts of wind gathering behind his opponent.
"I caught you." Ren said before throwing the hurricane he gathered forward.
Jaune was launched backwards, he flew several meters without even touching the ground and when he finally met the ground he rolled while unable to stop for at least a few meters more.
The hurricane he created might not have been the strongest wind he was capable of creating but it still was sizable enough to cause real damage. Branches from trees started falling, dirt flew from the ground and even a few trees fell themselves.
It was a powerful attack most huntsmen wouldn't be capable of matching without a strength type semblance even after dozens years of training and even those with semblances capable of replicating that action would be left half dead after performing something similar.
Yet that attack was made by a first year huntsman in training with barely any shamanic capabilities.
"It was amazing! You've got it Renny! We've won!" Red haired spectator shouted with excitement after seeing the effects of her best friend's strike.
Ren in response turned his head towards her only to huff with a tired smile because of the exhaustion he felt after the last few exchanges he had with Jaune. Fighting against him was way more demanding than any fight he had during Ms. Goodwitch's lessons.
He was about to join in Nora's celebration but a loud snark caught his attention.
"Don't celebrate so quickly, your opponent still seems to look fine to me." Vernal, the source of that snark, said in a condescending tone.
"What?" He asked in a slight surprise before turning his head towards the direction he launched Jaune just a moment ago.
What he saw there greatly concerned him because instead of seeing his opponent lying unconscious on the ground he merely saw a bunch of sticks and leaves there.
Which could only mean one thing.
"I must say, that attack was beyond impressive Ren but to defeat me you will have to try a bit harder than that." Jaune's voice was heard loudly around him with every word being said from somewhere else.
That really made this fight way more difficult than it was just a moment ago.
Silence quickly spread through the Emerald Forest. He raised his guard and anticipated an attack from Jaune while being quiet to make sure he would hear any movement near him. Jaune on the other hand was making sure he wouldn't be heard to catch him off guard.
Wind and leaves started to rustle around him. Sometimes he heard a distant sound from behind. Other times a loud footstep resounded from one of the trees to his right or left.
Yet another time he heard something whooshing through the air above him but he still stood in place because no matter what he heard he didn't notice his opponent anywhere near him so he waited there prepared to strike in case Jaune were to attack him.
Meanwhile Nora, who was watching all of it, was shaking from the tension present in the air that their fight created.
"Calm down girl. If a fight of this level gets you this captivated then you won't survive later rounds of the tournament." Vernal said to her with a yawn while observing an outdated scroll in her hand. "Although, I guess this technically is a close fight."
"Huh? How can you tell? Does that old scroll of yours have some shamanic Aura meter in it?" Nora asked quickly to make sure that she wouldn't miss anything.
"It's an Oracle Bell." Vernal said with a slightly irritated tone in her voice before thinking about something for a moment and answering Nora's question.
"Since you aren't a contestant I might as well just show it to you but make sure that neither one of them doesn't learn of this during the fight." She said before showing her Oracle Bell to Nora .
"LIE REN 165/295 : JAUNE ARC 220/412"
When Nora saw the display of Vernal's Oracle Bell she just looked at it in confusion. She then blinked a couple of times and turned her head to the side while trying to understand what it meant.
"So... What are these numbers?" She asked while pointing at Vernal's scroll.
"It's their Furyoku." Vernal answered shortly as if thinking that would be enough to explain everything.
"Their what?" Nora, confused at the previously unheard term, asked again.
A loud and tired sigh was the immediate response she got from Vernal. It was probably because the question she asked was common knowledge for judges in the Shaman King Tournament.
"Furyoku is an inborn spiritual power of every Shaman. If one doesn't have it or have too little of it then they aren't capable of being a shaman. It is responsible for creating and sustaining the Over Soul and the bigger the amount used the stronger the Over Soul will be. Basically way more powerful Aura for shamans." Vernal explained with a bored tone.
"Ahh. So the numbers on your Oracle Bell are Jauney's and Renny's shaman power." Nora said in realization.
"Yup." Vernal answered with a lazy nod.
After hearing confirmation from Vernal, Nora once again looked at the Oracle Bell to check how much Furyoku both of her friends had.
"Four hundred twelve for Jaune and two hundred ninety five for Renny." She murmured to herself while reading before slightly jumping with a grin from excitement. "With so much Furyoku I'm sure we will win this tournament."
When Nora said that she was full of confidence for her friend and she certainly didn't expect a loud snark that quickly turned into a full blown laughter from their judge near her.
"The Shaman King that has less than half a thousand units of Furyoku! That's a good one!" Vernal said between her laughter, treating what Nora said as a joke.
"Why are you laughing?! Look how strong they are. Four hundred Furyoku must be a lot, right?" Nora asked with confusion and a little bit of fear what the answer would be.
"This much being a lot? Please, compared to the top dogs of the tournament their combined Furyoku might as well be ignored completely." Vernal said with a loud laugh before pointing at herself and continuing.
"I alone have dozens of thousands units of Furyoku and compared to the strongest candidates I would still look weak. Each of the current favorites to win the tournament have more than a hundred thousand of Furyoku."
The knowledge Vernal just shared with her left Nora speechless. She didn't know how to react to that information because if what Vernal said was true then their chances to contend in the Shaman Fight were near nonexistent.
She turned her head towards the fight her friends were currently having and saw all the fallen trees and the destruction it caused. She didn't even want to imagine what a fight between the strongest shamans would look like.
The fight between Jaune and Ren on the other hand entered a standstill. Jaune kept his distance, rarely attacking and only lightly harassing Ren whenever he was distracted effectively forcing him to stay in place with his guard raised.
A quiet and soft footstep from behind was heard by Ren making him quickly turn around to meet his opponent face on.
Unfortunately the only thing he saw after turning around was a white cloak disappearing in the flurry of rose petals which meant that Jaune was already in the middle of his teleportation.
"Huh?" He said out loud before hastily glancing around to see where his opponent could be.
He looked left then right and when he didn't see Jaune rushing at him from either of his sides he immediately recalled a similar situation happening before and dashed forward to dodge an attack from above or behind.
Unluckily for him, he was too slow.
Pain rapidly spread through his entire back as he felt a long cut being formed through almost his entire back. He didn't have his aura active as he didn't know how to keep it on while using his Over Soul but even if he had he doubted it would help much against such a slash.
"Ren!" He heard a loud gasp from Nora who was worried for him after seeing him getting hit like that.
"Ugh!" He groaned in pain before gently touching his back to assess how severe the wound was.
I'm bleeding and quite extensively at that. He thought to himself after seeing his hand covered with the blood from his back.
After quickly wiping his hand off while using his clothes as a towel he once again raised his guard. This time he was also using wind around him to cool off the wound in order to alleviate the pain.
"Just give up Ren. There still are two more fights before the next round so you still will be able to qualify if you win them both. You are my friend and I don't want to hurt you." Jaune said loudly with a concerned voice after seeing his injury.
"Don't worry, I know but I still think I can beat you." He said back with a pained huff and small wince.
A sigh and a head shake came out of Jaune after hearing what he said. "Fine, If you don't want to give up then let's get back to the fight." His opponent said before covering himself with the cloak to teleport away.
Seeing Jaune using his Over Soul, he reflexively blasted all the wind around him away to throw Jaune off balance in case he were to reappear near him.
He hoped it would work but after a second of waiting nothing happened. Jaune didn't appear neither behind him nor above him. In fact his opponent wasn't anywhere near him, probably again hiding among the trees in the forest to wait for the perfect moment to strike.
Realizing that he launched the previous wind blast for nothing he swiftly moved it to his back to lessen the pain again. This time though he was also continuously gathering wind around him in case he had to counter attack with it creating some sort of a rapidly moving wind dome surrounding him.
A loud footstep was heard on the branch of one of the trees to his right immediately getting his attention. The moment he turned his head towards it though he saw no one there most likely meaning that Jaune had already relocated.
Knowing that his opponent could now be anywhere he quickly did a brief look-around to see where he could be. He really wasn't in the condition to take another surprise attack from Jaune.
Surprisingly not only he managed to find his foe but he also noticed that he was dashing directly at him from quite far away.
Seeing that he had plenty of time to dodge he decided to wait for a moment before either doing so or counter attacking. Jaune could easily dodge most of his attacks from such a distance as well after all and such a long charge could be a trap as well.
Despite the larger than normal distance between them his opponent still rather quickly arrived right before him forcing them into another close exchange.
He knew that even with his huntsman training he couldn't match Jaune with the wound on his back so he instead of fighting straight on chose to jump backwards and launch some of the wind he gathered around him at Jaune.
Weirdly Jaune instead of using his Over Soul to teleport behind or above him to get a hit decided to relocate away from him.
Why did he do that? Wouldn't the better strategy be to keep the pressure on me and make use of the wound on my back? He thought to himself in confusion for a second before noticing something about the space around him and coming to realization.
After a quick glance to confirm that his suspicion was correct, Ren stretched his arms outwards and used his Over Soul to push all the wind around him out. Instantly after doing that he then slowly raised one of his hands upwards creating a wide but shallow reversed whirlwind that was pushing all the wind upwards.
All the leaves which were previously laying on the ground started floating. Branches from the fallen trees began to move, some of them shot up into the air while others swayed from side to side while pointing up.
Most importantly though, rose petals which were falling from the sky thanks to Jaune's Over Soul stopped reaching the ground as the wind he created pushed them all high into the air.
Ren, after seeing that his idea worked, began waiting for his opponent's reaction.
One second passed, then two and then three until finally half a minute passed with no reaction from his opponent. There weren't any loud footsteps, whooshing sounds of something flying near him or breaking branches indicating that Jaune moved anywhere.
"I've found your weakness, Jaune!" He shouted loudly with a small grin and a pained expression on his face. "Your Over Soul allows you to exchange places with one of the rose petals falling from the sky so if I do this you won't have any safe place to teleport, will you!?"
Silence was the answer that he got.
Jaune might not have much experience with fighting but even he knew not to admit to having a weakness his enemy said he had.
Seeing that there was no answer to his question, Ren assumed he was correct and began pushing all the wind that was away from him upwards and creating a small whirlwind from all the wind that was just above him to narrow down the area Jaune could teleport to even more.
After doing all of this the only place Jaune could realistically appear at was directly above him. Which meant that this time he would be perfectly prepared to deal with his foe.
He obviously still kept some of the gathered wind around him in case Jaune were to attack him from the ground without using his Over Soul ability at all but it was merely a small wind barrier meant to stall his opponent a little to allow him to redirect all the wind above him in the direction of his foe.
"Give up Jaune, I've already dealt with your biggest advantage, there's nothing you can do to defeat me at this moment." He said loudly while hiding the fatigue he got from doing all of this.
He really hoped Jaune wouldn't just wait it out in silence because if he were to do so then he would probably lose consciousness from the effort he had to put into sustaining the wind phenomenon he created without even taking the blood loss into consideration.
A couple of seconds passed without any movement from Jaune and he slowly started to fear that his opponent really wouldn't do anything.
Thankfully he didn't have to wait for too long as soon after he began to struggle with keeping the whirlwind he created, loud footsteps rapidly closing on him were heard by him from his side.
"So that's what you chose." He murmured to himself before slowly turning towards the sound he heard.
Jaune was running at him with his halberd ready to strike. He never saw his friend begin his charge from so far away before, meaning that he had a lot of time to prepare the strike of his own.
He really needed to make sure he would win with this strike because he knew he wasn't in the condition to continue this fight any longer.
He straightened himself and slowly moved both of his arms in such a way that both of them pointed towards Jaune with one of them being held straight and the other slightly bent. He didn't fire his attack yet as he knew that if he were to do it now then it would be unfocused and aimless.
His slightly bent arm moved backwards. He didn't do it consciously as he didn't practice such an attack with his Over Soul before but for some reason after moving it that way he felt as if it would lead to the most powerful attack.
He might not have noticed it yet but the position he just took to prepare his attack greatly resembled the way hunters proficient in archery would use their bows to hunt the prey close to them.
A rather big sideways tornado began forming out of the wind he gathered above him right before him. It's ends were being created in the directions he was pointing with his hands and the direction he was pointing at with the hand he was holding his Over Soul with an arrow-like end was forming.
Seeing Jaune quickly closing in on him, he knew he wouldn't have enough time to finish his attack so he slightly moved one of his hands to launch the small wind barrier he created earlier to stall his opponent.
The wind blast he launched collided with Jaune, lightly throwing him off balance. It might not have done much damage but he didn't mind, it's only purpose was to slow his opponent down after all.
Luckily that light push gave him enough time to fully form the projectile he was about to launch.
A large arrow-like tornado made out of green wind floated beside him. The wind around him began to swirl and fly in every direction as it was moved by the arrow he created. It's size was bigger than any trees they could see here.
The amount of wind he was now controlling was huge enough to send a small forest flying and it was all about to be launched at his opponent. If Jaune didn't teach him how to use an Over Soul by trying to kill him he maybe might have even felt bad about doing this to him.
Jaune was dashing at him as fast as he could to stop him and the moment he saw that he was in his range he jumped to try to stop him with an attack.
Unfortunately for Jaune, the moment he saw his opponent jumping at him while doing an attack he didn't even think for a second about it and reflexively released his projectile.
Jaune shot backwards. He might have tried to block it but it didn't matter as when he came in contact with the wind wind projectile he, like every fallen tree around them, was taken by it and flew back while breaking through dozens of other trees that were still standing before he launched his attack.
After releasing the wind he gathered, he immediately broke out of his Over Soul as he simply did not have the Furyoku left to keep it any longer.
A short moment of silence came after his attack came through. Although that moment was short lived because quickly trees launched into the air by his projectile came down to the ground.
Not too long after the trees began falling from the sky he could see the destruction his last attack caused.
Countless trees lied on the ground, earth was ploughed through and countless rocks and boulders from underground were now either laying on the grass or pierced through the trees. Such a landscape was the only thing one could see in the direction he shot at, only at the very edge of the horizon one could see something different than that.
"So strong." He heard Nora say something to herself in daze but he didn't focus too much about it.
"Looks like we finally got a winner." Vernal said with a smirk while finally standing up from her watching position.
He did it.
He won.
It might not have been the best fight he was in and he certainly wasn't looking forward to fights against stronger opponents later in the tournament but despite the bleeding on his back he sure felt ecstatic at the moment.
He huffed in relief after such a tiring fight and began sitting down to rest only to stop himself after noticing that the rose petals he earlier stopped with his wind began once again falling down.
Rose petals started quickly gathering right before his eyes and he already knew what it meant. From the gathered rose petals soon appeared a very familiar to him person.
"Yield." Jaune said right after reappearing right before him while holding his halberd right next to his neck. He was bloodied and covered with wounds, some sticks were even coming out of his hair and clothes but he still stood and still had his Over Soul active.
"I've lost. Congratulations." Ren said with a sigh while slowly sitting down to rest. He knew the rules and he knew that the person who lost their Furyoku first is the loser of the Shaman Fight.
"Good to know that I don't have to explain to you why you lost." Vernal said before walking to them, raising her hand and announcing with a loud yet lazy voice. "The winner of the match between Jaune Arc and Lie Ren is Jaune Arc!"
The moment she said that a beeping sound was heard from their Oracle Bells.
He reached for his pocket to see what it meant only to receive a confirmation of the results of their fight.
"FIRST FIGHT: JAUNE ARC VS LIE REN"
"WINNER: JAUNE ARC"
...
A few hours later...
...
Parties weren't a strange sight in Vale. They were both entertaining and practical as happiness and cheerfulness born from them helped to raise morale of citizens of Vale and they also were useful in keeping the grimm away.
There were countless reasons to throw them as well. Birthdays, marriages, victories at the Vytal Tournament were the most common out of them but it wasn't weird to see an old huntsman celebrating simply because they managed to survive their next mission.
What was weird though was seeing two fully bandaged teenage boys and a single energetic teenage girl throw a small party for six people for absolutely no reason at all.
Yet it was what was happening at the moment in one of the small outdoor pancake houses in the middle of Vale.
After their fight ended Jaune, Ren and Nora almost immediately went to a hospital. At first they wanted to go to Beacon's infirmary but they quite quickly realized that going there would require them to try to explain what happened to them to the staff there which they weren't keen on doing especially while being as tired as they were back then.
Thankfully after telling the hospital staff in Vale that they were huntsmen in training they just assumed that the reason for the sorry state they were in was a training exercise gone wrong and didn't ask them too many questions.
They still didn't let them leave after a first basic treatment and forced them to stay in the hospital until their Auras would start healing them by themselves though.
Luckily for them, using an Over Soul didn't actually use their Aura so Ren could leave the hospital after a few short hours.
Unfortunately, Jaune wasn't so lucky as he didn't have his Aura unlocked but with the help of two certain ghosts he managed to escape from the hospital unseen and he really was thankful for Summer and Li for their help because medical bills in Vale were no joke, especially for a poor wandering shaman like him even if he had this treatment for free thanks to Ren's and Nora's huntsman in training licence.
He shuddered slightly in his seat after remembering the price he once had to pay for treatment after one of his shaman adventures went awry. Having to eat dry bread for almost a year wasn't an experience he wanted to repeat.
"Everything alright?" Nora asked him in between stuffing her face with pancakes he bought for them.
It was currently evening or maybe even almost a morning and the sun has already been out for a few good hours so the temperature wasn't too high as well, probably making Nora think that the cold was affecting his wounds in some way.
"Yup, everything is alright. I just remembered an unpleasant memory, that's all." He answered while waving his hand to dismiss the worried looks his friends were giving him at the moment.
Nora hummed loudly before carefully looking at him for a few seconds only to exaggeratedly nod and audibly swallow after making sure he wasn't lying to dismiss her worry.
"I guess, I can trust you for now..." She said while slightly squinting her eyes before suddenly jumping from her seat and loudly saying with determination in her eyes while pointing at him and Ren. "Okay, since everyone is fine again then I have an announcement to make."
"We aren't really fine ye-.""Shush." He tried to cut in only to be immediately stopped by Nora who didn't look happy to be interrupted.
After seeing Nora's current stubbornness for making an announcement both, he and Ren wisely decided to give in and not interrupt Nora again.
"As I was saying before someone tried to cut me off, I have an announcement to make, so quiet down." Nora said before making sure that everyone was quiet and lightly coughing to her hand and continuing. "Starting from today, I will train Renny so that in the future he will become a candidate worthy of being the Shaman King. Also, Summer, I don't know where you are but I know you are here among us, make sure that Jaune will be a worthy rival for Renny as well."
"Huh?" Both he and Ren asked in surprise.
He also noticed that Ren had a hint of fear on his face though. Was Nora a hellish trainer like Summer as well?
"You've got it! After I'm done with him, Jaune will become a top-tier huntsman candidate even without having his Aura unlocked." Summer excitedly answered Nora despite knowing that she wouldn't be heard. Her cheerful answer made him shiver a little.
After making sure he wouldn't be noticed by either Summer or Nora, as he didn't want to have his already painful training become even more intense, he sent Ren a subtle understanding look.
"Nora, may I ask why do you suddenly want to train me?" Ren asked cautiously, being a little afraid of Nora's physical training.
Hearing her best friend ask that, Nora shook slightly as if realizing or remembering something before murmuring something to herself. "Right, I forgot you two were busy with your fight when I talked with Verny."
"Hmm?" He and Ren hummed to inquire for more information.
"Basically, Verny had this cool application on her old scroll which allowed her to see how much shaman power both of you have, your powers are in the hundreds by the way, and after asking her if the amount you have was much, I learned that we are the underdogs of the entire tournament."
Nora answered their curiosities with information that really put the strength of shamans into a new perspective. He still felt the pain from Ren's last attack and apparently it was considered weak compared to truly powerful shamans.
"No way." Ren said with his mouth agape.
"Yes way." Nora answered with a serious look on her face before fixing her sitting position and coming back to the previous topic. "That's why from tomorrow I want you to be doing two hundred push ups, three hundred crunches and four hundred jumping jacks every morning. I will think about your midday and evening training sessions later but first let's talk about your new diet."
After hearing just that he looked at Ren to see whether or not Nora was serious with that training only to see the entire Ren family looking afraid and his guardian spirit nodding in approval and taking notes.
He didn't even want to think about how she was taking those notes while being a ghost at the moment.
"Okay, since you guys are currently planning your training plan, then I guess I will go stretch my legs." He said while standing up and ignoring the pleading looks Ren was subtly sending him.
I'm sorry brother but if I stay here for too long then Summer will get some new ideas for my training from Nora. He thought to himself before signaling to Summer to go with him.
"Go ahead, I will be only estimating for how long Ren might be able to train without any breaks before collapsing for now, anyway." Nora said with a sweet smile and he wasn't brave enough to look back at Ren's terrified expression while leaving.
Whilst coming through the gate in the fance which divided the area of the pancake house and the rest of the road he quickly looked around to find a secluded place he could go to have a conversation with Summer and not look insane in the meantime.
Surprisingly finding such a place wasn't as hard as one would think it would be thanks to the fact that it was currently the middle of the night. After noticing a place like that behind one of the buildings near them he immediately went there.
It didn't take long to get there as this wasn't too far away from the restaurant they were eating at, he was pretty sure Ren and Nora would be able to hear him if he were to shout, but it was desolate enough to not be seen by any of the people who were currently outdoors.
"Tired?" Summer asked him as she saw him stretching his arms before leaning on the wall of the building they were behind.
"How can I not be? Today's shaman fight was certainly exhausting." He answered before yawning and continuing with arms behind his head. "At least the first fight is over and we got our first win."
Summer smiled a little at his answer, likely also being glad they have won the fight. Sadly her smile quite quickly turned into a serious glare which unfortunately clearly warned him about the answer he was going to get from her.
"Don't think that just because we've won the first fight your training is going to lessen. You've heard Nora, right? We are among the weakest contestants in the tournament." She said while pointing at him and leaning slightly forward.
"I know, after I'm healed we are getting right back to the training. You can even make it harde-""Beep! Beep!" His answer to Summer was cut short by a beeping sound coming from one of his pockets.
"It's the oracle bell!" Summer said recognizing the sound from the last time he got a message on it.
He nodded with a hum before reaching for his pocket to see what was the message he got. After getting the outdated scroll the tournament judges insisted on being an oracle bell made by the Great Spirit themselves he looked at it for a few seconds.
Summer soon wanted to join in reading the message to satisfy her own curiosity about the contents of it. She floated right beside him and if she were a still living human then the position they were currently in might have been slightly uncomfortable.
"Looks like our next opponent is already decided." He said after noticing Summer looking from behind his shoulders.
"SECOND FIGHT: JAUNE ARC VS LYSERG DIETHEL"
Yup next shaman fight will be against Lyserg.
It has been some time since any Shaman King characters showed up.
See Ya.